Advanced oxidation processes provide a promising way to the degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater, wherein developing highly efficient catalysts is of paramount importance. Herein, three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical nanoporous structures of Cu catalysts with desirable geometries were synthesized by laser 3D printing combined with chemical dealloying. The resulting 3D nanoporous Cu (3D NP-Cu) exhibited a 660-fold larger specific surface area than conventional 2D ribbons or powder catalysts. The 3D NP-Cu catalysts exhibited high degradation efficiency towards azo dyes with a kinetic reaction constant of 0.147 min−1, which is 14 times higher than that of the commercial catalyst of Cu2+ and 4 times higher than that of Cu0 powder. Impressively, the 3D NP-Cu exhibited fairly good reusability and excellent versatility, as indicated by the fast degradation of the mixture of complex dyes and reduction of the chemical oxygen demand (COD). The extraordinary catalytic activities of the 3D NP-Cu catalysts originated from their unique 3D hierarchical mill/nano-porous structures with large surface areas and numerous active atomic steps on Cu ligaments, which generate abundant active species and accelerate the transport of reactants. In addition, the presence of a small amount of Cu+ active species in the as-prepared 3D NP-Cu catalyst also played a critical role in promoting the degradation process, leading to the decomposition of azo dyes even in the absence of H2O2. Moreover, two possible pathways of degradation towards azo dyes were proposed based on liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry analysis, i.e. reduction of azo bonds and demethylation of MO. The current work may inspire the development of new types of 3D nanostructured metal catalysts for remediation of wastewater.


The authors consider the tomographic reconstruction of objects with spatially localized temporal variation, such as a thorax cross section with a beating heart. The conventional scan format, in which projections are taken progressively around the object, requires high and sometimes infeasible scan rates to avoid motion artifacts in the reconstructed images. The authors formulate the problem of data acquisition as a time-sequential sampling problem of spatially and temporally bandlimited signals, where only one view can be taken at a time, but the time interval between successive views is independent of their angular separation. These conditions, naturally satisfied in magnetic resonance imaging and in X-ray CT using the Imatron system, can also be satisfied by a conventional system with a continuously and rapidly spinning gantry with source pulsing. Theoretical analysis, which includes tight performance bounds, shows that by using an optimally scrambled angular sampling order, the required scan rate can be lowered as much as four times, while preserving image quality. The analysis also greatly simplifies the design of the optimum scan pattern by reducing it to a constrained geometric packing problem.


Cyber-Physical Systems, building on embedded systems and ICT are large complex systems that pose challenges at multiple stages, out of which we mention here design, ownership and utilization. These systems are more and more penetrating our every-day life, impacting on multiple aspects of our activities. In spite of their complexity, or due to that, these systems are offering new opportunities for improving the quality of our lives, simplify our work while helping us to improve the results, and provide support for longer life-spans.


This essay provides a first comprehensive overview of the presence of the Polish saint Stanislas Kostka (1550–1568) in the Dutch-language literature from the Southern Netherlands of the 17th century. The frequent stressing of his Polish origins serves to make the venerated Jesuit novice look like a miraculous denial of the patterns of thought of the time about the relationship between the location of countries and the nature of their inhabitants. Although the first biography of the young Jesuit hero in Dutch appeared rather late, many a song about him is included in catholic songbooks in Dutch and French. In the centenary year of the Jesuit order (1640), the Brabant Jesuit Adriaen Poirters (1605–1674) made adaptations of the poems and emblematical subscriptions in Dutch in Imago primi saeculi, including those on Stanislas. The specificity of these adaptations is explained. Poirters's most important contribution to literary Kostka worship is the long and enthusiastic dedication poem of his Het Heylich Herte (1659). The text is explained and published as an appendix.


The new capitalist market economy is invading most of the spheres in our society and
education is no exception. This paper attempts to begin to explore the impact of this
social change on higher education through the review of literature available on four
main research strands: the new capitalism, persuasive discourse, marketization in higher
education, and Critical Discourse Analysis. A sample comparative critical discourse
analysis of Cardiff University (CU) and the University of Lleida (UdL) websites is also
made in order to examine two specific cases in which higher educational institutions
adopt particular strategies to recruit international students. The results seem to confirm
the initial hypothesis based on my experience as a student at both universities: CU may
be more attractive than the UdL for international students because it uses more effective
marketing strategies on its website. The study confirms that universities' discourse
reflects the current transformation of higher education into a marketable product.


Introduction: Many studies reported poorer quality of life (QoL) in youth with diabetes compared to healthy peers. One of the tools used is the Diabetes Quality of Life for Youth (DQoLY) questionnaire in English. A validated instrument in Malay is needed to assess the perception of QoL among youth with diabetes in Malaysia. Objective: To translate the modified version, i.e., the DQoLY questionnaire,into Malay and determine its reliability and validity. Methods: Translation and back-translation were used. An expert panel reviewed the translated version for conceptual and content equivalence. The final version was then administered to youths with type 1 diabetes mellitus from the universities and Ministry of Health hospitals between August 2006 and September 2007. Reliability was analysed using Cronbach's alpha, while validity was confirmed using concurrent validity (HbA1c and self-rated health score). Results: A total of 82 youths with type 1 diabetes (38 males) aged 10-18 years were enrolled from eight hospitals. The reliability of overall questionnaire was 0.917, and the reliabilities of the three domains ranged from 0.832 to 0.867. HbA1c was positively correlated with worry (p=0.03). The self-rated health score was found to have significant negative correlation with the "satisfaction" (p=0.013) and "impact" (p=0.007) domains. Conclusion: The Malay translated version of DQoLY questionnaire was reliable and valid to be used among youths with type 2 diabetes in Malaysia.


Author(s): Zadrozny, Joseph Mercer | Advisor(s): Long, Jeffrey R. | Abstract: Contained in the following dissertation are detailed investigations of the syntheses, structures, and magnetic properties of a series of paramagnetic molecules. A wide range of magnetic behavior is reported, including interionic magnetic exchange coupling, magnetic anisotropy, molecular magnetic relaxation mechanisms, and ultimately their respective origins on the basis of fundamental concepts in coordination chemistry. Chapter One provides a brief background of the origins of single-molecule magnet behavior with a review of basic molecular magnetism concepts and techniques and is geared toward the comprehension level of a first-year graduate student fluent in the basics of coordination chemistry. In Chapter Two, the syntheses, structures, and magnetic properties of pentanuclear cyanide-bridged clusters are presented. The complexes are based upon the highly anisotropic building unit [Re(CN)7]4-, which possesses an S = 1/2 ReIV ion with an associated unquenched orbital angular momentum. Further, the clusters produce a variety of magnetic behaviors, including NiII···ReIV ferromagnetic interactions in [(PY5Me2)4Ni4Re(CN)7](PF6)5 and intermolecular CoIII←ReIII charge transfer in [(PY5Me2)4Co4Re(CN)7](PF6)5. Notably, [(PY5Me2)4Ni4Re(CN)7]5+ is a single molecule magnet that is stable at room temperature in contrast to [(PY5Me2)4Mn4Re(CN)7]5+, which is spontaneously reduced in solution at room temperature to [(PY5Me2)4Mn4Re(CN)7]4+, the latter of which contains a diamagnetic ReIII ion. Like this Mn-containing cluster, however, the complex [(PY5Me2)4Cu4Re(CN)7]5+ is temperature sensitive and is reduced in solution at room temperature to provide [(PY5Me2)Cu4Re(CN)7]4+. In the former of these two species, ferromagnetic CuII···ReIV interactions are observed in addition to slow magnetic relaxation, while the magnetic behavior of the latter complex is consistent with four noninteracting CuII centers. The observation of slow magnetic relaxation in [(PY5Me2)Cu4Re(CN)7]4+ thus categorizes this molecule as a redox-switchable single-molecule magnet. Chapters Three through Seven are shifted in focus to the investigation of the magnetic properties of complexes with only one paramagnetic ion, for reasons detailed in Chapter One. Chapter Three describes the synthesis and characterization of a pseudotetrahedral complex of cobalt(II) and the tri-dentate, nitrogen-donor ligand 1,1,1-tris[2N-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidino)methyl]ethane (3G). Up until this point, most of the literature for single-molecule magnetism focuses on the fact that a negative zero-field splitting value is essential for the observation of slow magnetic relaxation. In this chapter, however, slow magnetic relaxation under applied dc field by the complex [(3G)CoCl]+ is presented, despite being shown by HF-EPR to possess a positive zero-field splitting. The reported results importantly refute the idea that slow magnetic relaxation is only possible in systems with negative axial anisotropy, but further suggest that systems with easy plane magnetic anisotropy need not be omitted from the search for large magnetic relaxation barriers. Chapter Four details the first observation of slow magnetic relaxation in the mononuclear transition metal complex [Co(SPh)4]2- without the typical required static dc field, providing a Ueff of 21(1) cm-1. The observation of slow magnetic relaxation at zero dc field for this species is attributed to both the large, negative, zero-field splitting, as well as the half-integer spin. All previous accounts of slow magnetic relaxation in mononuclear complexes invoked nonzero transverse anisotropies (E) as the source of fast zero field tunneling, as this parameter leads to mixing of the bistable ±MS levels. However, by Kramers' theorem, E should not mix the bistable MS = ±3/2 levels in [Co(SPh)4]2-, and indeed it does not, as evidenced by the slow magnetic relaxation detected at zero applied dc field. Notably, a lingering influence of tunneling is still detected for this molecule, and dilution studies show that the mechanism of tunneling at low temperature is intermolecular in origin. The large zero-field splitting (D) in [Co(SPh)4]2- is likely attributed to the nearly degenerate dxy and dx2-y2 orbitals, which provide a low-lying excited state with a large negative contribution to D. As detailed in Chapter Five, the preparation and characterization of the series of complexes [Co(EPh)4]2- (E = O, S, Se) were performed to see how a simple modification of the ligand field would influence D and Ueff. Of note were the isolation and structural characterization of a relatively simple molecule, [Co(OPh)4]2-, a moiety which was hitherto unknown in the literature as a mononuclear species. The D values proved highly influenced by the ligand field, yet Ueff did not, in contrast to the expectation that the barrier to spin reversal should directly scale with D. Also discussed is a detailed analysis of the diffuse reflectance spectra for the series of complexes, which was pursued with the intent of gaining a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which the ligand field adjusts both the magnetic anisotropy and the low temperature magnetization dynamics. Chapter Six describes the magnetic investigation of two-coordinate, linear complexes of iron(II). Unlike the [Co(EPh)4]2- species in Chapters Four and Five, the d-orbital splitting diagrams for two-coordinate transition metal ions in linear geometries feature degenerate (or as close as reasonably possible) dxy and dx2-y2 orbitals, which are predominately nonbonding in character. These complexes display magnetic relaxation barriers up to 181 cm-1 under applied dc field and fast tunneling of the magnetization at zero applied dc field. Ab initio studies, initiated to elucidate the influence of the ligands on the slow magnetic relaxation, revealed that though the dxy and dx2-y2 orbitals were not rigorously degenerate (due to molecular symmetries lower than D∞h), the spin-orbit coupling was strong enough to engender electronic ground states corresponding to orbital angular momentum that is essentially unquenched by the ligand field. Thus, these complexes contain transition metal ions that magnetically mimic lanthanide ions, where the spin-orbit coupling is strong enough to override the quenching influence of the very weak ligand-field felt by the spin-bearing 4f orbitals. The calculated barriers are close to the experimental ones for Fe[N(SiMe3)(Dipp)]2 and Fe[C(SiMe3)3]2, but differ strongly for the other investigated complexes, the reasons for which are attributed to a possible vibronic model. Chapter Seven meshes the ideas presented in Chapters Four through Six while describing the magnetic properties of a two-coordinate, linear complex of iron(I). This species, obtained by a one-electron reduction of the iron(II) complex Fe[C(SiMe3)3]2, possesses both a half-integer spin and unquenched orbital angular momentum. As a result of these two characteristics, [Fe(C(SiMe3)3)2]- displays the largest spin reversal barrier yet observed for all transition-metal-containing species (226(4) cm-1) by an order of magnitude. As a consequence of such a large magnetization reversal barrier, [Fe(C(SiMe3)3)2]- possesses a molecular magnetic moment that is blocked from reversal at low temperature, giving rise to magnetic hysteresis, a phenomenon typically associated with bulk magnetic materials, but here due to an individual transition metal ion.


