Despite a global consensus that rule of law is desirable, there are important debates about what this entails and how it can be achieved or supported in developing and transitional countries of the Global South. Accordingly, this chapter considers the importance and contextual suitability of rule of law as a building block for 'peaceful and inclusive societies' in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). We begin by examining key definitional debates and consider the challenges inherent to monitoring progress towards SDG target 16.3 which seeks to 'promote the rule of law at the national and international levels, and ensure equal access to justice for all'. We proceed to illustrate some of these definitional and methodological limitations by considering how favourable rankings of model Western democracies mask rule of law deficits that relate to access to justice and the protection of human rights for marginalised populations. This critique highlights an important point that is repeatedly emphasized throughout the rule of law literature: rule of law is not an end state but rather, an ideal that all countries must continuously work to realise and sustain. The remainder of the chapter considers the challenges of promoting a Western rule of law agenda in a failed and titular democracy (the Solomon Islands) and a peaceful and prosperous country (Singapore) which adheres to a 'thin' definition of the rule of law that does not conform with liberal ideals.


Health systems in high-income countries have experienced significant organizational and financial reforms over the last 25 years. The implications of these changes for the effectiveness of health care systems need to be examined, particularly in relation to their effects on the quality of health services (a pertinent issue in the United Kingdom in light of the Francis Report). Systematic review methodology was used to locate and evaluate published systematic reviews of quantitative intervention studies (experimental and observational) on the effects of health system organizational and financial reforms (system financing, funding allocations, direct purchasing arrangements, organization of service provision, and service integration) on quality of care in high-income countries. Nineteen systematic reviews were identified. The evidence on the payment of providers and purchaser-provider splits was inconclusive. In contrast, there is some evidence that greater integration of services can benefit patients. There were no relevant studies located relating to funding allocation reforms or direct purchasing arrangements. The systematic review-level evidence base suggests that the privatization and marketization of health care systems does not improve quality, with most financial and organizational reforms having either inconclusive or negative effects.


Second-order analytical solutions are constructed for various long waves generated by a gravity wave train propagating over finite variable depth h(x) using a multiphase Wentzel‐Kramers‐Brillouin (WKB) method. It is found that, along with the well-known long wave, locked to the envelope of the wave train and traveling at the group velocity Cg, a forced long wave and free long waves are induced by the depth variation in this region. The forced long wave depends on the depth derivatives hx and hxx and travels at Cg, whereas the free long waves depend on h, hx, and hxx and travel in the opposite directions at ffiffiffiffiffiffi p . They interfere with each other and generate free long waves radiating away from this region. The author found that this topographyinduced forced long wave is in quadrature with the short-wave group and that a secondary long-wave orbital velocity is generated by variable water depth, which is in quadrature with its horizontal bottom counterpart. Both these processes play an important role in the energy transfer between the short-wave groups and long waves. These behaviors were not revealed by previous studies on long waves induced by a wave group over finite topography, which calculated the total amplitude of long-wave components numerically without consideration of the phase of the long waves. The analytical solutions here also indicate that the discontinuity of hx and hxx at the topography junctions has a significant effect on the scattered long waves. The controlling factors for the amplitudes of these long waves are identified and the underlying physical processes systematically investigated in this presentation.


Introduction The preferred management of medial meniscus tears has notably moved from meniscectomies towards repair. With a higher volume of meniscal repairs being done all across the world with every passing day, the lack of an objective and definitive sign suggesting the adequacy of its repair is daunting. The purpose of our study was to introduce a unique and novel arthroscopic sign formed after adequate repair of the medial meniscus, the AMR (Adequacy of Medial meniscus Repair) sign. We hypothesised that it is not only the objective end point for repair, but can also form the indicator for excellent clinical, functional, and radiological outcome even in the long term. Materials and methods This was a multicentric, prospective study initiated by the corresponding author, and the findings validated subsequently by the other authors. Overall, it included 804 patients of isolated medial meniscus tear operated with arthroscopic all-inside technique between January 2014 and December 2017. Patients were segregated into three groups based on whether an S-shaped curve in the free, inner edge of the medial meniscus sign was formed post-repair, lost after further tightening, or not formed upon subjective completion of repair. All the patients were followed-up and evaluated based of medial joint line tenderness, McMurray's test for medial meniscus, IKDC score, WOMET score, and radiologically using an MRI at the terminal follow-up. Results The mean terminal follow-up was 42.34±4.54 months. There was significant (p<0.01) improvement in all patients at the terminal follow-up post-surgery, irrespective of the group. The group in which AMR sign was formed and maintained showed a significantly better functional outcome on terminal follow-up as well as lower failure rates compared to the other two groups. Conclusion AMR sign is an S-shaped fold at the inner, free edge of medial meniscus, formed after an adequate repair of isolated medial meniscus tear, as viewed on arthroscopy. It is an objective sign denoting regained integrity of the collagen architecture of the medial meniscus following repair. It is also a reliable indicator of excellent long term functional, clinical, and radiological outcome and also lower failure rates in patients after arthroscopic medial meniscus repair.


Best practices in airway management strategies for both out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) remain a topic of torrid contest. While observational OHCA studies have suggested no advantage in favorable outcomes of survival or neurologicalintact survival with the use of tracheal intubation (TI) or other advanced airway techniques compared to bag-valvemask (BVM) (1-3), IHCA data are more limited.


A multipath-clustering phenomenon, which is caused by the fact that scatterers tend to group together in realistic environments, has a significant impact on the channel capacity. For a band-limited system, due to the limitation of the signal time resolution, observable multipath-clustering is affected not only by propagation environments but also by the signal bandwidth. Since a larger bandwidth gives better time resolution, it is possible to observe more multipath components and, therefore, stronger clustering effects. In this paper, a new method based on the Delta-K model for multipath times of arrival (TOAs) is proposed to investigate and quantify the effect of signal bandwidth on observable multipath clustering. Furthermore, to completely characterize the time dispersion characteristics of the channel, a statistical model using a power ratio, a decay constant, and the Rician factor to describe multipath averaged power decay and amplitude fading is proposed. Newly derived formulas are given to relate the model parameters of a wideband signal, including those of the multipath TOA, averaged power decay, and amplitude fading, to those of a narrowband signal. The channel parameter estimation methods have been extensively validated by comparing the computed channel parameters with the ones extracted from the measured channel responses of 1.95 and 2.44 GHz broadband radios in metropolitan and suburban areas, and of 3-5 GHz ultrawideband signals in indoors.


The short-billed form of the white-tailed black cockatoo has been studied at Coomallo Creek for 16 years (1969-84), during which time the distribution of natlve vegetation in the district has greatly changed, and its total percentage has diminished from 67% in 1969 to 34% in 1982. At the same time the breeding population of black cockatoos in the area has fallen by one-third (to about 40 breeding pairs), but without any decrease in nesting success or in nestling 'fitness' as measured by comparing nestling weights with those of earlier years. The results of this study have been used to derwe a technique to assess the viability of populations of the white-tailed black cockatoo in other areas. This may be done by finding several nests, weighing each nestling, and measuring the length of its folded left wing, then aging it from a curve for growth of folded left wing drawn up from known-age nestlings. The weights of the nestlings are plotted against the appropriate ages, based on data from Coomallo Creek. Areas where nestlings show decreased 'fitness', as established by this method, may be in the process of losing their populations of the white-tailed black cockatoo.


In this paper, a time-frequency analysis (TFA) is proposed to derive the backscattering properties of each pixel in single-polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. At high resolution (HR), some backscattering variations which are linked to the scene geometry and the surface property occur during the radar acquisition. TFA permits to retrieve these variations from the synthesized images. The proposed TFA algorithm is based on a sliding bandpass filtering in the Fourier domain, from which a spectrogram featuring the range and azimuth backscattering variations is derived. The spectrograms summarize the physical properties of each pixel. From the spectrogram analysis, four target classes representing the four main kinds of backscattering behaviors observed in SAR images are defined: frequency invariant, range variant, azimuth variant, and 2-D variant. These classes can further be linked to the physical properties of the objects. An original and simple set of five features estimated from spectrograms is proposed to classify point targets into these four classes. A performance assessment of this classification is carried out, using ONERA/RAMSES X-band airborne images acquired over the city of Toulouse, France. A robustness analysis is also conducted, in order to assess the impact of incidence angle and resolution on the classification performance. Finally, results are also given for spaceborne images (TerraSAR-X spotlight images). The physical interpretation developed in airborne case appears to be also valid for metric spaceborne data. After studying the TFA on HR spaceborne images, the tradeoff between HR coupled with TFA and medium resolution coupled with polarimetric analysis is investigated. Actually, TFA represents another way of characterizing the physical mechanisms involved in image formation.


Today, all major central banks pay or collect interest on reserves, and stand ready to use the interest rate as an instrument of monetary policy. We show that by paying an appropriate rate on reserves, the central bank can pin the price level uniquely to a target. The essential idea is to index reserves to the market interest rate, the price level, and the target price level in a way that creates a contractionary financial force if the price level is above the target and an expansionary force if below. Our payment-on-reserves policy process does not require terminal conditions like Taylor rules, exogenous fiscal surpluses like the fiscal theory of the price level, liquidity preference as in quantity theories, or local approximations as in new Keynesian models. The process accommodates liquidity services from reserves, segmented financial markets where only some institutions can hold reserves, and nominal rigidities. We believe it would be easy to implement.


