Allowable CO2 emissions are the emissions of CO2 allowed in order to follow a prescribed atmospheric CO2 concentration pathway. Allowable emissions depend on the uptake rates by the land and ocean and carbon‐climate interaction. Few Earth System Models used for estimating allowable emissions include nitrogen limitation on land, and none include phosphorus. We provide the first estimate of how nitrogen and phosphorus limitations alter the allowable emissions between 2006 and 2100 for two representative concentration pathways (RCPs). We show that nutrient limitations on land have little influence on ocean carbon uptake but reduce the land carbon uptake and allowable emissions by 69 Pg C (21%) for RCP2.6 and by 250 Pg C (13%) for RCP8.5 by 2100, as compared with the emissions estimated using integrated assessment models. We therefore demonstrate the importance of nutrient limitations in estimating future CO2 emissions to achieve the climate change limits implied by RCPs.


Making nacre shine in the lab Many of the materials that animals use to make shells and skeletons are built with brittle or soft molecules. They owe their amazing mechanical properties to their layered construction, which is a challenge for synthetic fabrication. Pearly nacre, for example, has proved challenging to make owing to its complex structure of aragonite crystals in an organic matrix. Using an assembly-and-mineralization approach, Mao et al. have managed to fabricate nacre in the laboratory (see the Perspective by Barthelat). First, a layered, three-dimensional chitosan matrix is made, within which aragonite nanocrystals are precipitated from a solution containing calcium bicarbonate. Science, this issue p. 107; see also p. 32 A consecutive assembly-and-mineralization process leads to synthetic nacre, which strongly resembles natural nacre. [Also see Perspective by Barthelat] Although biomimetic designs are expected to play a key role in exploring future structural materials, facile fabrication of bulk biomimetic materials under ambient conditions remains a major challenge. Here, we describe a mesoscale "assembly-and-mineralization" approach inspired by the natural process in mollusks to fabricate bulk synthetic nacre that highly resembles both the chemical composition and the hierarchical structure of natural nacre. The millimeter-thick synthetic nacre consists of alternating organic layers and aragonite platelet layers (91 weight percent) and exhibits good ultimate strength and fracture toughness. This predesigned matrix-directed mineralization method represents a rational strategy for the preparation of robust composite materials with hierarchically ordered structures, where various constituents are adaptable, including brittle and heat-labile materials.


Abstract : This document is the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for a radon screening of existing buildings at the Umatilla Depot Activity (UMDA), Hermiston, Oregon. The U.S. Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency. (USATHAMA) has contracted with Dames & Moore--under Contract No. DAAA15-88-D-0008, Delivery Order No. 3--to conduct this survey in support of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Program at UMDA. The Army wants to be aware of any potential or existing radon problems in buildings at UMDA that would be left in place at the time of base closure. It is noted that currently unoccupied or minimally occupied buildings may be heavily occupied under possible future use scenarios (such as use of the facility as an industrial park). The objective of the radon survey will be accomplished by conducting the following tasks. Note that a total of no more than 400 radon samples (including blank samples at a rate of 10 percent) is authorized. 1. Conduct of an initial building survey to collect information on and evaluate building characteristics for the determination of optimal locations for radon collector placement in each of the approximately 238 existing buildings at the installation. (Note that the 1,001 storage igloos are not included in this survey.) 2. Alpha track radon detector placement and retrieval and conduct of laboratory analyses for radon. 3. Conduct of a supplementary building survey--limited to buildings in which exceedance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (USEPA) 4-picocurie/liter (pCi/l) guideline for radon were noted-- which includes additional visual assessment and measurements, as appropriate, to provide information for the determination of additional surveys or remedial measures.


Infrared refractive index is an indispensable parameter for various fields including infrared photonics. To date, critical-angle refractometers, V-block refractometers, and spectroscopic ellipsometry have been commonly used to measure the refractive index. Although every method has an accuracy of four decimal places for the refractive index, a measurable wavelength region is limited up to about 2 µm. In this study, we demonstrated a metamaterial infrared refractometer for determining broadband complex refractive index. Using the device, a broadband (40-120 THz; wavelength 2.5-7.5 µm) and high-precision(< 5 ×10-3) complex refractive index of polymethyl methacrylate was measured for the first time.


Adoption of lightweight composites for structural components is transforming the transportation industry in pursuit of improved performance and better fuel economy. In Liquid Composite Molding (LCM), dry fabric deformation in the draping process gains lots of attention as it affects the fiber orientation, leading to variations in fabric permeability and the resulting final quality of the product due to the change in infusion and curing processes. The lack of robust modeling tools makes the composite manufacturers heavily reliant on trial-and-error approaches to minimize part variability, resulting in high manufacturing costs and limiting innovations for new process and part designs. The current study develops a modeling approach to predict the deformation for dry fabric. In the model, fabric is made of interlacing virtual fiber tows which are represented by Timoshenko beams joint by translational and rotational springs. Dashpots at intersections are used to capture energy dissipation. The proposed model features the simplicity and efficiency in the prediction of shear angle when fabric is subject to 3-dimensional loading. Another highlight of this study is the consideration of characterized relaxation behavior of fabric subject to in-plane shear loading. Cantilever beam bending tests and picture frame tests were carried out to characterize material properties, geometric characteristics, spring stiffness, and damping coefficients. The proposed model was applied to a hemisphere draping model implemented in Abaqus to demonstrate the predictive capability.


In order to analyze a trained model performance and identify its weak spots, one has to set aside a portion of the data for testing. The test set has to be large enough to detect statistically significant biases with respect to all the relevant sub-groups in the target population. This requirement may be difficult to satisfy, especially in data-hungry applications. We propose to overcome this difficulty by generating synthetic test set. We use the face landmarks detection task to validate our proposal by showing that all the biases observed on real datasets are also seen on a carefully designed synthetic dataset. This shows that synthetic test sets can efficiently detect a model's weak spots and overcome limitations of real test set in terms of quantity and/or diversity.


Concentrations of 3 alpha-androstanediol (A) and 3 alpha-androstanediol glucuronide (AG) were measured with a radioimmunoassay in pregnancy plasma samples collected from the mother in the first trimester (first, n = 18) and second trimester (second, n = 20) and at term (n = 14). At term, along with the maternal samples, matching cord plasma samples were also obtained (n = 14). Throughout pregnancy the levels of A and AG were significantly higher than in normally menstruating women. Although the total concentration of A and AG did not change significantly throughout pregnancy, the levels of A in the second and at term were significantly higher than in the first. In contrast, AG concentrations in the second were significantly lower than in the first and at term. As compared to the maternal concentrations at term, the cord levels of AG and A plus AG were not significantly different. However, the levels of A in the cord were significantly lower than those in the maternal circulation at term. Significant correlations were observed between the term maternal and cord levels of AG and A plus AG. No sex-related differences in the plasma levels of A and AG were noted. The results show that levels of A and AG increase significantly in the first trimester and remain elevated throughout pregnancy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Gold Jewelry is a type of gold is most frequently encountered in everyday life. For every purchase of Gold Jewelry, in addition to the gold price is calculated based on weight and rust, also be charged for the processing of gold into jewelry. When reselling gold, stores usually do not want to pay the cost of the jewelry making. Many of the people who still believe that investing in gold will provide benefits. Gold Jewelry is a basic form of gold investment that has been made by the people of Indonesia since the first This research designed to find out the woman perception of Gold Jewelry as investment in Manado. Theory related research are consumer perception and investment. The data was collected from 10 informants that every informants have different background and have different perception. This research is qualitative research that uses interview gather data. Result and conclusion is there are several categorization woman opinion that makes the customers choose to make Gold Jewelry as their investment such as Value, Lifestyle, and Decision Making. Therefore, the woman looking for more information about the right way to invest in gold. The Gold Jewelry has many disadvantages if made as an investment. So that with have sufficient knowledge the woman can change their investment from Gold Jewelry to gold bar or gold coin and in the end the women can get more profit. Keyword: woman perception, investment, gold jewelry


Ultrasound elastography may be the link bridging the gap between suspicion and definitive proof, a noninvasive means to distinguish between benign and malignant tissue. The technology for doing so appeared some years ago at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America as an experimental curiosity. It's been evolving since then until it appears now to have reached a clinical tipping point.


Unlike the conventional Knowledge Distillation (KD), Self-KD allows a network to learn knowledge from itself without any guidance from extra networks. This paper proposes to perform Self-KD from image Mixture (MixSKD), which integrates these two techniques into a unified framework. MixSKD mutually distills feature maps and probability distributions between the random pair of original images and their mixup images in a meaningful way. Therefore, it guides the network to learn cross-image knowledge by modelling supervisory signals from mixup images. Moreover, we construct a self-teacher network by aggregating multi-stage feature maps for providing soft labels to supervise the backbone classifier, further improving the efficacy of self-boosting. Experiments on image classification and transfer learning to object detection and semantic segmentation demonstrate that MixSKD outperforms other state-of-the-art Self-KD and data augmentation methods. The code is available at https://github.com/winycg/Self-KD-Lib.


