Improving Breastfeeding Knowledge of Staff Nurses by Patience S. Mbonifor MSN, Walden University, 2009 BSN, Bethel University, 2006 Project Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice


Background: Studies show that autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder place a significant stigma and burden on caregivers, economically as well as socially, psychologically, and emotionally. The current study aims to assess caregivers of those children with reference to stigma and disease burden, evaluation of different psychiatric symptoms, and quality of life. Also, it aims to compare the extent of such disruption related to the type of the disorder (ASD versus ADHD). A cross-sectional, analytical study was designed including 72 caregivers {38 caregivers of autism versus 34 caregivers of ADHD}; all of them were assessed for (1) stigma; (2) disease burden; (3) depression, anxiety, and sensitivity; and (4) quality of life. Results: The current results show that caregivers of ASD and ADHD have a higher score of stigmas, burden, depression, anxiety, and a poorer QoL than normal; all these variables are worse in ASD caregivers than ADHD caregivers. Conclusion: This study supports the notion that both ADHD and ASD pose a great challenge for their caregivers which is higher in ASD than ADHD caregivers.


A multimodality approach to enhance recovery after bowel surgery is demonstrated to reduce complications and decrease patient length of stay (LOS). This study evaluates the factors that influence patient LOS within a formal enhanced recovery protocol. From January 2014 to December 2016, all consecutive patients admitted to one ward, who had undergone bowel resection and were enrolled in an enhanced recovery protocol, were evaluated prospectively. We entered every patient's data into the American College of Surgeons Risk Calculator (ACSRC) to compare predicted versus actual outcomes. Statistical analysis of clinical factors, patient participation, and outcomes compared with the overall LOS was performed. Of 670 bowel resections performed during the study period, a total of 127 (19%) patients met the criteria and were analyzed for comorbidities, type of surgery, complications, and participation in recovery protocols. The median length of stay (mLOS) for all patients was 4.0 days (1.8–24.6 days). Factors influencing mLOS included laparoscopic versus open surgery (P = 0.006), COPD (P = 0.003), missing 24 hours of ambulation (P < 0.001), use of patient-controlled analgesia (P = 0.011), and diagnosis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (P = 0.041). Increasing the use of morphine equivalents (MEs) increased mLOS beyond the ACSRC estimate (P = 0.003). Developing a major complication increased mLOS by 8.5 times the ACSRC estimate. Conclusion: A multimodality approach to enhance surgical recovery after bowel surgery decreases the LOS. The surgical approach, participation in ambulation, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and COPD influenced the overall LOS. Increasing use of morphine equivalents and developing a complication increased mLOS beyond the ACSRC preoperative risk estimates.


A hybrid reactive-dissipative splitter silencer offers the potential to attenuate turbomachinery noise over a wide frequency range, including the problematic low to medium frequencies. This article uses a theoretical model to investigate the performance of a hybrid parallel baffle silencer for different complex incident sound fields. This includes an incident sound field with equal modal energy density, as well as the excitation of individual higher order modes. It is shown that provided horizontal and vertical partitions are used in the reactive element, the sound attenuation performance of the reactive chamber under complex incident sound fields is equivalent to that obtained using plane wave excitation over the frequency range of interest. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the reactive elements work at frequencies above the first cut-on mode in the inlet duct, and so they are capable of extending sound attenuation into the low to medium frequency range. This delivers an efficient hybrid silencer des...


ABSTRACT This article draws on the author's doctoral research to examine the relationships between children's geographies in different spaces of geographical thought in England – geography in and of everyday life, geography as an academic discipline and geography as a school subject. It begins by setting out how children's geographies have largely been omitted from school geography due to complex reasons including the impact of governmental policy on teaching and teacher education, and the public accountability of schools. Drawing on a case study of five young people's narratives about London, the article then examines their perspectives on education – highlighting that the young people view both London, and the education system, as a space of opportunity and hope, but also of inequality and injustice. The article concludes by arguing that through drawing on the ideas and methodologies of children's geographies as a subdiscipline, and recognising and exploring the geographies of those who are taught, school geography can be enhanced by making teachers more informed about the children they teach and providing children with opportunities to examine (their own) geographies through engaging with disciplinary thought.


The multiplicative model can be used to describe SAR image formation. In this context, the effect and nature of coherent speckling on the spectrum of SAR images is investigated. A method for estimate the spectrum of the backscatter image, based on estimates of the spectra of the speckled image and noise is developed. Images and signals produced by coherent systems are subject to the phenomena of speckle. This kind of noise appears due to interference phenomena between the incident and reflected signals. The result makes visual and automatic interpretation a difficult task, thought it may carry some important information. Usually, images suffering from speckle noise should not be treated with the usual additive- noise derived tools (Wiener filter, for instance), since speckle corrupts the signal in the multiplicative manner and in the amplitude and intensity formats it is non-gaussian (Goodman (1976), Tur et al.(1982)). Other schemes have been proposed to deal with it, such multilook processing (incoherent average), or various types of linear and adaptative filters. These efforts have generally been directed toward improvement of the signal in the image domain. However, application exist in which the spectrum of the output is of primary interest, ( Beal (1980)), but even in linear filtering aimed at image improvement, it would be useful to have a good estimate of the underlying image spectrum rather than work from a priori assumption such as is often done. This paper extends one-dimensional results on the problem of estimating the spectrum for speckled data ( Goldfinger (1982)). We first discuss the effects of speckle in SAR images and the mathematical framework used to explain the statistical behaviour of this kind of data. Then we prove that, as long as the output Z is stationary, the power spectral density of Z will be a convolution of the power spectral densities of the backscatter X and the speckle Y in the intensity format. In view of that, we consider three special cases. These cases are uniform target, white uncorrelated speckle and nearest neighbour correlation. The last section presents an estimate of the underlying spectrum based on classical estimates of the return and noise spectrum. We shall study the performance of that estimate based on the performance of the other estimates involved in making it.


The assembly and secretion of flaviviruses are part of an elegantly regulated process. During maturation, the viral polyprotein undergoes several co- and post-translational cleavages mediated by both viral and host proteases. Among these, sequential cleavage at the N and C termini of the hydrophobic capsid anchor (Ca) is crucial in deciding the fate of viral infection. Here, using a refined dengue pseudovirus production system, along with cleavage and furin inhibition assays, immunoblotting and secondary structure prediction analysis, we show that Ca plays a key role in the processing efficiency of dengue virus type 2 (DENV2) structural proteins and viral particle assembly. Replacement of the DENV2 Ca with the homologous regions from West nile or Zika viruses or, alternatively, increasing its length, improved cleavage and hence particle assembly. Further, we showed that substitution of the Ca conserved proline residue (P110) to alanine abolishes pseudovirus production, regardless of the Ca sequence length. Besides providing the results of a biochemical analysis of DENV2 structural polyprotein processing, this study also presents a system for efficient production of dengue pseudoviruses.


Many energy and climate policies are being updated in the United States that would have significant impact upon the future of the forest products industry. As a result, the industry appears to be at a turning point. Using the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), this paper analyzes a variety of scenarios based on three possible policies: (1) a national renewable electricity standard, (2) a U.S. greenhouse gas cap and trade system, and (3) expansion of industrial energy efficiency policies. In addition, this paper examines how these policies might interface with the recently strengthened renewable fuels standards. The principal focus is on how forest products and biomass residues from the pulp and paper industry might be utilized for electricity generation under different combinations of possible future national policies.


Our aim was to determine the prevalence and sequelae of positive acquired thrombophilia serology in the asymptomatic low-risk primigravid population. We undertook a prospective blinded study of 1011 primigravid patients screening for lupus anticoagulant, anticardiolipin antibody, anti-β 2 glycoprotein-1 and antinuclear antibody assessment at booking and 36 weeks gestation. Serial ultrasounds of the fetus with uterine and umbilical Dopplers and placental evaluation were performed at 24 and 36 weeks gestation. Antenatal course, labour and delivery outcome and placental histology were reviewed. The incidence of positive acquired thrombophilia serology was 27.4%. Overall, there was no difference in rates of fetal loss or maternal disease between women with positive acquired thrombophilia serology and the control population. Routine testing for acquired thrombophilic traits is therefore not warranted.