Oil immersion objectives have higher numerical aperture than water immersion objectives thus providing higher optical resolution. This is important for confocal microscopy as well as for the strength of an optical trap created by such an objective, because the efficiency of an optical trap is limited by its axial strength. However, light focused by oil immersion objectives suffer from spherical aberrations caused e.g. by a mismatch between the refractive index of the immersion and sample media. Such aberrations widen the intensity profile in the focal region thus restricting the axial resolution of the objective and decreasing the axial optical trapping strength. Objectives are typically designed such that the spherical aberrations are minimized for visible wavelengths and a few microns away from the surface. However, often optical traps are based on infrared lasers or are used further away from the surface thus introducing considerable spherical aberrations. We have shown that a tuning of the immersion refractive index can minimize the total spherical aberrations at any desired depth, thus maximizing the trapping efficiency and giving rise to optical trapping strengths twice as large as previously reported.1 Changing the immersion media, however, is a discrete way of tuning the optimal trapping depth: An increment (decrement) of 0.01 in the refractive index of the immersion media gives rise to an increase (decrease) of ≃4 μm and ≃10 μm of the most efficient trapping depth for infinity-tube length and finite-tube length objectives, respectively. Here, we show that combining a change of immersion media with changing tube length provides a continuous way of changing the optimal trapping depth. Also, we show how trapping conditions change with polarization.


This thesis uses a social constructionist epistemology against a comparative background in order to examine and compare policy responses to homelessness attributed to domestic violence in England and Australia. This is done with an intention to fulfil three specific objectives: to explore and understand how these responses have developed as products of culture and attitudes towards welfare and state provision, to explore if, why, and how, differences in conceptions and discourses surrounding homelessness have developed in two nations with similar language, legal systems and rates of owner-occupation, and lastly to investigate and interpret the policy context, and actual provision for homeless people, in the light of these differences by making links between cultural/historical discourses and their impact on provision.The research involved detailed reading of research and policy documents, and media articles from the time of the emergence of the feminist refuge movement in the 1970's, to 2005 when the research period ended. Interview questions to policymakers, homelessness practitioners and clients at both research sites were directed by the discourses that were revealed through the interrogation of these relevant historical policy documents and media articles. The interviews sought to identify how narratives become established and consistent, and the ongoing struggles that occur below the surface of policy responses.Existing theories and methodologies have been utilised and applied to my own data and analytical framework, in order to inform our understanding of the dynamic relationship between discourse and policy. It is the linking between different aspects of the research that makes it innovative and distinctive. The central argument, and contribution to knowledge, of this thesis is that we cannot ignore how cultural and historical context lessens or adds to the power of a discourse. There is also a broader contribution, as the same theoretical and methodological approach could be used to analyse the development of policy in any field.


The objective of this project is to develop a device capable of calculating distance between two points on surface of earth. This device finds its application in professional golf courses where the members need to change their stick depending upon distance between flag and the person. There are a number of devices available in the market for this purpose. But the methodology and components used by them are costly and takes a lot of time. The methodology they use is that they get connected to Google earth (i.e. internet). Prior to that this device is very user friendly, and stores all the recorded data and scores onto a remote server by wireless communication. This feature is not supported by any device related to this in market. This reduces work of the person in charge of the golf course. The database can be accessed only at that server (i.e. PC) by means of a GUI. The database and GUI are password protected and can be accessed by both players and administrators. The technology used behind this is use of GPS modem to extract GPS location of two points and calculating distance between those two points using an algorithm. The GPS location consists of latitude and longitude. Any point on surface of earth can be represented by these two values. And the device is named as "Range Finder for Golf Application".


Rapid advances in display technology over the past decade, in particular,have driven costs downward and spurred explosive growth worldwide in the demand for, and sales of, electronic equipment ranging from large screen televisions to mobile phones. Boasting a market well in excess of $79 billion in 2004,displays have surged to the forefront of the optoelectronics industry, largely on the strength of consumer sales. Flat panel technologies such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display panels (PDPs) now offer screens of unprecedented size but also brightness and contrast approaching or surpassing the quality afforded by the cathode ray tube (CRT). This brief review focuses on selected emissive display technologies:PDPs, field emission and surface-conduction electron emission displays, and microcavity plasma arrays. Spanning the range from mature, commercially developed displays to emerging concepts, these technologies underscore the growing importance of the display in consumer, commercial, and research applications for its critical role as an increasingly sophisticated interface between an electronic or electro-optical system and the user.


Background Research on depression stigma is needed to gain more insight into the underlying construct and to reduce the level of stigma in the community. However, few validated measurements of depression stigma are available in the Netherlands. Therefore, this study first sought to examine the psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the Depression Stigma Scale (DSS). Second, we examined which demographic (gender, age, education, partner status) and other variables (anxiety and knowledge of depression) are associated with personal and perceived stigma within these samples. Methods The study population consisted of an adult convenience sample (n = 253) (study 1) and a community adult sample with elevated depressive symptoms (n = 264) (study 2). Factor structure, internal consistency, and validity were assessed. The associations between stigma, demographic variables and anxiety level were examined with regression analyses. Results Confirmatory factor analysis supported the validity and internal consistency of the DSS personal stigma scale. Internal consistency was sufficient (Cronbach's alpha = .70 (study 1) and .77 (study 2)). The results regarding the perceived stigma scale revealed no clear factor structure. Regression analyses showed that personal stigma was higher in younger people, those with no experience with depression, and those with lower education. Conclusions This study established the validity and internal consistency of the DSS personal scale in the Netherlands, in a community sample and in people with elevated depressive symptoms. However, additional research is needed to examine the factor structure of the DSS perceived scale and its use in other samples.


Abstract Objective Mobile phones can replace traditional self-monitoring tools through cell phone-based ecological momentary assessment (CEMA) of lifestyle behaviours and camera phone-based images of meals, i.e. photographic food records (PFR). Adherence to mobile self-monitoring needs to be evaluated in real-world treatment settings. Towards this goal, we examine CEMA and PFR adherence to the use of a mobile app designed to help mothers self-monitor lifestyle behaviours and stress. Design/Setting In 2012, forty-two mothers recorded CEMA of diet quality, exercise, sleep, stress and mood four times daily and PFR during meals over 6 months in Los Angeles, California, USA. Subjects A purposive sample of mothers from mixed ethnicities. Results Adherence to recording CEMA at least once daily was higher compared with recording PFR at least once daily over the study period (74 v. 11 %); adherence to both types of reports decreased over time. Participants who recorded PFR for more than a day (n 31) were more likely to be obese v. normal- to overweight and to have higher blood pressure, on average (all P<0·05). Based on random-effects regression, CEMA and PFR adherence was highest during weekdays (both P<0·01). Additionally, PFR adherence was associated with older age (P=0·04). CEMA adherence was highest in the morning (P<0·01). PFR recordings occurred throughout the day. Conclusions Variations in population and temporal characteristics should be considered for mobile assessment schedules. Neither CEMA nor PFR alone is ideal over extended periods.


It is experimentally testified that the voltage hold-off capability of alumina in vacuum is usually less than that of a similar-sized vacuum gap and also is far below its bulk breakdown strength. In this work, both bulk doping and surface coating were taken into consideration to modify the surface of 95%alumina in hope to improve its insulating property in vacuum and satisfying results were achieved. The as-blended 95% alumina powder was selected as initial powder to be doped with oxides combination such as MnCO3, Cr2O3, MgO and TiO2 separately or assembly. Conventional manufacturing procedures were applied for preparing all ceramic samples. Cr2O3 and Cu2O were selected as main ingredient separately to be coated on 95% alumina samples with different shapes. Samples doped with proper Cr2O3 and MgO and those doped with proper MnCO3 and Cr2O3 were found to possess higher surface hold-off voltage than original 95% alumina. It was point out through properties measurements that proper bulk doping and surface coatings were effective to reduce both the secondary electron emission (SEE) coefficient and surface resistivity of 95% alumina and so to enhance its surface insulating ability.


: There are a number of social, political and medical concerns for the clinician dealing with female patients who are postmenopausal and at risk for the development of osteoporosis which may lead to chronic disability and possibly death. A brief overview of the role of current therapies is given together with their potential for adverse effects. Further research into etiology, diagnosis and optimum management is obviously necessary.


We assemble two unique databases. One is on reforms in domestic finance, external finance, trade, product markets and labor markets, which covers 90 advanced and developing economies from 1973 to 2014. The other is on electoral results and timing of elections. In the 66 democracies considered in the paper, we show that liberalizing reforms engender benefits for the economy, but they materialize only gradually over time. Partly because of this delayed effect, and possibly because voters are impatient or do not anticipate future benefits, liberalizing reforms are costly to incumbents when implemented close to elections. We also find that the electoral effects depend on the state of the economy at the time of reform: reforms are penalized during contractions; liberalizing reforms undertaken in expansions are often rewarded. Voters seem to attribute current economic conditions to the reforms without fully internalizing the delay that it takes for reforms to bear fruit.


