This study is a qualitative investigation that examines the perspectives and experiences of student teachers who become secondary-school English teachers in Japan. The initial teacher education (ITE) curriculum the teachers follow faces some problems, such as a too-short period of school-based training and a lack of clarity in goals and standards. This inquiry employs a case-study approach, using six cases created from interviews and journals that draw out unique perspectives on teachers' professional development in ITE. The findings of the study indicate that student teachers are affected by various factors, including schooling experiences, theoretical knowledge in ITE coursework, practical teaching experiences in both formal classroom settings and informal settings beyond the curriculum. What also emerged from the qualitative data is student teachers' struggle to adjust and apply theoretical knowledge to practical teaching experiences. Without systematic and consistent intervention from the ITE curriculum, they struggle to mitigate the disparity between theory and practice. They actively seek help for mediational means such as observing and emulating, which has been culturally endorsed in Japan, and interacting with experienced teachers and peers, rather than reconstructing their theories through directly testing their knowledge in a classroom. Furthermore, their individual struggle to find temporary solutions in mediating their teacher learning results in the variability of their experiences in ITE. The conclusion of the study is that the process of EFL student teachers' professional development is not straightforward, as each mediational activity the teachers employ is not sufficient in itself. Working more closely with supervising teachers at schools, ITE in Japan should take a more significant role as a provider of appropriate and explicit mediation so that student teachers can develop their expertise as professional English teachers more efficiently and effectively.


This paper presents a novel crowbar system of 10/350-μs pulse current. The crowbar pulse current system includes a crowbar pulse current waveform forming circuit, a controlling unit, and a measuring unit. The crowbar pulse current circuit consists of a main air triggered switch, a triggered vacuum switch (TVS) which is used as the crowbar switch, and two trigger signal generators. A kind of TVS is designed and fabricated. Its triggering characteristics are tested, and experimental results show that, compared with other reported similar switches, the TVS has excellent characteristics such as wide operating voltage scope from 1.3 to 120 kV, short discharging delay time with maximum delay time at 400 ns, and its jitter at ±10 ns. Based on the TVS, the crowbar 10/350-μs pulse current circuit and its controlling circuit are designed. With a 36-μF storage capacitor C and a 6-μH waveform forming inductance L, a 10/350-μs pulse current waveform with a maximum of 150 kA can be generated.


The 1980s saw a wave of democratisation sweeping the globe. Similar transformations were evident in the early 1950s, when modernisation theorists were optimistic about the future of democracy in newly emerging states; these new democracies, however, failed to maintain stability and vacillated between democratic and authoritarian regimes. Through a synthesis of the theories of modernization, dependency and bureaucratic authoritarianism, Arat explains this instability in terms of the imbalance between two groups of human rights: civil-political and socioeconomic. Arguing against those who believe that socioeconomic rights are group rights that can be maintained only at the expense of individual civil-political rights - and that a trade-off between liberty and equality is inevitable - Arat demonstrates that the stability of democracy requires a balance between the two groups of human rights. A historic review, an empirical analysis of more than 150 countries, and case studies of Costa Rica, India and Turkey support her thesis that developing countries that recognise civil-political rights and establish democratic systems fail to maintain them if they neglect socioeconomic rights.


Amphibious vehicle is a concept of vehicle that can be put forward for the purpose of commercialization, especially in the field of military and rescue operation. This paper present the development process involve in developing the composite bodywork of the Amphibious Hybrid Vehicle (AHV). It involves the process of design followed with the fabrication process. The total design method is used during the selection of the design stage and transformed into 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional form using CATIA V5 software.
Upon completion of design, the fabrication process is implemented to complete the bodywork of the amphibious vehicle.


This paper decomposes volatility proxies according to upward and downward price movements in high-frequency financial data, and uses this decomposition for forecasting volatility. The paper introduces a simple Garch-type discrete time model that incorporates such high-frequency based statistics into a forecast equation for daily volatility. Analysis of S&P 500 index tick data over the years 1988-2006 shows that taking into account the downward movements improves forecast accuracy significantly. The R2 statistic for evaluating daily volatility forecasts attains a value of 0.80, both for in-sample and out-of-sample prediction.


This thesis addresses several aspects of the demand for environmentally-friendly durable goods. Chapter 2 asks how technological obsolescence affects how we should think about how much to promote the adoption of environmentally-friendly durables. If the purely social benefits improve quickly but private benefits only improve slowly, then subsidizing adoption now may delay upgrading in the future. As an example, I consider the impact of subsidizing the replacement of short-lived incandescent bulbs with long-lived CFLs even though we know that much better LEDs will soon be on the market. In the process, I provide some of the first publicly-available estimates of the elasticity of demand for CFLs and energy-saving in lighting.Chapter 3 discusses the optimal timing of product introduction to market for goods that provide environmental benefits. Although a simple model argues for early introduction, if early-adopters have overly optimistic expectations about product quality, product launch decisions that are optimal for firms may be sub-optimal from a social point of view.At the firm level, capital stock can vary widely in the intensity with which it uses fuels. Newer vintages are often associated with increased input use efficiency, leading to emissions reductions through energy savings. Chapter 4 analyzes the impact of trade liberalization in India on the greenhouse gas emissions of that country's manufacturing firms. I document that over a period of 13 years within-industry reallocation of market share to favor more energy-efficient firms produced a larger savings in greenhouse gases than is expected from all of India's Clean Development Mechanism energy efficiency and renewable energy projects combined. Using 19 years of firm-level data from India's Annual Survey of Industries and industry-level variation in policy reforms, I estimate the relative contributions of tariffs on final goods, tariffs on intermediate goods, FDI reform, and delicensing on increasing energy efficiency within firms and on reducing market share of energy-inefficient firms. I observe that reductions in tariffs on intermediate inputs led to a 23% improvement in fuel efficiency, with the entire effect coming from within-firm improvements. Delicensing and FDI reform, not tariffs on final goods, drove the reallocation effect, with post-liberalization changes in licensing requirements improving fuel efficiency an additional 7%.


AIM
To test antibiotic-loaded coating for efficacy in reducing bacterial biofilm and development of osteomyelitis in an orthopaedic model of implant infection.

METHODS
Phosphatidylcholine coatings loaded with 25% vancomycin were applied to washed and sterilized titanium wires 20 mm in length. A 10 mm segment was removed from rabbit radius (total = 9; 5 coated, 4 uncoated), and the segment was injected with 1 × 10(6) colony forming units (CFUs) of Staphylococcus aureus (UAMS-1 strain). Titanium wires were inserted through the intramedullary canal of the removed segment and into the proximal radial segment and the segment was placed back into the defect. After 7 d, limbs were removed, X-rayed, swabbed for tissue contamination. Wires were removed and processed to determine attached CFUs. Tissue was swabbed and streaked on agar plates to determine bacteriological score.

RESULTS
Antibiotic-loaded coatings resulted in significantly reduced biofilm formation (4.7 fold reduction in CFUs; P < 0.001) on titanium wires and reduced bacteriological score in surrounding tissue (4.0 ± 0 for uncoated, 1.25 ± 0.5 for coated; P = 0.01). Swelling and pus formation was evident in uncoated controls at the 7 d time point both visually and radiographically, but not in antibiotic-loaded coatings.

CONCLUSION
Active antibiotic was released from coated implants and significantly reduced signs of osteomyelitic symptoms. Implant coatings were well tolerated in bone. Further studies with additional control groups and longer time periods are warranted. Antibiotic-loaded phosphatidylcholine coatings applied at the point of care could prevent implant-associated infection in orthopaedic defects.


Three experiments investigated serial position effects in immediate and final free recall. Each word in a 10-item list was both preceded and followed by a 15-sec period of distraction activity. In Experiment 1, half of the lists were immediately followed by either a recall test or a recognition test; the remaining lists were not tested, but were followed by a different distraction activity. After presentation of all lists, a final recall or recognition test was given. Primacy was observed only in immediate free recall and in all final tests following immediate free recall, demonstrating that primacy develops from a free-recall storage strategy. No recency was observed in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, every list was followed by an immediate free-recall test, with a final free-recall test after the last list. The primacy results of Experiment 1 were replicated. Furthermore, the appearance of recency in Expriment 2 suggests that recency results from a retrieval strategy that failed to develop in Experiment 1 because some lists were not tested immediately. To eliminate an artifact account, Experiment 3 used an experimenter-paced distractor task and replicated the findings of Experiment 2, which used a subject-paced distractar task. Contrary to previous claims, the pattern of results in the continuous distractor paradigm is seen as completely consistent with the account offered by multistore models of serial position effects in standard free recall.


Foreign-body reaction to polyglycolide (PGA) implants has been described in man. Many animal experiments have verified the mechanical properties of fixation devices made from PGA, but a significant foreign-body reaction has not been described. We studied the effect of PGA rods in 12 sheep with standardised osteochondral fractures of the medial femoral condyle fixed with uncoloured, self-reinforced PGA rods (Biofix). Radiographs were taken at intervals ranging from two weeks to two years, and the sheep were killed at intervals ranging from six to 24 months. All knees were examined histologically. Eleven of the 12 fractures healed radiologically and histologically. Moderate to severe osteolysis was seen at four to six weeks with maximum changes at 12 weeks in ten animals. Six knees showed fistula-like connections between the implant site and the joint space. Three developed synovitis, one with inflammatory changes involving the whole cartilage and one with destruction of the medial condyle. Although in our study osteochondral fractures fixed with PGA rods healed reliably, there were frequent, significant foreign-body reactions. Caution is needed when considering the use of PGA fixation devices in vulnerable regions such as the knee.