An economic impact analysis was conducted in two rural counties in Northwest Arkansas to observe effects of hypothetical retiree in-migration as a sustainable economic development policy. The analysis reveals economic benefits with varying impacts and additional socio-economic costs on both counties. The policy has the potential for sustaining in the long-term.


Derivative-free - or zeroth-order - optimization (DFO) has gained recent attention for its ability to solve problems in a variety of application areas, including machine learning, particularly involving objectives which are stochastic and/or expensive to compute. In this work, we develop a novel model-based DFO method for solving nonlinear least-squares problems. We improve on state-of-the-art DFO by performing dimensionality reduction in the observational space using sketching methods, avoiding the construction of a full local model. Our approach has a per-iteration computational cost which is linear in problem dimension in a big data regime, and numerical evidence demonstrates that, compared to existing software, it has dramatically improved runtime performance on overdetermined least-squares problems.


Remote sensing image classification algorithms, which can obtain information of land use\cover quickly and inexpensively have been widely used in the field of GIS. The quality of classification results is not only affected by the quality of remote sensing data, but also affected by the character of classification algorithm. At present, despite a lot of algorithms have been proposed, but users usually meet difficulties in algorithm selection due to single classification algorithm cat not applicable to all classification cases. This study proposes a self-adaptive selective method for remote sensing image classification algorithms based on data complexity evaluation, through data complexity evaluation, our method can distinguish remote sensing data's character even from same satellite sensor and give user recommendation of algorithm selection. Experiments indicate that the algorithms selected by this method can achieve higher classification accuracy, which provides the recommendation for the selection of appropriate classification models to users.


As age increases, people experience a wide scope of chronic diseases including chronic knee pain. The objective of this study was to introduce our new therapeutic approach for chronic knee pain. A ground powder of Urtica pilulifera was mixed with Vaseline to make a cream. Another part of the same powder was mixed with honey. For patients with knee pain, they applied Urtica pilulifera cream before sleeping and to wrapped it with the enveloping plastic over-night. This was applied for up to 10 days. The second part, Urtica pilulifera powder mixed with honey, was taken daily as a spoon in the morning and another spoon at the evening. This therapeutic approach was applied by 4 males (age range 70-84 years old), and 2 females (age range 72-80 years). All of them had chronic knee pain and movement limitations. After applying this new therapeutic approach, within 7 days, they restored better quality of life in terms getting rid of pain, and movement without pains. Taken together, our new therapeutic strategy for chronic knee pain was effective. We think that treating inflammatory immune membranes was the reason beyond the success of this treatment.


OBJECTIVES
Occupational therapy students often perceive their curriculum to be stressful. Anecdotal reports have described occupational therapy students' stress and coping strategies during their academic education; this study quantifies students' perceptions.

METHOD
A questionnaire was used to survey 1,095 occupational therapy students representing the major geographical regions of the United States about perceived stress and coping strategies. The data were analyzed to determine patterns and frequencies of subjects' stress and coping strategies.

RESULTS
At least 86% of the subjects reported their top stressors to be examinations, amount of class work, lack of free time, long hours of study, and grades. Sixty-two percent of subjects said that the stress they experienced strengthened their commitment to their professional education.

CONCLUSIONS
Academic issues and time pressures were more stressful than nonschool issues for occupational therapy students. Subjects' strategies for coping with these stressors usually included perseverance and rarely involved drugs, sex, or alcohol.


This case report describes a course of events associated with the confirmed diagnosis and remission of liver cancer in a 60 year old male patient. In March of 1992, the patient was first diagnosed from alpha-fetal protein levels and CT portagram, with two lesions of approximately 2 cm and 1.6 cm.The larger lesion was confirmed as heptocellular carcinoma, and the second a benign hemangioma. Following nine percutaneous ethanol injections, remission occurred in December of 1993.The patient was also under concurrent chiropractic care during this period. In March of 1995 the carcinoma reappeared with elevated levels of alpha-fetal protein.A CAT scan revealed one, or a cluster of small lesions, collectively 2cm wide and 4 cm long. Surgery was ruled out by the HMO, and the patient declined a second course of percutaneous ethanol injections, or any further medical treatment. However, the patient elected to remain under chiropractic care. In November of 1995, alpha fetal protein levels dropped to "safe" levels, and a follow-up CAT scan revealed no lesions.The present report describes the relationship between the administration of Palmer Specific HIO chiropractic adjustments followed directly by periods of rest, and changes in clinical findings, both during the first and second active episode of the carcinoma.The patient maintained a detailed documented record of medical and chiropractic care, as well as a personal introspection relative to his quality of life during the experience. Commentary is also offered with respect to possible benefits derived from concurrent care.The patient is currently enjoying a life of retirement, and remains under chiropractic care.


Calcium binding proteins show stereotypical expression patterns within diverse neuron types across the central nervous system. Here, we provide a characterization of developmental and adult secretagogin-immunolabelled neurons in the zebrafish retina with an emphasis on co-expression of multiple calcium binding proteins. Secretagogin is a recently identified and cloned member of the F-hand family of calcium binding proteins, which labels distinct neuron populations in the retinas of mammalian vertebrates. Both the adult distribution of secretagogin labeled retinal neurons as well as the developmental expression indicative of the stage of neurogenesis during which this calcium binding protein is expressed was quantified. Secretagogin expression was confined to an amacrine interneuron population in the inner nuclear layer, with monostratified neurites in the center of the inner plexiform layer and a relatively regular soma distribution (regularity index > 2.5 across central–peripheral areas). However, only a subpopulation (~60%) co-labeled with gamma-aminobutyric acid as their neurotransmitter, suggesting that possibly two amacrine subtypes are secretagogin immunoreactive. Quantitative co-labeling analysis with other known amacrine subtype markers including the three main calcium binding proteins parvalbumin, calbindin and calretinin identifies secretagogin immunoreactive neurons as a distinct neuron population. The highest density of secretagogin cells of ~1800 cells / mm2 remained relatively evenly along the horizontal meridian, whilst the density dropped of to 125 cells / mm2 towards the dorsal and ventral periphery. Thus, secretagogin represents a new amacrine label within the zebrafish retina. The developmental expression suggests a possible role in late stage differentiation. This characterization forms the basis of functional studies assessing how the expression of distinct calcium binding proteins might be regulated to compensate for the loss of one of the others.