Objectives We examined the association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and oral health, and the associations of economic difficulties in childhood and workplace-related factors on these parameters. Design Cross-sectional study. Participants A total of 3201 workers aged 25–50 years, living in and around Tokyo, Japan, from the J-SHINE (Japanese study of Stratification, Health, Income, and Neighborhood) study. The response rate was 31.6%. Outcome measures Self-rated oral health (SROH)—A logistic regression model was used to estimate ORs for the association between poor SROH and each indicator of SEP (annual household income, wealth, educational attainment, occupation and economic situation in childhood). Multiple imputation was used to address missing values. Results Each indicator of SEP, including childhood SEP, was significantly inversely associated with SROH, and all of the workplace-related factors (social support in the workplace, job stress, working hours and type of employment) were also significantly associated with SROH. Compared with professionals, blue-collar workers had a significantly higher OR of poor SROH and the association was substantially explained by the workplace-related factors; ORs ranged from 1.44 in the age-adjusted and sex-adjusted model to 1.18 in the multivariate model. Poverty during childhood at age 5 and at age 15 was associated with poorer SROH, and these two factors seemed to be independently associated with SROH. Conclusions We found oral health disparity across SEP among workers in Japan. Approximately 60% of the association between occupation and SROH was explained by job-related factors. Economic difficulties during childhood appear to affect SROH in adulthood separately from sex, age and the current workplace-related factors.


This paper presents an overview of second foreign language (SFL) education in Sweden, especially at lower secondary level. It offers a survey of the historical development of the study of other languages than English as well as a reflection over the current state of the subject. Currently, there is a shortage of research on the circumstances and conditions of the learning, teaching and assessment of the Swedish school subject Modern languages, as well as on young people's proficiency in other languages than English in Sweden. In order to contribute to a knowledge base for further research, the current paper reviews work considering the Swedish context concerning: a) frame factors, policy issues and organization of SFL studies b) attitudes towards plurilingualism and SFL motivation, c) teacher education and recruitment policies, and d) levels of attainment at the end of compulsory school. Throughout the paper, the European context is also taken into account. The paper ends with a discussion of the general status of the subject Modern languages in Swedish school and society, the fact that this subject is not mandatory, and the consistently high dropout rate that characterizes the current situation.


The constraints that cooperative and non-cooperative dairy farms face in expanding milk production have been reported based on a field study on some cooperative and non-cooperative dairy farms in the state of West Bengal. The study has shown that non-cooperative farms face major constraints and high severity compared with cooperative farms in expanding milk production. Also important is that most of the severe or more severe constraints are infrastructural in nature. The study has suggested that for expanding milk production, the expansion of cooperative dairy farms other than non-cooperative dairy farms may overcome most of these difficulties.


Our application is the configuration of telecooperation systems. The need for new configuration systems in this area matches well with the advances in the AI domain. We argue that case-based reasoning is very useful in the configuration of telecooperation systems and show the extension of an existing resource-oriented configurator to reason with cases. Finally we present a general method from case-based reasoning and resource-oriented configuration. Thereby special consideration is given to the reuse of cases which is done by adaptation.


Advances in Information and Communication Technology had a positive impact in various fields. One positive impact is the area of the creative economy. Those who are creative will always see a business opportunity behind the progress of Information and Communication Technology. Gojek and Grabbike are 2 pieces of creative ICT-based businesses. Both companies see tremendous business opportunities of advancement of Information and Communication Technology, although they are not a transport company but with a system of partnership both companies in a short time was able to partner with thousands of motorcycle owners who need work. The system of partnership offered by these two companies is a system for mutually beneficial results. Both companies are only taking a small percentage of the earnings of the motor driver, even the two companies still provide some additional facilities such as bonuses and insurance services to its partners. Gojek presence and Grabbike very helping thousands of people in major cities of Indonesia are having trouble finding a job or having trouble finding additional income. Through this business is not just motorists who benefited, the passengers also benefit from this business, because passengers no longer need to fear being cheated by the high rates, because the cost to be paid in accordance with the calculations provided by the application and Grabbike Gojek. Utilization of Information and Communication Technology creative and benefit all parties as this is expected to continue growing and innovating so that help and bring a positive influence to the society.


A bstruct-Electrical breakdown, both intrinsic and extrinsic, of thin film diodes used as switches in active matrix addressed liquid crystal displays has been studied using eIectrical measurements, thermal measurements, thermal 3D simulations, electrical simulations and post breakdown observations. The diodes used in this study consist of a layer of 30 nm amorphous hydrogenated silicon rich silicon nitride, sandwiched between metal electrodes. It will be shown that breakdown under dc bias is a thermal process. Thermal breakdown is shown to occur above a temperature level of 234 "C and is triggered by the onset of hydrogen effusion. Under certain conditions, low ohmic links are formed as a result of breakdown. Breakdown due to very short pulses (50-500 ns) shows a remarkable asymmetry in breakdown current between polarities. A hypothesis on this asymmetry is presented. Measurements suggest that a relation exists between current flow induced state creation in the nitride and breakdown phenomena. Furthermore, a statistical measurement technique is presented that uses breakdown to monitor the switch reliability in active matrix LCD production.


Improving the quality of positron emission tomography (PET) images, affected by low resolution and high level of noise, is a challenging task in nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. This work proposes a restoration method, achieved after tomographic reconstruction of the images and targeting clinical situations where raw data are often not accessible. Based on inverse problem methods, our contribution introduces the recently developed total generalized variation (TGV) norm to regularize PET image deconvolution. Moreover, we stabilize this procedure with additional image constraints such as positivity and photometry invariance. A criterion for updating and adjusting automatically the regularization parameter in case of Poisson noise is also presented. Experiments are conducted on both synthetic data and real patient images.


Abstract A follow-up study on 20 patients one to 9 years after lateral wedge resection of the calcaneus according to Dwyer is reported. In 18 feet with neurogenic varus deformity of the hind foot, the angle between the axis of the lower leg and the heel was altered from 11.4 degrees +/- 1.4 degrees SD varus to a normal value of 5.9 degrees +/- 0.9 degrees SD valgus. The position of the calcaneal tuberosity was changed from 6.7 degrees +/- 1.1 degree SD varus to 0.1 degree +/- SD varus in 7 congenital club feet. The osteotomy reduced accompanying deformities of pes cavus and pes adductus in the operated children.


Amine-functionalized carbon dots (A-CDs) were synthesized by one-step hydrothermal reaction of urea and citric acid. The purified CD sample exhibits a surface states dominated fluorescence emission with a quantum yield of 30%. The A-CDs demonstrate excellent sensitivity toward methamphetamine pre-precursor and precursor, and a remarkable selectivity against common drug cutting agents (diluents) such as aspirin, paracetamol, etc. The specific selectivity of CDs towards such type of drug precursor molecules is first time reported, which appears to be related to the spatial distribution of the surface functional groups. The fluorescence-based sensing mechanism is revealed by a detailed analysis on the static and dynamic fluorescence behaviour. We further demonstrated an immobilization strategy for fabricating solid-state sensors, and the retained sensitivity of the A-CDs after immobilization. The study reveals the potential of the use of a CDs as an effective sensing probe for illicit drugs, which is in demand.


Responding to a global market demand for clean, reliable and low-cost energy, GE Power Systems introduced its newest, most advanced generation of gas turbines in 1995. Called the H System™ this technology uses higher efficiency and output to produce electricity at lower costs than any other gas-fired power generation system available today. Efficiency. The H System™ is designed to achieve 60% thermal efficiency, a major milestone in the power generation industry. The most efficient combined-cycle systems currently in operation reach 57–58% efficiency. The use of advanced materials and a unique, steam-cooling system enable the higher firing temperatures required for this increase in efficiency. The integrated closed-loop steam cooling system uses steam from the steam turbine bottoming cycle to more efficiently cool the critical gas turbine parts, and returns the steam to the bottoming cycle where it can produce additional work in the steam turbine. Environmental Performance. The H System™ burns natural gas, a much cleaner fuel than other options such as oil or coal. In addition, the system's higher efficiency means that less fuel is needed to produce the same amount of power, further reducing emissions of CO2 and NOx . The closed-loop steam cooling system cools both the rotating and stationary gas turbine parts to maintain combustion chamber exit temperatures for low NOx emissions, while permitting the high gas turbine firing temperatures required for increased efficiency and output. Reliability. The H System™ is based on technology proven in millions of hours of GE aircraft engine and power plant service. In particular, the lessons learned throughout the development and 7.1 million hours of worldwide operating experience of GE's F technology have been applied to the H System™. Status. This technology has been subjected to an extensive validation process. This process includes component, scale, and full size rig testing, Full Speed No Load factory tests, and culminates in Full Speed Full Load characterization testing in a commercial power plant. This paper discusses the validation process and status for the 50 Hz S109H and 60 Hz S107H in more detail.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


In this work, the effects of potassium acetate(KAc) intercalation on particle size and viscosity of delaminated kaolin were investigated. It was found that the KAc intercalation in the presence of a small quantity of water possessed more efficiencies. Through inserting kaolin layers with potassium acetate, the average particle size of delaminated kaolin decreased from 5.48μm to 2.21μm, moreover, the viscosity at solid content of 60% decreased distinctly, from more than 10000 mPa•s to less than 200 mPa•s. The result also indicated that the calcined kaolin was delaminated by KAc efficiently, the particle size decreased greatly without harming to the dispersion ability of kaolin suspension.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore a broader understanding of the role of Cypriot school principals' personal identities, through a values system perspective, when exercising their leadership.