Most stochastic models of solute transport assume flow to be at steady state. However, even locally uniform gradients tend to show seasonal fluctuations in magnitude and direction. Such transients affect the prediction of flow and plume migration and spread. The question is how and to what extent. We address this question by developing low-order approximations for autocovariances and cross covariances of velocity, head, and log hydraulic conductivity under quasi-steady state flow, then using a first-order Lagrangian approach to examine their effect on advective transport. Our results show that whereas periodic temporal fluctuations in the magnitude of the mean velocity may either enhance or reduce dispersion, similar fluctuations in its direction always cause longitudinal dispersion to decrease and transverse dispersion to increase.


The provision of sanitation services is more than just technical solutions, but closely connected to the cultural and capacity of the society in which it is implemented. Given that the general opinion in the sanitation sector is that large-scale sustainable results are lacking on the ground, there is a need to start questioning how planning is done today and how it can be done better. This paper presents key entry points for understanding the process of sanitation planning by highlighting options for how it should be done (procedural planning theory), who to involve (participation), and criteria for decision-making. By focusing on these key aspects of planning, the process can be adapted to meet the needs of the local context. In the future sustainable urban sanitation will start with a specifically designed planning process that uses a mixture of planning modes and technical systems to meet the needs of diverse populations.


The camera model which uses homogeneous coordinates, assumes the laws of Gaussian optics, and an extension for the aberration of geometric radial distortion is included. Features that collectively demonstrate the methodology's superiority over existing techniques are: (1) the simultaneous and accurate inference of all camera model parameters using only iterative linear least squares; (2) no requirement of a priori knowledge of camera model parameters; (3) utilization with a wide range of optical sensing devices; (4) adaptability to include camera model parameters that are departures from the assumptions of Gaussian optics; and (5) computational efficiency. Absolute stereo calibration accuracy of 0.084 mm in a 2000 cm/sup 3/ volume is achieved for a pair of miniaturized CCD array cameras.<<ETX>>


This paper looks at five different ways in which the effect of fiscal policy on aggregate demand in the short term can be empirically estimated, and asks two questions: First, given the assumption that fiscal policy has the same effect across countries, which of the five indicators is the empirically best measure of fiscal impact on demand? Second, is it reasonable to interpret fiscal policy indicators similarly across countries, or does the effect of fiscal policy on demand differ to a degree that makes this unreasonable? Running a panel regression of changes in aggregate demand on the five measures of fiscal policy in turn frpr OECD countries, the conclusion is that OECD's structural budget balance measure seems to be the more plausible measure of fiscal impact on demand. Moreover, testing the restriction that the five measures have identical parameters across OECD countries is rejected in five all cases.


Fusarium oxysporum the soil borne pathogen causes Fusarium wilt in more than hundred plant species. The fungus causes severe yield loss in ground nut of plants. Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescens inhibited the growth of the Fusarium oxysporum infecting Arachis hypogaea . The treated plants showed enhanced Chlorophyll, Carotenoid, Total Sugars, Reducing sugars, Non-reducing sugars, Proteins, Amino acids, Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) contents. In the present study among the three biocontrol agents, Pseudomonas fluorescens (2%) was the most efficient in controlling the growth of Fusarium oxysporum and it significantly enhanced the levels of chlorophyll and carotenoid content. In other biochemical parameters, Total Sugars, Reducing sugars, Non-reducing sugars, Proteins, Amino acids, Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) Trichoderma viride (1%) inhibited the growth of Fusarium oxysporum causing Fusarium wilt on Arachis hypogaea . The study strongly suggests that Pseudomonas fluorescens (2%) and Trichoderma viride (1%) can be exploited for the biological control of Fusarium wilt disease at field level.


Understanding consumer perception of risk and how it affects behaviour is a key issue for both consumers and the food industry. This paper aims to assess the food safety risks consumers associate with purchasing minced beef and to ascertain the most prevalent of these risks. Results show that consumers are most concerned about the physical, psychological and performance risks associated with minced beef. Physical risk pertains to perceived threats the product poses to the health of the consumer, while psychological risk refers to perceived worries or concerns of the consumer regarding the safety of a product. Performance risk relates to the risk associated with the product not reaching consumer expectations in terms of taste, nutrition or value for money. These three dimensions account for 58 per cent of the variance in overall perceived risk. An understanding of the perceived risk concept enables retailers and manufacturers to develop effective risk communication and marketing programmes.


In eukaryotes, transcription and RNA processing events are spatially separated from translation by the nuclear envelope. Although ribosomal subunits are synthesised and assembled in the nucleus, it is believed that they are kept inactive whilst in the nucleus. Yet, there were observations from this and other laboratories that suggest translation can occur in the nucleus. To further investigate whether translating ribosomes exist in the nucleus, I employed a bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) 80S reporter based technique previously developed in our laboratory that detects 80S assembly in \(Drosophila\) cells. The initial characterization indicated that the assay reports ribosomal subunit interaction, but other explanations could not be excluded. My first aim was to assess whether this technique is genuinely reporting translation-dependent subunits association. My results were consistent with the assay reporting 80S ribosomes formed as a consequence of translation. Following up from this, I developed a similar technique with Venus, which resulted in a more sensitive 80S reporter. While the 80S signal was more apparent in the cytoplasm, in both cell culture and fly tissue cells, a fraction of the cells showed a signal in the nucleus, particularly concentrated in the nucleolus. This signal was enhanced by translation elongation inhibitors in both cytoplasm and nucleus indicating that the detected 80S are engaged in translation. Notably, the nucleolar signal was prevented by RNA Pol II inhibition, suggesting that the 80S might be associated with mRNA in the nucleolus.


Drugs are generally considered as consumer goods which serve to protect, maintain and restore health. In recent years, the proportion of national expenditure devoted to health has increased in all developing countries. The use of generic drugs can reduce health costs, if part of a national drug action plan, and their quality is confirmed (quality control, distribution system, correct utilization). Nevertheless, a large proportion of the population in developing countries has no access to these drugs. This situation requires establishing financing schemes for drug supplies, with community involvement and participation of the population. However, such schemes can result in limited access and inequity.


Household energy consumption is strongly influenced by culture. Therefore, the study of the influence of culture on energy consumption is important for designing the most suitable energy conservation policy to increase society's adaptation to policy. The present paper has the following aims: 1) to analyze and compare decision-making in the use of electrical appliances; and 2) to compile a strategy to improve the adoption of higher-efficiency appliances and the wise use of electricity in Indonesia to optimize households' energy conservation. All aims are in the framework analysis of the different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities represented by two cities—Yogyakarta and Bandung. The finding indicates that people in Yogyakarta show greater awareness of the benefits of adopting higher-efficiency appliances than people in Bandung. Therefore, the awareness rate of energy consumed by appliances and energy efficiency of appliances is significantly higher in Yogyakarta. This study shows the integration of intervention strategy in the purchase and use of electrical appliances with regard to the consumers' decision and behaviors within a framework of the local culture to manage electricity consumption in the household sector.


Introduction: Hypospadias is one of the most common congenital anomalies of male external genitalia. It occurs in approximately 1 in 250 newborn. Hypospadias can be defined as an abnormal urethral orifice under surface of the penis with or without chordee and with or without dorsal hood. Hypospadias may be an isolated defect or a phenotypical component of a more complex condition such as an intersex state. The only treatment is surgery. Thus, prevention is imperative. To accomplish this, it is necessary to determine the etiology of hypospadias. Objective: To identify risk factors for hypospadias, with a focus on potential endocrine disruption, in parental demography, diet, and occupation. Materials and Methods: In a case-control study nested within a cohort of 3246 male births, we compared 17 hypospadias cases with 68 controls. Through questionnaire proforma, information was collected on pregnancy aspects and personal characteristics. Result: Our findings indicate that parental pesticide exposure and smoking were associated with hypospadias, maternal occupational exposure, diet and life style were not associated with hypospadias. The prevalence rate of hypospadias in our study was 0.05%. Conclusion: Since the paternal pesticide exposure and smoking were significantly associated with hypospadias, paternal exposure should be included in further studies on hypospadias risk factors.


Coal mining has gone on in many parts of western Europe and North America frequently for 200 yrs or more. Consequently in many urban areas there are abandoned workings at shallow depth beneath the ground surface which frequently are not recorded. These may present a potential hazard when such areas are redeveloped. One of the modern methods of mining is longwall extraction which involves total extraction of panels within a coal seam. Subsidence consequent upon longwall mining can be regarded as more or less contemporaneous with the mining activity. What is more, unlike subsidence associated with old pillar and stall workings, it normally is predictable within about ± 10 percent. Of the components of ground movement developed by such subsidence, tensile stress gives rise to most damage to structures. Typical subsidence damage makes its appearance in conventional structures when they are subjected to effective strains of 0.5 to 1.0 mm/m. Obviously measures must be taken to avoid significant damage to structures due to mining activity. Such measures differ according to the type of subsidence problem which has to be dealt with, that is, whether it is generated by the existence of old workings or by present day extraction.