The article describes the identifying areas of influence of the European Court on the legal system of Ukraine, as well as the enforcement mechanism of decisions. Analyzes the problems that affect the designated question and points of view of different scholars and practitioners. In Europe there are different documents convention covenants, charters that provide and ensure the inclusion of a special protection mechanism in case of violation of human rights. These documents Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Rome, 1950, hereinafter the Convention), which provides the most effective and real protection mechanism for human rights. Convention not only proclaimed fundamental human rights, but also created a special mechanism to protect them. The key to this mechanism is the European Court of Human Rights. European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter the Court) located in Strasbourg, France. Its jurisdiction extends to forty-seven European states that are members of the Council of Europe and signatories. Article 9 of the Constitution of Ukraine clearly states that international treaties, ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are part of the national legislation of Ukraine. The Court can not apply the law that governs the legal relationship in question, other than an international agreement. However, international agreements apply if they do not contradict the Constitution of Ukraine. Urgency of the problem by the growth requirements of the rule of law in the judiciary, increasing legal awareness of citizens and their activity to protect their rights and freedoms, the presence of non judicial legislation with international legal acts. Procedural legislation of Ukraine in many aspects not harmonized not only in line with the decisions of the European Court, but also to the current constitution. Ukraine ratified the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms July 17, 1997. Since then, the citizens of our country have an opportunity to apply for protection of violated rights to the European Court. The Convention, the basic human rights and freedoms, and in performance of work by an international agreement is necessary to consider the interpretation of the Court. It follows from Article 32 of the Convention, according to which the jurisdiction of the Court shall extend to all matters concerning the interpretation and application of the Convention and its Protocols. The case-law of the European Court increasingly becoming an important source of law in Ukraine The European Court is the subject of judicial lawmaking. The high authority of the European Court was obtained by ensuring uniform interpretation and application of the Convention across the entire European continent. Number of appeals to the European Court is growing, and more and more of its decision relating to the interpretation of law, and the problems of its imperfection.Law of Ukraine «On execution of decisions and application of the European Court of Human Rights» dated February 23, 2006 by fundamental for the legal system of Ukraine provisions. The existence of precedents of the European Court as a unique source of law is due, usually gaps in the law or its ambiguous understanding. In terms of reforming legislation of Ukraine, the European Court in its systematic conceptual models provide certain legislative activities. The court is designed to ensure strict adherence to and compliance with the rules of the Convention by the States Parties. It carries out this task through the consideration and resolution of specific cases taken him to the proceedings on the basis of individual complaints filed by an individual, group of individuals or non-governmental organization. It is also possible filing complaints of violations of the Convention by the State a member of the Council of Europe of another Member State. European court can not reverse the decision rendered by a public authority or national court does not give instructions to the legislator, the abstract does not control the national legislation or judicial practice has no right to order measures with legal consequences. The Court considers only specific complaint in order to establish whether indeed been admitted violation of the Convention. However, the Court has the right to award «just satisfaction claim» in the form of financial compensation for material damage and moral damages and compensation side that won all costs. European Court puts the main purpose of the payment of financial compensation for infringement of the applicant's main task to draw attention to the fact of violation of the relevant articles of the Convention and provide the applicant all remedies, where he was denied a national legal system.


The preparation of two liquid crystals composed of a redox-active tetraazanaphthacene (TANC) framework is reported. The materials form smectic A (SmA) thin-film liquid-crystalline (LC) phases over a wide temperature range. Cyclic voltammetry analysis revealed that LC TANCs behave as organic electron acceptors. The electron mobilities of the thin films were determined by time- of-flight (TOF) measurements, which are the order of 10(-4)  cm(2)  V(-1)  s(-1) in the SmA LC phase. This value is two orders of magnitude larger than those of amorphous organic semiconductors. To the best of our knowledge, very few reports exist on the electron-transporting behaviors of LC N-heteroacene semiconductors.


Pseudo-exhaustive testing involves applying all possible input patterns to individual output cones of a circuit. The testing ensures detection of all combinational faults within individual cones. Test pattern generators based on coding theory principles are not tailored for circuit-under-test and generate inefficient pseudo-exhaustive test sets. We shall describe novel hardware efficient test pattern generators that employ knowledge of the circuit output cone structures for generating minimal test sets. Using our techniques, we have designed generators that generate minimum test sets for partitioned versions of the combinational benchmark circuits.<<ETX>>


Communication is a system that senders have possibility to send message to receiver in general meaning. It is considered that as a modern Turkish economy should use communication systems largely. It is critically important to show Turkey's usage of communication technologies as a country that keeps up with new developments in the world. Communication tools that examined in this study are postal services, newspaper and magazines, fixed-line telephone and mobile phone, internet. According to examined period it is resulted that the usage of communication tools increased. It is observed that some communication tools usage decreased caused by different factors in some terms.


Endometriosis, an estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease characterized by the ectopic presence of endometrial tissue, has been the topic of renewed research and debate in recent years. The paradigm shift from the belief that endometriosis only affects women of reproductive age has drawn attention to endometriosis in both premenarchal and postmenopausal patients. There is still scarce information in literature regarding postmenopausal endometriosis, the mostly studied and reported being the prevalence in postmenopausal women. Yet, other important issues also need to be addressed concerning diagnosis, pathophysiology, and management. We aimed at summarizing the currently available data in literature in order to provide a concise and precise update regarding information available on postmenopausal endometriosis.


A novel approach of 3D coalmine roadway dynamic modeling and interactive query taking roadway geological feature into account was discussed in this paper. Adding the geological layers, coal seams and coal quality data into the roadway model, the traditional 3D roadway geometric model turns to be a 3D model displaying the inner geological structure and the rich attribute information. The paper presented the research method and several key algorithms. By using Constrained Delaunay Triangulation algorithm (CD-TIN) and Complex Polygon Triangulation algorithm, the geometric model and attribute model of underground roadway was built dynamically. A 3D object picking algorithm using 3D Ray was also used to get x, y, z a coordinate in the 3D VR scene. Based on 3D coordinate, coal quality information or geological structure of any position on the roadway in the 3D scene was computed and visibly displayed. Finally, these algorithms were applied for a visualization system called "3D coal quality query VR system". The methods, with advantages of dynamic and easy to maintenance, offered a useful tool for coal quality management and safety production management in coal mine.


Pure iron has been verified as a promising biodegradable metal for absorbable cardiovascular stent usage. However, the degradation rate of pure iron is too slow. To accelerate the degradation of the surface of pure iron, silver ions were implanted into pure iron by metal vapor vacuum arc (MEVVA) source at an extracted voltage of 40 keV. The implanted influence was up to 2 × 1017 ions/cm2. The composition and depth profiles, corrosion behavior and biocompatibility of Ag ion implanted pure iron were investigated. The implantation depths of Ag was around 60 nm. The element Ag existed as Ag2O in the outermost layer, then gradually transited to metal atoms in zero valent state with depth increase. The implantation ilver ion implantation orrosion iocompatibility of Ag ions accelerated the corrosion rate of pure iron matrix, and exhibited much more uniform corrosion behavior. For cytotoxicity assessment, the implantation of Ag ions slightly decreased the viability of all kinds of cell lines used in these tests. The hemolysis rate of Ag ion implanted pure iron was lower than 2%, which was acceptable, whereas the platelet adhesion tests indicated the implantation of Ag ions might increase the risk of thrombosis. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Statement of the Problem: Workers labouring in high thermally stressful environments are subjected to heat-strain and risks of heat-related health issues. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted with ~700 workers engaged in heavy/moderate labour from various organised occupational sectors in India. Wet Bulb Globe Temperatures(WBGT) and heat-strain indicators such as Core-body-temperature(CBT), Heart-Rate(HR), Sweat-Rate(SwR), Urine-Specific-Gravity(USG) were measured. A questionnaire captured self-reported health symptoms of workers. Findings About 73% of the WBGT measurements were above prescribed limits(Range:26.5°C–38.7°C) and WBGT>31.0°C was associated with significantly more heat-related health concerns among workers(89% vs 34%). Measured heat-strain indicators were above accepted levels for 60% workers, 72% had symptoms of dehydration and 49% suffered from urogenital issues. Workers had 1.4 times higher odds of heat-strain at WBGTs>29.0°C(CI 1.06 to 1.95; p=0.019), that was more pronounced during hotter seasons (CI 1.41 to 2.53; OR=1.9, p<0.0001) with significant increases in heat-related illnesses(X2=66.088; p=4.311e-16) and productivity losses(X2=62.68;p=0.024*1012). High prevalence of kidney stones and adverse renal issues(9%) in steel industry was significantly associated with years of chronic heat exposures(t=−2.3823, df=66.628, p-value=0.02006, 95% CI 0.44–0.03). Conclusion The results demonstrate that high-heat conditions and minimum cooling interventions that are common in many occupations could create a 'silent epidemic' of kidney-related illnesses without appropriate work practices in tropical settings. The study results warrant an urgent need for further in-depth research with a multi-targeted seasonal approach to identify causalities and to develop and implement appropriate preventive measures to avert adverse effects of heat on the working population in the rising temperature scenario as Climate Change proceeds.


The Capitan deposit is a steep cylindrical body which is about 1,300 feet in diameter. It lies in gently westward-dipping San Andres lime-stone of Permian age, and is nearly on the axis of a westward-plunging nose formed by a laccolithic tongue from the large Capitan Mountains aplite. The igneous rock underlies the deposit at depths ranging from 250 to 450 feet. The structure which localized the deposit is interpreted as a slowly developed collapse breccia caused by ground-water leaching in Triassic time. The intrusive and mineral deposit are middle Tertiary (?) in age. Much pyrometasomatic silicate is associated with the magnetite iron ore. Epidote, phlogopite, and tremolite comprise the silicate mass, and they are distributed within the cylindrical body as concentric zones which occur from the center outward in the order given. Origin of the collapse structure is discussed first and is followed by consideration of the effects of time and temperature in the formation of the mineral zones. The ore fluids probably came from the Capitan intrusive where they were concentrated during its crystallization. A temperature arrangement set up by heated ore fluids appears to have been more effective in the creation of mineral zones than do successive introductions of magmatic fluid extracts. Open ground in the collapse structure greatly aided mineral zoning.


An analysis of directional activities in Poland and Germany towards the implementation of Industry 4.0 was carried out by comparing the common sustainable development features. The value of production sold along with the benefits of its implementation are presented. The transformation map was characterized along with development areas and potential directions of automation and robotization. Technological possibilities were assessed, considering the production of robots. The execution of activities aimed at implementing solutions in the field of Industry 4.0 in Poland was indicated. The key information gleaned in this study is the awareness of the implemented features proving the fulfillment of conditions relating to Industry 4.0. Action towards the sustainable replacement of machines that require repair or regeneration is significantly related to thinking towards rationalizing the actions taken and assessing the financial capabilities of companies so as not to lead to their collapse. The article presents original research on the characteristics of selected production companies in Poland and Germany striving for digital maturity and the results of our hypotheses. The key direction should be activities aimed at developing a coherent strategy, the proper selection and evaluation of managers, focusing on communication, and the pursuit of intelligent products by creating appropriate integration standards that facilitate the implementation of an innovative process generating modern technologies.