Design/methodology/approach
A multicase study methodology was followed with five school principals, representing five different leadership styles. In each case, an in-depth investigation of the school principal's personal identity was undertaken. School principals' personal values were explored during interviews, staff meetings and daily activities observations, as well as through the use of the think-aloud protocol method. This study utilized the Schwartz Theory of Basic Human Values, as well as the Pashiardis–Brauckmann Holistic Leadership Framework, as the guiding theoretical framework.

Findings
School principals' personal identities in Cyprus seem to influence, to some extent, their daily leadership practice. However, particular factors associated with the context in which they live (social identity) and work (professional identity), seemed to be affecting the personal values embedded throughout their personal identities.

Research limitations/implications
Five school principals are not enough to make generalizations on the relationships between leadership styles and values. However, through this paper, the authors sought to provide examples on how school principals' personal identities influence their leadership practice.

Practical implications
The findings highlight the important role and attention to school principals' personal identities, beyond the core management and leadership courses. The findings also shed light on the importance of looking more closely at contextual elements "outside" and "inside" the school and to what extent these could influence school principals' personal identities.

Originality/value
This paper offers insights into school principals' personal identities, through a values system perspective, and how these personal identities influence their leadership practice.


THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF NOISE ON HUMAN HEART RATE by Jose R. Fabregas In an industrial environment, chronic noise exposure is assumed to affect human heart rate. If this is true, people who are more sensitive to noise will run a higher risk of incurring cardiovascular diseases. Sixteen healthy experimental subjects, all with normal hearing, eight males and eight females, were exposed to five different types of pink and white noise at 60, 70, 80, and 85 dBA in order to determine if any relationship exists between the heart rate and sex. Each individual was exposed for a maximum of thirty seconds for each type and level of noise. Audiometric tests were given to subjects in order to measure their hearing sensitivity (threshold) before and after the experiment. This study provides valuable information towards understanding if autonomic responses are higher in people who consider themselves sensitive to noise, and in determining if sex plays a role on any effects noise may exert on heart rate. THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF NOISE ON HUMAN HEART RATE


Background/Aims A number of clinical trials reported varying effects of cholesterol lowering agents in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients. We, therefore, assessed the changes in hepatic steatosis and NAFLD activity score (NAS) after treatment with cholesterol lowering agents in NAFLD patients by metaanalysis. Methods The Cochrane Library, the MEDLINE, and the Embase databases were searched until May 2015, without any language restrictions, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized studies (NRSs). Additional references were obtained from review of bibliography of relevant articles. The quality of evidence was assessed using the grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluation guidelines. Results Three RCTs (n = 98) and two NRSs (n = 101) met our study inclusion criteria (adult, NAFLD, liver biopsy). Liver biopsy was performed in all five studies, but only the three studies reported NAS. Ezetimibe significantly decreased NAS (standardized mean difference [SMD], –0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], –0.57 to –0.03) but not hepatic steatosis in RCT (SMD, –0.1; 95% CI, –0.53 to 0.32), while the effect was significant for both NAS and intrahepatic content in NRSs (SMD, –3.0; 95% CI, –6.9 to 0.91). Conclusions Ezetimibe decreased NAS without improving hepatic steatosis.


During the educational process there are a multitude of strategies that educators may employ in order to maximize learning among their pupils. For symbolic problem-solving skills (such as mathematics), a particularly effective technique is to have students study worked-out example problems and unworked practice problems. Research shows that students who explain parts of worked examples to themselves learn more effectively than students who do not This is called the self-explanation effect (Chi et al., 1989; Fergusson Hessler & de Jong, 1990; Pirolli & Bielaczyc, 1989) . In summary, this research proved that students learn most effectively by studying examples when they are careful to explain to themselves as many steps of the example as they can . This theory further states that students who do not carefully explain worked out example steps do not perform as well on subsequent problems. To explain this result, VanLehn and Jones (Venl.ehn, Jones & Chi, 1991) developed Cascade, a cognitive model that posits particular memory, problem-solving, and learning mechanisms to account for the self-explanation effect. Subsequent psychological research has concluded thatfading completely worked examples can further improve learning (Renkl, Atkinson & Maier, 2000). Fading consists of removing some of the solution steps in an example, forcing students to solve those portions themselves. To explain this new result, Jones and Fleischman (2001) used Cascade to model the basic cognitive processes of subjects given faded examples. This explanation relied on a small set of assumptions, to be verified by future experiments on human subjects. My primary work this year has been in collaboration with psychologists who have run further detailed experiments, in part to test the predictions we made last year. The new data provide detailed behavior traces of students studying a variety of different sets of example problems, in order to learn some basic princip les of mathematical probabilities. The detailed nature of the data allows me to use Cascade to do a very precise analysis of the errors the subjects generate, the learning episodes they experience, and the knowledge they acquire. Part of my task has been to engineer Cascade's knowledge base from classical physics to the probability principles in the current experiments. The rest of my work involves coding the subject behavior traces and tuning Cascade's parameters to fit them . The upshot of this work is that the new data are consistent with the predictions we made last year, providing further evidence that Cascade is a useful model of human learning and problem solving, and further insight into effective teaching procedures for problem-solving skills.


In an era of fundamental changes in education brought by virtual worlds and augmented reality, dominated by mobile devices and applications, it is necessary to rethink the educational environments based on the use of social applications like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs and collaborative bookmarking systems, in accordance with the skills and learning needs of students.

In this context, the authors discuss how today's Romanian educational actors perceive and use social media, trying to find out the answers to questions such as:

- How teachers and students use social media as reflective and collaborative teaching and learning tools, also for research and professional development?
- Which is the relation between social media and mobile learning?
- Which are the potential benefits, challenges, and disadvantages in using social media in universities and colleges?
- How the usage can be extended, is there a need for training the educational actors in this topic?
- Have the universities an official policy/strategy related to social media?
- Is there any connection between social media usage and the universities' ranking?

Thus in order to shed light on the research issues, we have developed and applied an online questionnaire for scholars from different universities and colleges from Romania. Although our findings revealed an increasing use of social media by educational actors for the time being, only a few universities have adopted coherent strategies and policies for the pedagogical integration of social media and the development of the best methods for teaching and learning based on these strategies.


A potential problem associated with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) sorbents is that of cross-reactivity. In this study three MIPs (imprinted with Boc-L-phenylalanine, Boc-L-alanine, Boc-L-glutamic acid) plus a non-imprinted control were prepared and examined for their ability to bind differentially the enantiomers of boc-protected phenylalanine in an effort to quantify cross-reactivity and to develop a predictive model. Batch rebinding studies showed a degree of predictability for a number of MIP-ligand pairs, but other combinations showed unexpectedly high levels of cross-reactivity. Despite the general acceptance of heterogeneity of MIP binding sites, many previous studies report linear Scatchard plots, which is indicative of binding site homogeneity. The data from this study produced curves, clearly demonstrating heterogeneity. The theoretical and practical implications of this heterogeneity are discussed.


We present StampedeRT, middleware designed to provide a natural programming model appropriate for live streaming applications. Such applications require pervasive access to multiple streaming data sources for distributed online analysis. One motivating example is a distributed robotics application which analyzes live camera feeds for control and planning. Most existing middlewares for streaming data focus on media streams and low-level transport characteristics such as delivery latency and efficient transfer, but do not define a programming model to succinctly express applications that manipulate and analyze the streaming content. StampedeRT provides for straightforward transport and manipulation of temporally-ordered data streams, enabling simple synchronization and correlation of data sources. We present an abstract programming model to support the aforementioned class of applications and then describe a concrete realization of the model as a distributed middleware architecture. We also evaluate our implementation of the architecture and present several motivating applications StampedeRT is designed to support.


biomass, we applied a standardised model averaging approach investigating the effects of basal resource stoichiometry, litter mass, plant species richness, and soil pH on both consumer community characteristics. This standardised approach enabled us to identify differences and similarities in the magnitude and importance of such effects on consumer species richness and biomass. 4. Across consumer groups, we found litter mass to be the most important predictor of both species richness and biomass. Resource stoichiometry had a more pronounced impact on consumer species richness than on their biomass. As expected, taxonomic groups differed in which resource and habitat parameters (basal resource stoichiometry, litter mass, plant species richness, and pH) were most important for modulating their community characteristics. 5. The importance of litter mass for both species richness and biomass indicates that these tropical consumers strongly depend on habitat space and resource availability. Our study supports previous theoretical work indicating that consumer species richness is jointly influenced by resource availability and the balanced supply of multiple chemical elements in their resources.


Recent debates on this topic have been heavily shaped by two paradigms: Asad's deconstructivism and Taylor's Catholic/Hegelian revisionism. This article outlines the arguments of each but frames them within the longer history of arguments that make claims for the reality of secularization and alternate sources for claims that "the secular" is a historically constructed category, including arguments from radical theology and (differently) in the anthropology of India. It is argued that implicit claims for the hierarchical ordering of reality in modernity, in which the political is seen as more real than the religious, continue to create disjunctures in the range of debate that new ethnography has the opportunity to address.