In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Castilian kings were constantly in motion, travelling through their kingdom, an activity which has traditionally been linked with the absence of a single capital in Castile. This paper re-examines the role played by royal itineration in this period and the reasons which inhibited the consolidation of an undisputed capital in the kingdom. In doing so, the changing importance and functions of the main cities of the realm, Toledo, Seville, Burgos and Valladolid – the spaces of royal power – will also be discussed. The main factor which precluded the rise of a single capital was the kingdom's specific territorial configuration, not bureaucratic under-development. The Reconquista led to the creation of a 'composite kingdom', in which kingship was exercised differently in some regions compared to others.


ee annihilation into hadrons is one of the most important suppliers of experimental information on the quark interactions. At high energy it serves as a test of perturbative QCD whereas at low energies it provides insight into nonperturbative effects in QCD as well as valuable input to various phenomenological models describing strongly interacting particles. It became conventional to use the dimensionless quantity R(s) to characterize the total cross section of ee → hadrons:


Hydrogen diffusion in zinc oxide thin films was studied by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements, investigating the spreading of implanted deuterium profiles by annealing. By effusion measurements of implanted rare gases He and Ne the microstructure of the material was characterized. While for material prepared by low pressure chemical vapour deposition an interconnected void structure and a predominant diffusion of molecular hydrogen was found, sputter-deposited ZnO films showed a more compact structure and long range diffu- sion of atomic hydrogen. Hydrogen diffusion energies of 1.8 - 2 eV, i.e. higher than reported in literature were found. The results are discussed in terms of a H diffusion model analogous to the model applied for hydrogen diffusion in hydrogenated amorphous and microcrystalline silicon.


Abstract Museums in the United States have historical significance, which adult educators are beginning to study. Receiving less attention to date, however, is the work of African American history museums. This descriptive case study sought to gain an understanding of the adult education work in one African American history museum — The Calaboose: The Johnnie Armstead African American history museum in San Marcos, TX. Using an Africentric lens, observations, and formal interview and video footage, this study illuminated the founder/educator's motivations, sense of social responsibility and belief in the power of storytelling to teach problematic racial histories. Problematically, this work is somewhat disconnected from the powerful Black Lives Matter movement, and therefore is more limited in its contributions to current struggle for racial justice in the US. However, as a space of strong anti-racist adult education the work is vitally important and needs greater visibility.


Abstract. Point clouds are widely regarded as one of the best dataset types for urban mapping purposes. Hence, point cloud datasets are commonly investigated as benchmark types for various urban interpretation methods. Yet, few researchers have addressed the use of point cloud benchmarks for façade segmentation. Robust façade segmentation is becoming a key factor in various applications ranging from simulating autonomous driving functions to preserving cultural heritage. In this work, we present a method of enriching existing point cloud datasets with façade-related classes that have been designed to facilitate façade segmentation testing. We propose how to efficiently extend existing datasets and comprehensively assess their potential for façade segmentation. We use the method to create the TUM-FAÇADE dataset, which extends the capabilities of TUM-MLS-2016. Not only can TUM-FAÇADE facilitate the development of point-cloud-based façade segmentation tasks, but our procedure can also be applied to enrich further datasets.


Photorespiration is one of the major carbon metabolism pathways in oxygen-producing photosynthetic organisms. This pathway recycles 2-phosphoglycolate (2-PG), a toxic metabolite, to 3-phosphoglycerate when ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) uses oxygen instead of carbon dioxide. The photorespiratory cycle is in competition with photosynthetic CO2 fixation and it is accompanied by carbon, nitrogen and energy losses. Thus, photorespiration has become a target to improve crop yields. Moreover, during the photorespiratory cycle intermediate metabolites that are toxic to Calvin-Benson cycle and RuBisCO activities, such as 2-PG, glycolate and glyoxylate, are produced. Thus, the presence of an efficient 2-PG/glycolate/glyoxylate 'detoxification' pathway is required to ensure normal development of photosynthetic organisms. Here we review our current knowledge concerning the enzymes that carry out the glycolate-glyoxylate metabolic steps of photorespiration from glycolate production in the chloroplasts to the synthesis of glycine in the peroxisomes. We describe the properties of the proteins involved in glycolate-glyoxylate metabolism in Archaeplastida and the phenotypes observed when knocking down/out these specific photorespiratory players. Advances in our understanding of the regulation of glycolate-glyoxylate metabolism are highlighted.


Iron saccharate complex ISC is an iron supplement used to optimize erythropoiesis in cases of iron deficiencies. Because of the lack of major mechanisms of iron excretion, excess iron unbound to protective molecules is believed to be involved in catalyzing the generation of reactive oxygen species and induction of oxidative stress. This study employed ISC for the purpose of inducing iron overload and hence investigating the consequent iron toxicity, lipid peroxidation and antioxidant extent in a murine species. Male Wistar rats were given iron as intraperitoneal injections of ISC in subacute (0.2 mg Fe kg−1 for 2 weeks) and subchronic (0.1 mg Fe kg−1 for 4 weeks) doses. In iron-overloaded rats, enhanced hepatic iron accumulation (P > 0.001) attended by increased serum concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) (P > 0.001) and activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase SOD, catalase CAT and glutathione peroxidase GPx) (P > 0.001) was pointed out. The demonstrated antioxidant boost is attributed to a sense of equilibrium prompted by the potential of iron-induced oxidative stress to modify antioxidant defense capacity and to modulate susceptibility to oxidative stress. Rats seemed to constantly suffer from oxidative stress based on the consistent rise in MDA that was not overwhelmed by the elevated antioxidant input. The current findings are of informative value in drawing attention to the health hazards of applying higher doses of the commercially used iron supplement ISC. Data are virtually significant in elucidating the higher magnitude of subchronic than subacute iron overload in initiating oxidative stress and antioxidant defense. Both pathways proceeded in a time-dependent rather than dose-dependent manner.


A geostatistical approach known as indicator kriging is used to analyze qualitative information about the areal distribution of abandoned coal workings beneath the city of Pittsburg, Kansas. Borehole information is transformed into binary indicator data as a function of the borings which hit mine voids. An exponential semivariogram is used with a kriging algorithm to produce a grid of estimated values. Since the input data is binary, the kriging estimations have a continuous range from zero to one. The grid of values represents the estimated conditional probability of a location being undermined in the study area. Further analysis shows that the limiting extent of mining for this case is estimated by the 0.45 probability isopleth. Land-use planners can use information from this type of analysis in risk assessment investigations associated with subsidence mitigation.


Compounds of the general formula I wherein X is selected from the group consisting of oxygen CH2 and CH radicals, and when X designates oxygen, R designates alkyl, isoalkyl, aralkyl, and substituted aryl groups and when X designates then R designates alkyl, phenyl or substituted phenyl group, and A-B is a single bond and when X designates >CH, and A-B is a double bond, R designates alkyl, phenyl or substituted phenyl groups and physiologically acceptable salts of these, and pharmaceutical compositions containing same as active ingredient.


In this paper, we have demonstrated that a three-dimensional (3-D) miniaturized rectangular cavity resonator (MRCR) with simultaneously shorten electric length and electric width can be designed, fabricated and tested through extending the analysis of the metamaterial-based cavity resonator to the 3-D case. Resonance equation solutions of a rectangular cavity resonator filled with anisotropic metamaterials bilayer are explored. Results show that the resonance frequency of such a cavity resonator can be simultaneously independent on the cavity width and length when the transversal components of the permeability tensors of the filled metamaterials have opposite sign. Based on the results, a 3-D MRCR is designed, fabricated, and tested by using modified SRRs with negative transversal permeability. It is shown that the electrical length and width of the designed 3-D MRCR are simultaneously reduced to 0.2 much smaller than 0.5, which is the theoretical minimum of the electric length and width of a conventional rectangular cavity resonator.


Parental beliefs regarding the emotional skills of children represent what parents think and believe about how the child develops in terms of emotion-related skills and which key abilities should be developed Mendes, D. M. L. F., Pires, P. P., Fioravanti, A. C. M. 1820 Trends Psychol., Ribeirão Preto, vol. 26, no 4, p. 1819-1832 Dezembro/2018 in this area. Emotional skill is a high impact component critical for full and healthy development. The aim of this study was to present, briefl y, the construction steps of the COMPE scale and to verify the preliminary psychometric parameters, such as the dimensionality and reliability of the items. In order to reach the fi nal form of the scale, Content Validity procedures were used for the constitution of the initial version and Item Response Theory (IRT) for the analysis of the psychometric properties of the items. As a result, the present article presents a scale with a total of 30 items capable of composing a measure for the parental beliefs mentioned, with three theoretical facets indicative of emotional skills linked to: (a) emotional expression, (b) emotional comprehension and (c) emotional regulation, which are aggregated into a single score. Based on the psychometric properties verifi ed, it is considered that the COMPE can become an instrument option to be used with the Brazilian population in research involving parental beliefs and emotions.


Photonic delay-based reservoircomputers (RC) have emerged as an attractive high-speed, low-power alternative to traditional digital hardware for AI. We demonstrate experimentally a novel hybrid RC scheme in which input data is first preprocessed through several convolutional layers, either trained or untrained, digitally to generate novel feature maps. These random feature maps are then processed through an optoelectronic implementation of delay-based RC. Using the MNIST dataset of handwritten digits, experiments of our proposed hybrid scheme achieve classification error of 1.6% using untrained convolutions, and an error of 1.1% using trained convolutions, results comparable to that of state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. Additionally, our experimental implementation can offer a potential 10× decrease in model training time, compared to that of common digital alternatives.