: CNS injuries in brain contusions of a moderate and severe gravity leave lasting EEG traces that can be revealed on examining the patients in the state of sleep and drowsiness, and manifest in the form of pathological oscillations of the slow electrical processes in the second and decasecond intervals. These oscillations have an amplitude of 0.2 to 1.0 mV and more. In the course of brain function normalization the amplitude of the oscillations gradually decreases down to 0.05-0.15 mV. The pathological oscillations of the slow electrical processes in brain contusions are often more demonstrative than EEG changes.


A practical and applicable taxi-sharing system based on the use of intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies has been developed in Taipei City. This system is easy for members to use and inexpensive for the service provider to operate. This paper gives an overview of the taxi-sharing service, presents key algorithms for dynamic rideshare matching processes, describes the field trial operation of the system in Taipei Nei-Hu Science and Technology Park and discusses empirical results to provide valuable implications for better taxi-sharing service in the future.


Although the understanding that corrosion is an electrochemical process has been known for almost a century, the exploitation of electrochemical techniques for corrosion testing has largely occurred in the past four decades. The development of standard conventions in ASTM G 3 and calculation procedures in ASTM G 102 have stimulated the development of electrochemical test methods. The development of reference test methods G 5, G 59, G 61, G 100, and G 106 that allow the verification of both equipment and procedures has been an important contribution to the development and expansion of these test methods. The availability of reliable electrometers, potentiostatic power supplies and recording equipment has also made these methods simpler to use. This paper reviews the development of these standards and discusses three electrochemical test methods. It also outlines several areas for new standards development and provides ideas for improvements to existing standards.


Musculoskeletal disorders have been observed and experienced widely at workplaces where the computers are frequently used. Increase in the number of employees working with computer and mouse coincides with an increase of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) and sick leave, which affects the physical health of workers and pose financial burdens on the companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations. This literature review study begins with the description of the risk factors and types of musculoskeletal disorders, and followed by the discussion of general characteristics of the musculoskeletal disorders. The economic impact of work-related musculoskeletal disorders was reviewed. This was followed by the discussion of issues related with workplace ergonomics, and an extensive review of computer use related upper extremities musculoskeletal disorders. Finally, the literature review is concluded with a discussion of computer keyboarding with different postures and different keyboard designs.


The problem of the phenomenology of media culture as the new reality of the modern information society is discussed. It is noted that the changes taking place in the information space have irreversible and natural character. It is proved that the new trends in the information space act as a denial of shapes, models and patterns of behavior in society. The most developed scientific approaches to categorizing the phenomenon of "media culture" are given. The multi-dimensional sense of the concept of "media culture" is disclosed. A generalized description of a modern, professional activities and the essential features of a professional are shown. Terms of data and empirical observations showing that vocational education is not always respond adequately to the challenges of the information age are given. Proved that it doesn't help to the formation of the qualities and skills of specialists capable to self-realization in today´s media culture. The possibility of transformation of risks and challenges of contemporary media culture in the of professional and personal development is suggested.


Accurate and efficient in silico ranking of protein-protein binding affinities is useful for protein design with applications in biological therapeutics. One popular approach to rank binding affinities is to apply the molecular mechanics Poisson Boltzmann/generalized Born surface area (MMPB/GBSA) method to molecular dynamics trajectories. Here, we identify protocols that enable the reliable evaluation of T-cell receptor (TCR) variants binding to their target, peptide-human leukocyte antigens (pHLAs). We suggest different protocols for variant sets with few (≤4) or many mutations, with entropy corrections important for the latter. We demonstrate how potential outliers could be identified in advance and that just 5-10 replicas of short (4 ns) MD simulations may be sufficient for reproducible and accurate ranking of TCR variants. The protocols developed here can be applied towards in silico screening during the optimization of therapeutic TCRs, potentially reducing both the cost and time taken for biologic development.


This paper describes the sputter deposition and characterization of nickel titanium (NiTi) thin film shape memory alloy onto the surface of an optical fiber Bragg grating. The NiTi coating uniformity, crystallinity, and transformation temperatures are measured using scanning electron microscope, x-ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimeter, respectively. The strain in the optical fiber is measured using centroid calculation of wavelength shifts. Results show distinct and abrupt changes in the optical fiber signal with the four related transformation temperatures represented by the austenite-martensite forward and reverse phase transformations. These tests demonstrate a coupling present between optical energy and thermal energy, i.e., a modified multiferroic material.


A key feature of the Swedish economy over the last two decades has been the rapid internationalisation of its economy, both through FDI and exports. In this paper we consider their inter-relationship, examining whether there have been spillovers from foreign firms to the export performance of domestic firms. We also contribute to the empirical modelling of export spillovers. We do this by exploiting information on whether foreign MNE sales are intra-firm or inter-firm, and by allowing for heterogeneity in the characteristics of the sender and receiver of spillovers. Our results indicate that foreign MNEs had positive effects on Swedish exports.


This study aims to evaluate the correlation between vertical solar radiation and the level of heating load according to the location and type of housing in multi-family apartments. This study shows that heating load is related with factors such as wall loss, window loss, ventilation loss and solar radiation gain. The heating load increases in the order of the middle floors, the highest floors and the lowest floors. The lowest and the highest floors are the most vulnerable floors, and it should be as emphasized as the middle floors. The heating load saving proposal contains 52 Alt. that shows heating load savings from min. 4% to max. 49%. The goal is to reduce the heating load of the highest and the lowest floors to the level of the middle floors. The result showed that there are 3 Alt. for the lowest floors and 16 Alt. for the highest floors as the heating load saving proposal. This study suggests integrated application to compose saving elements of heating load. so it could be utilized as a data for the construction of passive houses.


This study has employed a Fire Dynamics Simulator that is based on Fluid Dynamics to simulate the application of Aspirating Smoke Detector System in High-ceiling Spaces. The FDS simulation result has been analyzed and compared with Full-Scale Smoke Experiments. According to the study results, the alarm would be set off about 10-30 seconds sooner when applying FDS simulation. However, the result of FDS simulation might be too optimistic to have a secure fire protection planning. Therefore, a safety limit should be set for ASD Design with FDS Simulation for a closer result to the actual smoke experiment. However, the ratio of the safety limit will still need to be derived from more experimental analysis and statistics.


Granitoid rocks in Myanmar occur in three north–south-trending linear belts (Khin Zaw 1990) (Fig. 18.1b) over a distance of more than 1500 km from Kachin State in the north through Mogok, Mandalay, Taungoo and Mon State to the Tanintharyi Region in the south. This chapter describes a suite of granitoid rocks exposed at the Mawpalaw Taung area, covering about 141.44 km2 in the Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State, southern Myanmar (Fig. 18.1a), not described previously. The area is located within latitudes 15° 45′ N to 15° 53′ N and longitudes 97° 45′ E to 97° 51′ 30′′ E and lies about 80 km south of Mawlamyine. The aim of this chapter is to describe the petrology, geochemistry and geochronology of these granitoid rocks and their associated mineralization in the Mawpalaw Taung area and to discuss their petrogenesis and tectonic setting.

 Fig. 18.1.
( a ) Location map of the Mawpalaw Taung area, Thanbyuzayat Township, southern Myanmar and ( b ) the Granitoid Belt of Khin Zaw (1990).

The Mawpalaw Taung area lies within the Shan–Tanintharyi Block (Maung Thein & Ba Than Haq 1969) in the northern Tanintharyi Hill Range, and forms a part of the Slate Belt of Mitchell et al. (2012). It also is a section of the Southeast Asian tin–tungsten belt, stretching from southern Yunnan in the north through eastern Myanmar, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula to the Indonesian Tin Islands (Maung Thein 1973; Mitchell 1977; Cobbing et al. 1992; Schwartz et al. 1995). The area lies within the Western Granite Province of Southeast Asia (Cobbing et al. 1992) (Fig. 18.1) and the Central Granitoid Belt of Myanmar (Khin Zaw 1990). The general structural trend of this part of the Slate Belt (Mitchell et al. 2012) is NNW–SSE aligned. The metasediments and igneous rocks lie between parallel …


A grid‐connected inverter offers good operation and controllability; however, there is a risk of local instabilities due to particular control schemes. As long as the input admittance is positive at a particular resonance frequency, the risk of local instability can be suppressed. In this paper, an attempt to improve the input admittance of the grid‐connected inverter (GCI)[vnsn1] using a virtual resistor is proposed. The impact of the virtual resistor on the inverter's passivity is analyzed by observing the input admittance of the inverter. Numerical analysis shows that the employment of the virtual resistor gives better input admittance to the GCI, particularly in the low‐frequency regions. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Thermoelectric conductance of Dirac materials and in particular zero modes reveals the effect of topology .Weyl semimetals with a boundary at z = 0 give rise to chiral zero modes with- out backscattering resulting in a significant contribution to thermal conductivity. By doping the surface with paramagnetic impurities backscattering is allowed, and the thermal conductivity is controlled by the decrease of the transmission function |t|^{2} < 1. We attach a thermal reservoir at the edge of the sample and study the thermal and electrical conductance. For the ballistic and mesoscopic situations, quantum uctuations causes oscillations of the thermal and electric conduc- tance. The thermoelectric conductance varies periodically with the voltage bias. We compare the thermal conductance with and without impurity scattering and observe the effects of topology. An experimental set-up is proposed to test this theory. 1Thermoelectric conductance of Dirac materials and in particular zero modes reveals the effect of topology .Weyl semimetals with a boundary at z = 0 give rise to chiral zero modes with- out backscattering resulting in a significant contribution to thermal conductivity. By doping the surface with paramagnetic impurities backscattering is allowed, and the thermal conductivity is controlled by the decrease of the transmission function |t|^{2} < 1 . We attach a thermal reservoir at the edge of the sample and study the thermal and electrical conductance. For the ballistic and mesoscopic situations, quantum uctuations causes oscillations of the thermal and electric conduc- tance. The thermoelectric conductance varies periodically with the voltage bias. We compare the thermal conductance with and without impurity scattering and observe the effects of topology. An experimental set-up is proposed to test this theory.