Emotional response related to live music events is a vital component of the experience but the relationship between this aspect of the experience and belief about the event (satisfaction), and any ensuing attitudinal and behavioural change after the event is not well understood. Established methods for capturing emotion provide a basis but tend to ignore the 'collective' experience felt at events and the importance of recollected experience and emotion. Here it is argued that no single method will adequately capture this complexity of emotional response and that a combination of tools is needed. These methods will be explained and critically discussed in terms of practicality of application and usefulness of data. The discussion is based on a number of trial studies which will provide practical real-life examples of the advantages and pitfalls encountered. Chapter Structure To understand experience we need to understand emotion and memory. The kind of experiences provided by festivals and events are designed to engender an emotive response, to be out of the ordinary and therefore be memorable and it is these memories of the emotions felt which are most likely to affect changes in future attitude and behaviour. The first section of this chapter will therefore provide an overview of: emotion memory of emotion experience inducing emotion To understand emotions we need to find ways to capture, describe and assess them. Any methods need to be able to explore the type, strength and consequences of the emotions felt at the time and remembered. It is also necessary to discover the aspects of the experience that triggered the emotional response in order to better design events which stimulate desirable and memorable emotions. The second part of this chapter therefore discusses the different approaches used in capturing emotional response. How to measure When to measure What to do with measures In the final section several trial studies and examples are presented which illustrate some of the different methods used in capturing emotions. These are critically reviewed in terms of theoretical validity and practical application. The chapter concludes by proposing a mixed methods approach to any evaluation of emotional response to event experience. The methods suggested recognise : The importance of collective experience and the sharing of memories The mediating effect of memory The factors, other than the event, which affect both immediate and remembered emotional response


In "the Hellenistic Age and History of Civilization," J.B. Bury discusses important advances made in mathematics, astronomy, and geography; the pattern of the hellenization of Rome; and changing Greek ideas of barbarianism and cosmopolitanism. E. A. Barber's essay, "Alexandrian Literature," deals with the characteristic styles of the period, Alexandrian poetry, and the new prose forms. Besides the scientific and learned writing it is known for, Professor Barber demonstrates, the age produced much popular satiric and moralizing poetry, realistic mime, epigrams, and parodies. As the system of the city states declined, increasing social instability fostered the rise of a number of popular philosophies. In another chapter, Edwyn Bevan outlines the similarities and differences between the Platonic, Peripatetic, Stoic, Epicurean, Sceptic, and Cynic schools and the effect of Christianity on their society. W. W. Tarn's "The Social Question in the Third Century" examines the conditions that led to revolution in the century after Alexander. The author describes the economic disturbances leading to the polarization of classes, and assesses the phases of social revolution as exemplified in the uprisings at Sparta.


The literature that includes the study of cardiovascular complications in patients with diabetic foot syndrome was analyzed. The topicality of this problem is caused by the steady growth of diabetes mellitus morbidity among people. For today there are more than 170 mln people throughout the world with diabetes mellitus, among them 65–80 % have cardiovascular complications (myocardium infarction, acute disorder of brain blood circulation and so on). It is established for today, that pathogenesis of diabetic foot syndrome is multi-factor one and the development of purulent-necrotic stages of DFS is connected with the combination of different factors, especially microcirculation disorder. In this article we'll consider the mechanisms of diabetic angiopathy development, the state of platelet-vascular hemostasis link in this category of patients.


Abstract A quasi-geostrophic model of cyclogenesis in the lee of the Rocky Mountains treats the cyclogenesis as a forecasting problem and uses an initial value approach. The model consists of the interaction of a growing baroclinic wave with an infinitely long mountain ridge. This transient interaction simulates many of the observed features of the phenomena, including the formation of a lee trough concurrent with the poleward displacement of the incident low on the upstream side of the mountain and the development of a lee cyclone equatorward of the unperturbed storm track. Despite this development, the low is weakened by its interaction with the orography.These results are explained physically and compared with those using a normal-mode approach to lee cyclogenesis.


China has turned from a 'low risk' to a 'high risk' society since the start of the market reforms in the late
1970s. Market, while bringing diverse livelihood opportunities to rural people, has simultaneously distributed
risks, and the exposure and vulnerability to them unequally among different social groups. This
paper attempts to apply the risk concept to the study of one of the most socially disadvantaged groups in
China, namely rural-urban migrants, through analysing the narratives of members of a migratory family
of the Hui Muslim national minority from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, who run a business in the northern
city of Tianjin. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the research adopts an actor-oriented perspective
combined with qualitative longitudinal research methodology (or 'extended case method') to delineate
a livelihood trajectory of this family, and explore the relationships between livelihood, risk, social networks,
agency and public policy interventions.


Although antifouling marine paints have been used to prevent biofouling, not much is known about their effectiveness in preventing attachment of microorganisms. The current study aims at estimating the abundance of bacteria within biofilms developed on various commercial antifouling coatings in Marina Bandar Rowdha and Marina Shangri La, Oman. Coatings tested included Pettit #1863 and #1792, West Marine #11046620, #5566252 and #10175206, Hempel Hard Racing #76484, Hempel Olympic #86950, Hempasil X3 and International YBA920. All coatings were applied on clean plastic slides. Slides without any coating were used as controls. Microbial biofilms were harvested after 2, 7 and 14 days of biofouling. Bacterial density was estimated using epifluorescence microscopy. There was a significant difference between the various treatments (coatings and control) after 2, 7 and 14 days of biofouling. Although there were significant differences between both locations after 2 and 14 days of biofouling, no significant difference was observed after 7 days of biofouling at both locations. At Shangri La, the lowest bacterial density was found on International YBA920, Pettit #1792 and Hempasil X3 after 2 days, 7 days and 14 days respectively in comparison to the control treatments. However at Bandar Rowdha, International YBA920 showed the lowest bacterial density after 2 days while West Marine #10175206 showed the lowest bacterial density after both 7 days and 14 days of biofouling in comparison to the control treatment. The differential performance of tested antifouling coatings may be attributed to several factors including varying environmental conditions, difference in microfouling communities, time of exposure and physical and chemical properties of antifouling coating.


Given a bipartite quantum state with subsystems A and B of arbitrary dimensions, we study the entanglement detecting capabilities of locally noneective, or cyclic, unitary operations [L. B. Fu, Europhys. Lett., vol. 75, pp. 1{7, 2006]. Local cyclic unitaries have the special property that they leave their target subsystem invariant. We investigate the distance between and the global state after local application of such unitaries as a possible indicator of entanglement. To this end, we derive and discuss closed formulae for the maximal such distance achievable for three cases of interest: (pseudo)pure quantum states, Werner states, and two-qubit states. What makes this criterion interesting, as we show here, is that it surprisingly displays behavior similar to recent anomalies observed for non-locality measures in higher dimensions, as well as demonstrates an equivalence to the CHSH inequality for certain classes of two-qubit states. Yet, despite these similarities, the criterion is not itself a non-locality measure. We also consider entanglement detection in bound entangled states.


Isolated nephrons from premetamorphic lamprey larvae and adult animals were obtained using microdissection and kidney collagenase treatment methods. Significant differences in the architectonics of kidney tubules were found in larvae as compared with adults. The position of larval kidney was cranial while that in adult lampreys was caudal. The absence of nephron loop was noted in larval kidney. Distal and proximal tubules were shifted one from another in mediolateral direction. Distal tubule was significantly larger than proximal one. Mesonephric duct was located laterally near the glomus. Kidney tubules morphogenesis and nephron population number increase was observed at premetamorphic stage of larval kidney development.


The world is technologically advancing, but the management of resultant waste, commonly known as e-waste, is also becoming very challenging. Of major concern is the incessant flow of this waste into the developing world where they assume secondhand value in spite of the associated environmental threats. This study adopts the qualitative approach to examine this phenomenon in Nigeria. The study reveals that aside from being cheaper than the new products, second-hand goods are usually preferred to the new products due to the substandard nature of most new electronics largely imported from Asia (especially China). The tag of Tokunbo or 'imported from the West' associated with second-hand goods imported from developed countries makes them more preferable to the public relative to new electronics imported from China, disparagingly termed Chinco. Yet both the second-hand electronics that are socially appreciated as Tokunbo and the substandard new electronics imported into Nigeria together render the country a huge recipient of goods that soon collapse and swell the e-waste heap in the country. This situation may be mitigated through strengthening the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, and also by sensitizing Nigerians on the dangers inherent in e-wastes.


To prevent drowning incidents in French public swimming pools (PSP), bathing must be constantly supervised by qualified lifeguards. However, fatal drownings regularly occurs in supervised aquatic facilities, calling into question the efficacy of the supervision chain. The aim of this research is to fully assess the periods during which supervision is not carried out, or carried out in an inadequate manner. The observations made in 108 French PSP show that constant supervision, as stipulated by regulations, represents only half of the time. Over a total observation time of 54 hours, 147 periods during which the supervision system was degraded for 3 min or more were noticed. In the worst-case scenario, this possesses a significant problem in terms of survival probability without sequelae.


Racial microaggressions are subtle statements or behaviors, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile or denigrating messages towards people of color. Previous racial microaggression research tends to focus exclusively on monoracial people of color, without examining experiences from multiracial persons. In Study 1 (N = 262), a quantitative approach was used to measure the frequencies and types of microaggressions multiracial people experience. In study 2 (N = 9), a qualitative focus group method and directed content analysis were used to identify, as well as elaborate the array of microaggressions that occurred in the participants' everyday lives. Results from both studies support and identify that multiracial people experience microaggressions that are both similar and unique to monoracial people of color.


— Clustering is the process of grouping data into a set of disjoint classes called cluster. It is an effective technique used to classify collection of data into groups of related objects. K-means clustering algorithm is one of the most widely used clustering techniques. The main puzzle of K-means is initialization of centroids. Clustering performance of the K-means totally depends upon the correctness of the initial centroids. In general, K-means randomly selects initial centroids which often show in poor clustering results. This paper has proposed a new approach to optimizing the designation of initial centroids for K-means clustering. We propose a new approach for selecting initial centroids of K-means based on the weighted score of the dataset. According to our experimental results the new approach of K-means clustering algorithm reduces the total number of iterations, improve the time complexity and also it has the higher accuracy than the standard k-means clustering algorithm.