Vulnerable Population Study of Household Injuries: A Case Study in Hong Kong Nan Zhang, Emily Y.y. Chan, Chunlan Guo, Janice Y. Ho 1. Collaborating Centre For Oxford University And Cuhk For Disaster And Medical Humanitarian Response, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong/Hong Kong Prc 2. School Of Public Health And Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong/Hong Kong Prc


This study investigated changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) in a poorly drained clay loam soil under (i) permanent grassland (PG) over 7 years and (ii) after PG renovation over 2·5 years. The experimental area was divided into four blocks with four paddocks per block. Composite soil samples from each PG block were taken to 30-cm depth on five occasions between 2004 and 2011. In June 2008, one paddock per block was renovated by ploughing and reseeding and sampled as above on the latter four occasions. Renovation decreased SOC (P < 0·05) by 32·2 t ha−1 in the 2·5 years following ploughing; the difference developed almost entirely (86%) in the first four months. Renovation had no effect on above-ground productivity, standing root and stubble phytomass or on dissolved organic matter leaching. Therefore, soil respiration was considered to be a single potential pathway responsible for the SOC loss from renovated grassland. Although a simple linear regression indicated a tendency for PG to accumulate SOC, there was no evidence of recovery in SOC to previous levels following renovation during the study period. These results could have implications for greenhouse gas inventories in countries where PG is an important land-use type.


Background: Commonly, a pneumothorax is induced before medical thoracoscopy to facilitate safe entry into the pleural space. Objective: Evaluate the use of transthoracic ultrasound to locate a safe entry site for trocar placement during medical thoracoscopy without induction of a preprocedure pneumothorax. Method: The study was designed as a prospective cohort study, performed in the setting of a tertiary care hospital with an active interventional pulmonology program. It included 20 consecutive patients referred for medical thoracoscopy. Results: Ultrasound identified entry sites in all 20 patients. All sites were successfully used, despite the presence of adhesions in 3 patients. There were no complications. Conclusions: Ultrasound could safely and reliably identify entry sites for trocar placement during medical thoracoscopy, even in patients with pleural adhesions. The use of ultrasound may replace the practice of pneumothorax induction before medical thoracoscopy.


Objective: To examine the presentation and outcome of patients diagnosed with active pulmonary tuberculosis after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Design: New cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis admitted to our critical care unit from January 1999 to January 2006 were identified. Data were collected retrospectively from medical records including demographics, clinical presentation, number of sputum samples, therapy provided and patient outcome. Setting: Data were collected from the ICU database and microbiology laboratory records. Patients and participants: Thirty-three patients were diagnosed with active pulmonary tuberculosis. Age was 63±17, and 60.7% were males. Onset of symptoms averaged 17 days prior to presentation (range: 1-90 days), including fever in 51%, cough in 14%, dyspnea in 8%, night sweats in 6%. Interventions: Twenty-two patients were treated for tuberculosis during hospitalization. The other 11 were not diagnosed during hospitalization and were found later to be culture positive. Measurements and results: The most common ICU clinical diagnosis was community-acquired pneumonia in 54%, followed by aspiration pneumonia in 3%. Out of 161 tracheal aspirates, only 48 (30%) were AFB stain positive and 80 (69%) were culture positive. Out of 33 patients who had at least one positive culture, only 62% were AFB stain positive. Of the 22 patients treated for tuberculosis during hospitalization; 15 (68%) died. Of the remaining 11 who were not diagnosed during hospitalization 7 (64%) died. Conclusions: Active pulmonary tuberculosis is common in ICU patients. The diagnosis may be confounded by atypical clinical presentation and the lack of sensitive and rapid diagnostic tests. Considering the impact if misdiagnosis and risk of transmission to health care professionals, clinicians must maintain high level of suspicion and a low threshold for respiratory isolation. Newer and more sensitive tests must be developed and utilized. From King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Abdullah A. Alshimemeri, Yaseen M. Arabi, Hamdan Al-Jahdali, Ashwaq Olayan, and Othman Al Harbi) and Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Ziad Memish) Address for correspondence: Dr. Abdullah Alshimemeri Associate Professor, Department of Intensive Care Medicine and Dean, Postgraduate Education King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences National Guard Health Affairs PO Box 22490, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia Tel: +966-1-2520088 (ext# 13313)


Lithocholic acid (LCA) is a potent hepatotoxic compound. Fetal LCA may have a role in the pathogenesis of neonatal cholestasis/extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA). Fetal liver efficiently hydroxylates LCA in several positions. This may represent a detox-ification mechanism. In the present study LCA, cholic acid (CA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) were quantitated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry using selected ion monitoring in small amounts of stored dried blood from six newborn infants with EHBA and fourteen con-trols. The blood was collected at neonatal metabolic screening. Mean blood levels (±S.E.M.) of LCA were 0.11±0.04 μM in the in-fants with EHBA and 0.08±0.02 μM in the control infants. The corresponding levels for CA and CDCA were 15.6±3.6 μM and 7.4±2.5 μM in the infants with EHBA and 1.7±0.3 μM and 1.8±0.4 μM in the controls. The increased levels of CA and CDCA in the infants with liver disease can be explained by cholestasis. The low blood levels of LCA indicate a normal fetal metabolism of this bile acid in EHBA.


The temptation to use a powerful and rapidly acting diuretic in every patient who needs one, often results in the use of frusemide as an all-purpose diuretic. Unfortunately there is no such thing as an all-purpose diuretic. Although frusemide is very valuable in acute pulmonary oedema, thiazide-resistant oedema, ascites due to liver disease and renal failure, the intense diuresis it can produce may cause orthostatic hypotension in the elderly, and acute electrolyte imbalance which can be serious, especially in digitalised patients. For many patients with mild or moderate heart failure a less powerful diuretic, such as a thiazide, will be safer, and just as effective. Two new diuretics have recently been promoted for many of these situations, but it is by no means clear in which of them they offer a tangible advantage.


The study was carried to determine Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (rs6165) of Follicle Stimulating Hormone Receptor (FSHR) gene in blood samples of 62 Iraqi women with primary amenorrhea and 40 healthy control females. The research included chromosomal study and serum analysis of 62 patient samples. The samples were collected from Educational laboratories, City of Medicine, Baghdad and Biotechnology Dept. College of Science- Baghdad University through the period from October 2018 to March 2019. The determinations of SNP (rs6165) were carried out by real-time PCR. Results of rs6165 genotyping showed significant variations between PA patients and controls, Inspecting FSHR gene genotypes and allele frequencies in PA patients groups with the control group, revealed that there was significant variation in the heterozygous (AG) and homozygous mutant type(AA) genotype frequencies in (rs6165). the SNP of target gene may have a role in PA patients complaining from idiopathic puberty problems.


. Male courtship displays commonly involve multiple sexual signals. While there has been considerable interest in female choice for male multiple signals, few studies have investigated how these signals interact. We analyzed courtship behaviours of male Great Bowerbirds Chlamydera nuchalis , which include both acoustical elements, including ticking sounds of three types (SS, MS and LS), and locomotive elements, including dancing around the bower. Our results show that the ticking sounds played an important role in female choice. Males that uttered more LS sounds (louder and longer than the other two types) attracted more females, which suggests that intense display enhances mating success. In addition, males uttering more LS type calls had a larger bower, which suggests that a large bower provides females a safe protection against male's vigorous display and that the male can perform display more intensely. These results show that the multiple signals interacted with each other.


ABSTRACT
Perineal is the important factor on physiology. The intact perineal not only acts on labor but also needed on healthy sexual function. Either factor that connects with trauma perineal on labor is episiotomy or spontaneous rupture. Episiotomy was an operative method that the most used when labor, even though there is a little evidence that support the use. The cause of episiotomy was reported on research that women with episiotomy need a long time to have sexual intercourse. Other researchers found that women with episiotomy would have dyspareunia were about 12-21%. The early work of Master Johnson, Kolodny found that 15 % women have dyspareunia. Spector and Carey reported that incidence of dyspareunia was 8-23%. The objective of the research is to known the correlation of rupture of perineal and dyspareunia and also the factors that influenced it.: the study used cohort design with 53 primipara post labor as respondents which have sexual intercourse 40-60 days after delivery. Technique sampling use purposive sampling. Data are collected by interview with questionnaire for dyspareunia, and examination rupture of perineal when labor. Respondents were interviewed for the second time, to known dyspareunia after sexual intercourse. Analyze data with univariat and bivariat used Fishers Exact Test and cross table 2x2 to determine relative risk. there were 34% women who get dyspareunia. Majority respondent's age was 20-35 years old and education was at senior high school. There wasn't significant correlation between rupture of perineal and dyspareunia (p>0,05), and others influencing factor that include counseling, physical exercise, and lubricant factor.


Apoptosis is a process of cell suicide whereby individual cells are destroyed while preserving the integrity and architecture of surrounding tissue. This targeted cell destruction is critical both in physiological contexts as well as pathological states. It seems increasingly evident that mitochondria play an important role in the regulation of programmed cell death via release of proapoptotic agents and/or disruption of cellular energy metabolism. The mechanisms of mitochondrial involvement are beginning to be elucidated, and may involve the participation of bcl-2 family members, reactive oxygen species, and caspases. As part of a central mechanism of amplification of the apoptotic signal, mitochondria may be an appropriate target for therapeutic agents designed to modulate apoptosis. This review focuses on recent advances in understanding mitochondrial mechanisms in apoptosis and the involvement of these pathways in human disease.


Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms) is an invasive aquatic macrophyte associated with major negative economic and ecological impacts. Although water hyacinth continues to cause serious disruptions in the use of water bodies in Kenya, the government has not promptly moved to contain the spread of this weed. In view of this, this paper identifies the weaknesses related to access of information on water hyacinth, implementation of control mechanisms, and lack of research on certain aspects as the issues that explain why Kenya is not swiftly taking measures to control water hyacinth whenever it invades its water systems. These shortcomings call for action to effectively mobilize, organize, and equip decision-makers, researchers, and representatives of communities, along with their organizations and institutions, to improve their response to the water-hyacinth problem.