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) is of worldwide concern in veterinary medicine. The identification of resistant strains is necessary for proper treatment and the prevention of its propagation among animals. This study aimed to identify S. pseudintermedius isolated from canine pyoderma and evaluate their resistance profiles. Lesions from 25 dogs with pyoderma were sampled. Bacterial isolates were subjected to phenotypic and genotypic analysis for identification of the causative agent. S. pseudintermedius isolates were subjected to SmaI macrorestriction analysis and PFGE for genetic grouping, and PCR to identify the presence of the mecA gene. Their resistance profiles against 12 antimicrobials were also assessed. According to the microbiological analysis, 70 of the 75 isolates obtained were S. pseudintermedius. The isolates presented PFGE patterns, with similarity varying between 84.6 and 100%, and were grouped into 19 clusters. Despite a high frequency of mecA-positive isolates (66 out 70), only 12 presented resistances to oxacillin. Multi-resistance was identified in 29 isolates. The high frequency of MRSP isolated in this study highlights the relevance of identifying resistant strains to lead proper clinical treatment.


We investigate the cosmological signatures of instantons mediating tunneling between de Sitter minima. For generic potentials the Coleman-de Luccia instanton does not necessarily exist; when it does not, the instanton which contributes to the decay rate is the trivial constant solution, known as the Hawking-Moss instanton. With the aid of a toy model we interpret this solution and describe the resulting cosmology. In neither the Coleman-de Luccia nor Hawking-Moss case can the resulting cosmology be closed. An observation of significant positive curvature would therefore rule out the possibility that our universe arose from any transition from a neighboring minimum in the string-theory landscape.


The problem of rational utilization of natural and associated petroleum gases and the cessation of their flaring is one of the acute and unresolved environmental problems. The aim of this work is to develop effective thermally stable catalysts of a new generation for the processes of oxidative conversion of light alkanes of natural and associated gas into synthesis gas. The results of partial oxidation of the methane of natural gas on the catalysts prepared by solution combustion synthesis are presented. Investigation of the activity of catalysts produced from initial mixture of Co(NO3)2 Al(NO3)3 Mg(NO3)2 Mn(NO3)2 + urea of different composition was carried out for the production of synthesis-gas. It was found that the optimal conditions for producing of synthesis-gas are: CH4 conversion 98%, yield of target products: Н2 98 99% and СО 40 43%, Т = 900оС, space velocity 2500 h-1. The catalysts were studied by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, specific surface area, pore volume and average pore diameter. The presence in the catalysts of simple and mixed oxides, metal aluminates and spineltype structures, the presence of which contributes to the active work of catalysts for oxidative conversion of CH4, has been established.


The co-occurrence of binge drinking and unplanned sexual behaviour (USB) is a physiological and social concern; however, potential underlying mechanisms in this relationship remain largely unexplored. The current study compared low and high-binge drinkers on impulsivity variants and USB. Participants were 122 university students (71 females). Questionnaires measured binge drinking, USB, reward sensitivity, and trait impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scales). Cognitive-behavioural aspects of impulsivity were assessed using a Stop Signal Task (response inhibition) and an Information Sampling Task (IST: reflection-impulsivity). ANOVAs revealed that high-binge drinkers scored more impulsively than low-bingers on self-report impulsivity, and the decreasing win condition of the IST. A positive relationship was found between USB and self-report, but not cognitive-behavioural, impulsivity. In regression analysis, both binge drinking and trait impulsivity were found to have a unique effect on the proclivity to engage in USB. Findings provide an insight into demarcating impulsivity's relationship with both binge drinking and USB.


This paper reviews the learning theory paradigm that I applied in higher education's music teaching, explains my teaching practices and approach in details, analyses and clarifies the usage extent of the related learning theories (including theories that have been referenced and not been referenced) in my current teaching. In order to achieve a breakthrough on the basis of my teaching, this paper investigates the application of multiple intelligences in teaching with students as a target by means of case study. This case study which extends a number of weeks is very effective. The analysis of the findings suggests that multiple Intelligence tests, to some degree, let students know themselves better, push them to self-reflect and be more aware of their advantages and disadvantages, thus enabling them to achieve further self-improvement. As a piano teacher, I feel that the application of multiple intelligences can make our teaching become more individualized, and finally create a differentiated classroom according to each student's advantages. This paper argues that learning theory paradigms involving teachers in the research and analysis of contemporary teaching methods are effective ways of fostering and encouraging students in music learning in higher education.


Background. β-Thalassemia is a common inherited hemolytic disorder in Palestine. Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is the principal treatment but it may cause RBC alloimmunization. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and characteristics of RBC alloimmunization among thalassemic patients in northern governorates of Palestine. Methods. A prospective multicenter observational study was conducted in the thalassemia transfusion centers in the northern governorates of Palestine. The study included 215 thalassemia patients who received regular blood transfusions. Clinical and transfusion records of patients were examined. Antibody screening and identification was conducted using the microcolum gel technique. Results. Two hundred fifteen patients were included in the study. More than half (52.1%) of the patients were males. The median age of patients was 18 years (range: 12–24 years). The most frequent blood group was A (40.5%). Alloantibodies were detected in 12.6% of patients. Anti-D (33.3%), anti-K (25.9%) and anti-E (14.8%) were the most commonly isolated antibodies. There was no association between age, sex, starting age of transfusion, number of transfused units, history of splenectomy and alloimmunization. Conclusions. Anti-Rh and anti-K antibodies were common among this cohort of patients. Age, sex, starting age of transfusion, number of transfused units, and history of splenectomy could not predict the occurrence of alloimmunization.


The research aimed to describe the forms of linguistic creativity of BIPA students at the morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels. The research method used was descriptive qualitative with content analysis techniques. The research data were 78 sentences written by BIPA students at Bina Nusantara University academic year 2020/2021. The results show that BIPA students' sentences have linguistic creativity in the form of the morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels sentences. At the morphological level, the process of linguistic creativity in words is carried out by (1) inserting foreign terms into sentences, (2) using non-standard words, and (3) abbreviating words. While in phrases, linguistic creativity is done by (1) reversing the structure of the phrase, (2) forming nominal phrases with less common word pairs, and (3) forming nominal phrases by incorporating elements of student culture. At the syntactic level, linguistic creativity is carried out in the form of compiling compound sentences with the expansion of descriptions, expansion of objects, expansion of subjects, and expansion of predicates. At the semantic level, linguistic creativity is manifested in the form of the figure of speech: personification, simile, hyperbole, repetition, and metaphor.


The design and construction of polymer structures play important roles in the field of polymer science. In addition, polymers can provide good ideas and opportunities for the development of multifunctional materials. Cyclodextrins (CDs), connected by α-1.4-glycosidic bonds, possess hydrophobic cavities and hydrophilic surfaces. Due to the special structure of CDs, it is possible to generate polymers with different structures and functions via chemical reactions. This review describes the classification of CD polymers as well as summarizes the applications of these polymers in environmental, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Finally, the challenges that the CD polymers may face in the future have been proposed.


The paper examined state terrorism and the security challenges taking cognizance of the United States in Afghanistan. The study was guided by the power theory as propounded by James Dougherty and Robert Pfaltzgraff . The study looked at conceptual clarification like the concept of state terrorism. The study adopted the ex post facto research design where by data was gathered through mainly secondary source. The paper found out that the United States declaring war against terrorism has led to removing the Taliban from power but has been significantly less successful at achieving the primary policy goal of ensuring that Al-Qaeda can no longer operate in Afghanistan and the actions taken by the United States has led to death and injury of the civilians in Afghanistan and it has been seen as an act of terror carried out by the United States. Based on the findings the paper recommended among others that United States should expand the campaign against terrorism globally, any use of force should be restricted to very precise targets and United States should make public critical information concerning their airstrike policies and mechanisms in place to ensure that targeting complies with international law to avoid the killing and injury of civilians.


The study aims to put forward that full day school which was delivered in Marsudirini Elementary School in Bogor is effective for students' character building. The study focused on the implementation of full day school system. The qualitative-based research method applied in the study is characteristic evaluation involving non-participant observation, interview, and documentation analysis. The result of this study concludes that the full day school system is significantly effective in education system for elementary students' character building. The full day school system embraced the entire relevant processes based on the character building standard. The synergy of comprehensive components in instructional process at full day school has influenced the building of the students' character effectively and efficiently. The relationship emerged between instructional development process in full day school system and the character building of the students. By developing instructional process through systemic and systematic process in full day school system, the support of stakeholders (leaders, human resources, students, parents' role) and other components (learning resources, facilities, budget) provides a potent and expeditious contribution for character building among the students eventually.


Background: Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease as a chronic degenerative disease is the most common type of organ damage caused by atherosclerosis. Coronary artery bypass grafting is an internationally accepted treatment for coronary atherosclerotic heart disease. However, new-onset atrial fibrillation is a common complication after grafting, and its initiation and maintenance might be associated with levels of the peptide apelin.
 Methods/Design: A prospective cohort study and retrospective case-control clinical trial will be performed at the Department of Cardiac Surgery, General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, China. We will recruit 120 patients without a history of atrial fibrillation and scheduled to undergo coronary artery bypass grafting. (1) Cohort study: patients will be assigned to two groups according to preoperative plasma apelin levels: high apelin (> 250 pg/mL) and low apelin (≤ 250 pg/mL). Seven days after surgery, the incidence of new-onset atrial fibrillation will be compared between the two groups. (2) Case-control study: those patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation will comprise the atrial fibrillation group, and those without will form the control group. MRI findings, and levels of plasma apelin, brain natriuretic peptide, and hypersensitive C-reactive protein, will be compared between the two groups 7 days postoperatively.
 Discussion: This trial is designed to investigate whether apelin can be used as an indicator to predict postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, and to provide an objective basis for the clinical selection of a preventive intervention program for atrial fibrillation. Trial registration: This trial was registered at ClinicalTrial.gov (NCT02807532).
 Ethics: The study protocol has acquired written approval from the Chinese Ethics Committee of Registering Clinical Trials (approval No. ChiECRCT-20150011), and will be performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki formulated by the World Medical Association.
 Informed consent: Written informed consent will be obtained from each subject.