BACKGROUND
Lumbar facet joint (LFJ) pain is the most common cause of low back pain in the elderly. Denervation of the medial branch of the spinal dorsal ramus can theoretically achieve long-term pain relief. Yet there is little evidence of high-level prospective randomized controlled research.

OBJECTIVES
To observe the effect of radiofrequency (RF) denervation of the medial branch of the spinal dorsal ramus on LFJ pain in the elderly.

STUDY DESIGN
A prospective randomized controlled study.

SETTING
The study was performed in the National Pain Management and Research Center of China-Japan Friendship Hospital.

METHODS
A total of 270 patients over 60 years old with LFJ pain were randomly divided into an RF group (n = 135) and a control group (n = 135). They received radiofrequency denervation intervention and a conventional conservative approach, respectively. The follow-up was 6 months. The main outcome was the NRS pain score (0-10 points) and the proportion of patients with a pain reduction of more than 2 points (minimum difference of clinically significant difference). The secondary outcome was the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), the proportion of patients whose ODI decreased by more than 15 points, and the Macnab standard efficacy evaluation. The factors that influenced the excellent and good Macnab rates were analyzed by univariate and multivariable regression analysis.

RESULTS
There were more women than men who suffered from LFJ (171/99) pain based in these 270 patients. The numeric rating scale (NRS) pain score changes in the RF group were significantly different from those in the control group at the 1st, 3rd, and 6th months (-2.3 vs -1.2, -2.0 vs -1.2, -2.0 vs -1.1, P < 0.001), and the proportion of patients whose NRS decreased by ? 2 was higher than that in the control group at the 3rd and 6th months (61.1% vs 26.0%, 52.9% vs 22.5%, P < 0.001). The ODI score changes in the RF group were significantly different from that in the control group at the 1st, 3rd, and 6th months (-15.2 vs -10.1, -14.6 vs -8.6, -13.6 vs -7.7, P < 0.001), and the proportion of ODI reduction ? 15 was also higher than that in the control group at the 3rd and 6th months (45.8% vs 34.1%, 36.4% vs 27.0%, P < 0.05). The excellent rate and efficiency of the Macnab evaluation in the RF group at the 6th month was significantly higher compared to the control group (60.3% vs 36.0%, 81.0% vs 54.1%, P < 0.001). The independent factor affecting the excellent and good rate is failed back surgery syndrome.

LIMITATION
The limitation of this study is that it was only performed in one unit of the National Pain Management and Research Center. It needs to be further carried on in multiple centers in the future.

CONCLUSIONS
Radiofrequency denervation can effectively reduce LFJ pain and improve movement disorder. The effect is good until 6 months later.


Water-soluble polysaccharide (AB) is soluble polysaccharides extracted by hot water from Agaricus bisporus. Its composition was analyzed by HPLC, IR spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The results indicated that AB was composed of glucose and galactose in molar ratio of 6:1 with molecular weight of 19.4 KDa. AB showed potent antioxidant effect in an in-vitro assay. It was powerful as radical scavenger, reducing agent, metal chelator and inhibitor for lipid peroxidation. AB has been tested on Alzheimer's disease (AD) in particular on its antioxidant potential and on AD brain in AlCl3 modal. Rats were divided into four groups (n=15), control, AlCl3 intoxicant treated with AB. Brain tissue was separated for enzymes assays including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), TBARS level as an index of malondialdehyde (MDA), cholinergic markers and apoptotic. AB treated AD ALCl3 intoxication it f CATand SOD activity, total antioxidant capacity and anti-apoptotic factor (Bcl-2 and BDNF) with enhancing cholenergic biomarker acetylcholine concentration and inhibited acetylcholine esterase activity however it reduced oxidative stress biomarkers (malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide).


d-Pseudococaine, a diastereoisomer of cocaine, is prepared from l-cocaine by the action of strong base that epimerizes the carbomethoxy group at C-2 to the equatorial position and transesterifies the ester at C-3. The benzoate ester is regenerated by reaction with benzoyl chloride. The d-pseudococaine thus prepared is then subjected to a variety of instrumental and analytical techniques to effect its characterization. The tests done are those commonly used in forensic science laboratories for cocaine analysis. With these data, a laboratory can eliminate or confirm pseudococaine in such an analysis.


Introduction: Diseases of the gallbladder form an important component and are in fact the bread and butter of routine surgical practice. Though traditionally considered to be a disease of middle aged obese females, the stereotype does not always apply to clinical cases as it can occur in both younger and older age groups of either sex. The histopathological picture of cholecystitis is varied and interesting for validating the clinical diagnosis and confirming the findings of ultrasonography.

Aims and objectives: is to study the histopathology of the gallbladder in cases of cholecystitis from operative specimens and compared the tissue architecture with that of the normal gallbladder obtained from freshly donated cadavers to the Dept. of Anatomy.

Methods: 60 specimens of gall bladder were procured from cases of cholecystitis during operation from the Dept. of Surgery at KIMS &RF, Amalapuram over a period of one year and 5 specimens of the normal gall bladder were collected from freshly donated cadavers.

Results : In cases of cholecystitis the histological picture showed mucosal erosion/ulceration 47 cases (F=37/ M=10) with Smooth muscle hypertrophy and fibrosis present in 29 cases (25 female). Mono nuclear infiltration was the commonest histological change occurring in all layers of the gallbladder in 58 cases of which the majority were female patients (M=12/F=46). Glandular hyperplasia was present in 40 cases.

Most of the cases were diagnosed by histopathological examination as chronic cholecystitis, with only two cases of acute cholecystitis and incidental findings of carcinoma in situ in three cases. Metaplastic changes were present in only 2 cases with both of them occurring in male patients. Dysplastic changes were present in 8 cases, (4 male & 4 female). Carcinoma in situ was present in 3 cases, underlining the necessity of meticulous histopathological examination in all cases of cholecystectomy.

Conclusion: The findings of the present study will hopefully help surgeons and histopathologists to get a coherent picture of the tissue changes in cholecystitis and remain vigilant for carcinomatous changes in the gall bladder associated with long standing cholecystitis associated with gall stones.


This essay reports on the performance of an initiatory rite of the author's invention, undertaken as a practical experiment for thinking about certain recurrent features of ritual action and, specifically, of (male) initiation. In keeping with an approach that sees ritual as the enactment of special relationships, this initiation, The Red and the Black, was designed to demonstrate the importance of interactive pat terning both for the structuring of ritual performance and for the par ticipants' commitment to the relationships they ritually enact. Its meaningfulness, as well as its capacity to affect the participants' per ceptions and ideas, is shown to derive less from the (minimal) explicit symbolism it employs, the beliefs it presupposes, or the social func tions that can be attributed to it than from the relational entailments of the coordinate interactions it involves. Framing, simulation, secrecy, imposed suffering, symbolism, ceremonial efficacy, ritual condensa tion, and the complex interplay of in-group and out-group perspec tives are among the issues that are illustrated and discussed.


I have separated my work into two parts. In the first part, I investigate the nature of biographical writing and historical thinking in Ottoman Syria. My second part addresses the question of identity in Syria during the 16th and 17th centuries, with a specific focus of locating the Syrian intellectual elite in an Ottoman world. I made a distinction between two models of historical writing, Aleppo's tradition of local historiography, and Damascus's more universalist approach. I also discussed the development of intellectual networks in both cities, and concluded that Damascus had a unique tradition of historiography during the Ottoman period in all Muslim lands. In the second part of my study, I examined perceptions of the Ottoman Sultan and state in the biographical literature, arguing that the image of the Sultanate was quickly transformed from its initial representation as a spatially and spiritually restricted entity to one that held universal Muslim appeal. I also investigated the question of ethnic awareness and prejudice in Ottoman Syria, concluding that Damascene scholars had a greater consciousness of being part of an Arabic-speaking world in the cultural and territorial sense. Expressions of ethnic prejudice exist, but they are few and exclusive to Damascus. In the next section, I argue that, although there was considerable intellectual contact between Arabic-speaking and Turkish-speaking scholars in the Ottoman realms, both groups did not always consciously recognize that they were part of the same, unitary Ottoman world. Finally, I suggest a comparative approach to the study of Arab history under Ottoman rule.


Statins are some of the most commonly prescribed medications in medical practice, and prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men. Although there has been no consistent evidence that statins affect cancer incidence, including prostate cancer, several reports suggest they may decrease the rate of advanced prostate cancer. However, no study to date has specifically examined statin use and prostate cancer mortality. The authors conducted this population‐based case‐control investigation to examine this association.


Radiation therapy is a staple cancer treatment approach that has significantly improved local disease control and the overall survival of cancer patients. However, its efficacy is still limited by the development of radiation resistance and the presence of residual disease after therapy that leads to cancer recurrence. Radiation impedes cancer cell growth by inducing cytotoxicity, mainly caused by DNA damage. However, radiation can also simultaneously induce multiple pro-survival signaling pathways, such as those mediated by AKT, ERK and ATM/ATR, which can lead to suppression of apoptosis, induction of cell cycle arrest and/or initiation of DNA repair. These signaling pathways act conjointly to reduce the magnitude of radiation-induced cytotoxicity and promote the development of radioresistance in cancer cells. Thus, targeting these pro-survival pathways has great potential for the radiosensitization of cancer cells. In the present review, we summarize the current literature on how these radiation-activated signaling pathways promote cancer cell survival.


The evolution of veterinary nursing over the past fifty years combined with the introduction of the RCVS Register and Code of Conduct means that RVN's are now accountable for their actions and as a result must develop the ability to critically appraise, both their own practice and the protocols of the organisation in which they work, as part of clinical governance. It is therefore important that they develop the tools which enable them to confidently question all aspects of their clinical practice, but especially patient care and welfare, where necessary. This is a podcast of Sue and Andrea's talk at the Veterinary Evidence Today conference, Edinburgh November 1, 2016.