In life, the value given to the opinion of the majority in each aspect and keeping the literate people equal to illiterate is totally wrong. In the contemporary era, this idea is being represented by western democracy. Considering this concept, we have reviewed this idea in the light of teachings of the Holy Quran, and it is concluded that the Holy Quran and the practices of its first instructor; the Prophet (peace be upon him) of Islam does not support this philosophy. It is a purely human-made idea. On the other hand, the divine source of guidance- Islam guides us to give value and to take into consideration the merit, real abilities and capabilities of the human being rather than their mere count. It is concluded in the paper that all matters should be judged based on merit as well as issues should be decided with mutual consultation of the men of intellect, rather than on a majority and minority basis. Merely number game is not the logical way to decide issues. It is the only and the right way, otherwise, ultimate personal and communal failure will be our destiny.


Background : Most health information from Nigeria and other developing countries are based on hospital records which although may not be a true representative of the whole population, they serve as pointers. Such information has shown that infections and malnutrition remain the leading causes of morbidity and mortality , although non-communicable diseases also pose substantial threat to child health. Objective : To review the pattern, trend and outcome of paediatric admissions at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital over a five year period. Methods : Patients admitted into the main pediatric wards of the hospital over a five year period were reviewed, through information obtained from their case notes. Neonates, surgical and trauma patients as well as patients admitted into the children's emergency room were excluded. Results : Infections (44.5%) were the leading causes of hospital admissions while non-communicable diseases were the leading causes of death in this study with an overall mortality rate of 9%. Conclusion : Despite all efforts over the years, infections continue to pose serious challenges to child health in developing countries. At the same time, non-communicable diseases are taking over as leading causes of mortality. Therefore, as we make stronger efforts to tackle infections and malnutrition, we should make provisions for improved diagnosis and management of non-communicable diseases. Key words : Outcome, Paediatric, medical admissions, Enugu.


Patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) are at high risk of fat-soluble vitamin deficiencies, even with supplementation. The contribution of a suboptimal vitamin K status to respiratory and endocrine pathophysiology in CF has been inadequately characterized. Cross-sectional study in adult CF patients (≥ 18 years old) from the Montreal Cystic Fibrosis Cohort. Vitamin K1 (VK1) was measured with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), using fasted serum samples collected during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT: 2h with plasma glucose & insulin every 30 min) (n = 168). Patients were categorized according to VK1 status (suboptimal defined as <0.30 nmol/L). Suboptimal VK1 levels were observed in 66 % of patients. Patients with a suboptimal VK1 status have a higher risk of colonization with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (p=0.001), lower body mass index (BMI) (p=0.003) and were more likely to have exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (p=0.002). Using an established threshold for VK1, we did show significantly reduced OGTT-derived measures of insulin secretion in patients with a VK1 status below 0.30 nmol/L (1st and 2nd Phase AUCINS/GLU (p=0.002 and p=0.006), AUCINS (p=0.012) and AUCINS/GLU (p=0.004)). Subclinical vitamin K deficiency is more common than other fat-soluble vitamin deficiencies in patients with CF. We demonstrate an association between a suboptimal VK1 status and measures of insulin secretion. We highlight the potential associations of mild vitamin K deficiency with pseudomonal colonization and lower BMI, although these need to be validated in prospective studies.


: The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical and pharmacoeconomic effects of long-term use of trimetazidine MR in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Patients with IHD (n=306) were included in open, prospective, randomized clinical trial. One group (group 1, n=153) was pretreated with trimetazidine MR two weeks prior to CABG and continued to take trimetazidine MR for 3 years after the procedure. The other group without of trimetazidine MR (group 2, n=153) was the group of comparison. All patients received conventional therapy of IHD. Six hours after CABG serum creatinine kinase and creatinine-kinase MB were significantly lower in group 1 than in group 2. Rate of ischemic events was also lower in patients treated with trimetazidine MR. Long-term use of trimetazidine MR was characterized by improvement of left ventricular systolic function and exercise tolerance and associated with lower expenses for treatment. We concluded that trimetazidine MR appeared to reduce myocardial reperfusion injury after CABG in patients with IHD.


The Synagogue Unter the White Stork and her genitilty condition Synagogue architecture in the 19th century Lower Silesia does not Have its own monograph. Most of the publications concern the Synagogue Under the White Stork in Wroclaw, which represents the classical architecture. The neoclassical building was designed by an eminent German architect, Carl Ferdinand Langhans (1781–1869) and opened in 1829. His project presented the Synagogue on the longitudinal plan. The main prayen hall is surrounded on three sides with womens galleries. Two levels of galleries to the north and two on the sout flnk single gallery on the eastern Torah ark wall. The orginal interior, now last, was designer by painter Raphael Biow (1773–1836) and his son Hermann Biow (1804–1850). It is considered a sterling example of 17th-century Protestant sacralen art. (church in Chareton, 1622–1623, Salomon de Brosse) and 17th-century Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam (1671–75), Ellias Bouvman). The core of this article is an attempt to indicate the genesis of an architectural form of the orginal building. It seems that what inflenced most both the architectural form and disposition with their decorations was siscussion led in the 17 th c. in The Republic of the United Provinces. The discussion was aroused both by Villalpando's work and Josephus Flavius's considerations. As Carl Gotthard Langhans had the opportunity to get acquainted with ame edifies following the pattern of Salomon's Temple (Mareker and Hofje van Broukhoven in Leiden and the town hall in Amsterdam among others) we can presume that he passed this knowledge on his son, who later created the seat of Synagogue Unter the White Stork.


The aim of this study is to investigate Lewatit TP 214, which is a chelating ion-exchange polymer containing chemically bonded thiourea group, for the sorption of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The effects of parameters such as the concentration, pH, contact time, ionic strength and temperature have been investigated. The results showed more affinity of resin towards cadmium than for lead cations. Lewatit TP 214 exhibited a good sorption potential at initial pH values for Pb(II) and Cd(II) at room temperature. The extraction kinetics, for both Pb(II) and Cd(II), is best described by the pseudo second order model. This study showed that the diffusion of moving boundary particles fits well the experimental data (r > 0.99) for the sorption of both Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions. The Langmuir isotherm fits better with the obtained equilibrium data as compared to that with the Freundlich isotherm. The thermodynamic data for the sorption of Pb(II) and Cd(II), on the resin, indicate that the process is endothermic for Pb(II) while it is exothermic for Cd(II). The process showed negative ∆G values, indicating that the sorption of both Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions is spontaneous.


Douglas-fir tussock moth, Orgyia pseudotsugata (McDunnough), populations were studied on white fir at four areas in central Sierra Nevada mountains of California during 1971-73. Life tables were constructed for four populations in El Dorado County. The number of eggs per egg mass decreased and the percentage eggs parasitized doubled with declining moth populations. Hymenopterous parasitoids were collected from all immature stages of the moth: one egg parasitoid, Telenomus californicus Ashmead, six species of larval parasitoids, principally, Hyposorer sp., and 13 species of larval-pupal parasitoids. Tachinids were predominant and accounted for 73% of the parasitoidism of the cocoons in 1971. The apparent mortality of female pupae due to the parasitoid complex was greater than 97% in 1971 and 75% in 1972. One population in Placer County collapsed in 1971 apparently due to a combination of heat exhaustion and low levels of virus infection. Other defoliators, spiders, and several predatory insect species were collected from the foliage samples simultaneously with the tussock moth during larval sampling. Twelve species of "free living" spiders which could be capable of preying on the defoliator complex of white fir were collected. Parasitoids and predators appear to be potentially important biotic factors at low to moderate host population levels. This is the first recorded case where an agent other than the nucleopolyhedrosis virus has been responsible for the collapse of a Douglas-fir tussock moth population.


Sure direct mail, special events, membership appeals, computers and annual giving techniques are important, claims the author. But he chides fund raising for the lack of attention paid to planned gifts. He outlines how his program generated insured income for his group.


Suction caissons used as mooring anchors for offshore structures can, depending on design concept, be subjected to pullout forces ranging from nearly vertical for tension leg platforms, to intermediate inclination angles for taut mooring systems, to nearly horizontal for catenary moored systems. Hence, the ability to understand and predict suction anchor pullout resistance for a full range of load orientations is becoming of increasing importance. A previous paper by the authors presents a plastic limit analysis for estimating the load capacity of suction anchors over a full range of load inclination ranging from horizontal to vertical. The model was capable of predicting load capacity for various load attachment (padeye) depths, caisson aspect ratios, and soil undrained strength profiles that vary linearly with depth. Loading conditions are assumed to be undrained; therefore, a purely cohesive soil is assumed. The original analysis assumed full adhesion on the boundaries of the caisson; i.e., a skin resistance coefficient α equal to unity. However, actual values of this coefficient are less than unity, with specific values varying according to soil conditions and the method of caisson installation. To overcome the limitation of the original model, this paper presents a modified formulation that allows a skin resistance less than unity. The modified formulation develops an interaction relationship between vertical and horizontal soil resistance on the sides of the caisson that is applicable for any skin resistance conditions ranging from no to full adhesion.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


Predicting the biological activity of a compound from its chemical structure is a fundamental problem in drug design. The Support Vector (SV) Machine regression is one of the powerful machine learning methods developed for this purpose in Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR) Analysis. A procedure based on linear programming is proposed for feature selection of SV regression. This new approach demonstrates favorable behavior in comparison with Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression method and a hybrid procedure of combining (1) genetic programming and (2) a neural network for several real compound data.