The Resolution of many unpaid debts needs a legal comprehensif approach. It means that although the basic needislegal aspect, however, its hould bebasedonthelegal rule. How the ideal of legal accessories can playln' the resolution of unpaid debts, such consistenly implements the rule as in the banking law, not bythe other rule norbyillegalways. The Illegal ways can bring to the unjustice oflaw


With respect to machine operation tasks, the experiences from different skill level operators, especially novices, can provide worthy understanding about the manner in which they perceive the operational environment and formulate knowledge to deal with various operation situations. In this study, we describe the operator's behaviors by utilizing the relations among their head, hand, and operation location (hotspot) during the operation. A total of 40 experiences associated with a sewing machine operation task performed by amateur operators was recorded via a head-mounted RGB-D camera. We examined important features of operational behaviors in different skill level operators and confirmed their correlation to the difficulties of the operation steps. The result shows that the pure-gazing behavior is significantly reduced when the operator's skill improved. Moreover, the hand-approaching duration and the frequency of attention movement before operation are strongly correlated to the operational difficulty in such machine operating environments.


1. In the introductory part of this article the theoretical and practical significance of ergotoxine and ergotamine is explained; it is shown that through the chemical and pharmacological study of ergotamine, not only the question of the practical use of ergot alkaloids is cleared up, but that the field of therapeutic indications has been extended through the application of the sympathetic-inhibiting action. 2. In the experimental part it is shown that ergotamine counteracts adrenalin, not only in organs stimulated by the sympathetic, but also in those inhibited by the latter. 3. Proof of this is obtained very easily in vitro on the small and large intestine of the guinea pig and of the rabbit with the same concentrations which influence the isolated uterus of the rabbit. The corresponding proportions of adrenalin and ergotamine are 1:2, that is, a dose of ergotamine twice as large as that of adrenalin inhibits the latter. 4. On the small intestine in situ in the dog and the rabbit the inhibiting action of adrenalin is partly or completely counteracted by the minimum amounts of ergotamine necessary to produce vasomotor inhibition or reversal. In many of our experiments a stronger action is noted on the gut than on the vascular system. 5. Other proportions obtain with the isolated virgin or nongravid uterus of the rat, guinea pig, and cat. In the cat it is possible to inhibit the effect of adrenalin with doses of ergotamine 10 to 40 times greater than those of adrenalin; but this does not happen constantly. In the guinea pig, and especially in the rat the required amount of ergotamine is still higher; there is practically no inhibition. 6. It is known that the gravid or parturient uterus of those animal species is not relaxed, but contracted, by adrenalin. This augmentor effect of adrenalin is very distinctly inhibited by ergotamine. 7. To demonstrate whether ergotamine can paralyze the inhibitory sympathetic fibers the positive findings on the gut are much more important than the negative ones on the virgin and nongravid uterus of certain animal species. The effect of adrenalin on the gut is physiologically constant, while that on the virgin or on the non-gravid uterus of certain animal species is only of biological interest and becomes reversed in the actively functioning organ during pregnancy and puerperium. 8. These experimental facts strengthen the view previously expressed by us that ergotamine paralyzes not only the augmentor functions of adrenalin on the sympathetic, but also the inhibitory functions. In our opinion, the exclusive action on the augmentor nerve fibers, as first proclaimed by Dale and recently restated by Mendez for ergotamine, is not borne out by facts. 9. The inhibitory influence of ergotamine affects both the augmentor and inhibitor endings, even if the different physiological mechanisms do not respond equally quantitatively, and if not inconsiderable individual variations exist. Similar conditions are known to exist also in regard to the action of atropine on the parasympathetic.


A retrospective analysis of archived tissue blocks has revealed that mycobacteriosis was apparent in Chesapeake Bay striped bass as early as 1984. Of 37 cases available from the years 1975 to 1985, 2 fish were found positive based on histopathology and genus-specific PCR. Multi-gene sequencing places the bacteria from the 2 positive cases (1984 and 1985) within the Mycobacterium tuberculosis clade with closest resemblance to the recently described fish pathogen M. pseudoshottsii. Our data confirms that mycobacteriosis is not a new disease of Chesapeake Bay striped bass and underscores the value of archived tissues in epidemiological examinations.


Elevated histamine concentrations of pathophysiological significance could be determined in plasma of dogs suffering from acute pancreatitis according to Pfeffer. This result was also obtained in dogs treated with aminoguanidine, a very effective diamine oxidase blocker, in addition to the duodenal blind loop preparation. Elevated histamine concentrations were found in nine out of ten dogs.


This research aims to develop a science-biology learning instrument that is practical and effective. The stage of development using procedural model consisting of: a) the identification of problem, b) describes the objectives, and c) establishes the development model. The stage of products testing included: a) test, b) to evaluate, and c) communicate the results. The subjects were students of SMPN 3 and 5, Loban River, Tanah Bumbu regency. Individual testing was done in SMPN3. Small group and field test was conducted in SMPN 5. The data of practicality of learning instruments includes: a) the usage of lesson plan (RPP), and b) the response of students to learning process. The data of effectiveness of learning instruments includes: a) the cognitive learning outcomes, b) the assessment results of critical thinking skills, c) the assessment results of behavioral characteristics, d) the assessment results of social skills, and e) the effectiveness of students in learning process. Data were collected through tests and observation and analyzed descriptively. The results of research in the development stage, including: a) problem identification such as topic selection of learning and the determination of learning environment, b) learning objectives based on the ABCD rule and learning outcomes, such as critical thinking skills, c) development model. The research results in the testing product stage demonstrated the practicality of the learning instrument has been reached. It is based on: a) the usage of RPP which were already good, and b) most students have responded positively to the learning process. The effectiveness of learning intrument has also been fulfilled. It is based on: a) cognitive learning outcomes that have been completed, b) the assessment results of critical thinking skills, behavioral characteristics, and social skills, that have achieved good category, e) the student's liveliness in learning process which were already visible. Keywords:  Effectiveness, learning instruments , mangrove forests, practicality, science-biology


As the deep neural networks are being applied to complex tasks, the size of the networks and architecture increases and their topology becomes more complicated too. At the same time, training becomes slow and at some instances inefficient. This motivated the introduction of various normalization techniques such as Batch Normalization and Layer Normalization. The aforementioned normalization methods use arithmetic operations to compute an approximation statistics (mainly the first and second moments) of the layer's data and use it to normalize it. The aforementioned methods use plain Monte Carlo method to approximate the statistics and such method fails when approximating the statistics whose distribution is complex. Here, we propose an approach that uses weighted sum, implemented using depth-wise convolutional neural networks, to not only approximate the statistics, but to learn the coefficients of the sum.


We present a new approach to defining implicit WENO (iWENO) schemes for systems of hyperbolic conservation laws. The approach leads to schemes that are simple to implement, high order accurate, maintain local mass conservation, apply to general computational meshes, and appear to be fairly robust. We present third and fifth order finite volume schemes in one and two space dimensions. We show that these iWENO schemes are unconditionally stable in the sense of von Neumann stability analysis, assuming the solution is smooth. The solution is approximated efficiently by two or three degrees of freedom per computational mesh element, independent of the spatial dimension. In space, the degrees of freedom are reconstructed implicitly to give high order approximation, while avoiding shocks and steep fronts due to the WENO framework. In time, high order quadrature is employed to produce a one step scheme. The approach is quite general, and we apply it to advection-diffusion-reaction equations with simple diffusion and reaction terms. Numerical results on nonuniform meshes in one and two space dimensions are presented. These explore the properties of the new schemes for solving hyperbolic conservation laws, advection-diffusion equations, advection-reaction equations, and the Euler system.


A majority of products for manufacturing or consumers have multiple characteristics that must meet the requirements of the customer. For example, a steel beam any have dimensional tolerances on its length, width, or height and functional tolerances on its strength. The characteristics are influenced by different processes that create the product. For an individual characteristic, process capability measures exist that convey the degree to which the characteristic meets the specification requirements. Such measures may indicate the proportion of nonconforming product related to the particular characteristic, under some distributional assumptions of the characteristic. For products with multiple characteristics, the unit costs of rectification may be different, making the satisfaction of some characteristics meeting customer requirements more important than others. In this paper, an aggregate process capability performance measure is developed that considers the relative importance of the characteristic based on unit costs of nonconformance. Based on the aggregate measure, appropriate process capability measures for the individual measures are also derived. Bounds on the aggregate capability measures are also established.


COVID-19 is a pandemic that has affected health care personnel worldwide. Dentists have a high risk of contracting COVID-19 given the face-to-face contact required in daily interactions with their patients. This study aimed to determine the stressors experienced by academic dentists due to the COVID-19 situation in Trinidad and Jamaica. All academic staff at the University of the West Indies (UWI) dental schools (St. Augustine and Mona campuses) were invited to complete a self-reported questionnaire, which was conducted for one month from May to June 2020. Thirty-two dental academics responded and the response rate was 61.54%. More than a third (34.4%) were in the 25–35 age group, 71.9% were females. The most common speciality (20.7%) was restorative dentistry. Just over one-third (38.7%) had been in academia for 5–10 years. Most (40.6%) were apprehensive about infecting their family. When the locus of control was determined, just over half (53.1%) felt they were in control of protecting themselves while 34.4% felt that external factors controlled their lives. The findings suggest that academic staff at UWI dental schools (Trinidad and Jamaica) were stressed by the COVID-19 situation. The vast majority were worried about infecting their families.