In this paper we analyze the behavior of product-type radial basis functions (RBFs) and splines, which are used in a partition of unity interpolation scheme as local approximants. In particular, we deal with the case of bivariate and trivariate in terpolation on a relatively large number of scattered data points. Thus, we propose the local use of compactly supported RBF and spline interpolants, which take advantage of being expressible in the multivariate setting as a product of univariate functions. Numerical experiments show good accuracy and stability of the partition of unity method combined with these product-type interpolants, comparing it with the one obtained by replacing compactly supported RBFs and splines with Gaussians.


Onions treated with bromoxynil (Buctril7) or oxyfluorfen (Goal7) at the time when the first true leaf was emerging were not injured. No significant onion crop stand reduction occurred from any of the postemergence (POST) treatments. Onion height was not affected by any of the POST treatments through the season. A single application of Goal or Buctril offered up to 7 WAT of very good weed control with excellent crop safety. Onions treated at the typical 2-leaf stage of growth with Buctril or Goal exhibited no significant crop injury. Delayed and reduced control of knotweed (Polygonum aviculare) could have contributed to the decreased onion yield in the herbicide treated onions compared to the handweeded check. Onions in the untreated check were significantly reduced compared to Goal treated onions or the handweeded check.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common etiology of dementia. Its incidence increases with age following an exponential trend of line between 60 and 90 years old. Anti-cholinesterasic drugs reduce modestly AD symptoms. However, they have no basic impact on the pathological evolution of the disease. Memantine offers another therapeutic approach in AD with a dissimilar mechanism of action, confronting neurotoxic effects of glutamate overload. It prevents the elevation of glutamate which destroys cholinergic neurons by inhibiting the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Its clinical efficiency has been demonstrated during 28 weeks with 20 mg/day, in patients presenting moderate or severe AD and mild or moderately vascular dementia. Its use in association with anti-cholinesterasic (donepezil) revealed more interesting results with a significant improvement of cognitive functions and activities of daily live, compared to association placebo-donepezil. We are waiting for results of further lenghter studies, including more, well-defined, patients.


Despite social work's expressed interest in families and belief in the importance of parents to children, social work researchers have done little to explore the importance of fathers in children's everyday lives. This is especially true for infants. Moreover, as more and more infants and children grow up in single-mother homes, step-families, and other family configurations, knowledge is needed about how these demographic trends affect parents' interactions with their young children. This article examines men's caregiving of infants and their displays of affection in a longitudinal study of a diverse sample of infants and their mothers, using both person-centered and variable-centered statistical methods. Comparisons are made among various "types" of fathers, including those who live with and separately from their children and men who are not biological fathers but live with and care for infants. Results indicate that caregiving and expressions of affection appear to represent two distinct domains of fathering behaviors for residential fathers. We found two classes of residential fathers: one with low levels of both types of fathering behavior and one with higher levels, particularly higher expressions of affection. Similarly we found two classes of non-residential fathers with dramatically different levels of fathering behavior. Though surrogate fathers did provide affection to their infants, their levels of caregiving were low.


A review of household waste (HHW) policy has been announced. Competition in HHW collection is evolving towards a series of local monopolies which, combined with high barriers to entry, create the conditions for rents to be earned. So much for market failure, what is the solution? This paper presents arguments in favour of competitive tendering, including: HHW collection charges should be more attractive as rents are eliminated; CO2 emissions and congestion costs would be reduced as there is no inefficient duplication; and complementary mechanisms can ensure that HHW collection charges do not get too high in low density areas, thereby protecting the positive externalities of broader take-up of HHW collection services.


Introduction: Therapeutic targeting of brown adipocyte-mediated thermogenesis to increase energy expenditure may offer a viable alternative approach to combat obesity and metabolic disease. Several immune signaling regulated beige fat thermogenic circuits were established in adipose tissues. Genetic deficiency and pharmacological stabilization of Mast Cells (MCs) increased metabolic rate and UCP1 expression in BAT in western diet-fed mice in concert with their obesity and insulin resistance improvement. Serotonin is an important regulator of energy balance. Yet, it remains unknown whether MCs play a direct role in energy homeostasis or the above-mentioned changes in energy expenditure are merely a consequence of mouse body weight reduction. Methods and Results: We compared metabolic rate differences between WT and MC-deficient Kit w-sh/w-sh mice. In the context of mice on a chew diet, norepinephrine (NE)-stimulated metabolic rate is increased in MC-deficient Kit w-sh/w-sh mice and MC-stabilized wide-type (WT) mice. Histological staining, qPCR and western blot showed UCP1 and other thermogenic genes also increased in these mice. Such functional inactivation of MCs enhances thermogenesis and browning in subcutaneous adipose tissues (SAT), but not in brown (BAT) and epididymal adipose tissues (EAT). MC reconstitution to SAT blocks the aforesaid changes in Kit w-sh/w-sh mice. Mechanistic studies demonstrate that functional inactivation of MCs not only elevates the numbers and proliferation of PDGFRα + bipotential adipocyte precursors but also accelerates beige adipocyte differentiation in SAT. Using tryptophan hydroxylase 1 inhibitor and Tph1 -/- mast cells, we show that MC-derived serotonin inhibits SAT beige adipocyte biogenesis and systemic energy expenditure. Conclusions: Together, functional inactivation of MCs or inhibition of MC serotonin synthesis in SAT promotes adipocyte browning and systemic energy metabolism in mice. Disclosure X. Zhang: None. Funding American Heart Association


The effect of an 80 nm YSZ interfacial layer, deposited onto a YSZ pellet by different techniques (dip-coating, sputtering and atomic layer deposition) at the SOFC cathode/electrolyte interface to allow a maximum adhesion of the thick cathode layer, was thoroughly analysed. The LSM cathode was deposited on the solid electrolyte by painting and sintered in air at 1200°C for 2 h. The morphological and structural analyses of the samples were performed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction; their electrical properties were examined between 390 and 700°C by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The impedance responses showed three different contributions. The highfrequency arc is attributed to the YSZ electrolyte. The electrode processes associated with the medium- and low frequency arcs were discussed. The electrochemical performance was influenced by the microstructure at the electrode/electrolyte interface.


Survey data from Southeastern Pennsylvania is used to estimate the costs of current mushroom pest management practices. Pest management costs represent a sizeable proportion of the variable costs of producing mushrooms. 'The practices found are highly variable with costs ranging from $ . 04 to $ • 58 per square foot. 'The frequency of outside applications and steam use before and after the crop are the most significant practices influencing production costs.


Motivated by the search for a body of mathematical theory to support the semantics of computational effects, we first recall the relationship between Lawvere theories and monads on Set. We generalise that relationship from Set to an arbitrary locally presentable category such as Poset and ωCpo or functor categories such as [Inj, Set] and [Inj, ωCpo]. That involves allowing the arities of Lawvere theories to be extended to being size-restricted objects of the locally presentable category. We develop a body of theory at this level of generality, in particular explaining how the relationship between generalised Lawvere theories and monads extends Gabriel–Ulmer duality.


This paper investigates the validity of the conventional wisdom that, unlike in developed countries, exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) should be 'complete' for developing economies. To test this hypothesis, we construct new variables as well as original data sets, which are not readily available in the literature, and employ an alternative error correction model technique for a typical small open developing economy—Bangladesh. The transmission of exchange rate movements to import prices is found to be 'complete'; however, the 'second stage pass-through' is 'partial' both in the short and long run. The response of traded goods prices to exchange rate shocks is found to be significant and larger in the long run compared with the short run. Trade liberalization is also a significant phenomenon for ERPT. The analysis has wider applicability to other small open economies.


Background: The recent emphasis on anatomic reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is well supported by clinical and biomechanical research. Unfortunately, the location of the native femoral footprint can be difficult to see at the time of surgery, and the accuracy of current techniques to perform anatomic reconstruction is unclear. Purpose: To use 3-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (3D MRI) to prospectively evaluate patients with torn ACLs before and after reconstruction and thereby assess the accuracy of graft position on the femoral condyle. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Forty-one patients with unilateral ACL tears were recruited into the study. Each patient underwent 3D MRI of both the injured and uninjured knees before surgery. The contralateral (uninjured) knee was used to define the patient's native footprint. Patients then underwent ACL reconstruction, and the injured knee underwent reimaging after surgery. The location and percentage overlap of the reconstructed femoral footprint were compared with the patient's native footprint. Results: The center of the native ACL femoral footprint was a mean 12.0 ± 2.6 mm distal and 9.3 ± 2.2 mm anterior to the apex of the deep cartilage. The position of the reconstructed graft was significantly different, with a mean distance of 10.8 ± 2.2 mm distal (P = .02) and 8.0 ± 2.3 mm anterior (P = .01). The mean distance between the center of the graft and the center of the native ACL femoral footprint (error distance) was 3.6 ± 2.6 mm. Comparing error distances among the 4 surgeons demonstrated no significant difference (P = .10). On average, 67% of the graft overlapped within the native ACL femoral footprint. Conclusion: Despite contemporary techniques and a concerted effort to perform anatomic ACL reconstruction by 4 experienced sports orthopaedic surgeons, the position of the femoral footprint was significantly different between the native and reconstructed ACLs. Furthermore, each surgeon used a different technique, but all had comparable errors in their tunnel placements.