Weakly electric fish use self-generated electric fields to identify prey, explore their surroundings, and communicate with conspecifics. They have electroreceptors over their entire skin surfaces, and readings from these electroreceptors form electric images. The characteristics of electric images include important information such as the locations, shapes, and electrical properties of target objects. The lateral distance to a target object can be estimated using the rate between maximal slope and maximal amplitude, or relative slope, and provides a direct cue to localize target objects, irrespective of size and electrical properties. Sensor readings acquired from distributions of electroreceptors are interpreted as spatial electric images. Temporal electric images can be assessed using a single electroreceptor by back-and-forth swimming. Some species of weakly electric fish engage in back-and-forth swimming behavior during foraging and can use spatiotemporal information to localize objects. With active body movement and forward swimming, a single electroreceptor can scan the time course of potential perturbation caused by a target object. If there is more than one target object, electric images may be distorted by interactions between individual images. In this paper, we suggest that temporal relative slope is an effective measure for the electrolocation of multiple objects by robotic systems. We investigate the characteristics of temporal relative slopes based on back-and-forth sweeping motions to localize multiple spherical objects via modeling experiments. This method can be applied to biomimetic robotic systems in the underwater environment.


Background: Everybody seems to know what a clinical skill (CS) is but closer consideration shows that the concept of a CS is not as clear as might be assumed. Some seem to use "CSs" when just referring to physical examination skills, whereas others use the term to also include diagnostic, communication and practical skills. CSs are more than a simple performance, but clinicians are often not consciously aware of the complex interplay of different components of a CS that they are practicing and accordingly do not teach all these aspects to students. Methods: A modified Delphi research was designed to explore concepts around the definition of a CS and its components for learning and teaching. The panel consisted of a group of British doctors, all involved in teaching CSs. Results: One hundred and twenty-two items were identified and ranked through two rounds of a Delphi process, coded into thirty-seven codes and clustered into six principle themes: professional roles; components of CSs; performance; psychomotor aspects; educational environment; and teacher versus student centeredness. Conclusions: A CS may contain one or several different domains such as: physical examination skills, practical procedure, communication skills, and management. Acquiring CSs includes three components: learning how to perform certain movements (procedural knowledge), why one should do so (underlying basic science knowledge), and what the findings might mean (clinical reasoning). If we are to teach CSs for clinical practice, we must take these three different components into account in our instructional design.


River discharge and nutrient measurements are subject to aleatory and epistemic uncertainties. In this study, we present a novel method for estimating these uncertainties in colocated discharge and phosphorus (P) measurements. The "voting point"‐based method constrains the derived stage‐discharge rating curve both on the fit to available gaugings and to the catchment water balance. This helps reduce the uncertainty beyond the range of available gaugings and during out of bank situations. In the example presented here, for the top 5% of flows, uncertainties are shown to be 139% using a traditional power law fit, compared with 40% when using our updated "voting point" method. Furthermore, the method is extended to in situ and lab analysed nutrient concentration data pairings, with lower uncertainties (81%) shown for high concentrations (top 5%) than when a traditional regression is applied (102%). Overall, for both discharge and nutrient data, the method presented goes some way to accounting for epistemic uncertainties associated with nonstationary physical characteristics of the monitoring site.


We discuss the concept of Sobolev space associated to the Laguerre operator $ L_\al = - y\,\frac{d^2}{dy^2} - \frac{d}{dy} + \frac{y}{4} + \frac{\al^2}{4y},\quad y\in (0,\infty).$ We show that the natural definition does not fit with the concept of potential space, defined via the potentials $ (L_\al)^{-s}.$ An appropriate Laguerre-Sobolev spaces are defined in order to have the mentioned coincidence. An application is given to the almost everywhere convergence of solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation. Other Laguerre operators are also considered.

Published: Studia Math. 192 (2009), no. 2, 147--172.


This paper critiques the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing (QE) exit strategy which aims to deactivate excess liquidity via higher interest rates on reserves. That is equivalent to giving banks a tax cut at the public's expense. It also risks domestic and international financial market turmoil. The paper proposes an alternative exit strategy based on ABRR which avoids the adverse fiscal and financial market impacts of higher interest rates. ABRR also increase the number of monetary policy instruments which can permanently improve policy. This is especially beneficial for euro zone countries. Furthermore, ABRR yield fiscal benefits via increased seignorage and can shrink a financial sector that is too large.


It is now accepted from studies in animal models that hematopoietic stem cells emerge in the para-aortic mesoderm-derived aorta-gonad-mesonephros region of the vertebrate embryo. We have previously identified the equivalent primitive hematogenous territory in the 4- to 6-week human embryo, under the form of CD34(+)CD45(+)Lin- high proliferative potential hematopoietic cells clustered on the ventral endothelium of the aorta. To characterize molecules involved in initial stem cell emergence, we first investigated the expression in that territory of known early hematopoietic regulators. We herein show that aorta-associated CD34(+) cells coexpress the tal-1/SCL, c-myb, GATA-2, GATA-3, c-kit, and flk-1/KDR genes, as do embryonic and fetal hematopoietic progenitors later present in the liver and bone marrow. Next, CD34(+)CD45(+) aorta-associated cells were sorted by flow cytometry from a 5-week embryo and a cDNA library was constructed therefrom. Differential screening of that library with total cDNA probes obtained from CD34(+) embryonic liver cells allowed the isolation of a kinase-related sequence previously identified in KG-1 cells. In addition to emerging blood stem cells, KG-1 kinase is also strikingly expressed in all developing endothelial cells in the yolk sac and embryo, which suggests its involvement in the genesis of both hematopoietic and vascular cell lineages in humans.


We constructed two genes specific to melanogenesis, human tyrosinase (HT) and tyrosinase-related protein-1 (TRP-1) genes, into two separate expression vectors so that the cloned genes were under the control of a human cytomegalovirus promoter and enhancer. Monkey kidney COS-7 cells and human amelanotic and melanotic melanoma cells were then cotransfected by both HT and TRP-1 or transfected individually with each gene. The transfectants were examined for mRNA expression by reverse transcription-mediated RNA-PCR amplification. HT or TRP-1 mRNA was strongly expressed in HT or TRP-1 transfectants and cotransfectants of the two genes. Both light and electron microscopic observations indicated that degeneration and premature death of melanocytes occurred in HT transfectants, but not in TRP-1 transfectants or in HT and TRP-1 cotransfectants. Cotransfected cells from five cell lines revealed numerous granular reaction products with an anti-TRP-1 antibody and lysosomal granules with electron-dense material. Our melanin assay confirmed the new production of melanin pigments in these cells, indicating that the lysosomal granules would contain melanin pigments. The gene expression studies of lysosomal protein (beta-galactosidase, CD63, Lamp-1, and Lamp-2) revealed a dramatically elevated gene expression of Lamp-1, which is associated with the membrane receptor of lysosomal granules, in HT- and TRP-1-cotransfected cells. Conversely, the treatment of melanoma cells with antisense oligodeoxynucleotides against Lamp-1 resulted in a decreased expression of TRP-1 protein by immunoprecipitation, supporting the observations of the HT and TRP-1 cotransfection study regarding the up-regulation of Lamp-1 expression. We conclude that HT, TRP-1, and Lamp-1 gene products may function together, being expressed as a multiprotein complex within the melanosomal compartment. Specifically, HT and TRP-1 may function together via Lamp-1 by stabilizing the enzyme-protein complex within the melanosome and prevent the premature death of melanocytes due to tyrosinase-mediated cytotoxicity.


Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a type I hypersensitivity mediated by dominant T helper 2 (Th2) response over the Th1 response after re‐exposure to a specific allergen. Currently, socio‐economic cost evoked by AR is quickly increasing since the prevalence of AR is gradually increasing in all ages worldwide. Several probiotic Lactobacillus strains have been described with potential immunomodulatory effects against type I hypersensitivity such as AR. Thus, the aim of the present work was to characterize basic probiotic property and immunomodulatory role of newly isolated Lactobacillus strains from Kimchi, a traditional fermented Korean food, in AR. Among the identified strains, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum NR16 revealed to be a powerful Th1 inducer since immune cells co‐cultured with NR16 produced the highest quantity of interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) and interleukin‐12 (IL‐12) but secreted a low amount of IL‐4 in vitro. Therefore, NR16 was selected for the following assays conducted with mice with birch pollen–induced AR. Oral administration of NR16 reduced airway hyperresponsiveness and leukocyte infiltration in lesions of mice. In conclusion, oral administration of NR16 may mitigate symptoms of AR by inducing Th1 immune response, which might rebalance Th2/Th1 ratio by decreasing Th2 cytokine production in specific lesions of mucosa.


With this paper, we present the first exemplary results of the Topoi A-6-6 Project The economic landscape of the Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique Bithynia. Iznik intensive survey project (2013–2 016), focusing on the hinterland of Nikaia/Nicaea/Iznik during the Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique periods. For this study we used a body of integrated landscape archaeological methods including remote sensing techniques, archaeomorphological analysis, and extensive and intensive fieldwork in test areas, as well as GIS-based mapping and spatial analysis.