This study attempts to apply the ICTRT model proposed by Li and Wang (2010) to American context and assess the effectiveness of American Destination Marketing Organizations' (DMOs') websites from functional perspective, i.e., information, communication, transaction, relationship and technical merit. The objectives of the research are achieved by content analysis of all fifty official state tourism websites regarding the five functions by expert valuators. The results manifested State Tourism Offices' (STOs') inability to effectively adopt and manage information technology to support more sophisticated operations. Most STOs focused mainly on the information dimension. Applications at both the transaction and relationship dimensions are not being widely deployed. Suggestions and implications are provided and discussed.


Using antisera to major excreted protein (MEP) of Kirsten sarcoma virus transformed NIH 3T3 (KNIH) cells, we have identified phosphoproteins from the media of feline sarcoma virus (FeSV) transformed mink cells. These secretory phosphoproteins from FeSV-transformed mink cells are of 35 kDa M.W. and they do not have autophosphorylation activity. A comparative analysis of MEP from the media of transformed mouse and mink cells was performed on the basis of proteolytic cleavage products and acid hydrolyzed products of the phosphoproteins. While a marked difference was observed in the peptide map, a common 32P-linked molecule was observed following acid hydrolysis of both species of phosphoproteins.


The clay mineral attapulgite derives its non-swelling needle-like morphology from its three-dimensional crystal structure. The shape and size of the needles result in unique colloidal properties, especially resistance to high concentrations of electrolytes, and give high surface area, high porosity particles when thermally activated. Examples of industrial applications of attapulgite are reviewed with emphasis on how these characteristic properties function in the various end-uses.


Maintaining connectivity of sage-grouse habitat is critical to managing sage-grouse populations in the presence of widespread human disturbance. We used an empirical approach to model connectivity of a landscape based on resource selection of free-ranging GPS-collared greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in a natural gas field in central Wyoming. We analyzed resource selection during three movement states (encamped, traveling, and relocating) and incorporated turning angle to identify features that functioned as barriers or conduits to movement. To illustrate application of the results we used the resource selection model to create spatially-explicit predictive maps identifying areas that generally provided large amounts of high quality 'movement habitat.' We found that both males and females selected for vegetation variables at multiple spatial scales. When traveling or relocating, males and females tended to avoid natural gas and oil wells and associated infrastructure and avoided areas with high topographic roughness within 800m. High topographic roughness was a barrier for traveling males. Relocating females were more likely to travel in a straight direction through areas of high road density and steep slopes. The predictive maps validated well using independent GPS location data. These results provide insight into habitat preferences of sage-grouse and can be used for both general and site-specific guidance on identifying habitats preferred or avoided during moderate and long distance movements of sage-grouse. When combined with critical seasonal use maps, e.g., nesting/brooding habitat and winter range, land managers could delineate areas of high value for connectivity of critical seasonal use areas.


Fever without localizing features, hereafter referred to as fever or febrile illness, is among the most common reasons for persons in low-resource areas to seek health care [1,2]. The nonspecific clinical presentation of many infections that cause fever makes it difficult to distinguish one from another based on clinical history and physical examination alone. Beyond malaria diagnostics, laboratory assays for many febrile diseases are often complex, costly, and may have limitations of sensitivity and specificity. Consequently, they are not widely available in lowresource areas where epidemiologic information on the etiology of febrile illness is sparse. Undifferentiated fever is the main clinical feature of many diseases of global importance, including malaria, invasive bacterial diseases, several bacterial zoonoses, and many viral infections [3]. The World Health Organization (WHO) Foodborne Diseases Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG) is tasked with estimating burden of disease for conditions transmitted by food [4]. The vast majority of enteric conditions transmitted by food are associated with diarrhea, a syndromic grouping or "envelope" that can in turn be broken down by diarrhea-associated pathogen. However, a number of foodborne diseases are associated with fever rather than diarrhea, and the absence of a febrile illness "envelope" requires novel approaches to burden of disease estimation. Examples of such foodborne diseases presenting predominantly as febrile illnesses include typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella disease, brucellosis, and listeriosis. It is likely that food safety interventions could have a substantial impact on the global burden of febrile illness [5]. Here, we describe some of the challenges and potential solutions to estimating burden of febrile conditions, including those transmitted by contaminated food.


Recently, we often listen trafficking term through television, talking, mass media (newspaper, magazine, journal) or electronic media (television, internet). The trafficking meaning, we just have assumption that it may have relevance with criminal action. Trafficking or people merchants according to Law Number 21 year 2007 are "recruitment action, transportation, collecting, sending, moving, or receiving of people with cruel treat, using hardness, abduction, locking, falsification, deception, authority misapplication or strategies position, snate loan or give salary or advantage, thus gain approval from someone who hold control to others, both doing in country or broad, which have goal to exploitation or make someone exploited.
Based on the empiric data, women or child are group who have opportunity to be victim in this action. The victim who merchant did not only prostitution goal or sexual exploitation others. But it cover other exploitation form, such as force majeure or compulsion serving or similar practice such as bondage, compulsion work or compulsion serving is work condition which emerge by manner, planning or pattern which be purposed in order some sure that if they did not do other job, so someone who be load will be suffer physically our psychologically.
The trafficking action have been extended in criminal link form both organized or unorganized. This criminal involved many people, it is not just someone but corporation in government who do mistake for their authority. This network have operation range for inter country.
The operation modes which be carried out by trafficking man (trafficker) be able to varied with goal to persuade and influence victim in order follow them, such coming to victim's house by many reason such as, they want to look for employee for restaurant, sales clerk, servant, karaoke


We discuss two different physical processes that create localized highβ plasma regions. One is nonlinear wave-steepening, generating magnetic decreases (MDs) by a ponderomotive force. The other is the mirror instability generating alternating high and low β plasma regions. It is demonstrated that MDs and mirror modes are observationally quite different structures. MDs spatially occur in interplanetary space and mirror modes primarily in planetary magnetosheaths. MDs are characterized by: 1) variable (exponentially decreasing number with increasing) angular changes, 2) variable (exponentially decreasing) thicknesses, and 3) no characteristic inter-event spacings. In sharp contrast, mirror modes are characterized by: 1) little or no angular changes across the structures, 2) a characteristic scale size, and 3) are quasiperiodic in nature. Arguments are presented for the recently observed magnetic dips in the heliosheath being mirror mode structures. The sources of free energy for instability are discussed. Both structures are important for energetic particle transport in astrophysical and heliospheric plasmas.


The principal values of the g-tensor and the hyperfine structure (due to interactions with the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments of the stable copper isotopes) have been determined in several copper Tutton salts diluted with the isomorphous zinc salts. At high dilution the residual line width is mainly due to interaction with the nuclear magnetic moments of the protons in the water of crystallization, and increased resolution is obtained by replacing these by deuterons. Crystals of the diluted copper potassium salt have been grown from heavy water, and a detailed study made of the electric quadrupole interaction.


: A series of orthogonal array experiments were conducted using carbon source, ammonia nitrogen and total phosphorus (TP) as major influencing factors to investigate the effects of nutrients on biofouling formation and preponderant bacteria diversity in the recirculating cooling water system. Carbon source was demonstrated to be the most significant determinant affecting the biofouling formation. A minimum biofouling outcome was obtained when BOD 5 , NH 4+ -N and TP were 25, 10, and 1 mg/L, respectively. Then the preponderant bacteria strains in biofouling mass under two typical culture conditions (negative and favorable) were identified applying both traditional biochemical methods and further molecular biology technology with phylogenetic affiliation analysis, which indicated that Enterobacteriaceae Enterobacter , Micrococcaceae Staphylococcus , Bacillaceae Bacillus , Enterobacteriaceae Proteu s, Neisseriaceae Neisseria and Pseudomonadaceae Pseudomonas were dominant under negative condition, while Enterobacteriaceae Klebsiella , Enterobacteriaceae Enterobacter and Microbacterium — under favorable one.