India will account for 20 per cent of the world's global workforce in 2020s. The average age of Indian workforce will be 29 years as compared to 37 for the US and China and 45 years for Europe. A need for skill development and skill up gradation among the labour force as a result of challenges that globalization and changing job patterns posed came in the form of increased emphasis on understandings to be developed with respect to Which skills are to be developed? What are the strategies adopted of skill development of rural populace? Has the supply driven strategies been able to cater to market demands? What is the quantum and quality difference in the two? As the emphasis concurrently is on identification of right skills and developing of the same as a bottom-up approach in order to have 500 million skill manpower in the country by 2022 (that is end of 13th five year plan) the paper is an attempt to making a critical appraisal of demand supply realities in a backward district of an advanced State in India. Keywords: Skill development, backward districts, Backward Regions Grant Fund, Resource Base, Participation Rates, Demand Supply gaps, SWOT analysis, Physical Infrastructure, Social Capital, Aromatic Plants


Development refers to the process in which something grows or changes and becomes more advanced. This change must be in a better way. If it changes in a bad way, it is not called development. According to the Royal Academy Dictionary, development means growth, which matches the English "Development" means a small change through the various stages and able to grow, improve and better than ever before. In summary, development means changing in a better way or change to progress. Development can be divided into 3 major areas: 1. Economic development means the development of production, distribution, exchange and investment. 2. Social development refers to mental development, patterns, behaviors and social relationships to solve the problems in society. 3. Political development means political change, creating a democratic governance process and the people in the country have the liberty and legal right Royal Academy Dictionary BE 2554 (online: 2560) has given the meaning of a system is defined as a group of things that are interwoven into the same thing in accordance with the principle of the corresponding relationship and the regulation of nature or academic reasons such as the nervous system, digestive system, solar system, social system and administration system. Wisut Vijitpatcharaporn (2560) Research for System Development: What? How? has briefed that the system development has the important step as; system analysis, system design and system development. For detail of each step, the students can study more then design the research process for the new system. In order to get a new system or if the system already exists the proposed of system must shows a new reflection on modifications. While the system is used, it can effectively enhance the effectiveness and efficiency on the work. Budget management is responsible for making annual budget, annual budget, and budget for annual revenue. Control spending, budget, and revenue of all departments and the university. Follow spending, budget and revenue, check budget balance with accounting department. Moreover, audit and disbursement departments, policy and planning and disbursements of other sections under the supervisors. Therefore, the most important of using budget is fast and update. Recently, department is facing difficulties in reporting the budget as follow: 1. Duplication of personnel. 2. Incorrect reporting of data. 3. Missing the current status of reports. ©ICBTS Copyright by Author(s) | The 2019 International Academic Multidisciplines Research Conference in Tokyo 159 From the above problems, even though it is a problem in the internal working processes of the general administration, the planning and evaluation group. If it has not solved or improved. It can affect the operation of the organization in the future. In order to improve the method and reduce the time of preparing report and reduce workload of personnel as well as doing report for the executive or send to the group, in which the project manager able to get the report on time. This is reasonable that the researcher is aim to study on the developmental disbursement guidelines.


OBJECTIVES
We assessed the effects of a school-based obesity prevention intervention that included dietary, curricula, and physical activity components on body mass index (BMI) percentiles and academic performance among low-income elementary school children.

METHODS
The study had a quasi-experimental design (4 intervention schools and 1 control school; 4588 schoolchildren; 48% Hispanic) and was conducted over a 2-year period. Data are presented for the subset of the cohort who qualified for free or reduced-price school lunches (68% Hispanic; n = 1197). Demographic and anthropometric data were collected in the fall and spring of each year, and academic data were collected at the end of each year.

RESULTS
Significantly more intervention than control children stayed within normal BMI percentile ranges both years (P = .02). Although not significantly so, more obese children in the intervention (4.4%) than in the control (2.5%) decreased their BMI percentiles. Overall, intervention schoolchildren had significantly higher math scores both years (P < .001). Hispanic and White intervention schoolchildren were significantly more likely to have higher math scores (P < .001). Although not significantly so, intervention schoolchildren had higher reading scores both years.

CONCLUSIONS
School-based interventions can improve health and academic performance among low-income schoolchildren.


ABSTRACT In a strike-slip setting, depositional history of marginal basins depends on the fault movements. In order to constrain controlling factors for the sequence changes of alluvial/lacustrine systems in the southeastern part of Cretaceous Eumsung Basin, a pull-apart basin, southwestern Korea, we made a detailed analysis of sedimentary facies, paleoflow directions, clast compositions, and downstream changes in clast size. The conglomeratic sequence ( 2.2 km thick) in the study area can be organized into five facies associations representing distinctive depositional environments: (1) facies association (FA) I (debris-flow-dominated alluvial fan), (2) FA II (stream-dominated alluvial fan), (3) FA III (alluvial-fan fringe), (4) FA IV (alluvial plain), and (5) FA V (floodplain/lake). The entire succession can be divided into two stratigraphic units, the Dootasan sequence below and the upper Berjae above, on the basis of facies associations and stratigraphic architecture of channel-fill and floodplain deposits. The Dootasan sequence ( 1.2 km thick) is characterized by a basinward change from matrix-supported onglomerate (lower part) to ribbon-shaped channel fills and sheetlike beds encased in purple siltstone with a thinning-upward trend (upper part). The matrix-supported conglomerate facies is indicative of deposition in a debris-flow-dominated alluvial fan. The hollow-fill or sheetlike deposits in purple siltstone are suggestive of channel or sheetflood deposition on an alluvial plain. The Berjae sequence ( 1 km thick) is transitional from superimposed channel-fill/sheetflood deposits with infrequent intercalation of purple siltstone wedges to conglomerate beds encased in siltstone. The stacked channel-fill or sheetflood deposits with rare siltstone beds are indicative of deposition in stream-dominated alluvial fan. Each sequence shows a basinward spatial change in facies. Between the two sequences, green siltstone beds (max. 100 m thick) with conglomerates are intercalated, suggesting deposition in a lacustrine environment. The sequence transition from the Dootasan to the Berjae sequence along the basin-margin fault was most likely due to the changes in fault movements. The Dootasan sequence was formed during sinistral-fault movement with a relatively high rate of fault slip (early stage of fault activation), whereas the Berjae sequence was deposited in the late stage with a relatively low rate of fault slip.


BACKGROUND
The studies of series of children with erythema nodosum (EN) are limited and mostly retrospective.

OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the epidemiology, etiology, clinical manifestations, course, and prognosis of EN in children.

METHODS
Thirty-five children with EN (17 boys, 18 girls; mean age, 8.79 years) have been studied. Four excluded children proved, on biopsy, to have leukocytoclastic vasculitis (n = 3) or eosinophilic cellulitis (n = 1).

RESULTS
In 27 of the 35 children (77%), the etiology of EN was established by laboratory investigations. In 25 children the causative factor of EN was an infectious agent (including beta-hemolytic streptococcus [n = 17], and Mycobacterium tuberculosis [n = 2]), whereas in 2 patients, EN was associated with Crohn's disease in one and Hodgkin's disease in the other. In 8 of the 35 children (23%) the etiology of EN remained undetermined. The mean duration of the rash was 11.5 days. Recurrences were noted in only 2 children (1 episode in 1 child and 3 episodes in the other).

CONCLUSION
Currently the most common provoking agent of EN in children in Greece is beta-hemolytic streptococcus. However, Mycobacterium tuberculosis should still be considered as a cause of the disorder. Also, the course of EN is benign and recurrences are exceptional.


Decision making typically requires judgements about causal relations. We need to know both the causal effects of our actions and the causal relevance of various environmental factors. Judgements about the nature and strength of causal relations often differ, even among experts. How to handle such diversity is the topic of this paper. First we consider the possibility of aggregating causal judgements via the aggregation of probabilistic ones. The broadly negative outcome of this investigation leads us to look at aggregating causal judgements independently of probabilistic ones. We do so by transcribing causal claims into the judgement aggregation framework and applying some recent results in this field. Finally we look at the implications for probability aggregation when it is constrained by prior aggregation of causal judgements.


Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were produced against two African arenaviruses, Lassa virus and Mopeia virus. Competitive binding analysis of MAbs identified four antigenic sites on the nucleoprotein (NP), two on glycoprotein 1 (GP1) and six on glycoprotein 2 (GP2) of the Josiah strain of Lassa virus. 64 virus isolates from western, central and southern Africa were all consistently distinguishable by MAbs to certain epitopic sites on GP1, GP2 and NP viral proteins. Furthermore, MAbs to Lassa virus GP1 and NP uniformly distinguished viruses from the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea from those of Nigeria. GP2-directed MAbs to two African arenaviruses reacted broadly with South American arenaviruses demonstrating that an epitopic site on GP2 may be the most highly conserved antigen in the arenavirus group.


This research comprises an ethnographic study of female erotic dancers in a single erotic dance club. Using Erving Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical analysis of the social construction of the self as my theoretical basis of inquiry, I examined the dancers' staged performance of a self. I interpreted the erotic dancers' performances as constructed fronts intended to fulfill the heterosexual male customers' fantasies of the ideal sexual female. Operating with this assumption, I observed how the erotic dancers created and maintained the ideal sexual female through the manipulation of setting, appearance, manner, and impression management techniques. Lastly, I discuss the implications these created fronts have for the social construction of female sexuality.