Although the involvement of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades and organelle dysfunction in plant hypersensitive cell death has been suggested, the mutual relationship among them has not been elucidated. Here, we show the molecular network of HSP90, the wound-induced protein kinase (WIPK)/salicylic acid-induced protein kinase (SIPK)-mediated MAPK cascade and mitochondrial dysfunction in tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) resistance gene N-dependent cell death. p50, the Avr component for N, NtMEK2(DD), a constitutively active form of a MAPK kinase of WIPK/SIPK, and a mammalian pro-apoptotic factor Bax were used for cell death induction. Suppression of HSP90 and treatment with geldanamycin, a specific inhibitor of HSP90, compromised p50- but not NtMEK2(DD)- or Bax-mediated cell death accompanying the reduction of NtMEK2, WIPK and SIPK activation. In WIPK/SIPK-double knockdown plants, p50- and NtMEK2(DD)- but not Bax-mediated cell death was suppressed. All three types of cell death induced mitochondrial dysfunction, but they were similarly suppressed by Bcl-xL, which is a mammalian anti-apoptotic factor, and prevents mitochondrial dysfunction in plants as it does in animals in the cell death signal pathway. Taken together with the expression profile of hypersensitive reaction marker genes, it was indicated that the MAPK cascade functions downstream of HSP90 and transduces the cell death signal to mitochondria for N gene-dependent cell death. Furthermore, we found that WIPK and SIPK are functionally redundant in cell death signaling using WIPK/SIPK single or double knockdown plants.


The article is devoted to the situation of the agro industry in the Cracow Vioivodeship in the interwar period. The difficult situation of the agriculture in this area (small farms, povertty, economic backwardness after the annexation, war damage) forced the authorities and private parties to pay special attention to this branch of agriculture. Well-developed agro industry contributes to ennobling the plant production, enlarges the income of the farmers, offers new job openings, and allows legthening the best-before date. In the interwar period, Cracow agro industry experienced its peaks and crises. The potato processing industry was not developed. The dairy and oil mill industry were on a low level. In spite of attemps, a suger refinery was not opened. On the other hand, the milling and meat packing industry were modernized and breweries in Okocim and Żywiec were successful. The greatest success for the whole Lesser Poland was the creation of the basis of bacon industry. thanks to the advences of the local authorities and the support of national bodies, two modern slaughterhouses were built in Tarnow and Debica. Thus, convenient pig farming conditions were created in the Cracow Voivodeship. It contributed to increasing the income of many small farms. The history of the activity of the agro industry in the years of the Second Polish Republik should be a lesson for the contemporary decision-makers who are responsible for the agriculture as modern agriculture cannot exist without a well-organized agro industry.


The transportation paradox is related to the classical transportation problem. For certain instances of this problem an increase in the amount of goods to be transported may lead to a decrease in the optimal total transportation cost. Thus this phenomenon has also been named the more-for-less-paradox. Even though the paradox has been known since the early days of linear programming, it has got very little attention in the literature and in teaching, and it seems to be almost unknown to the majority of the LP-practitioners. We consider the result of a recent paper which presents necessary and sufficient conditions for a transportation cost matrix to be immune against the paradox. These conditions are rather restrictive, supporting the results reported from simulations that the paradox may occur quite frequently. We also consider some postoptimal conditions for when the paradox may occur. A simple procedure for modifying an existing model to exploit the paradox is given and illustrated by examples. Finally two transportation examples from two selected textbooks are presented illustrating the appearance of the paradox.


The World Wide Web has been seen more and more as an effective and above all inexpensive means of delivering courses. In the search for an effective approach for Web learning, a self-reliance learning environment is required. This paper examines the "symbol pad" learning environment in cognitive constructivism. Hence, through XML-based equation technology for mathematical learning, we can provide the learner to arrange their learning sequences and construct their deep thinking and knowledge.


The paper discusses the use of spatial autonomy for detecting and avoiding physical conflicts by using examples from a warehouse environment. Like many other real world environments that are the subject of simulation, a warehouse has numerous autonomous elements, including workers, AGVs and human-operated equipment. Traditional simulations have not fully considered the effects of this autonomy, which can have significant impact upon system performance and result in accidents, delays, and deviation from modeled behavior. In the past, modelers have treated these deviations as inputs to simulations, hidden in travel time distributions and delays based on real world observations. Okashah (1994) examined four shortcomings of discrete event simulation: (1) arc and node limitations; (2) predefined entity goals, behaviors and interactions; (3) variable-frame of reference; and (4) space as a resource. The paper explains an approach to resolve these issues using spatial representation and autonomy. An autonomous approach to simulation results in deviations from idealized behavior becoming an output of-rather than an input to-simulation. Individual incidents are thus detected and resolved in simulation, and avoided in the real world.


The prevalence of ecstasy (MDMA) use has increased significantly in recent years, particularly amongst young people. Despite the existence of a sizable population of regular ecstasy users and emergent evidence of a range of associated harms, including dependence, to date no effective targeted intervention responses have been reported specifically for this group. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a single session brief intervention in reducing ecstasy use and related problems among regular ecstasy users. In a randomized controlled trial conducted in Sydney, Australia, 50 adult ecstasy users were assigned to either a single session brief intervention or an assessment-only 3-month delayed treatment control condition. Primary outcome measures were days of ecstasy use and number of DSM-IV dependence symptoms reported. At 3-month follow-up significant differences were found in favour of the intervention group on measures of DSM-IV dependence symptoms reported and Severity of Dependence Scale score. No statistically significant differences were detected on measures of quantity and frequency of use. While abstinence rates differed between groups by a factor of 4 (16% vs. 4%), this difference did not achieve statistical significance. Between group effect sizes at follow-up, all in favour of the intervention group, were moderate on the main outcome measures. The approach is acceptable to participants and merits further evaluation.


In meeting legal or professional fiduciary obligations, a fiduciary can sometimes come to share a special moral relationship with her beneficiary. Special moral relationships produce special moral obligations. Sometimes the obligations faced by a fiduciary as a result of her moral relationship with her beneficiary go beyond the obligations involved in the initial fiduciary relationship. How such moral obligations develop is sometimes under the control of the beneficiary, or of an outside party. As a result, the fiduciary can be the target of a distinctive kind of moral manipulation; it is sometimes possible to force a fiduciary to perform a particular act by placing her into circumstances under which she is morally obliged to perform it, because all her other options are morally unacceptable. This is moral blackmail. Moral blackmail is a powerful force within many sorts of human interactions. By understanding the ways in which fiduciaries become vulnerable to moral blackmail, we can better understand the pressures faced by fiduciaries in keeping their personal and professional lives separate, the dynamics of certain kinds of employment negotiations, and the injustice that results when women take on the bulk of the work within caring professions.


In immunodeficient hosts, a failure in defense mechanisms allows Cryptococcus neoformans to establish foci of infection in the brain. Immune and nonspecific responses in the primary site of infection in the lung have been described, but those extrapulmonary defense mechanisms that can be mobilized against the yeast have received little attention. This paper describes a response expressed against yeast in the brain of immunocompetent hosts, a response that is weakened in hosts deficient in CD4+ T cells. When a small number of yeast gain access to the vasculature, for example through an i.v. injection, about 0.1% establish themselves in the brain. Normal mice but not SCID mice have the capacity to suppress the multiplication of these yeast cells. The host response is accelerated in mice that are recovering from a primary lung infection, resulting in long term survival without antibiotic chemotherapy. This response is ablated by anti-CD4 mAb treatment and CD4+ cells obtained from infected primed donors are needed to confer immunity on SCID recipients. The critical target for the anti-Cryptococcus immune response are yeast in the brain cortex. However, rather than preventing the colonization of the brain by blood-borne yeast, immunity apparently serves to restrict the growth of yeast in a small number of established foci.


We report the results of a pilot study aimed at developing, implementing, and assessing an educational module that integrates remote major research instrumentation into an undergraduate civil engineering course. Specifically, this study shows the potential of adopting Internet Webbased technologies to allow for real-time video monitoring and execution of cutting-edge experiments in undergraduate geotechnical engineering classes. The students' activities within the module are centered on designing and building a model of a shallow foundation on a sand deposit utilizing a centrifuge facility and using this model for: (1) visual observation of the response of soil-foundation systems, (2) learning the use of instrumentation, (3) interpretation of acquired data, and (4) comparing experimental results to theoretical predictions. Testing a soilfoundation system helped the students identify the lab experiments needed to design the system. A survey was used to gauge the students' learning outcomes as a result of introducing the module. The module proved that remote sites can be made conveniently accessible to students and faculty; thereby, enhancing the learning experience of students that otherwise do not have access to these types of facilities and also help to save educational institutions resources.


Trust plays a key role in promoting cooperation, exchanges, and interactions among individuals and therefore it is believed to foster economic and societal development. Sender's behaviour in the popular "investment game" (Berg et al. 1995) is widely employed to measure trust among individuals, but recent economic literature has cast doubts on the accuracy of this measure of trust. These studies, however, were mostly conducted in controlled environmentsm having university students as subject polls. We played the "investment game" with 3320 rural households from 200 villages in the Adamawa region of Cameroon, recording for each participant his expectations of return on the edowment shared as first mover. In addition, participants played two additional games obtained by separating the "investment game" into two sub-games, "Triple dictator game" and "reverse triple dictator game"/ The latter two games were used to measure participants' altruism and distributional preferences. All participants were randomly assigned to two treatments with different secrecy levels to create exogenous variation in social pressure, and measure the effect of social norms on behaviour in investment game. We use behaviour observed in the sub games to test whether senders behaviour in the investment game only measures trust (and therefore a belief in someone else's trustworthiness), and whether trustworthiness in turn is a reciprocation of kindness with kindness, or unkindness with unkindness. We control for risk preferences and other demographics, and find that senders behaviour in the investment game measures mostly trust, but it is not an accurate measure of trust.