An outbreak of 29 cases of bloodstream infection by 16 pathogens occurred during 8 months at two chronic hemodialysis centers. Consequences included 21 hospital admissions and removal of 23 dialysis catheters. An epidemiologic investigation comparing case-patients with uninfected controls showed that risk was significantly (P < .05) associated with having a catheter for vascular access; receiving treatment on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule; and receiving treatment on one heavily contaminated dialysis machine. Culture studies and mock trials showed that bloodstream pathogens were present in a recently installed, commercially marketed attachment for disposal of spent priming saline and could enter blood line tubing directly or indirectly during dialyzer priming and tubing assembly. The outbreak was halted by measures directed at the attachment. Investigation of this problem demonstrated that microbial overgrowth in the attachment caused bloodstream infections and underscores the importance of microbiologic considerations in the design and use of hemodialysis equipment.


Values of resistance to the movement and turn of tractor on the caterpillar motion of making more compact machine, calculated on the offered method, less approximately twice from got with the use of help recommendations, as refined data are used.


The crystal structure of Bi-layered perovskite Sr0.85Bi2.1Ta2O9 was determined at 750 K by X-ray Rietveld analysis. Sr0.85Bi2.1Ta2O9 with space group A21am at room temperature transforms to the paraelectric phase above 670 K, passing through a probable intermediate state at 510 K. Assuming two possible orthorhombic Fmmm and tetragonal I4/mmm space groups, analysis of the crystal structure of the paraelectric phase gave the final discrepancy factors Rwp of 11.3% and 9.9%, respectively. Examination of possible reflections and peak positions at high-angles proved that the true space group is I4/mmm for the high temperature paraelectric phase. The lattice constants are a=3.927 (1), c=25.142 (1) Å at 750 K. The TaO6 octahedron is not perfect and is slightly distorted along the c-axis, having the dipole moment of 0.478 debye.


Gd2CuO4 particles were synthesized by sol-gel techniques in order to study the effects of particle size d on the magnetic properties measured by dc magnetization and microwave absorption. Decreasing d reduced the intensity and temperature of onset of weak ferromagnetism, which was not detected at all in 850 Å particles. This finding is attributed to the impossibility of Cu three-dimensional antiferromagnetic ordering when d reaches a limit somewhat below the two-dimensional magnetic correlation length corresponding to bulk Gd2CuO4 at the Néel temperature.


We investigate the effect of oil revenues on long-term economic growth within a Bayesian framework that accounts for model uncertainty. Our analysis is based on an updated cross country data set for long term growth in the period 1970-2014 including 91 countries and 54 potential growth determinants. Initially, we do not find any empirical evidence for the existence of the "natural resource curse" in our sample. On the contrary, we document a robust positive effect of oil rents on long-term economic growth. Then, we introduce interaction terms of oil rents with potential conditions under which oil dependency can lead to sub-standard growth. Our second set of results shows that the interaction of institutional quality and oil revenues has a robust positive effect on growth, while the constituent oil rent term is no longer robust. We conclude that institutional quality is necessary condition for oil revenues to have a growth-enhancing effect.


Ionic diffusion through and near small domains is of considerable importance in molecular biophysics in applications such as permeation through protein channels and diffusion near the charged active sites of macromolecules. The motion of the ions in these settings depends on the specific nanoscale geometry and charge distribution in and near the domain, so standard continuum type approaches have obvious limitations. The standard machinery of equilibrium statistical mechanics includes microscopic details, but is also not applicable, because these systems are usually not in equilibrium due to concentration gradients and to the presence of an external applied potential, which drive a non-vanishing stationary current through the system. We present a stochastic molecular model for the diffusive motion of interacting particles in an external field of force and a derivation of effective partial differential equations and their boundary conditions that describe the stationary non-equilibrium system. The interactions can include electrostatic, Lennard-Jones and other pairwise forces. The analysis yields a new type of Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations, that involves conditional and unconditional charge densities and potentials. The conditional charge densities are the non-equilibrium analogues of the well studied pair correlation functions of equilibrium statistical physics. Our proposed theory is an extension of equilibrium statistical mechanics of simple fluids to stationary non-equilibrium problems. The proposed system of equations differs from the standard Poisson–Nernst–Planck system in two important aspects. First, the force term depends on conditional densities and thus on the finite size of ions, and second, it contains the dielectric boundary force on a discrete ion near dielectric interfaces. Recently, various authors have shown that both of these terms are important for diffusion through confined geometries in the context of ion channels.


OBJECT
Previous reports on the accuracy of manual palpation for thoracic pedicle screw placement have been restricted to cadaveric studies. Authors of the present novel study assessed the accuracy of manual palpation for the detection of medial and lateral pedicle breaches during thoracic spine surgery in living adult humans.

METHODS
Pedicle tracks were created freehand and manually palpated using a ball-tipped probe. Postoperative CT scans of all implanted thoracic and L-1 screws were evaluated with respect to screw position and the pedicle wall.

RESULTS
Five hundred twenty-five pedicle track/screw placements were compared. There were 21 pedicles with medial breaches measuring ≥ 2 mm. The surgeon correctly identified only 4 of these pedicle tracks as having a medial breach. The surgeon correctly identified 17 of 128 pedicles with a significant (≥ 2 mm) lateral breach. One hundred two screw placements had no measurable breach in any direction (medial, lateral, or foraminal). The surgeon correctly identified 98% of these ideally placed screws.

CONCLUSIONS
In this real-time study of thoracic pedicle screw placement, the accuracy of manual palpation for detecting medial or lateral breaches that were ≥ 2 mm was disturbingly low. These findings are consistent with those in recent cadaveric evaluations of palpation accuracy and point to the critical need for more reliable alternative methods to assess pedicle integrity during the placement of thoracic pedicle screws for spine instrumentation surgery.


Using a unique data set and a novel identification strategy, we estimate the effect of minimum wage increases on job vacancy postings. Utilizing occupation-specific county-level vacancy data from the Conference Board's Help Wanted Online for 2005-2018, we find that state-level minimum wage increases lead to substantial declines in existing and new vacancy postings in occupations with a larger share of workers who earn close to the prevailing minimum wage. We estimate that a 10 percent increase in the state-level effective minimum wage reduces vacancies by 2.4 percent in the same quarter, and the cumulative effect is as large as 4.5 percent a year later. The negative effect on vacancies is more pronounced for occupations where workers typically have lower educational attainment (high school or less) and in counties with higher poverty rates. We argue that our focus on vacancies versus on employment has a distinct advantage of highlighting a mechanism through which minimum wage hikes affect labor demand. Our finding of a negative effect on vacancies is not inconsistent with the wide range of findings in the literature about the effect of minimum wage changes on employment, which is driven by changes in both hiring and separation margins.

https://www.clevelandfed.org/~/media/content/newsroom and events/publications/working papers/2019/wp1930.pdf


Tuberculosis is mainly known to affect the lungs, but it can manifest at various extrapulmonary sites. Disseminated tuberculosis is a relatively rare clinical condition, and cases with no history of the disease are sparse. A case of an 18-year-old Indian male is presented. He came with complaints of chest pain, coughing with expectoration, and loss of appetite. The diagnostic workup led to a definite diagnosis of disseminated tuberculosis with involvement of the lungs, pleura, mediastinal lymph nodes, and pericardium. He was initiated on a fixed-dose anti-tubercular treatment per the national guidelines.


Parents raising children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) usually carry on their daily life under tremendous stress, but limited empirical research has been devoted to this population. It is known that parents' health status directly impacts therapeutic outcome of ASD children. As an important regulator in cardiovascular, nervous and immune systems, nitric oxide (NO) levels haven't been reported in parents of ASD children yet. In this study, we measured urine nitrite and nitrate from 43 ASD parents (ASD-P), and 43 healthy adults in the same range of age (Control) who didn't have any ASD descendants. Comparison between the ASD-P and Control groups showed that NO2-, NO3-, and NO2-/NO3- were all significantly lower in the ASD-P group. Analysis on the interaction effect of sex and group indicated that urine NO3- of mothers in ASD-P was lower than that in females of the Control group, but no significant difference was observed between males in both groups. It is for the first time that urine nitric oxide metabolites (nitrite, nitrate) levels were precisely reported to differentiate parents of autistic children from other adults without ASD descendants. This phenomenon suggests that parents (especially mothers) of autistic children might have experienced more mental and physical stressors, which led to decreased NO levels during metabolism. Further investigations are necessary to uncover the etiology of low urine NO among parents of autistic children.


Facial complexation of naphthalene to {[3,5-(CF(3))(2)Pz]Ag}(3) (Ag(3)) gives rise to a stacked binary adduct (1) that exhibits phosphorescence corresponding to T(1) monomer emission of naphthalene. Crystals and powders of 1 exhibit bright-green phosphorescence at room temperature with a 830 mus lifetime, whereas cooling to cryogenic temperatures increases the intensity, lifetime, and vibronic resolution. The binary adduct exhibits a drastically shorter phosphorescence lifetime of 6.7 ms versus free naphthalene (2.4 s) in a frozen dichloromethane matrix, which results from the external heavy-atom effect of silver. Adduct 1 represents a new class of phosphors containing lighter but more benign silver than mercury atoms in trinuclear d(10) pi-acid complexes as arene triplet sensitizers.