The genus Clerodendrum s.l. is polyphyletic. Although recent studies have resulted in C. subg. Cyclonema and C. sect.
Konocalyx being removed to the resurrected genus Rotheca, and the unispecific genus Huxleya being sunk into Clerodendrum,
it has been unclear whether Clerodendrum as currently circumscribed is monophyletic, particularly in relation to the American
genera Aegiphila, Amasonia, and Tetraclea. This phylogenetic study employs four relatively fast-evolving chloroplast DNA regions,
trnT-L, trnL-F, trnD-T, and trnS-fM, to clarify the generic boundaries of Clerodendrum and its relationship to allied genera.
The results corroborate previous studies that there are three well-supported clades in the currently recognized Clerodendrum: an
Asian clade, an African clade, and a Pantropical Coastal clade. The Asian clade and African clade are sister groups and together
form a monophyletic group. However, the Pantropical Coastal clade is more closely related to the three American genera than it
is to the other two Clerodendrum clades. In addition, a Caribbean species, C. spinosum, is found to be more closely related to the
American genera than it is to any of the three major Clerodendrum groups. These results indicate that Clerodendrum as currently
circumscribed is not monophyletic. We propose to separate the Pantropical Coastal clade and C. spinosum by reviving the genera
Volkameria (including Huxleya) and Ovieda, respectively for these, and to restrict Clerodendrum to the Asian and African clades.
Brief descriptions of the genera to be recognized are provided. All Neotropical 'Clerodendrum' taxa are referred to other genera,
necessitating six new combinations, which are also provided, where required, for two other well-studied Old World Volkameria
species; all names ever used in Ovieda are given their modern placings (two placed newly in synonymy). The study also sheds light
on the evolution of an intriguing breeding strategy that avoids self-pollination or/and sexual interference. This strategy involves
presentation of pollen and stigma in the centre of the flower in a sequential fashion by moving the filaments and style. It appears
to have evolved in the common ancestor of Clerodendrum, Volkameria, Ovieda, Amasonia, Tetraclea, Aegiphila and Kalaharia,
and still occurs in all of these taxa except Aegiphila, where it has been succeeded by a heterostylous system.


Introduction Recently, scholars have introduced what has been called a 'new paradigm,' pleading to view children as competent social actors (e.g., James & Prout, 1997; James, Jenks & Prout, 1998; Wyness, 2000). They reconsider social research from this 'new sociology of childhood' perspective and have (e.g., Christensen & Prout, 2002; Mayall, 2002) inspired political action through the children's rights movement, action research and policy research in the field of education, as well as pedagogical action and even parental advice in Belgium and internationally (Verhellen, 1994). In many respects, this paradigm shift can be viewed as a 'step forward', giving voices and visibility to a group in society that for centuries has been silenced, only on the basis of age as a discriminatory classification. The new paradigm must, however, be examined critically. A Historical Perspective Let us first consider briefly (so incompletely) two examples of how we can look at this discussion historically. In nineteenth century Belgium for instance, children were predominantly perceived as fragile and in need of protection, in a context of industrialization and urbanization, poverty, child mortality, and the abolition of child labor. The construction of the Fragile Child (the child at risk) was closely interconnected with the construction of the Responsible Mother with a dual responsibility: towards her child, as well as towards society. While the mother was idealized, labor class mothers where subject of a declining confidence by the bourgeois philanthropic institutions, as well as by the state. In official reports, child mortality in early twentieth century Belgium was never explained using social context or precarious living conditions, but rather attributed to the neglect and the ignorance of labor class mothers. First a social phenomenon (i.e., child mortality) is depicted as a social 'problem', in the economic context of industrialization that enhances the value of physical health (Foucault, 1975). Subsequently, the social problem is transformed into an educational problem and thus individualized. The parent (i.e., the mother) is constructed as inadequate and finally this constructs the child as an object of intervention. A comprehensive 'machine' (Deleuze, 1986) for the civilization of the family (infant consultations and child care centers) is thus brought about. A second example is illustrated in the defining of social problems (i.e. the failure of labor class children in school) as spoken into educational problems that reinforce the monomatric model of the family and enact a re-culpabilization of the mother (McGurck et al., 1993; Singer, 1993). The discussion in the 1970s on the failing results of compensation programs in the late 1960s (such as the various Head Start programs) followed a similar path. Another illustration of a social issue spoken as education problem is the modernistic belief in (vulgarized) science as core to the salvation of children. Examples in the Belgian case are the introduction of developmental observation instruments in childcare leading to a construction of the preschool teacher as a technician; the large scale in-service training and consequent transformation of infant consultation staff in order to enable them to 'educate' the labor class mothers with the new insights on developmental stages; or the subsequent labeling of new arriving ethnic minority parents as responsible for the 'mental retardation' of their children (Vandenbroeck, 2004). As many scholars have pointed out, the discursive regimes described, have silenced children in research as well as in policy. These discursive regimes have also silenced specific groups of adults as parents. Constructions of childhood are always interconnected with constructions of parenthood, but not in a simple antagonistic way. One should be extremely careful when opposing children and parents from a power relations point of view on the macro-level. …


Solenoid valves play a vital role in many machines and systems. If one of these devices breaks down the whole system can be affected. Because of this importance of valves, it is desirable to observe these parts to detect faults, both when they are occurring and before they can cause serious damage. Among several possible methods of observation (monitoring actuation time, electrical current, fluidic parameters and others) the observation of mechanical vibrations is a well known method of observing mechanical systems which is commonly used for observation of rotating machinery, but which includes several challenges for diagnosis of solenoid valves. This thesis investigates the possibilities and advantages of vibration analysis of fault detection for solenoid valves. New algorithms are developed to automatically segment the overall non- stationary raw data to smaller sections with a higher degree of stationarity. These new segments are interpretable in a mechanical sense and they separate different sources of vibration. Furthermore a new method to detect regions of interest in a spectrum for classification without "a priori knowledge" about the process has been developed. The experiments presented in this thesis give the evidence that these new methods of pre¬processing and feature extraction enable reliable classification results for transient signals as they occur in the vibration of a switching valve.


- The stability of tunnels and other underground structures under the influence of dynamic load is one of the important issues that should be studied carefully. The objective of the present paper is to study the effect of the geogrid reinforcement in transfer of the dynamic load to the underground structure. The underground structure was simulated as a plastic pipe within the soil. The investigation focuses on the influence of parameters such as load amplitude, depth of geogrid layer and width of geogrid layer using the finite element method by QUAKE/W computer program for the analysis. It was concluded that when the geogrid reinforcement width equals (1B), the total stress on the crown of pipe decreases by about (17%) compared with unreinforced soil, but this percentage decreases to (10%) when the geogrid width equals to (2B). The percent vertical settlement on the pipe crown decreases by about (35%) when using reinforcement of width equals (2B) compared with test results unreinforced soil, while when the width equals (1B), the percent vertical settlement decreases to about (15%), this indicates that when the width of reinforced soil increases, the vertical settlement decreases.


Homonymous visual field defects (HVFDs) are the largest group of visual disorders after acquired brain injury. Homonymous Hemianopia (HH), the most common form of HVFD, occurs in 8-31% of all stroke patients. HH can have a large influence on daily living, quality of life and patient's participation in society. People with HH mainly experience difficulties in reading, orientation and mobility. They benefit from training aimed to decrease the impact of the visual field deficit through optimizing visual scanning. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to inform patients about the way their scanning behavior relates to difficulties they experience in daily life and how they can improve their scanning behavior to overcome these difficulties. Knowledge about which scanning behavior in different situations is optimal, however, is mostly based on experiences and assumptions of professionals, and not supported by scientific literature and empirical data. The current project (September 2019 to September 2023) aims to examine the relationship between scanning behavior and performance on various daily life activities (i.e. mobility and search activities) in people with HH, people with simulated HH and a control group with normal vision. Innovative techniques such as eye-tracking and Virtual Reality (VR) will be used to examine scanning behavior in a standardized manner. Prototypes of these techniques, developed in a pilot project, were seen as useful additions to vision rehabilitation therapy by people with HH and rehabilitation therapists. Apart from providing insight into scanning behavior and its relation with different task demands, this project will help to develop innovative measures for scanning behavior that can be used in clinical practice. Data-collection will begin in the autumn of 2020 and will end approximately two years later. The current project is a PhD project, which means that it will result in a PhD thesis with at least four publications in international, scientific and peer-reviewed journals.


In this paper, A kind of ideal non-cyanide silver deposits was obtained by joining the ultrasonic. ultrasonic frequency of 28KHz, power increased from 0-500W, XRD tests show:with the increasing in electric power deposition, silver coating (111) and (200) crystal plane orientation significantly improved, and (220) crystal plane orientation declined . With the ultrasonic power increased, silver deposition current efficiency increased first and then reduced. the grain size refined with the ultrasonic increasing .the corrosion resistance decreased with the ultrasonic increasing.and SEM showed that the grain sizes decreased with the ultrasonic.