The University of California/Davis McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center (UCD/MNRC) was originally constructed by the U.S. Air Force as a nondestructive testing tool to detect moisture and corrosion in large honeycomb filled structures of aircrafts. The MNRC was transferred to UCD in February of 2000 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process of McClellan Air Force Base. UCD MNRC has a sound base of research and industrial partnerships. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. approached UCD MNRC with the need to image the condition of brushes contained in motors used in their space related projects. JPL explained that they were unable to see what they needed to see with X-rays. They wanted to know if we could see the carbon brushes in these motors. Using their samples, we initially performed two computed radiography (CR) shots 90 degrees apart through the diameter. Furthermore, another shot along the rotational axis was taken. The brushes could not be seen in the shot along the axis. The exposures through the diameter showed an inconsistency between the two motors' brushes. We then performed neutron computed tomography (CT) on both motors with one degree projection. Reconstruction clearly showed that the motor with the inconsistent shape brushes had the brushes installed incorrectly. There is a significant difference in both time and cost between CR and CT of the motors. CR took about 30 minutes from beginning of the set up to the complete evaluation, while CT took about five hours to finish. UCD/MNRC was not completely satisfied with just saying that there is an inconsistency between the two motors. Through working outside the envelope, a complete picture of the brushes condition was seen with CT in about 30 minutes.


The security problems of smart contracts have drawn extensive attention due to the enormous financial losses caused by vulnerabilities. Existing methods on smart contract vulnerability detection heavily rely on fixed expert rules, leading to low detection accuracy. In this paper, we explore using graph neural networks (GNNs) for smart contract vulnerability detection. Particularly, we construct a contract graph to represent both syntactic and semantic structures of a smart contract function. To highlight the major nodes, we design an elimination phase to normalize the graph. Then, we propose a degree-free graph convolutional neural network (DR-GCN) and a novel temporal message propagation network (TMP) to learn from the normalized graphs for vulnerability detection. Extensive experiments show that our proposed approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in detecting three different types of vulnerabilities.


AbstractThe Impact of population mobility on provincial turnout rates in the 2011 Turkish parliamentary election is studied, controlling for the effects of other socio-economic, demographic, political and institutional factors. Consequences of migration both at destinations and origins are considered. According to the robust regressions estimated, the relationship between turnout and education is inverse U-shaped, and between turnout and age (including generational effects), it is U-shaped. Immigration, emigration, large population, a large number of parliament members elected from a constituency, participation by large number of parties, and existence of a dominant party depress the turnout rate. However, at destinations where large numbers of immigrants from different regions are concentrated, the opportunity afforded to them to elect one of their own reduces the adverse impact of immigration significantly and in some cases even turns it to positive. That emigration, and education beyond certain level, have negative effects on turnout, that immigration's adverse effect is less in areas with high migrant concentrations, and that in Turkey, political participation is highest among the youngest voters are the novel findings of the study. The latter finding may explain why voter turnout declines in Europe and North America but not in Turkey.JEL ClassificationsD72; J61


Continuous fiber ceramic composite materials (CFCCs) are being considered for an increasing number of commercial applications. They provide the potential for lighter, stronger, more corrosion-resistant components that can perform at higher temperature for long periods of time. Global competitiveness demands a shortening of the time for CFCC commercialization. Thus, considerable effort has been expended to develop and improve the materials, and to a lesser extent, to develop component design methods and data bases of engineering properties. To shorten the time to commercialization, project efforts must be integrated, while balancing project resources between material development and engineering design. Currently a good balance does not exist for most materials development projects. To rectify this imbalance, improvements in engineering design and development technologies must be supported and accelerated, with a focus on component issues. This will require project managers to give increasing emphasis to component design needs in addition to their current locus on material development.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the current situation of use and misuse of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in various clinical situations.

METHODS
This was a cross sectional study done at Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) during a period of 4 months from December 2002 to March 2003. About 300 file records of those patients who received fresh frozen plasma were studied. Each file record was checked for the diagnosis of the patient, coagulation profile and doctor's trigger for blood transfusion. The indications of FFP were checked according to guidelines set by British Committee of Standards and Haematology.

RESULTS
Of 1486 units of FFP that were transfused to 300 patients, it was observed that 78.6% (1169 / 1486) of FFP was appropriately transfused while the remaining 21.3% (317/1486 units) was used without any supportive evidence.

CONCLUSION
Although majority of the plasma was used appropriately, a considerable volume of plasma was also wasted.


One of the problems with existing cultivation of earthworms is the sorting technique, which is time laborious. The aim of my experiments with Eisenia andrei (Lumbricidae) was to determine if a specific substance or attractant biased foraging direction of the worms. The substance or attractant would function as an enticement to lure E. andrei to one place and concentrate the worm population in a particular area. A trap construction, based on concentration of the worm population, was tested to improve current sorting techniques.The research of many aspects of oligochaeta is a fairly new field with a lot of unanswered questions, which makes it difficult to evaluate in which extent worm behavior is affected by other aspects besides temperature, moist content and chemical stimulation. The results of my elaboration with different chemical attractants and the worms foraging behavior indicate a favoring of mown grass, but further trials are necessary to achieve more accurate results.


Flavonoids are phenolic compounds, secondary metabolites of plants that cause several benefits to our health, including helping the treatment against cancer. These pharmacological properties are associated with the ability of flavonoids in attenuating the generation of reactive oxygen species, acting as chelate compounds or affecting the oxi-redox cycle. In spite of the large number of information in term of SAR and QSAR, no recent review has tabulated and discussed in detail these data. In view of this, we bring here a detailed discussion of the structure-activity relationships (SAR) and quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) models. We have also analyzed the correlation between the chemical structure of flavonoids and analogues to their anticancer activities. A large number of methodologies have been used to identify the characteristics of these compounds with their potential anticancer: multiple linear regression, principal components analysis, comparative molecular field analysis, comparative molecular similarity indices analysis, partial least squares, neural networks, configuration of classification and regression trees, Free-Wilson, docking; using topological, structural and enthalpies' descriptors. We also discussed the use of docking models, together with QSAR models, for the virtual screening of anticancer flavonoids. The importance of docking models to the medicinal chemistry of anticancer flavonoids has increased in the last decade, especially to help in identifying the structural determinants responsible for the activity. We tabulated here the most important examples of virtual screening determined for anticancer flavonoids and we highlighted the structural determinants. The mode of action, the most potent anticancer flavonoids and hints for the structural design of anticancer flavonoids are revised in details and provided here.


Context. Several observations of stellar jets show evidence of X-ray emitting shocks close to the launching site. In some cases, including young stellar objects (YSOs) at different stages of evolution, the shocked features appear to be stationary. We study two cases, both located in the Taurus star-forming region. HH 154, the jet originating from the embedded binary Class 0/I protostar IRS 5, and the jet associated with DG Tau, a more evolved Class II disk-bearing source or classical T Tauri star (CTTS).
 Aims. We investigate the effect of perturbations in X-ray emitting stationary shocks in stellar jets and the stability and detectability in X-rays of these shocks, and we explore the differences in jets from Class 0 to Class II sources.
 Methods. We performed a set of 2.5D magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulations that model supersonic jets ramming into a magnetized medium. The jet is formed of two components: a continuously driven component that forms a quasi-stationary shock at the base of the jet and a pulsed component consisting of blobs perturbing the shock. We explored different parameters for the two components. We studied two cases: HH 154, a light jet (less dense than the ambient medium), and a heavy jet (denser than the ambient medium) associated with DG Tau. We synthesized the count rate from the simulations and compared these data with available Chandra observations.
 Results. Our model is able to reproduce the observed jet properties at different evolutionary phases (in particular, for HH 154 and DG Tau) and can explain the formation of X-ray emitting quasi-stationary shocks observed at the base of jets in a natural way. The jet is collimated by the magnetic field forming a quasi-stationary shock at the base which emits in X-rays even when perturbations formed by a train of blobs are present. We found similar collimation mechanisms dominating in both heavy and light jets.
 Conclusions. We derived the physical parameters that can give rise to X-ray emission consistent with observations of HH 154 and DG Tau. We have also performed a wide exploration of the parameter space characterizing the model; this can be a useful tool to study and diagnose the physical properties of YSO jets over a broad range of physical conditions, from embedded to disk-bearing sources. We show that luminosity does not change significantly in variable jet models for the range of parameters explored. Finally, we provide an estimation of the maximum perturbations that can be present in HH 154 and DG Tau taking into account the available X-ray observations.


In this study, a gale event that occurred on the lee side of a long narrow mountain was investigated, together with the associated mountain flows, using a realistic-case large-eddy simulation (LES) that is based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model. The mountain is located on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, where approximately 58 gales occur annually, mostly in the afternoons during the winter season. Benefitting from realistic topography and high horizontal resolution as fine as 111 m, the LES can replicate features similar to the wind fields observed during the gale period. Investigation of the early morning wind structure over the mountain revealed that weak inflows were blocked, reversed, and divided in the upstream area and that some weak lee waves, rotors, and two clear lee vortices were evident downstream. As the upstream wind accelerated and the boundary layer developed during the daytime, the lee waves became amplified with severe downslope wind and rotors. The interaction and coherent structure of the downslope wind, rotor, and vortices were investigated to show the severe wind distribution. The mountain drags associated with blocking and amplified lee waves are displayed to show the potential impact on the large-scale model. The linear lee-wave theory was adopted to explain the wave evolution during this event together with a discussion of the uncertainty around low-level nonlinear processes.