This study explores the factors that cause international graduate students to struggle and these students' ways of dealing with such problems in light of sociocultural theory, which views learning as a social and cultural act. The findings show that graduate classes function as communities of practices in which classmates and professors mutually engage with each other, share a repertoire and engage in joint enterprises. The practices were not always transparent to international students, which became a source of difficulty and often led them to feel excluded. Peripheral participation comprised a significant part of some students' learning process and identity formation, but it allowed them to participate in course-related activities as fully as they felt comfortable doing. This study suggests a need for more sensitive and dialogical efforts by educators in higher education to provide better learning environments for international learners.


Objective The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanism of the Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu (ZL) capsule in the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) via targeting ferroptosis based on network pharmacology. Methods The active ingredients and related key targets of the ZL capsule were screened using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). The gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis were also performed. Finally, identified targets were validated in an in-vivo model of ICH. Results A total of 30 active ingredients and 33 intersecting targets were identified through a TCMSP database search. Ingredients-Targets-Pathways network was constructed to filter out the key targets according to the degree value. TP53 was selected as the key target. The in-vivo validation studies demonstrated that TP53 was down-regulated and GPX4 was upregulated in rats following ZL capsule treatment. Conclusions It is concluded that the ZL capsule could alleviate ICH in a muti-target and multi-pathway manner. ZL capsule could alleviate ICH by inhibiting ferroptosis, and TP53 is identified to be the potential target. Further research is needed to clarify the detailed anti-ferroptotic mechanism of the ZL capsule.


the sun-god, etc., p. 172). Western Asiatic equivalents for Seth and other deities (followed by fuller syncretism in the New Kingdom) are from the West-Semitic pantheon—Baal, Anath, etc.—not from Hurrian or Hittite circles. This agrees with the clear attestation of West Semitic names among the Hyksos, whereas Hurrian names are only occasionally possible and so far are not yet provably attested. Hence, it is fair to suggest on present evidence that the Hyksos rulers were Semitic rather than, say, Hurrian or Indo-Aryan. Semitic place-names in the Delta agree. In short, Dr. Van Seters has made a major and valuable contribution to a notoriously tricky field.


Severn Hospice comprises two separate units and notably different geographical areas, each with a team of community-based 'outreach nurses' (linked to GP practices). Population totals 500,000 people, roughly equal per area. Telford & Wrekin has a population density of 584/km2, Shropshire 136/km2. We aim to fulfil the national 'Ambitions' for palliative care and adopted a 'Living Well' strategy in 2017. We offer nurse-led clinics within both hospices, an option given to all patients at initial triage. This initiative began in our Telford base and was evaluated positively by nursing staff. Shropshire clinics began in February 2019. We have evaluated these by reviewing everyone referred to the team from June - September 2019 to establish if clinic appointments may have been suitable. The results revealed a total of 186 patients accepted our nurse outreach service over the four months; 181 patients were visited in their own homes. Of these only 16 were identified by the assessing nurse as being able to attend a clinic appointment: the main themes suggesting inappropriateness: end of life care, too unwell to attend a clinic or transport, travel & distance difficulties. We also sent out clinic questionnaires in July 2019 to all twelve hospice outreach nurses, across both bases. Our questionnaires demonstrate significant differences by area: the more rural nurses noting difficulties with travel, including comments about cancelled and missed clinic appointments. Both areas were concerned about missed 'clues' from the home environment. Interestingly the nurses within the more urban, generally lower socioeconomic class area, within the Telford team, repeatedly mentioned easier, 'less distracted' reviews in a clinic environment. In Conclusion nurse-led clinics may be a useful adjunct for hospices and the option does fit with individualised care. However we encountered significant difficulties with patient demographics and nurse-assessed suitability for this service.


Optic pathway gliomas (OPGs) are the most common pediatric optic nerve tumors. Their behavior ranges between rapid growth, stability, or spontaneous regression. Τhey are characterized by low mortality albeit with significant morbidity. We present the characteristics, management, and outcome of 23 OPG patients (16 females, median age: 4.8 y) managed in a Pediatric Oncology Department in Northern Greece over a 25-year period. Overall, 57% had a background of neurofibromatosis type 1. Diagnosis was based on imaging (10 patients) or biopsy (13 patients). Presenting symptoms were mostly visual impairment/squint (52%). Proptosis/exophthalmos, raised intracranial pressure, and headache were also noted. In 2 occasions, it was detected with surveillance magnetic resonance imaging in the context of neurofibromatosis type 1. Eight patients had unilateral and 2 bilateral optic nerve tumors (Modified Dodge Classification, stage 1a/1b), 3 had chiasmatic (stage 2a/b), and 10 had multiple tumors (stage 3/4). Predominant histology was pilocytic astrocytoma (77%). Management included: observation (4), chemotherapy only (9), surgery only (3), or various combinations (7). Chemotherapy regimens included vincristine and carboplatin, vinblastine, or bevacizumab with irinotecan. Most patients demonstrated a slow disease course with complete response/partial response to chemotherapy and/or surgery, whereas 39% presented ≥1 recurrences. After a median follow-up of 8.5 years (range to 19 y), 20 patients (87%) are still alive with stable disease, in partial/complete remission, or on treatment.


The social benefit challenges under the Charter's equality guarantee offer insight into the Supreme Court of Canada's approach to claims for distributive justice. In most of these cases, the financial costs to government of rights recognition play a role in the analysis. A survey of the outcomes of these cases and the "dollars" at stake reveals a "follow the money" pattern. In all cases in which the claim that the government regime creates an inequality was successful, the cost to the public purse of finding in favour of the equality claimant was characterized by the Court as low or inexpensive. All those cases in which the public cost of recognition was regarded as significantly high have failed, although some inexpensive claims have also failed. The correlation suggests that a minimal budgetary impact is a necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition for a successful social benefit challenge. Conversely, the correlation indicates that a significant budgetary impact poses a serious, if not insurmountable, barrier to success. The social benefit equality cases have also been the occasion of the Court's elaboration of a doctrinal framework for factoring budgetary impacts into the adjudication of rights claims under the Charter. Much of the discussion in this regard has been on the question of at what stage of Charter analysis — the rights analysis, the section 1 analysis (and its subparts), and/or the remedy stage — the public cost of rights recognition should or should not be weighed against other factors. From an initial position of high principle — that governmental concerns about saving time and money should not trump rights — the jurisprudence has, over the past 30 years, reached a point at which the financial impact on government may play a significant role at all three stages of analysis, often curtailing a meaningful exploration of both the Charter values and the non-monetary regulatory concerns at stake. If the Charter equality guarantee is truly to be given substantive content, then judges, lawyers and legal scholars need to work out a more coherent framework for taking account of budgetary impacts. An overview is provided of the sorts of considerations that need to be integrated into such a framework.


Electromagnetic wave propagation in complex dispersive media is governed by the time dependent Maxwell's equations coupled to equations that describe the evolution of the induced macroscopic polarization. We consider "polydispersive" materials represented by distributions of dielectric parameters in a polarization model. The work focuses on a novel computational framework for such problems involving Polynomial Chaos Expansions as a method to improve the modeling accuracy of the Debye model and allow for easy simulation using the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. Stability and dispersion analyzes are performed for the approach utilizing the second order Yee scheme in two spatial dimensions.


The aim of this paper is to highlight the possible way of quantification of the impact of forest enterprise and forest management on the economic and social development of the territory by using the methodology of the local multiplier calculation and identifying potential cash flows associated with the implementation of socioeconomic functions of forest ecosystems. The economic indicators to be analysed are the local expenditures of Písek City Forests Ltd. on suppliers and employees in 2015. The local multiplier is a specific microeconomic indicator which enables quantification and evaluation of socioeconomic benefits of the selected operator for the local people and entrepreneurs. The results of the specific university research project of Mendel University in Brno with the title: Quantification of the Influence of the Selected Forestry Enterprise on the Local Economy of the Region will allow us to evaluate the effect of the special-purpose forest enterprise and forest management on the economic and social development as well as to identify the potential cash flows related to the fulfilment of socioeconomic functions of the forest ecosystems in the area of interest of Písek City Forests Ltd.


This article focuses on international migration occurring as a result of environmental changes and processes. It briefly reviews attempts to conceptualize environment-related migration and then considers the extent to which environmental factors have been and may be significant in initiating migration. Following is an examination of migration as an independent variable in the migration-environment relationship. Finally, ethical and policy dimensions are addressed.


Protected area managers rely on relevant, credible, and legitimate knowledge. However, an increase in the rate, extent, severity, and magnitude of the impacts of drivers of change (e.g., climate change, altered land use, and demand for natural resources) is affecting the response capacity of managers and their agencies. We address temporal aspects of knowledge governance by exploring time-related characteristics of information and decision-making processes in protected areas. These areas represent artefacts where the past (e.g., geological periods and evolutionary processes), the present (e.g., biodiversity richness), and the future (e.g., protection of ecosystem services for future generations) are intimately connected and integrated. However, temporal horizons linked with spatial scales are often neglected or misinterpreted in environmental management plans and monitoring programs. In this paper, we present a framework to address multi-dimensional understandings of knowledge-based processes for managing protected areas to guide researchers, managers, and practitioners to consider temporal horizons, spatial scales, different knowledge systems, and future decisions. We propose that dealing with uncertain futures starts with understanding the knowledge governance context that shapes decision-making processes, explicitly embracing temporal dimensions of information in decision-making at different scales. We present examples from South Africa and Colombia to illustrate the concepts. This framework can help to enable a reflexive practice, identify pathways or transitions to enable actions and connect knowledge for effective conservation of protected areas.