Introduction Self-expandable metal stent (SEM) placement is the recommended treatment option by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for acute colorectal obstruction in the palliative management of inoperable colorectal cancer (CRC) as well as a bridge to planned single stage surgical intervention[1]. NICE guidance recommends that centres offering this treatment modality should have teams with expertise and capacity to stent 15 people per million population per annum[2]. It does not however provide any suitable standard for audit. Methods All colonic stents inserted between 1st January 2008 and 31st December 2011 were included. Patient characteristics, procedure related data, outcomes and survival were recorded retrospectively from health records. Results Systematic review of 29 case series of stent insertions reported a clinical success rate of 88%, 10% stent migration rate, 4% perforation rate, 10% reobstruction rate and 1% procedure-related mortality rate[3]. These were applied as our audit standards. A total of 69 colonic stents (in 64 patients, 35 male, mean age 74.2 years) were inserted. 15 stents were inserted in 2008 and this increased steadily to 25 in 2011.The most common indication for colonic stent insertion was a malignant stricture (89.9%). There was a 98.5% technical success rate, 2.9% migration rate, 7.2% perforation rate and a 4.3% reobstruction rate within one month of the procedure. The clinical success rate, ie successful stent insertion and decompression within 96 hours, was 88.4%. 61.1% had stent insertion as a bridge to surgery. Mean survival post procedure was 200 days (range 1–779 days). The were 2 deaths as a direct consequence of the procedure (2.9%), both of which followed perforation in patients who were too frail to undergo surgery. Conclusion We have defined and applied audit standards for colonic stent insertion. Success and complication rates at our hospital compare favourably to published rates. There is a steady increase in colonic stent insertions and in our 2011 cohort this equated to 67.6 patients per million per annum. It is likely that this number will continue to increase and endoscopy units should take this into account when planning their service provision. Audit support will be essential, and we encourage the adoption of consistent audit standards to facilitate comparison between units. Disclosure of Interest None Declared. References National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. (2004). Improving Outcomes in Colorectal Cancers. CSGCC. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.(2010). Improving Outcomes in Colorectal Cancers. Manual Update. Khot et al. Systematic Review of the Safety and Efficacy of Colorectal Stents. BJS 2002(89):1096:1102


This thesis covers the first half century of the British Metorological Office and events leading to its foundation. After an introductory chapter the narrative describes how growth of marine transportation led to awareness of possible benefits from knowledge of wind patterns. Moves to collect marine weather statistics worldwide were supported with reluctance by Britain, but eventually resulted in the foundation of a new Department of the Board of Trade devoted to collection of marine observations. Robert FitzRoy, its first head, later transformed this work into provision of the world's first operational weather forecasting system.

After FitzRoy's death an investigation into the Department was followed by a complete re-organization that replaced it by a Meteorological Office under the control of an unpaid supervisory Committee (later a paid Council) financed by an annual grant. The subsequent evolution of the Office is described. Its relationships with other bodies were not always smooth, nor was its development rapid, but it laid a foundation for what was to follow.

The Office's story impinges upon many aspects of the contemporary scene and is set within their context. The reaction of Treasury to its financing is dealt with at some length. The gradual growth of' public services is recounted and it is noted that, at a time of' supposed laissez-faire, there was no attempt to turn the Office into a revenue raising organization, the primacy of public service always being evident. A characteristic of science has been the division arising from the dichotomy between "pure" and "applied" approaches to problems, and this is highlighted within the narrative.

Despite its disappointing role at the turn of the century, the Meteorological Office is seen as a prime force in the emergence of meteorology as a science within this country. The thesis closes with a glance to the future.


Religious participation is much more widespread in the United States than in Europe, while Europeans tend to view sects more suspiciously than Americans. We propose an explanation for these patterns without assuming differences in preferences or market fundamentals. Religious markets may have multiple equilibria, suggesting that observed differences in religious structures may merely be eventualities. Further, equilibria with more sects result in higher welfare and lower membership costs, as secular societies tend to host on average more demanding sects. Our main methodological contribution to the theory of religious markets is endogenizing simultaneously supply and demand of spiritual services.


In New Jersey the power to promulgate rules governing the practice and procedure in the state courts is vested in the Supreme Court.I Although the structure of these rules, particularly in the area of appellate review, is relatively straightforward, their application is not without uncertainty. The purpose of this article is to provide a coherent discussion of these rules2 and to illustrate the various avenues of appellate review. Either of two major themes may be reflected in a body of procedural rules dealing with appellate jurisdiction:


Monohydroxylated metabolites of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), generically known as 25‐hydroxycalciferol, are better for several diseases, and other applications, than vitamin D (calciferol). This work describes a novel biotechnological approach for the preparation of 25‐hydroxycalciferols, starting from readily available cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol. This approach enables the regioselective (100 %) hydroxylation of these compounds (at the C‐25 position) under mild and environmentally friendly conditions by using a peroxidase from the fungus Coprinopsis cinerea (gene model CC1G_08427T0 from the sequenced genome), which catalyzes monooxygenation with H2O2 as the only co‐substrate (peroxygenase). Hydroxylation of cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol is a true peroxygenation, as demonstrated by incorporation of 18O from H218O2 into the products. The peroxygenase has additional advantages related to its recombinant nature, enabling enzyme engineering and low‐cost overexpression in an industrial host. Therefore, the peroxygenase is a promising biocatalyst for the production of vitamin D active metabolites.


The civil war in Syria coupled with the attacks by ISIS, has resulted in one of the largest humanitarian crises since World War II. Although international efforts have resulted in regaining control of important cities, these military approaches have escalated and inflamed the violence of which innocent civilians bear the consequences. The continuing violence and resulting threats or insecurities negatively affect the lives, freedom, dignity and development of the people to name but a few. For that reason, the aim is to explore the applicability of a human security approach to the conflict in Syria that focuses on, among other aspects, minimising violence, mitigating the effects of the conflict, protecting people, restoring peace and eliminating the grounds that resulted in the development of these conditions in the first place.


The effect of varying the time of particle injection within pulse periods, called the pulse injection time, in active‐pulse air classification is examined. A mathematical model based on a fluid mechanical force balance is used to study the behavior of spheres injected at different pulse times into a periodic, time‐varying, incompressible air flow, and the results are related to laboratory results of active‐pulse air classification experiments. Pulse injection time is found to affect the forces governing particle movement and particle separation. The results of theoretical modeling suggest that synchronizing feed inputs with pulse time can result in increased separation efficiency. A sawtoothed wave form airflow with a decay fraction equal to 0.1 is found to separate the particles studied most effectively over the full range of varying pulse injection times. Laboratory results, confined only to the measurement of particle drop times, are consistent with the mathematical predictions.


Purpose Reliable estimation of visual acuity requires that observers maintain a constant distance from the target, but use of chin rests is not always feasible. Our aim was to quantify children's movement during community testing and its impact on near (40 cm) and intermediate (150 cm) acuity measures. Methods Thirty-three 7-year-old children performed several acuity tests run on a tablet computer, administered in the child's home by a trained lay screener. The tablet webcam was used to derive a continuous estimate of the child's position during testing. We estimated acuity using both the recommended viewing distance and using trial-by-trial estimates of the child's physical distance from the screen. Results Although initial positioning in the 40-cm viewing distance condition was accurate, on 18% of trials children moved sufficiently to support a 0.1 logMAR improvement in acuity, leading 16% of staircases to overestimate acuity by more than one line. Initial positioning for the 150-cm condition was less accurate, but the longer viewing distance minimized the impact of children's movement on the visual angle of the target. Overall, at 150 cm 8% of staircases were overestimated by more than 0.1 logMAR. Conclusions Children move substantially during intermediate and near acuity tests despite assessors encouraging maintenance of the correct viewing distance. Translational Relevance Real-time estimates of the child's physical distance from the target are possible when assessments are conducted on camera-enabled devices. Correction for movement will likely lead to more accurate measures of near and intermediate visual acuity.


Fresh fruits convenient source of natural phenols and antioxidants which are healthy for human. At present many marketed fruit juices claims to be salubrious also full of phenols and antioxidants. In this study enlighten on investigation of phenols and antioxidant. Five mixed fruits juices were collected from Bangladeshi market for investigation. For the phenolic contents determination modified Folin–Ciocalteu and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) modified method for antioxidant analysis was applied. The value of phenolic content was S1 (43.88±0.51), S2 (54.29±0.55), S3 (79.97±1.15), S4 (69.97±1.02) and S5 (57.70±0.78) respectively. On basis of the IC50value was S1 (81.59±1.20), S2 (49.91±0.85), S3 (28.75±0.76), S4 (24.44±0.67) and S5 (61.075±0.95) respectively. This study signifies the determination of phenolic contents and antioxidants presence in mixed fruit juices with substantial activeness.


The vertical distribution and vertical migrations of fish larvae and implications for their cross-shelf distribution were investigated in the northern limit of the NE Atlantic upwelling region during the late winter mixing period of 2012. The average positive values of the upwelling index for February and March of this year were far from normal, although the average hydrographic conditions during the period of study were of downwelling and the water column was completely mixed. Fish larvae, most in the preflexion stage, were concentrated in the upper layers of the water column and their distribution was depth stratified, both day and night. However, the larval fish community was not structured in the vertical plane and fish larvae did not show significant diel vertical migration (DVM), although five species showed ontogenetic vertical migration. In regions of coastal upwelling and in the absence of DVM, the location of fish larvae in the water column is crucial for their cross-shelf distribution. Thus, the cross-shelf distribution of the six most abundant species collected in this study can be explained by the surface onshore flow associated with coastal downwelling, retaining larvae of the coastal spawning species with a relatively shallow distribution in the shelf region and transporting larvae of slope spawning species onto the shelf. The wide vertical distribution shown by larvae of the offshore spawning species could be an adaptation of these species to ensure that some larvae reach the inshore nursery areas.


This article investigates through a literature review how factors in fast fashion and service design aspects can help address user acceptance challenges in circular clothing models, with the aim of designing more attractive models for consumers. The results suggest that consumer advantages and disadvantages of fast fashion can help inform better circular clothing models, but that they might also provide other benefits for consumers. In conclusion, the article suggests that service design and fast fashion can in different ways contribute to designing more attractive circular clothing models.