Abstract. Narrain D, Baulroop J, Bhagooli R, Bahorun T. 2023. Differential photosynthetic, phytochemical and antioxidative responses of three macroalgae Ulva lactuca, Gracilaria salicornia and Turbinaria ornata exposed to thermal and irradiance conditions. Indo Pac J Ocean Life 7: 1-15. Worldwide climate change leads to a varied distribution of aquatic organisms due to their differences in susceptibility to environmental conditions. Being at the base of marine food webs, macroalgae are potential candidates to investigate the effects of changing environmental conditions and to study the adaptation mechanisms. This study examined the effects of in vitro thermal and irradiance conditions (Control - CLCT: 1.55±0.63 µmol quanta m-2s-1 and 28°C; Control light and high temperature - CLHT: 1.55±0.63 µmol quanta m-2s-1 and 32°C; Moderate light and control temperature – MLCT: 100±63.6 µmol quanta m-2s-1 and 28°C; Moderate light and high temperature – MLHT: 100±63.6 µmol quanta m-2s-1 and 32°C) for 1 week on the photosynthetic performance, phytochemical contents, and antioxidant potential of three macroalgae Ulva lactuca L., Gracilaria salicornia (C.Agardh) E.Y.Dawson and Turbinaria ornata (Turner) J.Agardh found in the lagoons of Mauritius Island. Our results indicate variable responses of the three test macroalgal species when exposed to combinations of temperature and light conditions. Differential responses were found to be both species- and stress-specific. Chlorophyll fluorescence measurements using a Diving Pulse-Amplitude Modulated (D-PAM) fluorometer indicated a significant increase (p<0.001) in relative maximum electron transport rate (rETRmax) of U. lactuca in all stress treatments implying higher photosynthetic activity compared to control conditions. A significant decrease (p<0.001) in rETRmax of G. salicornia under MLHT and the collapse of photosystem II (PSII) activity (Fv/Fm) in T. ornata, along with both species exhibiting visual pigment degradation, are suggestive of chronic photo-inhibition in these two macroalgal species. Antioxidant activities (FRAP and TEAC assays) correlated stronger to flavonoid contents (FRAP, r=0.909; TEAC, r=0.845) than to phenol contents (FRAP, r=0.688; TEAC, r=0.758). An increase in temperature and irradiance severely damaged the PSII of T. ornata and G. salicornia, while U. lactuca could photo-physiologically adjust to changing environmental conditions, showing its robustness. The elevated temperature significantly affected the photosynthetic performance and antioxidative activities of the tested macroalgal species (p<0.001). These findings are discussed to possible influence on defense mechanisms of these macroalgal species and their aquaculture potential in an era of climate change. Further research using field-based manipulations as well as molecular analysis is warranted to thoroughly understand the potential mechanisms involved in variable responses of these tested macroalgae.


The photogalvanic effect and even-harmonics generation in a mesoscopic junction are calculated in diffusion approximation. The characteristic values of the corresponding components of current are 10-9 Å under the irradiation of a field with Eω ∼ 1 V/cm, ω ∼ 1 GHz. An a.c.-field effect on the conductance of a mesoscopic junction is also investigated, and it was shown that in a wide range of field parameters it could differ from that which the weak localization predicts.


In the past five years, the conceptual ambiguities of Parliamentary privilege have come to haunt the courts with a vengeance. Ancient constitutional questions such as what constitutes a "proceeding" in Parliament and what counts as "questioning" a proceeding—encapsulated in colourful nineteenth-century cases like Stockdale v. Hansard (1839) 9 Ad.&E. 1, the Case of the Sheriff of Middlesex (1840) 11 Ad.&E. 273, and Bradlaugh v. Gossett (1884) 12 Q.B.D. 271—have been at the forefront of a clutch of recent decisions. In Prebble v. Television New Zealand [1995] 1 A.C. 321, the Privy Council gave new bite to Parliamentary privilege by ruling (in relation to the New Zealand Parliament) that it would be an abuse of both Article 9 of the 1689 Bill of Rights—which prohibits courts from questioning the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament—and of a broader principle of mutuality of respect between Parliament and the judiciary, to allow any party to litigation to "bring into question anything said or done in the House by suggesting (whether by direct evidence, cross-examination, inference or submission) that the actions or words were inspired by improper motives or were untrue or misleading" (above, at 337). As a result, domestic courts stayed two libel actions brought by Members of Parliament, on the basis that the claims and defences involved raised issues whose investigation would infringe Parliamentary privilege (see, e.g., Allason v. Haines, The Times, 25 July 1995). Parliament responded by enacting section 13 of the Defamation Act 1996, allowing individual MPs to waive Parliamentary privilege in order to bring defamation actions. But in an apparent reassertion of the spirit of Prebble, the Court of Appeal expressly approved—albeit outside the context of defamation—the Privy Council's wide definition of privilege as a matter of domestic law (R. v. Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, ex p. Fayed [1998] 1 W.L.R. 669, noted [1998] C.L.J. 6).


In this paper, we investigate how to send space-time codes with full diversity and low decoding complexity for X channels using precoders. First, we assume that we have 2 transmitters and 2 receivers. Each transmitter sends different codewords to each receiver at the same time. We propose an orthogonal transmission scheme that combines space-time block coding and array processing to achieve low-complexity decoding and full diversity for transmitted signals. To our best knowledge, this is the first scheme which can achieve low-complexity decoding and full diversity for any transmitted codeword in X channel when all the users transmit at the same time. Finally, we show that under certain conditions, our proposed scheme can be extended to a general case with any number of transmitters and receivers each with any number of antennas. Simulation results validate our theoretical analysis.


The completeness and accuracy of genome assemblies determine the quality of subsequent bioinformatics analysis. Despite benefiting from the medium/long-range information of third-generation sequencing techniques, current gap-closing tools to enhance assemblies suffer multi-alignments and high error rates, resulting in huge time and money costs. We developed a software tool, TGS-GapCloser that uses the low depth (>=10X) single molecule sequencing long reads without any error correction to close gaps. The algorithm distinguishes gap regions from the alignments of long reads against original scaffolds, corrects only the candidate regions, and assigns the best sequences to each gap. We demonstrate that TGS-GapCloser improves the contig N50 value of draft assembly by 25-fold on average, updating above 90% gaps with 93.96% positive predictive value. Despite of high error rate of raw long reads, improved assemblies archive Q50 (99.999%) single-base accuracy with only 11.8% decrement to inputs. Besides it could complete more gaps, and is also ∼29-fold faster than mainstream gap-closing tools. BUSCO analysis revealed that 3.4%-13.1% more expected genes were complete. TGS-GapCloser also shows its power to fill gaps for ultra large genome assembly of ginkgo (∼12Gb) with 71.6% of gaps closed. The validation of inserted or merged gap sequences was conducted with NGS reads and reference genomes, respectively. The updated genome assemblies may promote the gene annotation, structure variant calling and thus improving the downstream analysis of ontogeny, phylogeny, and evolution.


ABSTRACT Splicing of messenger RNAs is regulated by site-specific binding of members of the serine-arginine-rich (SR) protein family, and SR protein kinases (SRPK) 1 and 2 regulate overall activity of the SR proteins by phosphorylation of their RS domains. We have reported that specifically designed SRPK inhibitors suppressed effectively several DNA and RNA viruses in vitro and in vivo. Here, we show that an SRPK inhibitor, SRPIN340, suppressed in a dose-dependent fashion expression of a hepatitis C virus (HCV) subgenomic replicon and replication of the HCV-JFH1 clone in vitro. The inhibitory effects were not associated with antiproliferative or nonspecific cytotoxic effects on the host cells. Overexpression of SRPK1 or SRPK2 resulted in augmentation of HCV replication, while small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of the SRPKs suppressed HCV replication significantly. Immunocytochemistry showed that SRPKs and the HCV core and NS5A proteins colocalized to some extent in the perinuclear area. Our results demonstrate that SRPKs are host factors essential for HCV replication and that functional inhibitors of these kinases may constitute a new class of antiviral agents against HCV infection.


The alternatives to whole-animal testing include endpoint assays, cell and tissue cultures, use of tissue slices, toxicokinetic modelling, and structure-activity relationships and databases. The use of in vitro systems (subcellular fractions, cell lines, primary cell cultures, tissue slices, organ cultures, etc.) as research tools in toxicology is widespread. In the past few years, the apoptosis phenomena were followed by very precise intracellular changes where, through programmed cell death, a cell can be removed from a population. The in vitro systems are ideally suited for investigations of the molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms of chemically induced toxicity, which cannot readily be studied in vivo for known target organ and target species toxicity studies and for answering specific questions about toxic effects. The main justification for developing in vitro toxicity tests is that they will make toxicology a more scientifically based practice. It is increasingly apparent that the development and incorporation of stepwise testing strategies, combining experimental data from a range of alternative methods (physicochemical techniques, quantitative structure-activity relationships--QSAR, metabolic and kinetic modelling and in vitro tests), provide the most advanced way to predict toxicity, reducing at the same time the number of laboratory animals used for testing.


Myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma (MIFS) is a rare low-grade malignant soft tissue neoplasm, which usually presents on the distal extremities of adults and sometimes children. It has a characteristic appearance, of a lobulated or multinodular neoplasm of moderately atypical epithelioid or spindled cells, vacuolated cells, and enlarged or bizarre cells with macronuclei, with prominent mixed inflammatory infiltrate, and variably myxoid stroma. However, the proportions of each component vary, making diagnosis difficult, particularly when tumors arise at unusual nonextremity sites. We describe a case of MIFS occurring as a primary neoplasm on the scalp of an 80-year-old male, which recurred locally after 2 years and developed extensive bilateral cervical lymph node metastases. MIFS is exceptionally rare in the head and neck, and it has been described only once on the scalp. This case showed classical histologic features, and additionally a high mitotic index and atypical mitoses, which may be suggestive of a poorer prognosis. This case highlights the need to consider MIFS in the differential diagnoses of pleomorphic tumors of the head and neck, and it adds to the small number of MIFS showing highly aggressive behavior.


We study the financial engineering aspects of operational flexibility of energy assets. The current practice relies on a representation that uses strips of European spark‐spread options, ignoring the operational constraints. Instead, we propose a new approach based on a stochastic impulse control framework. The model reduces to a cascade of optimal stopping problems and directly demonstrates that the optimal dispatch policies can be described with the aid of 'switching boundaries', similar to the free boundaries of standard American options. Our main contribution is a new method of numerical solution relying on Monte Carlo regressions. The scheme uses dynamic programming to efficiently approximate the optimal dispatch policy along the simulated paths. Convergence analysis is carried out and results are illustrated with a variety of concrete computational examples. We benchmark and compare our scheme with alternative numerical methods.


Purpose of review Many forms of acute and chronic disease are linked to changes in renal blood flow, perfusion, vascular density and hypoxia, but there are no readily available methods to assess these parameters in clinical practice. Dynamic contrast enhanced ultrasound (DCE-US) is a method that provides quantitative assessments of organ perfusion without ionising radiation or risk of nephrotoxicity. It can be performed at the bedside and is suitable for repeated measurements. The purpose of this review is to provide updates from recent publications on the utility of DCE-US in the diagnosis or assessment of renal disease, excluding the evaluation of benign or malignant renal masses. Recent findings DCE-US has been applied in clinical studies of acute kidney injury (AKI), renal transplantation, chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetic kidney disease and to determine acute effects of pharmacological agents on renal haemodynamics. DCE-US can detect changes in renal perfusion across these clinical scenarios and can differentiate healthy controls from those with CKD. In sepsis, reduced DCE-US measures of perfusion may indicate those at increased risk of developing AKI, but this requires confirmation in larger studies as there can be wide individual variation in perfusion measures in acutely unwell patients. Recent studies in transplantation have not provided robust evidence to show that DCE-US can differentiate between different causes of graft dysfunction, although it may show more promise as a prognostic indicator of graft function 1 year after transplant. DCE-US can detect acute haemodynamic changes in response to medication that correlate with changes in renal plasma flow as measured by para-aminohippurate clearance. Summary DCE-US shows promise and has a number of advantages that make it suitable for the assessment of patients with various forms of kidney disease. However, further research is required to evidence its reproducibility and utility before clinical use can be advocated.


Developing the professional practice of beginner second language teachers involves developing their capacity to teach a second language communicatively. In order to do this successfully beginner teachers need to understand, among other key aspects of communicative language pedagogy, how to teach grammar within a communicative approach. Often student teachers will have experienced a more traditional approach to second language teaching in their own schooling which will have involved a key focus on the explicit teaching of grammar in decontextualised exercises. The emphasis will have been on learning the grammar of the language in isolation with little emphasis on how grammar links to communication. With this extensive apprenticeship of observation, learning how the teaching of grammar fits into a communicative approach to second language teaching can be understood as a key threshold concept in the initial education of second language teachers. In my experience as a teacher educator I have found this aspect of the education of second language teachers to be one of the most challenging and troublesome concepts for beginner teachers. This study will analyse reflections from 50 student teachers (completed in the years 2000 to 2011) on how their understanding of teaching grammar communicatively has developed over the course of the Post-graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE). Each year as part of their assessment they complete a project on their teaching of either French, German, Irish, Spanish or Italian and included in this is a short reflection on how their understanding of this threshold concept has developed over the course of the PGDE programme. A particular focus will be on the triggers both theoretical and practical which helped developed their understanding of teaching grammar communicatively. The interplay of theory, practice and reflection will be explored with a view to understanding how a threshold concept develops uniquely in the minds and teaching practices of individual beginner teachers


Historically, the progress of engineering has been so closely associated with the progress of mathematics that some have found it hard to separate the two disciplines. Within engineering education, it is often taken for granted that a good engineering student is also good at mathematics. Thus, prior performance in mathematics is usually an important consideration for admission into most engineering programmes. This doctoral study was conducted in a unique context at a polytechnic in Singapore, where a small number of students who failed mathematics were admitted into engineering programmes, and Problem-Based Learning (PBL) was the dedicated pedagogical approach. The aims of this study were to identify important issues in engineering education that were associated with prior mathematic performance, and to understand the experiences of those engineering students who had failed mathematics. The study adopted a mixed method research design; quantitative data were collected from 1217 students using an institution-wide survey, and nine students who failed mathematics were interviewed to collect qualitative data. The quantitative findings showed that the effect of prior mathematics performance on performance in engineering courses was small, compared to its effect on psychological characteristics such as academic confidence and intrinsic motivation. In addition, a prior failure in mathematics generally led students to form certain qualitatively different "Conceptions of Mathematics", which adversely affected their "Conceptions of Engineering". These conceptions were linked to their academic confidence and intrinsic motivation, which in turn influenced their intention to persist in engineering. Based on these findings and relevant educational theories, a model was proposed to explain why the students' prior experiences in mathematics influenced their learning in engineering as well as their motivation for an engineering career. This study lends support to the notion that the psychological outcomes of engineering education should be considered as important as its cognitive outcomes, in making pedagogical and policy decisions.


By means of a computer search for upstream promoter elements (distal sequence element and proximal sequence element) typical of small nuclear RNA genes, we have identified in the human genome a number of previously unrecognized, putative transcription units whose predicted products are novel noncoding RNAs with homology to protein-coding genes. By elucidating the function of one of them, we provide evidence for the existence of a sense/antisense-based gene-regulation network where part of the polymerase III transcriptome could control its polymerase II counterpart.


Geodetic studies have produced different interpretations of the relative vertical thickening versus escape tectonics occurring within the Los Angeles basin based on calculated horizontal strain rates ranging from 56 10 9 /yr contraction at N36 Et o 85 10 9 /yr north-south contraction and 60 10 9 /yr east-west extension. Three-dimensional forward mechanical models of faults in the Los An- geles basin are used to compare modeled slip rates and slip styles, represented as the rakes of average net slip vectors, under four representative horizontal strain condi- tions with geologically determined late-Quaternary slip rates and observed slip styles. The comparisons strive to identify the most mechanically viable tectonic boundary conditions for the Los Angeles basin. The three-dimensional fault surfaces used within the mechanical models have been defined by Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) workers based on surface geology and subsurface data. The model results suggest that northeast-southwest principal contraction is inappropriate for the Los Angeles basin because this tectonic boundary condition produces left-lateral slip along the Whittier and San Gabriel faults in contrast with abundant geologic evidence of right-lateral slip. Of the four tectonic boundary conditions evaluated, north-south contraction accompanied by either zero or slow east-west contraction gives the low- est mismatch of modeled and observed fault slip style. These results suggest that vertical thickening may be more predominant than escape tectonics in this region.


Coal fly ash has a strong alkaline buffering capacity which may render heavy metals in sewage sludge unavailable and the aim of this project is to study the potential of coal fly ash as a co-composting material for sewage sludge by evaluating its effect on the microbial decomposition of sewage sludge. Lagoon ash and fly ash at 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 50% w/w were mixed with dewatered sewage sludge and incubated at 25°C for 3 months. Carbon dioxide evolution for all treatments followed the same trend except 50% w/w amendment for both ash residues. When compared with the control (sludge only), higher levels of ash amendments had a lower CO2 evolution which may be due to the high entrained salt content and pH in both ash residues. The present results indicate that fly ash has a more pronounced inhibition on sewage sludge decomposition while 2.5% w/w and 5% w/w lagoon ash amendments demonstrate no significant inhibition. Therefore, lagoon ash would be a more suitable co-composting candidate for sewage sludge a...


The properties of oil/water emulsions stabilized with 1% w/v common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) or scarlet runner bean (P. coccineus L.) proteins, extracted by isoelectric precipitation or ultrafiltration, at pH 7.0 and 5.5 were studied. The stability of emulsions, evaluated on the basis of droplet size, creaming, viscosity and protein adsorption measurements, is increased by the addition of xanthan (0.1 and 0.25% w/v). This is probably due to the increase in the continuous phase viscosity and the creation of a network, which prevents the oil droplets from coalescing. Also, the ability and stability of 1 or 2% w/v foams was studied. Xanthan (0.25% w/v) does not enhance foam formation, but promotes foam stability, possibly owing to the increased viscosity of the aqueous phase, making it more difficult for air to enter the system and create a satisfactory foam volume. The addition of NaCl destabilizes emulsions by lowering the energy barrier and therefore increasing the tendency of the oil droplets to aggregate. However, NaCl at a certain concentration seems to promote the emulsion stability and foaming ability and foam stability. This could be attributed to the alteration of the protein molecule configuration leading to the building of a rigid and viscoelastic protein film around the droplet. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry


The rising of pharmaceutical regulations took place in the civilisations located around the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greco-Roman world, Byzantine Empire, were followed by Bagdad, where sayadila, inspections and grabadins appeared. The creation of Universities, during the XIIth and XIIIth centuries, plaid a role in the rising of apothecaries communities in Occident. Melfi Constitutions (Constititiones Melfiae, 1231) and new constitutions (1241) inspired most of the regulations of apothecaries communities in Europe. Declaration of the King of France in April 1777 announced the famous "Loi de Germinal", Germinal law, which organized the modern Pharmacy, in 1803.