When Alexia founded Music as Therapy International, the music therapy profession seemed very different. Who has changed? The author or the profession? Or both? The author will present her experiences of being a threat, a novelty and now a welcome contributor to practice, and consider the changing professional context against which (and within which) her work has unfolded. The article will trace the development of Music as Therapy International's work in Romania, as the country's care system has progressed through dramatic reforms following the crisis in care revealed after the fall of Communism in 1989. The author will explore how the consequent portfolio of activities devised by the charity has since proven relevant in other countries and has become increasingly influential in the UK. Specific relevant projects will be presented, including the six-week introductory training project model (international), the distance learning programme (Romania), the training DVD (Rwanda), the UK continuing professional development seminars and interactive music-making (a university credit-rated course for UK practitioners working with under-5s). The paper will also refer to responses to these projects from the profession and the relevant practice of others over the years.


ABSTRACT Huang, C. and Zheng, W.X.J., 2020. Research on the development of offshore engineering equipment and high-end shipbuilding industry: A case study of Dinghai District, Zhoushan, Ningbo. In: Guido Aldana, P.A. and Kantamaneni, K. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Coastal Management, and Marine Science Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 104, pp. 700–704. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The 21st century is the century of the oceans, and speeding up the development and utilization of marine resources has become the strategic orientation of economic development of all countries in the world. Marine engineering equipment refers to the general term for various mechanical equipment needed in the course of a series of marine economic activities. And high-end ships, because of their complex design and manufacturing processes and powerful functions, occupy a very important position in the marine equipment industry chain, and have extremely high research and application value. The development of marine engineering equipment and high-end shipbuilding industry can realize the wider application and development of marine resources. Therefore, this article analyzes the development model of Korean marine engineering equipment and high-end ship manufacturing industry, and uses Ningbo Zhoushan Dinghai District as a focus area to conduct a matching analysis, in order to provide suggestions for the development of marine engineering equipment and high-end ship manufacturing industry.


High-frequency noise in slowly varying signals has been filtered by designing a digital transient recorder which uses a fast analogue to digital converter to collect data at short intervals of time delta . In this design the data collected between two successive recordings of digital data at longer time intervals Delta are added and averaged to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Such noise filtering does not distort single exponential signals encountered in relaxation studies.


Speed of processing (SOP) is a crucial factor in fluent reading and is measured using reading rate. This measure is commonly used to examine correct reading patterns, yet in the present study it is employed to determine whether differences in SOP exist for correct and incorrect reading. One of the characteristics of dyslexia is slow and inaccurate reading. Thus, the aim of the present study was to compare the processing time and accuracy of dyslexic and regular readers when performing errors during letter, word and sentence reading. Both groups exhibited longer reaction times for incorrect response but the dyslexics were significantly slower. Furthermore, both groups were less accurate and faster when recognizing letters as compared with reading sentences. These data suggest that incorrect responses among dyslexics follow their attempt at stimulus processing rather than impulsivity. In addition, it is suggested that the difference in the task's cognitive demands affects performance.


SUMMARY
Many, but not all, current ripples show log-normal grain-size distribution and good sorting (P. D. Trask). A range in medians was measured from fifty to several hundred microns. Turbidite ripples are log-normal, very well-sorted and are restricted to medians of very fine sand to silt (< 130 μ) because the particles have been supplied in suspension at rippling velocity. Experimental suspension current ripples formed at about 50–60 cm/sec are similar in composition and structure to turbidite ripples. The continuous supply results in climbing ripples. The restricted grain size and the internal structure of turbidite ripples both form strong evidence against the action of normal currents. The number of grain-size analyses is still rather small.


Fredrickson was among the first to discover the relationship between lipoprotein abnormalities and increased risks of coronary
 artery disease, atherosclerosis (deposits of plaques containing cholesterol on the inner lining of arteries), and myocardial
 infarction (heart attack).


Water-dispersed organic base nanoparticles are utilized for the highly stable n-type doping of single-walled carbon nanotubes in aqueous dispersion. Long-term stability is often a critical challenge in the application of n-type organic conductors. The present n-type organic materials exhibit almost no degradation in the thermoelectric properties over months, in air.


The acaricidal activity of materials derived from the rhizome of Cnidium officinale Makino against Tyrophagus putrescentiae Schrank adults was examined using direct contact application and fumigation methods, and compared with that of benzyl benzoate and N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET). The biologically active constituent of the Cnidium rhizome was identified as butylidenephthalide by spectroscopic analyses. On the basis of 24-h LD50 values, acaricidal activity was more pronounced with butylidenephthalide (5.80 microg cm(-2)) than with benzyl benzoate (9.75 microg cm(-2)) and DEET (16.26 microg cm(-2)). In typical poisoning symptoms, butylidenephthalide resulted in lethargy of treated mites, leading to death without knockdown, whereas benzyl benzoate and DEET caused death associated with uncoordinated behaviour. In a fumigation test with T. putrescentiae adults, butylidenephthalide was much more effective in closed containers than in open ones, indicating that the effects of this compound were largely due to action in the vapour phase. Naturally occurring C. officinale rhizome-derived materials merit further study as potential T. putrescentiae control agents or as lead compounds.


AIM AND BACKGROUND: Mental health and empowerment are two of the women's essential needs. These two related concepts play an important role in women's lives. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate empowerment of women and its relation with mental health problem prevention during difficult situations. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with 33 experts in the fields of psychology, social sciences, women studies, medicine and crisis management specialists using snowball sampling in cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad during the year 1395 (March 2016–March 2017). Samples were selected heterogeneously. The interview transcripts and codes were presented to the participants, and structural analysis was used for data evaluation. RESULTS: The factors related to empowerment of women with consideration to their mental health were determined based on Longew theory and interviews and include: welfare (primary needs (biological and security) and developmental needs (social needs and dignity), access (facilities and values), knowledge (about inequalities and rights), participation (in politics, decision-making and society), and control (implementation and institutionalization of the above-mentioned needs). CONCLUSIONS: The indicators determined in this study show that empowerment has an important role in determining women's real position in society. Since women make up half of the population and affect society as a whole, the advantages of empowerment of women will be felt in the entire society.


ABSTRACT Although China's economy has experienced the dynamics of change in recent decades, gender inequality is still persistent, especially in rural areas. The present study aims to depict family structures in rural areas in Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, and to investigate the status of women in these. Qualitative and semi-quantitative methods were used. Fifty-five married women from three villages of Xining participated in the investigation. A family image test (FIT) and semi-structured interviews were used to gather information on family structures and women's status in the household. Results indicated that typical patriarchal families were prevalent in rural areas of Xining. Women, especially the young married young ones, were marginalized and were at the bottom of the family hierarchy.


The use of facial metrics obtained through remote web-based platforms has shown promising results for at-home assessment of facial function in multiple neurological and mental disorders. However, an important factor influencing the utility of the obtained metrics is the variability within and across participant sessions due to position and movement of the head relative to the camera. In this paper, we investigate two different facial landmark predictors in combination with four different normalization methods with respect to their effect on the utility of facial metrics obtained through a multimodal assessment platform. We analyzed 38 people with Parkinson's disease (pPD) and 22 healthy controls who were asked to complete four interactive sessions, a week apart from each other. We find that metrics extracted through MediaPipe clearly outperform metrics extracted through OpenCV and Dlib in terms of test-retest reliability and patient-control discriminability. Furthermore, our results suggest that using the inter-caruncular distance to normalize all raw visual measurements prior to metric computation is optimal for between-subject analyses, while raw measurements (without normalization) can also be used for within-subject comparisons.


This experimental study addresses the effect of a multimedia learning environment including the number concepts from 1 to 10 has been implemented on 6 year-old (6072 months) children. The sample consisted of 20 students attending to a preschool. A control and experiment group pre-posttest design is administered. As a result, no statistically significant differences were found on posttest. But the average results of the experimental group scores were higher than the same of control group. It has been observed that the preschool students were not successful on the conversation about number concepts in both groups. In addition, gender was not a significant indicator for children's developments of number concept acquisition. The study provides some interpretations about the effect of multimedia on the increasing performances about the experimental group students which is based on the design features of the multimedia. Article history: Received Revised Accepted


The severity of disease following infection with SARS-CoV-2 is determined by viral replication kinetics and host immunity, with early T cell responses and/or suppression of viraemia driving a favourable outcome. Recent studies have uncovered a role for cholesterol metabolism in the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle and in T cell function. Here we show that blockade of the enzyme Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) with Avasimibe inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry and fusion independent of transmembrane protease serine 2 expression in multiple cell types. We also demonstrate a role for ACAT in regulating SARS-CoV-2 RNA replication in primary bronchial epithelial cells. Furthermore, Avasimibe boosts the expansion of functional SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells from the blood of patients sampled in the acute phase of infection. Thus, re-purposing of available ACAT inhibitors provides a compelling therapeutic strategy for the treatment of COVID-19 to achieve both antiviral and immunomodulatory effects.