The gradient of the hydraulic potential field at the ice‐bedrock interface beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) dictates the routing and energetics of subglacial water, thereby influencing drainage system characteristics and sliding dynamics. In the ablation zone of the GrIS, variable water pressure due to an active subglacial drainage system and basal topography with high relief potentially interact to drive unknown spatial patterns and temporal changes in the hydraulic potential field. Here we present a suite of water pressure measurements collected in 13 boreholes along a 46 km transect on the western GrIS to investigate the role of spatial and temporal basal water pressure adjustments in hydraulic potential gradient dynamics. All borehole sites show pressures with similar seasonality, having relatively steady and high values during winter, variable and irregular behavior during spring and fall, and diurnal cycles that can persist for multiple weeks during the peak melt season. Despite much higher variability during the melt season, the median pressure of the summer period is nearly the same as the median pressure of the winter period. However, time variability of water pressure due to basal drainage processes can force changes in the magnitude and orientation of the hydraulic potential field over diurnal periods. We find that the basal water pressure across the transect generally mimics the ice thickness field but with superimposed large pressure gradients that develop at shorter scales within the basal drainage system. This leads to a complex hydraulic potential field across regions of similar ice thickness.


Rain Water Use Efficiency (RWUE) of sweet potato under cattle-cud mulches was investigated with the aim of identifying appropriate cattle-cud mulch rates for managing the fragile soils of the humid tropics to ensure sustained productivity of sweet potato. Experimental units measuring 9m2 each were used and sweet potato vines were planted at the spacing of 1 x 0.5m2. Cattle-cud mulches at rates of M0, M10, M20 and M30 tons ha-1 were administered to the different plots. Yield parameters of sweet potatoes as well as rainfall data for the period were collected. Data were assessed using the Analysis of Variance and correlation analyses were also performed to determine the relationships between soil and crop parameters. Results showed that RWUE of 2.38 from M30 plot was significantly higher than other treatments. This correlated with significantly (P<0.05) high tuber girth (19.0cm), tuber length (21.0cm), marketable size (32.33 cm) and number of tuber yield (60.50). Also, organic matter content of the soil receiving M10 (3.60%) and M20 (3.04%) cattle-cud mulches were significantly higher than M0 (2.96%). The use of cattle-cud as a mulch material significantly increased RWUE and also improved the yield and yield component of sweet potato.


Introduction Objective pain assessment in non-verbal populations is clinically challenging due to their inability to express their pain via self-report. Repetitive exposures to acute or prolonged pain lead to clinical instability, with long-term behavioural and cognitive sequelae in newborn infants. Strong analgesics are also associated with medical complications, potential neurotoxicity and altered brain development. Pain scores performed by bedside nurses provide subjective, observer-dependent assessments rather than objective data for infant pain management; the required observations are labour intensive, difficult to perform by a nurse who is concurrently performing the procedure and increase the nursing workload. Multimodal pain assessment, using sensor-fusion and machine-learning algorithms, can provide a patient-centred, context-dependent, observer-independent and objective pain measure. Methods and analysis In newborns undergoing painful procedures, we use facial electromyography to record facial muscle activity-related infant pain, ECG to examine heart rate (HR) changes and HR variability, electrodermal activity (skin conductance) to measure catecholamine-induced palmar sweating, changes in oxygen saturations and skin perfusion, and electroencephalography using active electrodes to assess brain activity in real time. This multimodal approach has the potential to improve the accuracy of pain assessment in non-verbal infants and may even allow continuous pain monitoring at the bedside. The feasibility of this approach will be evaluated in an observational prospective study of clinically required painful procedures in 60 preterm and term newborns, and infants aged 6 months or less. Ethics and dissemination The Institutional Review Board of the Stanford University approved the protocol. Study findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at scientific meetings, taught via webinars, podcasts and video tutorials, and listed on academic/scientific websites. Future studies will validate and refine this approach using the minimum number of sensors required to assess neonatal/infant pain. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov Registry (NCT03330496).


Perovskites are demonstrated as an excellent prospect for applications in all‐optical switching due to their excellent nonlinear optical effects. In this contribution, 2D cesium lead iodine (CsPbI3) quantum dots (QDs) and cesium lead bromine iodine (CsPbBrxI3−x) nanosheets (NSs) are prepared, characterized, and applied in all‐optical switching, and their asymmetric nonlinear optical response is also investigated. Moreover, the impact of the beam distortion on the CsPbI3 QDs and CsPbBrxI3−x NSs is systematically analyzed. An all‐optical switching technique based on perovskite QDs and NSs is experimentally investigated, which is realized by modulating the propagation of the signal beam with another controlling beam using spatial cross‐phase modulation. The achievement of all‐optical switching indicates that perovskites can be developed as an excellent optical material for all‐optical signal processing. The contribution reveals the potential applications of perovskites as a new type of optical information material, and it is therefore anticipated that CsPbI3 QDs, CsPbBrxI3−x NSs, and other 2D perovskite NSs could find promising applications in photonics devices (such as optical modulators, optical switchers, and detectors).


Single-crystal X-ray diffraction data have been obtained for crystals of the F analog of superhydrous phase B, Mg 10 Si 3 O 14 F 4 . Twinned crystals were synthesized using a splitsphere anvil apparatus (USSA-2000) at pressures between 17.8 and 22.3 GPa and temperatures between 1450 and 1600 degrees C. Orthorhombic (space group Pnnm) unit-cell parameters are a = 5.050(3), b = 13.969(2), and c = 8.640(3) Aa. The substitution of F for H results in minor crystal chemical changes. Notably, average Mg-F distances (1.95 Aa) are shorter than the corresponding average of Mg-OH distances (1.98 Aa). These differences are reflected in shortening of unit-cell axes a and c in superfluorous B by 0.6 and 0.8%, respectively, relative to superhydrous B, while the b axis is unchanged. The close similarities between superhydrous and superfluorous B phases suggest that F will usually substitute for OH- in mantle phases.


The results of a series of studies relating to simulation and analysis of inland waterway transportation systems are presented. Problems in waterway simulation experimentation, including determining the length of the transient period, identifying locks with Poisson arrival processes, and statistical analysis of autocorrelated data, are investigated. A system simulation model is used to study the operational effects of alternative means for increasing the utilization of existing capacity. A single lock simulator is applied to determine the effects of different lock processing rules, pleasure craft, and chamber separation on tow delays at various traffic levels. Several empirical equations for predicting the equilibrium speed of a tow in a river channel are derived by multiple linear regression analysis. Finally, the components and interrelationships of a comprehensive waterway systems planning methodology are described, with emphasis upon techniques for predicting waterway transportation demand.


A family of basic rate-independent strain gradient plasticity theories is considered that generalize conventional J2 deformation and flow theories of plasticity to include a dependence on strain gradients in a simple way. The theory builds on three recent developments: the work of Gudmundson (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 52 (2004), 1379‐1406) and Gurtin and Anand (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 57 (2009), 405‐421), proposing constitutive relations for flow theories consistent with requirements of positive plastic dissipation; the work of Fleck and Willis (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 57 (2009), 161‐177 and 1045‐1057), who clarified the structure of the new flow theories and presented the underlying variational formulation; and observations of Evans and Hutchinson (Acta Mater. 57 (2009), 1675‐1688) related to preferences for specific functional compositions of strains and strain gradients. The starting point in this paper is the deformation theory formulation of Fleck and Hutchinson (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 49 (2001), 2245‐2271) which provides the clearest insights into the role of strain gradients and serves as a template for the flow (incremental) theory. The flow theory is constructed such that it coincides with the deformation theory under proportional straining, analogous to the corresponding coincidence in the conventional J2 theories. The generality of proportional straining is demonstrated for pure power-law materials, and the utility of power-law solutions is illustrated for the constrained deformation of thin films: the compression or extension of a finite layer joining rigid platens. Full elastic-plastic solutions are obtained for the same problem based on a finite element method devised for the new class of flow theories. Potential difficulties and open issues associated with the new class of flow theories are identified and discussed.


Human gait and activity analysis from video is presently attracting a lot of attention in the computer vision community. In this paper we analyze the role of two of the most important cues in human motion-shape and kinematics. We present an experimental framework whereby it is possible to evaluate the relative importance of these two cues in computer vision based recognition algorithms. In the process, we propose a new gait recognition algorithm by computing the distance between two sequences of shapes that lie on a spherical manifold. In our experiments, shape is represented using Kendall's definition of shape. Kinematics is represented using a Linear Dynamical system We place particular emphasis on human gait. Our conclusions show that shape plays a role which is more significant than kinematics in current automated gait based human identification algorithms. As a natural extension we study the role of shape and kinematics in activity recognition. Our experiments indicate that we require models that contain both shape and kinematics in order to perform accurate activity classification. These conclusions also allow us to explain the relative performance of many existing methods in computer-based human activity modeling.


BACKGROUND
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are increasing worldwide. A lack of training and experience in NCDs among public health workers is evident in low- and middle- income countries.

METHODS
We describe the design and outcomes of applied training in NCD epidemiology and control piloted in Tanzania that included a 2-week interactive course and a 6-month NCD field project. Trainees (n=14 initiated; n=13 completed) were epidemiology-trained Ministry of Health or hospital staff. We evaluated the training using Kirkpatrick's evaluation model for measuring reactions, learning, behavior and results using pre- and post-tests and closed-ended and open-ended questions.

RESULTS
Significant improvements in knowledge and self-reported competencies were observed. Trainees reported applying competencies at work and supervisors reported improvements in trainees' performance. Six field projects were completed; one led to staffing changes and education materials for patients with diabetes and another to the initiation of an injury surveillance system. Workplace support and mentoring were factors that facilitated the completion of projects. Follow-up of participants was difficult, limiting our evaluation of the training's outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS
The applied NCD epidemiology and control training piloted in Tanzania was well received and showed improvements in knowledge, skill and self-efficacy and changes in workplace behavior and institutional and organizational changes. Further evaluations are needed to better understand the impact of similar NCD trainings and future trainers should ensure that trainees have mentoring and workplace support prior to participating in an applied NCD training.