In this paper, we try to make a case for the risky approach of many decision-makers and pol- icy specialists to overuse authority and regula- tion-based tools, while neglecting the ones more focused on human capacity and persuasion. Especially in fi elds like education, we consider that the human factor should be at the core of any policy mix, and a tool like training and pro- fessional development should gain a more visible and persistent role in policy interventions. Firstly, we try to analyze the distribution of policy tools on the authority-complexity axes. The value we see in the mapping of policy tools is that it can be used for investigating and positioning the activity of a speci fi c governing body or central gover- nance. Thus, a fundamental question remains as to what really in fl uences the choice of policy tools or instruments, as a basis for better understand- ing the rationales behind a speci fi c policy mix. We argue that policy failure could be ex- plained in many cases by the incapacity to ad- dress in a consistent and professional way the human capacities needed for implementation. Thus, training and professional development are, at least, poorly used from the perspective of the potential they have. As an argument, we tried to look at training and professional development in the speci fi c area of teachers in pre-university education in Romania, situating it in the broader context of European policies in lifelong learning and participation of adults in continuing educa- tion and training, but also in the local policy en- vironment. The results of the research led us to the conclusion that educational policies should be among the fi rst in the broader spectrum of public policies valuing and emphasizing learning, through training and professional development of the stakeholders involved in policy change together with adding more value to the Human Factor in educational policies.


To identify constraints and options to increase bean subsector's productivity, 239 farmers and 57 city traders were surveyed, and a rapid appraisal of the El Salvadorian market was conducted. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, logistic analysis, and linear regression analysis. This research shows that farmers' socioeconomic characteristics, production environments, and institutional factors all affect the varietal adoption process.


This article is about when a company should
introduce a new ethical norm. By using the Value–Belief–Norm theory, I argue
that the more an ethical issue
threatens an ethical value and the more a company has an ethical responsibility
to protect such value against such threat, then the more desirable it is for a
company to establish ethical norms to protect that particular value. The introduction
of a new ethical norm then becomes more desirable when the threat from such an
ethical issue increases and/or the ethical responsibility of the company increases. Distinguishing seven
characteristics of an ethical issue and four conditions of a company's ethical
responsibility helps in identifying the situation in which a company should
introduce a new ethical norm. The resulting framework, with corresponding guidelines,
explains why and when progress in business ethics is needed.


We study dynamic monetary risk measures that depend on bounded discrete-time processes describing the evolution of financial values. The time horizon can be finite or infinite. We call a dynamic risk measure time-consistent if it assigns to a process of financial values the same risk irrespective of whether it is calculated directly or in two steps backwards in time. We show that this condition translates into a decomposition property for the corresponding acceptance sets, and we demonstrate how time-consistent dynamic monetary risk measures can be constructed by pasting together one-period risk measures. For conditional coherent and convex monetary risk measures, we provide dual representations of Legendre--Fenchel type based on linear functionals induced by adapted increasing processes of integrable variation. Then we give dual characterizations of time-consistency for dynamic coherent and convex monetary risk measures. To this end, we introduce a concatenation operation for adapted increasing processes of integrable variation, which generalizes the pasting of probability measures. In the coherent case, time-consistency corresponds to stability under concatenation in the dual. For dynamic convex monetary risk measures, the dual characterization of time-consistency generalizes to a condition on the family of convex conjugates of the conditional risk measures at different times. The theoretical results are applied by discussing the time-consistency of various specific examples of dynamic monetary risk measures that depend on bounded discrete-time processes.


We develop an a posteriori error estimator for the Interior Penalty Discontinuous Galerkin approximation of the biharmonic equation with continuous finite elements. The error bound is based on the two-energies principle and requires the computation of an equilibrated moment tensor. The natural space for the moment tensor consists of symmetric tensor fields with continuous normal-normal components. It is known from the Hellan-Herrmann-Johnson (HHJ) mixed formulation. We propose a construction that is totally local. The procedure can also be applied to the original HHJ formulation, which directly provides an equilibrated moment tensor.


Climate change is expected to result in increased temperatures of nearshore ocean water, and this could lead to increased growth of harmful microorganisms. These include algae that form noxious or toxic blooms, including red tides, and bacteria and other pathogens. This situation could have negative consequences in regard to human health and also Florida's ocean-related economy. This 6-page fact sheet discusses projected ocean temperatures, how harmful microorganisms living in the ocean might respond, and how this might affect people, and identifies actions that could be taken to reduce these impacts. Written by Karl Havens, and published by Florida Sea Grant, June 2015.
SGEF216/SG136: Climate Change and the Occurrence of Harmful Microorganisms in Florida's Ocean and Coastal Waters (ufl.edu)


Disc-shaped methane bubbles, often observed in marine sediments, result from growth in a medium that elastically resists expansion of the bubbles and yields by fracture. We have modeled this process to obtain estimates of growth times by using a reaction-diffusion model coupled to a linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). For comparison, we also modeled the growth of a constant eccentricity bubble in a nonresistant medium. Discoidal bubbles that grow in sediments that obey LEFM grow much faster than spherical bubbles (two- to fourfold faster for the times and conditions tested here) and become more eccentric with time (aspect ratios falling from 0.3 to 0.03 over 8 d of growth). In addition, their growth is not continuous but punctuated by fracture events. Furthermore, under some conditions, LEFM predicts that bubble growth can become arrested, which is not possible for a bubble in a nonresistant medium, even for nonspherical bubbles. Cessation of growth occurs when the dissolved gas concentration gradient near the bubble surface disappears as a result of the increase in bubble gas pressure needed to overcome sediment elasticity.


Objectives: We sought to evaluate the association of small abdominal circumference (AC < 10th percentile) at third trimester ultrasound with gestational age (GA) at delivery. Methods: All women seen at our institution from 2009 through 2011 for measurements from 28 to 34 weeks' gestation with a singleton, non-anomalous pregnancy were included in this retrospective cohort. We compared GA at delivery, with preterm defined as < 37 weeks, among three groups: fetuses with normal AC and normal estimated fetal weight (EFW; both ≥ 10th percentile; Group 1), small AC and normal EFW (AC < 10th percentile, EFW ≥ 10th percentile; Group 2), and small AC and small EFW (both < 10th percentile; Group 3). Data are presented as medians (interquartile ranges (IQR)) and risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Of the 612 eligible pregnancies, 47.7% of the women were White, 17.2% Black, 15.4% Hispanic, 14.1% Asian and 5.7% other/unknown. The median GA at ultrasound was 32.0 weeks (IQR: 30.6–33.0) and median maternal age at delivery was 32.9 years (IQR: 28.8–36.7). A small AC was found in 10.6% of the fetuses. Compared to Group 1, fetuses with a small AC (Groups 2 and 3) had a lower GA at delivery and a higher incidence of preterm delivery. Fetuses in Group 2 were more than twice as likely to be delivered preterm than fetuses in Group 1, while the risk was more than six times higher in Group 3 compared to Group 1 (See Table). The RRs did not change appreciably after adjusting for maternal age and race/ethnicity. Conclusions: Small AC is associated with a higher incidence of preterm delivery. This effect was demonstrated even in fetuses with EFW ≥ 10th percentile. Further studies should examine factors that influence this association.


The Bic River in the Republic of Moldova is a heavily polluted water body. Along the river stretch, from a small creek in Sipoteni close to the river mouth at Gura Bicului, sediment samples were taken using a very cost-effective method and analyzed for a number of pollutants. The results showed very high levels of petroleum products in and downstream of the city of Chisinău, situated in the middle of the river basin, ex-ceeding even the guideline value for cleanup of industrial land. Concentrations of heavy metals were detected at all sample points, exceeding the Lowest Effect Level (LEL) in 37 out of 48 samples and the Probable Effect Level (PEL) in four of them. High concentrations of nutrients (N and P) were detected, especially outside of the city, where concentrations exceeded even the Severe Effect Level (SEL) for both N and P at one site. DDT concentrations were highest at the beginning of the river, the concentrations becoming lower and lower when getting closer to the river mouth. At three of the six sampling sites, DDT concentrations exceeded the LEL. PCB levels were lower than the LEL. This was attributed to unsuitable handling of the samples before analysis and therefore the PCB concentration levels requires further investiga-tion. The continued monitoring of the sediments is of great need, therefore a proposal for a monitoring program was written. It was estimated that Bic contributes 118000 tons of suspended particles to Dniester each year, almost 60 % more per km2 than Dniester contributes to the Black Sea.


An optical image stabilizer for use in a camera to compensate for an unwanted movement of camera, wherein two bending actuators are used to shift a lens element or the image sensor in different directions in a plane so as to shift a projected image on the image sensor in response to the unwanted camera movement. The plane is substantially perpendicular to the optical axis of camera, and longitudinal axis of each bending actuator is substantially parallel to the optical axis. The actuator can be fixedly mounted on one end so that the other end is allowed to bend. The actuator can be fixedly mounted on both ends so that the middle section is allowed to bend. Alternatively, the middle section is fixedly mounted and both ends can be used for shifting an imaging component.


Safeguarding the integrity of the counselling process and the need to protect clients has been considered necessary in the thoughts of scholars and practitioners. School counselling, however, presents a peculiar challenge in view of the fact that school counsellors could be made to take on other roles that tend to diminish their therapeutic presence. The main objective of this paper was to discuss the reality and necessity of boundaries within school counselling with particular reference to its conceptual, theoretical, and risk management dimensions. It was concluded that despite the fact that school counsellors are exposed to unavoidable dual relationships with students, rightful incorporation of some risk management procedures could help to entrench the required boundaries in school counselling. Keywords- School Counselling, Boundary Crossing, Boundary Violation, Risk-Management


the immune system through the development of mimicry in butterflies. In clear, colorful language he introduces such concepts as jumping genes, supergenes, and primitive genetic &dquo;toolboxes&dquo; in which bits of genes have been put together to form larger genes. He explores the very beginnings of multicellular life to show how dramatic mutations -so-called &dquo;hopeful monsters&dquo; -might have occurred more often in the past than today.