Production management, including standardization, should be carefully prepared with maximum reliance on the reserves of professional culture of specialists, but the dynamics of running production management is desirable to entrust the technical programs and tools. So everything will be more reliable. But technical management has its weaknesses. Among them: a high level of energy dependence, computer security is not absolute, the requirements for personal abilities of specialists in terms of personal and team responsibility increased, sometimes up to exclusive. Problems in production, as a rule, create people, but it is in the absence of qualified specialists there are the most serious problems. Technical standardized management is not a panacea. The authors formulated the rules of standardization. Basic, in their opinion, their two. First, standardization should be carried out in three directions, linking them into a complex to determine the standard of the product within its functional purpose, taking into account a broad understanding of the safety of use; to regulate the production process and to form a consumer attitude to the product. The consumer is a full participant of standardization. Without proper consumer interest in the product, the product will not be in demand on the scale necessary for its sustainable production. Second, standardization of production is carried out on the basis of conceptual understanding of its Impact Factor: ISRA (India) = 4.971 ISI (Dubai, UAE) = 0.829 GIF (Australia) = 0.564 JIF = 1.500 SIS (USA) = 0.912 РИНЦ (Russia) = 0.126 ESJI (KZ) = 8.997 SJIF (Morocco) = 5.667 ICV (Poland) = 6.630 PIF (India) = 1.940 IBI (India) = 4.260 OAJI (USA) = 0.350 Philadelphia, USA 63 position in the system of specific historical conditions, as it is due to the quality of the stage of economic development. No matter how it is perceived by the consciousness, it is necessary to put up with it. Third, the product must be in demand not exclusively, but on a mass scale, otherwise the production will cease to be mass, will waste its quality. The authors considered that the range of products of mass demand in the USSR was not great, but the quality of consumer goods satisfied and allowed the manufacturer to solve its problems. Departure from the standards of production developed in the USSR allowed to expand significantly the range of goods, at the cost of quality loss. Increasingly, in stores and advertising there are Soviet brands that were not in the USSR them, as ordinary products. Apart from the fact that digital production is built on the basis of physical impact on the object and requires a standardized re-quality. History known as the history of quality management, essentially there is a history of standardization of production, concretization of quality into sample production.


Background: In Medical ethics education, improving medical student's attitudes toward respecting the right of patients is an essential task. The medical students' attitude has been affected by social, educational and personality background factors.Objective: To investigate medical student's attitudes regarding medical ethics courses.Method: The study was conducted in Al-Kindy College of Medicine on academic year (2013 -2014) for the period from January to September. A cross- sectional study design was adopted with a self- administered questionnaire form distributed to medical students in the 5th-6th under graduate grades. The questionnaire consisted of 31 items relevant to student's opinion about attitudes concerning ethics courses.Result: Out of overall 113 students 90(78.1%) responded, the majority 88.9% considered medical ethics teaching for medical students an important issue, and 85.5% had general interest in learning more about medical ethics. However, about 84.4% agreed that medical ethics teaching would influence the attitudes and behaviors of doctors, and improvepatient doctor relationship, but about 65.6% of students were confident with their ability to recognize significant ethical problems in clinical practice. Only 46.7% knew how to proceed when a patient is mentally incompetent.Conclusion: Medical students have positive knowledge and attitude about the medical ethics teaching, but they may not be adequately prepared to meet the challenges of clinical practice. There should be incorporation of creative and integrated ethics curriculum to start in the first medical grade, with emphasis on ethical aspect of daily medical practice.


The volcano trend has been widely utilized to forecast new optimum catalysts in computational chemistry while the Butler-Volmer relationship is the norm to explain current-potential characteristics from cyclic voltammetry in analytical chemistry. Herein, we develop an electrochemical model for hydrogen evolution reaction exchange currents that reconciles device-level chemistry, atomic-level volcano trend, and the Butler-Volmer relation. We show that the model is a function of the easy-to-compute hydrogen adsorption energy invariably obtained from first-principles atomic simulations. In addition, the model reproduces with high fidelity the experimental exchange currents for elemental metal catalysts over 15 orders of magnitude and is consistent with the recently proposed analytical model based on a data-driven approach. Our findings based on fundamental electrochemistry principles are general and can be applied to other reactions including CO2 reduction, metal oxidation, and lithium (de)intercalation reactions.


The chemical characteristics of tracheal mucus obtained directly from the epithelial surface of the trachea indicate that the mucus from each animal source consists of a group of sulphated sialic acid-containing glycoproteins. Fractionation of the native glycoprotein from the cat by gel chromatography in the presence of urea and dithiothreitol suggests a value of about 3 X 10(6) for the molecular weights. The chief monosaccharide constituents are N-acetylneuraminic acid, N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylgalactosamine, fucose and galactose. In the goose tracheal mucin, mannose is present (serum proteins being absent). Doubly labelled cat mucus, obtained by giving Na235SO4 and [3H]glucose simultaneously into the lumen of the trachea, is massively released by parasympathetic agents, e.g. pilocarpine. The resulting mucus has a high content of 35S and is derived largely from submucosal gland cells. Subsequent exposure to an irritant, ammonia, releases a low sulphation fraction, highly labelled with 3H, arising from goblet cells. Evidence supports the view that the overall mucus is composed of mixed secretions, chemically distinct, from different cellular synthesizing sites. Differential nervous stimulation of the various sites may cause far-reaching changes in the chemical and physical properties of the mucus by selective action on the secretion of one or more of the contributing glycoproteins.


Photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy are employed to explore the time evolution of defect formation in chemical vapor deposition diamond films for stages of growth spanning nucleation to continuous film formation. Our research is concentrated on three types of defects which give rise to the 1.68 eV optical band, the sp2 phase which centers at 1500 cm−1, and the broadband luminescence at 565–800 nm. The investigation of these types of defects suggests the following conclusions. Si atoms are most likely responsible for the creation of the 1.68 eV optical centers which takes place at the initial stages of growth. Plasma interactions with the Si substrate contribute to the 1.68 eV defect formation. The broad luminescence and sp2 bonding defects were not present in the isolated nuclei but were significantly present when a continuous film was formed. Two rates of diamond growth were obtained and the changes of the rates were attributed to the lowering degree of freedom available for the growth of the nuclei...


A musical performance is seen as the performer's interpretation of a musical score, illuminating the interaction between the musical structure and implied emotive character [1]. It has been demonstrated that performers' physical gestures correlate with structural and emotional aspects of the piece they are performing and that this information can be decoded by an audience when presented with a visualonly performance [2]. This paper investigates the relationship between direction of physical movement and underlying musical structures. The Vicon motion capture system is used to record 3D movements made by nine university-level pianists performing Chopin preludes op.28 Nos 6 and 7. The examination of several pianists provides insight into the similarity and di erences in gestures between performers and how these relate to structure. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of these performances and consequent analysis of variance reveals a relationship between extrema of the first six significant components and timing of phrasing structure in Prelude 7 where motion troughs consistently lag behind the occurence of phrase boundaries in the audio. This relationship is then examined for Prelude 6 which encompasses longer, expanded phrases and changes in rhythm. These expanded phrases are associated with elongated or split gestures, and variations of the motif with changes in movement.


[1] Lava dome eruptions commonly display fairly regular alternations between periods of high and low or no activity with timescales typically of weeks to years and sudden transitions between effusive and explosive activity. We develop a transient model of the magma flow in a volcanic conduit from an open-system magma chamber with continuous replenishment. The model incorporates gas exsolution, bubble growth, gas escape through the magma, and decompression-induced crystallization and considers variations in magma temperature, water content, conduit diameter, phenocryst size, chamber volume, and magma rheology. Calculations show the presence of periodic variations in discharge rate due to the transition from a stable regime, when discharge rate is low and crystals grow efficiently leading to high magma viscosity, to another stable state, when discharge rate is high and crystallization is negligible. The difference in discharge rates between these regimes can be several orders of magnitude. Periods are similar to the observed timescales and mainly depend on the chamber volume. The system shows strongly nonlinear responses to the variation of governing parameters. If magma has a Bingham rheology pauses in discharge rate occur between peaks of discharge and the peaks are much higher than for the case of Newtonian rheology. Large changes in discharge rate and eruptive behavior can occur as the consequence of small changes in magma temperature, water content, phenocryst size distribution, or conduit diameter. The system can fluctuate between low and high discharge rates with transitions to explosive activity.


Sigmund Freud wrote that humor is the triumph of the Ego that pretends to be invulnerable while revealing what is painful. This capacity for playing with anxieties requires an Ego that is sufficiently well organized, and has the ability to recognize its own feelings. In young children who have suffered from early trauma, the building of the Ego, in the intersubjective clinical experience, permits the capacity for playing with painful feelings; the sense of humor is very strong in those children when they share their despair with the therapist. "Humor is the courtesy of despair" ("l'humour est la politesse du désespoir"), wrote Alphonse Allais, a French writer who knew very well how to make the reader laugh at sad stories. The creative use of humor helps children become social, cope with stress and anxiety, express themselves artistically, and think critically.


The crystallinity, surface morphology and topography of the femtosecond pulsed laser deposited Nd:YAG film under in-situ and post deposition heat treatment were examined. Heat treatment improved the crystallinity of the film with the increase in the reflecting planes shown in X-ray diffraction data. Scanning electron micrograph of the heat treated film surface indicates a small degree of melting. Surface topography of the as-deposited Nd:YAG film under AFM shows size variation to within few tens of nanometers indicating the generation of nanoparticles. Temperature dependence of the cross section area, height and surface roughness of the film was determined and explained by the volume free energy of the film. Our results demonstrate the novel use of femtosecond laser to ablate and deposit laser crystal as well as heat treatment to engineer the structural properties of the film. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2017.25]


This study examined ease of loading lambs onto vehicles at livestock markets, and whether a handheld rattle (hells bells) improved the ease of loading. Groups of lambs that were led by Texels and Texel crosses were more difficult to load because they balked within the loading pen, often at the tailboard of the vehicle. Applying additional pressure with a hells bells did not overcome this problem. Other ways of encouraging Texels onto vehicles at markets need to be devloped.