1. Alcohol-dehydrogenase activity is first detectable in the rat foetus on about the eighteenth day of gestation, after which time it increases to about 25% of the adult activity at birth. Adult activity is reached at about 18 days after birth. The ethanol-oxidizing capacity of liver slices from rats correlates well with the increase of the enzyme activity in vitro. 2. In the guinea pig there is a steady linear increase from about 17 days before term to 5 days after birth. Adult activity is reached between the sixth and eighth postnatal day. 3. Some kinetic properties of liver alcohol dehydrogenase are very similar in newborn and adult rats. 4. Administration of ethanol to pregnant rats during the latter half of gestation had no effect on alcohol-dehydrogenase activity in the liver of the newborn offspring. Intraperitoneal injections of ethanol to newborn and young rats had no effect on the alcohol-dehydrogenase activity of the livers. 5. Intraperitoneal injections of hydrocortisone and triamcinolone to newborn and adult non-adrenalectomized rats had no significant effect on the increase of the alcohol-dehydrogenase activity as studied up to 4 days after the injection.


This article examines the text and circulation of a well known email petition on women in Afghanistan sent to personal inboxes, email lists and discussion threads. Drawing on collected examples and interviews it considers readers' and writers' responses, which were often considerably more complex than either simple deletion or simple forwarding, and reveal a range of orientations towards mass email campaigns. While some referred rhetorically to this form of Internet communication as potentially empowering and a way of changing the world, others referred to formal or informal regulations in order to influence others to stop circulating the petition. A third group were unable to opt confidently for either of these positions. These varied responses are related, firstly, to the features of the petition which derive from the specific affordances of email, and secondly to readers' experiences and circumstances, both online and offline. It is notable that the majority of the readers and writers in this study were women, and the petition itself focuses on women's rights. Responses to the petition, which is itself a text about women and public space, show that the activities of sending and receiving emails are perceived as crossing boundaries between private and public space, raising issues of exposure and vulnerability, as well as uncertainty about the "right" way to handle this new type of mail.


The habituation–dishabituation (H–D) paradigm is an established measure of sensory perception in animals. However, it has rarely been applied to canine olfaction. It proposes that animals will lose interest in, or habituate to, a stimulus after successive exposures but will regain interest in, or dishabituate to, a novel stimulus if they can perceive it. This study assessed an H–D test's practicability to determine dogs' olfactory detection thresholds (ODTs) for a neutral odorant. A random selection of mixed‐breed pet dogs (n = 26) participated in two H–D tests in a repeated‐measures crossover design. They were first habituated to a carrier odor and then presented with either ascending concentrations of n‐amyl acetate in the known ODT range (experimental condition) or repeated carrier odor presentations (control condition). No single odor concentration elicited dishabituation in the majority of the dogs. However, individual dogs dishabituated at differing experimental concentrations significantly more often than in the control condition (p = .012). These findings provide some tentative support for using this method in studying canine olfaction. However, further assessment and refinement are needed before it can be a viable alternative to traditional ODT measurement.


The book analyzes Polish-Israeli bilateral relations in the face of Polish Europeanization process and international turbulences. Nations, which have been bound by a mutual history, have faced in the aftermath of 9/11 various geo-strategic vicissitudes as well as domestic transformations, leading toward(s) new politico-diplomatic cleavages between the entities. Ipso facto, has the nature of the relations been dramatically changed? Or perhaps, during the course of the past two decades, nation-states' alliance has gradually been re-molded into a mature phase? "Hopefully, this work will provide prospective readers with additional conclusive insights on the relations' state as well as a possible apprehension of cross-regional collaborations." Anna Zofia Meloch (September, 2016).


Telemental health conducted via videoconferencing (TMH-V) has the potential to improve access to care, and providers' attitudes toward this innovation play a crucial role in its uptake. This systematic review examined providers' attitudes toward TMH-V through the lens of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Findings suggest that providers have positive overall attitudes toward TMH-V despite describing multiple drawbacks. Therefore, the relative advantages of TMH-V, such as its ability to increase access to care, may outweigh its disadvantages, including technological problems, increased hassle, and perceptions of impersonality. Providers' attitudes may also be related to their degree of prior TMH-V experience, and acceptance may increase with use. Limitations and implications of findings for implementation efforts are discussed.


CD59 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchored protein (GPI-protein) that is expressed on surface membranes to protect host cells from complement-mediated attack. CD59 may also serve as a receptor for the endocytosis of macromolecules into nucleated cells. Here we investigate the effects of primary clustering of CD59 with anti-CD59 monoclonal antibody and the secondary clustering of biotinylated anti-CD59 with avidin on red blood cells and erythroleukemic K562 cells. On red blood cells, CD59-targeted antibodies remained evenly distributed on the external membranes. In contrast, clustering, capping and endocytosis of the CD59-targeted complexes was detected on K562 cells. Secondary clustering appeared more efficient and resulted in endosomal localization of the fluorescently labeled complexes within 2 hours. The endocytosis of CD59-bound complexes did not affect K562 cell viability or growth and the surface level of CD59 was constant during the process. These result suggest clustering and subsequent endocytosis of CD59 may enable the entry of macromolecules to the endosomal compartments of hematopoietic cells.


Antibody microarrays permit sensitive and semi-quantitative analysis of the expression, covalent modification and interactions of proteins in lysates of cells and tissues. At Kinexus, we have developed high content Kinex KAM microarrays that feature nearly 900 pan- and phosphosite-specific antibodies for monitoring protein kinases, phosphatases and other low abundance cell signalling proteins with combinations of different detection systems. One method involved capture of in vitro dye-labeled proteins (e.g. with Cy3) from lysates from cells subjected to diverse treatments. Another method involved the detection of changes in their total phosphorylation with biotinylated pIMAGO stain and an anti-biotin antibody that is labeled with a different dye (e.g. Cy5). Alteration in protein-tyrosine phosphorylation were monitored with a dye-labelled, generic phosphotyrosine-specific PYK antibody in a sandwich antibody microarray (SAM) format. The SAM technique was also used to explore the interactions of adapter, scaffolding and chaperone proteins with hundreds of potential target signal transduction proteins with dye-labeled reporter antibodies for these highly interactive proteins. We used several human cancer cell lines (e.g. A431, HeLa, Jurkat, MCF7) subjected to diverse treatments (e.g. growth factors) to identify biomarkers for the actions of these agents. Reproducible results were obtained with as little as 25 μg of lysate protein, with a dynamic range of detection exceeding 6000-fold, and a median error range for duplicates measurements of ±12%. Typically 10-15% of the proteins tracked with these arrays demonstrated perturbations exceeding 50%. More than a third of the leads from our antibody microarrays were confirmed by immunoblotting studies. The major limitation associated with validation by Western blotting was the much lower sensitivity with immunoblotting compared with antibody microarrays. We also explored the specific interactions of heat shock proteins, adapter proteins, 14-3-3 and calcium-binding proteins with the antibody microarray captured lysate proteins from cancer cell lines. By combining these detection strategies, it was feasible to obtain over 7000 data points from use of a single antibody microarray slide with two lysate samples and duplicate measurements. The goal of our proteomics and bioinformatics studies is to use the experimental results from the application of these microarrays to map the architecture of signalling networks in a cell- or tissue-specific manner. Such multi-tiered microarray-based analyses permit target-directed identification of diverse regulatory protein changes in different experimental model systems with greater sensitivity, breadth, selectivity and economy when compared to any other competing proteomics methodologies. Citation Format: Steven Pelech, Lambert Yue, Jeffrey White, Ryan Hounjet, Dirk Winkler. Profiling signalling protein expression, modifications and interactions with multi-dimensional antibody microarrays. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4552.


Changes in atmospheric temperature and lowering in water‐table (WT) are expected to affect peatland nutrient dynamics. To understand the response of peatland nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) dynamics to warming and drainage in a continental wooded‐bog of hummock–hollow microtopography, we compared three sites: (a) control, (b) recently drained (2–3 years; experimental), and (c) older drained (12–13 years; drained), during 2013. The WT was lowered at experimental and drained sites to 74 and 120 cm, respectively, whereas a warming of ~1 °C was created at one half of the microforms using open‐top chambers. Responses of peat total inorganic nitrogen (TIN = nitrate nitrogen [NO3−‐N] + ammonium nitrogen [NH4+‐N]) and phosphate‐P (PO43−‐P) pools and vegetation C:N ratio, δ13C and δ15N to the experimental treatments were investigated across sites/microforms and over time. Peat TIN available and extractable pools increased with deepening of WT and over time and were greater at hummocks relative to hollows. In contrast, the PO4 pools increased with short‐term drainage but reverted to very close to their original (control) nutrient values in the longer term. The WT and warming driven change in the peat TIN pool was strongly reflected in the vascular vegetation C:N ratio and shrub δ13C and δ15N, whereas moss nutrient dynamics did not vary between sites. Therefore, we suggest that atmospheric warming combined with WT deepening can increase availability of mineral N and P, which then can be reflected in vascular vegetation and hence modify the productivity and ecosystem functioning of the northern midlatitude continental wooded bogs in the long term.