Abstract This research presents a precise evaluation of the recession of Akshiirak and Ala Archa glaciers, Tien Shan, central Asia, based on data of geodetic surveys from 1861–69, aerial photographs from 1943, 1963, 1977 and 1981, 1:25000 scale topographic maps and SRTM and ASTER data from 2000–03. The Akshiirak glacierized massif in the central Tien Shan contains 178 glaciers covering 371.6 km2, and the Ala Archa glacier basin in the northern Tien Shan contains 48 glaciers covering 36.31 km2. The Tien Shan glaciers retreated as much as 3 km from the 1860s to 2003. Area shrinkage of Akshiirak and Ala Archa was 4.2% and 5.1%, respectively, from 1943 to 1977, and 8.7% and 10.6%, respectively, from 1977 to 2003. The volume of the Akshiirak glaciers was reduced by 3.566 km3 from 1943 to 1977 and 6.145 km3 from 1977 to 2000. The total reduction of the Tien Shan glaciers is 14.2% during the last 60 years (1943–2003). The northern and central Tien Shan have not experienced a significant precipitation increase during the last 100 years, but they have experienced an increase in summer air temperatures, especially observable since the 1970s, which accelerated the recession of the Tien Shan glaciers.


The work presents approaches for development of the Russkoe viscous oil field based on the results of pilot operations and laboratory tests of the EOR methods. The field is unique in terms of both hydrocarbon reserves and problems associated with its development. It is located above the Polar Circle and is characterized with a complex geological structure of highly permeable heterogeneous poorly cemented reservoirs saturated with high-viscosity oil (250-300 mPa*s). Significant factors making field development difficult include presence of extensive gas cap, underlying water, and weakly consolidated sand. Field development has been started with pilot operations whose results make it possible to find the approaches for the full-field development strategy. The pilot design is based on experimental core studies of EOR methods and on reservoir simulation. The following EOR methods have been tested and analysed: hot water, steam, and polymer injection. The first pilot, implemented based on both lab and simulation data, involves hot water injection testing. The work describes the results of experimental and field testing, and full-field development scenarios considered.


Abstract : Project Pre-SCHOONER consisted of four 20-ton nitromethane cratering detonations conducted by the United States Army Engineer Nuclear Crate ring Group as part of the joint Atomic Energy Commission-Corps of Engineers nuclear excavation research program. The experiment was conducted in February 1964 in the basalt of Buck- board Mesa at the Nevada Test Site. High speed photography and target markers were used to measure ground surface motions produced by each of the four detonations. Analysis of the surface motion data indicated that spalling was the principle crater-producing mechanism. The three detonations which produced apparent craters did, however, show varying amounts of second phase surface accelerations. Surface ground zero spall velocities ranged from 100 fps for the detonation at a 66-foot burial 1/3 depth (scaled depth of 236 ft/kt ) to 170 fps for the detonation at 1/3 a 42-foot burial depth (scaled depth of 150 ft/kt ).


Heat transfer enhancement technology has the aim to develop more efficient systems as demanded in many applications in the fields of automotive, aerospace, electronics and process industry. A possible solution to obtain efficient cooling systems is represented by the use of confined impinging jets. Moreover, the introduction of nanoparticles in the working fluids can be considered in order to improve the thermal performances of the base fluids. In this paper a numerical investigation on mixed convection in confined slot jets impinging on a porous media by considering pure water or Al2O3/water based nanofluids is described. A two-dimensional model is developed and different Peclet numbers and Rayleigh numbers were considered. The particle volume concentrations ranged from 0% to 4% and the particle diameter is equal to 30 nm. The target surface is heated by a constant temperature value, calculated according to the value of Rayleigh number. The distance of the target surface is five times greater than the slot jet width. A single-phase model approach has been adopted in order to describe the nanofluid behaviour while the hypothesis of non-local thermal equilibrium is considered in order to simulate the behaviour in the porous media which is featured by a porosity value of 0.87. The aim consists into study the thermal and fluid-dynamic behaviour of the system. Results show increasing values of the convective heat transfer coefficients for increasing values of Peclet number and particle concentration. This behaviour is more evident at low Peclet number values and Rayleigh number ones.


Neuroimaging evaluation in patients after a first seizure could be easily determined on the basis of seizure history, neurological examination, blood sample analysis and electroencephalography. The main objectives of the initial work-up are to differentiate a true seizure event from seizure-like symptoms, to exclude a single seizure as a manifestation of non organic cause and finally to consider the seizure as a result of cerebral lesion or inaugurate epilepsy. When a new onset seizure is diagnosed, urgent neuroimaging is recommended only in patients with focal neurological deficit, persistent or worsening alteration in the level of consciousness and when clinical and biological data lead to a suspected vascular or infectious etiology. Brain CT scan is usually more available in emergency to identify the cause of seizure. It may have an important role for the therapeutic strategy and may defer MRI investigation. Nevertheless, brain MRI must be performed in emergency when CT scan is not conclusive despite a severe clinical condition or in case of cerebral venous thrombosis. Imaging modalities depend on clinical data, patient age and suspected epilepsy type.


Prior studies argue that CSR should be aligned with business strategies to gain benefits for companies. However, research on how CSR and business strategies can be integrated is still scant. This study aims to examine how and to what extent the strategic integration of CSR and business strategies is likely to impact on organizations' performance. Based on contingency and stakeholder theories, a theoretical framework of the integration of CSR into the business strategy was developed and tested. Using a sample of 435 manufacturing companies in Java, PLS-SEM was employed to test a path model depicting the relationships between strategic integration and company performance. The assessment of the measurement model, including internal consistency, convergent validity and discriminant validity, was achieved satisfactorily. The test of the structural model reveals that the strategic integration of CSR and business strategy has positive and significant impact on company performance. Strategic integration has an essential effect on the customer, employee and operating performance; its impact on financial performance is significantly mediated by the other three dimensions of company performance. The findings can encourage decision makers and managers, particularly those working in manufacturing firms, to strategically undertake CSR through a variety of activities rather than simply undertaking acts of charity, philanthropy or compliance. These findings provide new evidence that CSR strategic integration can positively impact on company performance, both socially and financially. Keywords: Strategic integration, CSR, organizational performance, manufacturing industries, Indonesia


As frequent swing vote and centrist voice, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor helped shape many of the Supreme Court's landmark decisions and opinions under the leadership of William Rehnquist. Indeed, many argue that her overall impact and influence was greater than that of the Chief Justice himself.Nancy Maveety now takes a closer look at what might justifiably be known as the O'Connor Court, in which the voices of individual justices came to the fore. She describes how policy leadership was subdivided among these eminent jurists in a way that fostered an individualist conception of judicial power. And she explains how this distribution of power contributed to a proliferation of concurring opinions - and, in polarizing issues like Planned Parenthood v. Casey or the Michigan affirmative action cases, decisions that sidestepped precedent-setting principles.Maveety's book is the first to look beyond the conventional wisdom that O'Connor's centrism gave her de facto control over a court notorious for its disunity, providing instead a more precise and systematic analysis of her influence. Maveety seeks not only to assign a definitive meaning to "the Rehnquist Court" but also to identify its historical importance for the constitutional order and the conception of judicial power within it - situating O'Connor squarely at its center.Maveety describes the attributes that distinguish this Court from its predecessors and suggests how O'Connor's five years on the Burger Court foreshadowed her emergence as an accomodationist. Then, as the Court became more polarized under Rehnquist, there evolved the individualized behavior and rule-of-thumb jurisprudence that came to characterize O'Connor's decision making. What resulted were carefully circumscribed decisions like Bush v. Gore or Hamdi v. Rumsfeld that provide fewer precedents for lower courts."Queen's Court" ultimately reveals that the importance of the Rehnquist years extends from the substance of constitutional law to the institutional operation of Court decision-making - and that O'Connor was vital to those changes.


The study aims to determine the role and functions of the committee in improving the quality of education at SDN 5 in Blimbing, Malang City. The methodology of the study is done by using descriptive and qualitative approach by collecting data through observation, interviews and documentation. The results of the study is illustrating a several things) the School Committee at SDN 5 Blimbing, Malang has not yet been able to exercise its role as a conduit of consideration as the supporting agency, as a controller and as a liaison body) the School Committee has not been able to garner support from public funds such as business/industry as well as from community leaders who cares about education. The Committee is just able to utilize the source of funds which came from the parents), the School Committee has not been able to perform its fully role as mandated decision of the Ministry of National Education No. 004/U/2002 because the school has not yet credence or fully authority to the school committee.