Background: In a Benghazi medical center, this observational study assessed the role of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in the early stages of acute gallbladder illness. Materials and Methods: From January 2022 to December 2022, all emergency and urgent admissions for acute gallbladder disease were identified, and additionally, data from hospital medical records were then evaluated retrospectively. Results: Out of a total of 334 patients with gallstone diseases, we found 321 individuals (206 with acute biliary colic, 115 with acute calculous cholecystitis), and 13 with acalculous cholecystitis. Early laparoscopic surgery for acute calculous cholecystitis had a greater conversion rate than procedures for acute biliary discomfort (19% vs. 4%; p=0.002). When surgery was performed 72 h from the onset of the symptoms for patients with acute calculous cholecystitis, the conversion rate was considerably lower (one out of 25) than when surgery was postponed past 72 h (14 out of 53) or later performed electively (seven out of 23) (p=0.014). In comparison to elective surgery for acute biliary colic (three of 66), elective surgery for prior acute cholecystitis was linked to a higher conversion rate (seven of 22 patients) (p=0.002). Conclusion: LC for acute calculous cholecystitis needs to be done within 72 h of the onset of symptoms, and it is worthwhile.


Strongyloides stercoralis is one of the common parasites in tropical areas. It can result in severe clinical syndromes, hyperinfection syndrome or disseminated strongyloidiasis in immunocompromised patients. The treatment of strongyloidiasis is a challenge for clinicians in clinical practice. Failure of treatment is due to autoinfection caused by the parasite life cycle and impairment of host immunity. Ivermectin currently is the treatment of choice. When compared with thiabendazole, it has shown a similar efficacy with better tolerability. However, there is neither consensus in duration of treatment nor in repetition of doses. The keys for management of this tough parasite include proper evaluation and prevention. Stool examination with high sensitivity techniques such as Baermann technique, filter-paper culture and agar-plate culture and specific IgG serology should be used in evaluation for 1 to 2 years. Screening, both stool examination and serology, before patients have immunosuppressive treatment is needed to prevent the severe form of strongyloidiasis.


We report a facile and versatile strategy for the bespoke fabrication of macro- and mesoporous block copolymer microparticles. A clean synthetic route, RAFT dispersion polymerisation in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2), is used to generate block copolymer microparticles. Selective swelling/deswelling is then applied to induce controlled morphology transitions and to trap the resulting porous state. The pore sizes are controllable over a large size range (~20 – 200 nm) by varying the length of the swellable block. Through a systematic approach we then demonstrate that the shape of the pores can also be tailored from isolated spheres through to interconnected/bicontinuous channels by varying the ratio of the two blocks. This process is shown to be applicable to a range of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)based block copolymer systems, including PMMA-b-poly(4-vinyl pyridine), PMMAb-poly(dimethyl acrylamide) (DMA) and PMMA-bpoly(dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate) (DMAEMA). In each case, the second minority block (e.g. P4VP, etc.) was selectively swollen with an alcohol to induce an order-toorder morphology transition and then quenched rapidly by the non-solvent hexane. This not only takes place on the order of hours, but is also freely scalable for the production of grams of material and beyond in a single step following polymerisation.


Sixty-four women undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer in a residential setting which offered structured cognitive and emotional support, are compared for level of psychological distress and satisfaction with staff support with 104 women living at home during treatment. The outcome measures were the 30-item Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and a 5-item author-constructed Treatment Support Index. A surprisingly large percentage of the sample did not, at any time, manifest appreciable psychological distress. For those women whose level of distress changed by a GHQ score of 3 or more over the three week course of treatment, residence in the Lodge was associated with decreased risk of change for the worse, and increased probability of change for the better. Results from the Treatment Support Index indicate that a significantly greater percentage of Lodge residents than non-residents were satisfied with the quantity, quality, and/or diversity of support available to them.


Introduction: Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is a frequent clinical complication in paediatric critically ill patients who often develop Fluid Overload (FO).
Objectives: To study the occurrence of FO among critically ill patients admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) with AKI and study its association with age, sex, stages of AKI and duration of hospitalization.
Materials and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the PICU of a tertiary care hospital of Western Odisha enrolling 140 patients by simple consecutive sampling with inclusion criteria being critically ill children admitted for 24 hrs or more in PICU in the age group of one completed month to 14 completed years having AKI as per pRIFLE criteria; and patients with pre-existing renal diseases, less than 1-month age were excluded. FO percentage was calculated using equation [{Total fluid in (in ltrs) – Total fluid out (in ltrs)}/Admission body weight (in kgs) X 100]. A score of 10% or more was considered to be indicative of fluid overload (FO ≥10%). All the cases were followed up till discharge and / or death & the relevant data including demographic characters like age, sex, body weight at admission and stages of AKI were collected and analysed in SPSSv24.
Results: The association between age group and FO≥10% is significant. The occurrence of FO ≥10% in male children (75.3%) is significantly higher than that in case of females (58.8%). There is no significant difference in mean duration of hospitalisation in days between three stages of AKI (Risk, Injury and Failure).
Conclusion: Duration of hospitalisation in PICU does not alter with the various stages of AKI may it be Risk or Injury or Failure. It's the fluid overload in the pre-ICU setting before getting admitted to PICU predicts the outcome.

Keyword: Fluid Overload, Critically Ill, Acute Kidney Injury


Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is one of the most common autosomal dominant disorders in humans, affecting 1 in 3500 individuals. NF1 is a fully penetrant exhibiting a mutation rate some 10‐fold higher compared to most other disease genes. As a consequence, a high number of cases (up to 50%) are sporadic. Mutation detection is complex due to the large size of NF1 gene, the presence of pseudogenes and the great variety of lesions. In the present study we attempted to delineate the NF1 mutational spectrum in the Italian population reporting four‐year experience with the direct analysis of the whole NF1 coding region in 110 unrelated subjects affected by NF1. For each patient, the whole coding sequence and all splice sites were studied for mutations, either by the protein truncation test (PTT), or, most often, by denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC). Mutations were identified in 75 (68%) patients. Twenty‐two mutations were found to be novel. The detection rate for the different methods was 7/18 (39%) for PTT, and 68/103 (66%) for DHPLC. The mutations were evenly distributed along the NF1 coding sequence. Thirty‐two of the 75 unrelated NF1 patients in which germline mutations were identified (32/75, 43%) harbour 23 different recurrent mutations. Fifteen sequence variants likely to represent non‐pathogenic polymorphisms were observed at the NF1 locus. Genotype‐phenotype analysis was unable to detect any obvious correlation. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Lisa McNair is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where she also serves as Assistant Department Head for Graduate Programs and co-directs the Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center. Her research includes interdisciplinary collaboration, communication studies, identity theory, and reflective practice. Projects supported by the National Science Foundation include: interdisciplinary pedagogy for pervasive computing design; writing across the curriculum in statics courses; a a CAREER award to explore the use of e-portfolios to promote professional identity and reflective practice. Her teaching emphasizes the roles of engineers as communicators and educators, the foundations and evolution of the engineering education discipline, assessment methods, and evaluating communication in engineering.


Every theory of justice requires a first-order theory specifying principles of justice, and a second-order view explaining why those principles constitute the correct principles of justice. According to John Rawls, political liberalism is committed to the two principles of justice specified in its first-order theory, "justice as fairness." Justice as fairness, according to Rawls, in turn presupposes the second-order view that justice is a political conception. A political conception of justice treats the principles derived from the fundamental ideas in the public political culture as the correct principles of justice. Political liberalism, however, nowhere offers a defense of the view that justice is a political conception. Indeed, it even strives to avoid the admission that it presupposes that justice is a political conception by stating only that it uses a political conception of justice, while allowing that justice might not actually be a political conception. As to the truth of its second-order presupposition, political liberalism chooses to remain agnostic. Rawls claims that political liberalism has no choice at all. To do otherwise, he argues, would lead to an internal contradiction.


The best distribution of the thrust over the length of the propeller blade is investigated, taking into account chiefly the slipstream loss and the friction between the blades and the air.


In this work we present the model of a hydroelectric power plant in the framework of Mixed Logic Dynamical (MLD) systems. Each outflow unit exhibits a hybrid behaviour since flaps, gates and turbines are controlled with logical inputs and the outflow dynamics depend on the logical state of the unit. We show how to derive detailed models of each unit considering not only standard operating conditions, but also emergencies and startup and shut-down procedures. The control task can be formulated with a model predictive control scheme.


Food borne illness is one of the most widespread health problems in the world and an important cause of reduced economic productivity especially in developing and under developed countries. In addition, food safety of poultry products remains a serious problem in many countries in the world. Similar to many other countries, the development of food safety standards in Iran is handled by the government. The poultry industry in Iran has been and is under dynamic and progressive development. In spite of the advances in the poultry industry in Iran, the issues of food borne pathogens, and drug and chemical residues remain. Meat inspection at poultry processing plants has been successful, but obviously has certain limitations. More importantly, drug, pesticide, mycotoxin and other chemical residues must be monitored in poultry meat and eggs. This work has to be carried out in close collaboration with human and environmental health professionals, analysts, epidemiologists, food producers, processors and traders. Poultry veterinarians and the Iran Veterinary Organization (IVO) should play a decision-making role in the development of the poultry industry. Poultry veterinarians and IVO have a dual responsibility; epidemiological surveillance of poultry diseases and ensuring the safety of meat and eggs. Via their presence on farms and appropriate collaboration with farmers, poultry veterinarians play a key role in ensuring that birds are kept under hygienic conditions, especially conditions which have public health significance. Slaughterhouse inspection of live birds (ante-mortem) and the carcass (post-mortem) plays a key role in both the surveillance network for poultry diseases and zoonoses and ensuring the safety of poultry meat.