There have recently been rapid advances in deep learning models for protein design. To demonstrate proof-of-concept, these advancements have focused on small proteins with lots of data for training. This means that they are often not suitable for generating proteins with the most potential for high clinical impact –due to the additional challenges of sparse data and large size many therapeutically relevant proteins have. One major application that fits this category is gene therapy delivery. Viral vectors such as Adenoviruses and AAVs are a common delivery vehicle for gene therapy. However, environmental exposure means that most people exhibit potent pre-existing immune responses to many serotypes. This response, primarily driven by neutralizing antibodies, also precludes repeated administration with the same serotype. Rare serotypes, serotypes targeting other species, and capsid engineering, have all been deployed in the service of reducing neutralization by pre-existing antibodies. However, progress has been very limited using conventional methods and a new approach is urgently needed. To address this, we developed a variational autoencoder that can generate synthetic viral vector serotypes without epitopes for pre-existing neutralizing antibodies. A compact generative computational model was constructed, with only 12.4 million parameters that could be efficiently trained on the limited natural sequences (e.g., 711 natural Adenovirus hexon sequences with average length of 938 amino acids). In contrast to the current state-of-the-art, the model was able to generate high-quality Adenovirus hexon sequences that were folded with high confidence by Alphafold2 to produce structures essentially identical to natural hexon structures. Molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that the structures are stable and protein–protein interfaces are intact. Local secondary structure and local mobility is also comparable with natural serotype behavior. Our model could be used to generate a broad range of synthetic adenovirus serotype sequences without epitopes for pre-existing neutralizing antibodies in the human population. It could be used more broadly to generate different types of viral vector, and any large, therapeutically valuable proteins, where available data is sparse.


A modified version of Young's experiment by Shahriar Afshar demonstrates that, prior to a ``which-way'' measurement indicating which slit a particle goes through, an interference pattern exists. It has been claimed that this result constitutes a violation of the Principle of Complementarity. This paper discusses the implications of this experiment and considers how Cramer's Transactional Interpretation accomodates the result. It is shown that the Afshar experiment is isomorphic in key respects to a a spin one-half particle prepared as ``spin up along x'' and post-selected in a specific state of spin along z. It is concluded that Bohr would have had no more problem accounting for the Afshar result than he would in accounting for the aforementioned pre- and post-selection spin experiment, in which the particle's preparation state is confirmed by a nondestructive measurement prior to post-selection.


The interactions of ions with molecules and the determination of their dissociation patterns are challenging endeavors of fundamental importance for theoretical and experimental science. In particular, the investigations on bond-breaking and new bond-forming processes triggered by the ionic impact may shed light on the stellar wind interaction with interstellar media, ionic beam irradiations of the living cells, ion-track nanotechnology, radiation hardness analysis of materials, and focused ion beam etching, deposition, and lithography. Due to its vital role in the natural environment, the pyridine molecule has become the subject of both basic and applied research in recent years. Therefore, dissociation of the gas phase pyridine (C5H5N) into neutral excited atomic and molecular fragments following protons (H+) and dihydrogen cations (H2+) impact has been investigated experimentally in the 5–1000 eV energy range. The collision-induced emission spectroscopy has been exploited to detect luminescence in the wavelength range from 190 to 520 nm at the different kinetic energies of both cations. High-resolution optical fragmentation spectra reveal emission bands due to the CH(A2Δ→X2Πr; B2Σ+→X2Πr; C2Σ+→X2Πr) and CN(B2Σ+→X2Σ+) transitions as well as atomic H and C lines. Their spectral line shapes and qualitative band intensities are examined in detail. The analysis shows that the H2+ irradiation enhances pyridine ring fragmentation and creates various fragments more pronounced than H+ cations. The plausible collisional processes and fragmentation pathways leading to the identified products are discussed and compared with the latest results obtained in cation-induced fragmentation of pyridine.


Logistics managers in Europe's leading manufacturing and commercial organisations were surveyed regarding their use of third-party logistics (TPL) services. Their responses provide insights into the depth and scope of logistics outsourcing in Europe. Areas specifically addressed in the European survey include; services being used, related implementation problems, the benefits that have emerged and the impact of third-party services on costs, customer satisfaction and employees. The results indicate that logistics outsourcing, at least for basic services, has become well established in Europe. Emphasis on logistics cost reduction, service improvement and flexibility of response are at the centre of most logistics outsourcing decisions. On the downside there is a mixed response on employee morale associated with outsourcing.


Polysemy and homonymy are traditionally described in the context of paradigmatic lexical relations. Unlike monosemy, in which one meaning is associated with one form, and unlike synonymy, in which one meaning is associated with several forms, in polysemy and homonymy several meanings are associated with one form.
 The classical view of polysemy and homonymy is as a binary opposition whereby the various meanings of one form are described either as within one word (polysemy) or as within as many words as meanings (homonymy). In this approach, the decision is made according to whether the meanings can be related to one or two different sources. This classical view does not prevail in the literature as it did in the past. The most extreme revisions have questioned the descriptive synchronic difference between polysemy and homonymy or have subsumed the separation as under a general use of one term (homophony) and then established distinctions within, according to meaning and distribution. A more widespread reinterpretation of the classical opposition is in terms of a gradient where polysemy and homonymy arrange themselves along a continuum. Such a gradient arranges formally identical units at different points according to their degree of semantic proximity and degree of entrenchment (the latter understood as the degree to which a form recalls a semantic content and is activated in a speaker's mind). The granularity of this type of gradient varies according to specific proposals, but, in the essential, the representation ranges from most and clearest proximity as well as highest degree of entrenchment in polysemy to least and most obscure proximity and lowest degree of entrenchment in homonymy.


Purpose of reviewThis article reviews the literature on epistaxis, with a focus on the past 12–18 month, and aims to classify the literature available for this very common otolaryngology emergency. Recent findingsEpistaxis can be classified into primary or secondary epistaxis based on cause. It can also be classified as childhood and adult epistaxis. These classifications are useful clinically, as the management of each group is different. Primary epistaxis should be managed by identification of the actual bleeding point and treated with chemical or electrocautery, bipolar diathermy or small packs placed directly over the bleeding point. Secondary epistaxis should be managed by identification of the cause, with application of appropriate nasal therapy and, importantly, corrective systemic medical management. We now have useful guidelines for the management of patients whose epistaxis is secondary to warfarin and a growing body of information regarding complementary medicines that may contribute to bleeding. The literature continues to support the role of antiplatelet drugs as important risk factors for epistaxis. Patients with continued epistaxis despite initial measures should be considered earlier, rather than later, for surgical ligation techniques or embolization. Children with epistaxis should be managed with topical antiseptic cream with or without septal cautery. SummaryRecent literature focuses on the cause and management of epistaxis. Although the level of evidence available for this topic is low, there have been many clinically useful studies that will contribute to an overall improvement in patient care.


5D Grain Boundary Characterization from EBSD Microscopy Akash Savio Amalaraj Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science Knowledge of the full 5-degree Grain Boundary Character Distribution (GBCD) is vital to understanding properties, such as gas diffusivity, that are dominated by grain boundary character. Surface characterization techniques, such as Electron Backscattered diffraction (EBSD), can provide only 4 of the 5 GB characteristics (the rotation between the neighboring grains, and the trace of the GB on the surface). The inclination of the GB in the direction normal to the surface is not known. A previous study indicated that the GB inclination could be recovered by correlating the Electron Backscattered patterns (EBSPs) of sample points near the GB with EBSPs taken from the centers of the neighboring grains. The resultant transition curve could be compared with theoretical curves obtained from MonteCarlo simulations of electron yield from the two grains. However, a practical method based upon this study was never implemented. Here, a few microscopy and image filters have been applied to the EBSPs to improve the image quality. Also, several experiments have been conducted to verify and validate the interaction volume of the materials used to produce theoretical transition curves, in order to receive more accurate results. In this work, it is hypothesized that transition curves obtained from considering individual band intensities from the EBSPs will give more informative transition curves. The filtered EBSPs from the band intensities coupled with the accurate interaction volume values, should give us more reliable and repeatable transition curves, and that a more detailed comparison of the experimental and simulated transition curves will give higher fidelity results, in terms of GB inclination determination.


This paper researches on the temperature effects of a fully-symmetrical micromachined gyroscope. The Young's modulus and thermal expansion coefficient of silicon vary with the environment temperature, which affects the modes' resonant frequencies of micromachined gyroscopes. The effects of temperature fluctuation on the modes' resonant frequencies is simulated by the FEM software ANSYS. The simulation results show that the fully-symmetrical gyroscope's resonance frequencies decrease with the increase of temperature and the decrease degree nearly 0.256Hz/°C, but the two modes' resonance frequencies matches well. The micromachined gyroscope's dynamic characteristics are tested. The resonant frequencies and the quality factor are reduced with the increase of temperature and the decrease degree of the fit linear about the resonant frequencies is 0.276 Hz/°C. The test results are in good accordance with the simulation results.


A field experiment was conducted in two consecutive seasons (2009 and 2010) to assess the effect of two microbial fertilizers, chicken manure, urea and their possible combinations on the performance of a maize variety (Hudeiba 45). The bio fertilizers used were Azospirillum brasilense (A), Azotobacter sp (B) and chicken manure (CM) at a rate of 7t/ha). Urea (46% N) was applied at rates of 120kg/ha (N) and 40kg/ha (T). The combinations used were Azospirillum brasilense with urea (A+T), Azotobacter sp with urea (B+T), A+CM and B+CM in addition to control. The field experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with four replicates. Four seeds were sown in holes with 20 cm between holes in 4×4 m 2 plots with 5 ridges 70 cm apart. Sowing was carried out in the last week of October in 2009 and the first week of November in 2010. The fertilizers were applied on one side of the ridge and plants were irrigated at seven days intervals. Data were collected on cob length, cob diameter, number of rows/cob, number of seeds/row, 100-grain weight, grain yield/plant and grain yield/ha. Data were collected for yield components at physiological maturity and for grain yield after harvesting. The moisture, ash, fat, crude fiber, crude protein, tannins and carbohydrates contents of the grains were determined. Results showed that biofertilizers have significantly (p < 0.05) increased crop productivity. CM increased the grain yield (t/h) by 20 and 30% over the control in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Application of chicken manure solely or in combinations with Azosprillum barasilence or Azotobacter sp have also increased grain yield and its components. The combinations of N2 fixer inoculants with manure and/or urea improved grain quality of maize under field conditions.