Forecasting of supply and demand in the olive oil value chain remains a hot topic partly due to the lack of comprehensive and consensual estimates at the international level. The aim of this study is to contribute to overcome this weakness by providing a foresight of global supply and demand for olive oil for the upcoming years, using an iterative consensus-building Delphi approach. Therefore, we estimate the expected annual growth rates in the olive oil production and consumption worldwide as well as their likely impact on Spanish exports. Another key objective of the study is to elicit expert judgements on the factors that are likely to shape the predicted changes as well as the international challenges ahead. Results point to substantial future increases in production in new-producing countries, in parallel with a slower growth in the EU traditional suppliers whose focus will increasingly be placed on the quality and sustainability rather than the quantity of olive oil produced. Likewise, a significant growth in the world demand for olive oil is expected mostly in non-traditional markets, which will be spurred by greater awareness and appreciation of the product's health benefits, combined with the changes in lifestyles and the increasing purchasing power of several consumer segments. These emerging markets represent valuable opportunities for marketing and promoting olive oil as a highly valued product, and offer promising prospects for the international expansion of olive oil companies. Findings support decision-making and long-term strategic planning along the olive oil value chain. Researchers can use the results as a reference point for further study of the dynamics of world supply and demand for olive oil.


In forensics latent fingerprint identification is critical importance to identifying suspects: latent fingerprints are invisible fingerprint impressions left by fingers on surfaces of objects. The proposed algorithm uses a robust alignment algorithm (mixture contour and Orientation based Descriptor) to align fingerprints and to get the similarity score between fingerprints by considering minutiae points and ridge orientation field information.The texture-based descriptors (local binary patterns and local phase quantization), address important issues related to the dissimilarity representation, such as the impact of the number of references used for verification and identification. However, the overlapped region shape similarity retrieved from minutiae spatial distribution information provides additional important criteria. After finding the overlapping region of a possible affine transform, we can measure to find the shape dissimilarity via the application of the shape context to all interior points.TheHybrid matching algorithm, is to prune outlier minutiae pairs, and secondly to provide more information to use in similarity evaluation. Keywords—Orientation and texture descriptors, latent's, affine transform, contour context, matching.


Objective: We investigated the prevalence of antibody against hepatitis E virus (HEV) in Japanese patients with hemophilia. Methods: IgG antibody against HEV was measured in serum of 80 Japanese patients with hemophilia by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The prevalence of HEV antibody was compared with the reported prevalence of HEV antibody in Japanese patients undergoing hemodialysis and in Japanese healthy blood donors. Characteristics of patients and coinfection with other transfusion-transmissible viruses were compared in patients with and without HEV antibody. Results: Anti-HEV IgG antibody was detected in 13 of 80 patients (16.3%). The prevalence was far higher than that reported in Japanese blood donors (3.7%) and was higher than that in Japanese patients undergoing hemodialysis (9.4%). The patients with HEV antibody were significantly older than those without. HEV antibody was not detected in patients <20 years of age and in patients who had received only virus-inactivated coagulation factors. No association was observed between positivity for anti-HEV antibody and severity of hemophilia or coinfection with other parenterally transmissible viruses. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the parenteral transmission of HEV may have occurred in Japanese patients with hemophilia via non-virus-inactivated coagulation factors.


Gaussian process state-space models (GPSSMs) provide a principled and flexible approach to modeling the dynamics of a latent state, which is observed at discrete-time points via a likelihood model. However, inference in GPSSMs is computationally and statistically challenging due to the large number of latent variables in the model and the strong temporal dependencies between them. In this paper, we propose a new method for inference in Bayesian GPSSMs, which overcomes the drawbacks of previous approaches, namely over-simplified assumptions, and high computational requirements. Our method is based on free-form variational inference via stochastic gradient Hamiltonian Monte Carlo within the inducing-variable formalism. Furthermore, by exploiting our proposed variational distribution, we provide a collapsed extension of our method where the inducing variables are marginalized analytically. We also showcase results when combining our framework with particle MCMC methods. We show that, on six real-world datasets, our approach can learn transition dynamics and latent states more accurately than competing methods.


Writer's cramp is a task‐specific form of dystonia with symptoms characterized by abnormal movements and postures of the hand and arm evident only during writing. Its pathophysiology has been related to faulty sensorimotor integration, abnormal sensory processing, and impaired motor planning. Its symptoms might appear when the computational load of writing pushes a tonically altered circuit outside its operational range. Using resting‐state fMRI, we tested whether writer's cramp patients have altered intrinsic functional connectivity in the premotor–parietal circuit. Sixteen patients with right‐sided writer's cramp and 19 control subjects were studied. We show that writer's cramp patients have reduced connectivity between the superior parietal lobule and a dorsal precentral region that controls writing movements. This difference between patients and controls occurred in the absence of writing and only in the hemisphere contralateral to the affected hand. This finding adds a novel element to the pathophysiological substrate for writer's cramp, namely, task‐independent alterations within a writing‐related circuit. © 2012 Movement Disorder Society


The past decade has seen major changes to the appliances which comprise the domestic load. Appliances which may have been considered to be passive loads are now supplied through power electronic front ends. These new loads are known sources of power quality disturbances, predominately harmonic currents. While examinations have been made of the electrical behaviour of first generation electronic appliances, there is little literature dealing with the performance of more modern loads. Understanding the behaviour of modern loads is essential if accurate models of equipment connected to the power system are to be developed. This paper examines the input current characteristics of a number of modern domestic appliances. This includes an analysis under undistorted rated voltage input conditions along with examination of the impact that varying input voltage conditions has on appliance input currents. Characterisation of the appliance input current is achieved through a laboratory testing regime using a programmable power source. On the whole, it can be noted that many modern appliances have input current performance which is better in terms of harmonic content compared to older appliances with power electronic front ends. With respect to variation of the input voltage, it has been found that harmonic distortion has a larger impact on the input current of appliances than variations in fundamental voltage magnitude.


This thesis provides a better understanding of interactions between diet, gut microbiota, and immune responses to a specific dietary fiber source, chicory (Cichorium intybus L). This was achieved by examining the impact of chicory fiber on animal performance, digestibility, gut development, commensal bacteria community structure in small and large intestine, and follow-up reactions with specific immune components, cytoprotective heat shock protein (HSP) 27 and 72, in vivo and in vitro.

The impacts of dietary chicory on nutrient utilization, performance, and gut environment and morphology were investigated in chickens and young pigs. One-day-old chicks were fed cereal-based diets with inclusion of 60 or 120 g/kg chicory forage and/or root, with each forage diet derived from two harvests. Growing pigs were fed diets without and with inclusion of 80 or 160 g/kg chicory forage and/or root. The results showed that chicory inclusion maintained good animal performance and was accompanied by changes in gut morphology. Total tract apparent digestibility of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) and uronic acid in broilers decreased with inclusion of 120 g/kg chicory, but not with inclusion of 60 g/kg. This indicates that chicory can be used as a palatable fiber source for broiler chickens and young pigs.

Gut microbiota complexity and dietary NSP-induced changes in pigs were examined using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). The analysis revealed four primary microbiota clusters: luminal and mucosal ileal microbiota and luminal and mucosal colonic microbiota. In the ileum, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were dominant and responsive to inulin-type fructan. In the colon, bacteria belonging to clostridial cluster IV and XIVa responded to chicory pectin, whereas Prevotella was related to cereal xylan. Mapping of cytoprotective HSP27 and HSP72 occurrence in porcine gut revealed region- and cell type-specific features. Physiological expression of HSP72 was correlated with LAB, representing an important interplay between HSPs and commensal microbes. In-depth studies of interactions between lactobacilli and gut mucosa and their effects on barrier function and HSP expression revealed protective effects from lactobacilli by enhancing HSP and tight junction protein expression under pathogen challenge.


It reflects solely the views of its authors. The views, conclusions, and recommendations are not intended to represent the views of the Commission. The views of the Commission are laid out in the Commission's final report "Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making".


Static light scattering was used to investigate dilute dispersions of fine gamma -Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/ magnetic particles. The particles were acicular and on average 0.39 mu m long and 0.056 mu m in diameter. They were dispersed in organic solvents at concentrations of approximately 10/sup -4/ vol%, corresponding to an average interparticle separation of 9 mu m. Computer programs using a coupled dipole algorithm to predict the scattering from the particles were written. Experimental results do not agree with computer calculations of the light scattering from single particles, but are consistent with scattering from thick ropelike agglomerates of particles. The size of these agglomerates was estimated after 10 s to be less than 100 particles, while the thickness of the ropes is at least 5 particles. >


This study used immersion and wear experiments to examine the swelling and tribological behaviors of nitrile-butadience (NBR) rubber with three acrylonitrile contents (N18, N26, and N41) in crude oil at varying temperatures. The results showed that in a crude oil medium with increasing temperatures, the N18 volume change rate (VCR) increased linearly, the N41 VCR decreased slightly, and N26 experienced a smaller change. As the temperature rose, the tensile strength and tensile fracture permanent deformation of NBR reduced. As the soaking temperature rose, the NBR wear loss increased and the friction coefficient decreased. When the rubber was soaked in crude oil, swelling gradually spread from the external portion to the internal portion. Due to its compact structure, NBR with high acrylonitrile content exhibited good heat resistance, swelling resistance, mechanical properties, and wearing capacity, but a poor resilience. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.22.4.16162


The Lower Cambrian Zabriskie Quartzite in the Death Valley region of California and Nevada records deposition in both nearshore marine and terrestrial environments and represents two genetically distinct depositional units. The lower unit, defined by the Resting Springs Member, is a highstand-systems tract in which sandy braidplain deposits prograded over storm-influenced inner-shelf mudstone and sandstone. The top flooding surface of that systems tract is a sequence boundary (type 2). The upper unit, defined by the Emigrant Pass Member, is the lowermost deposit of a transgressive systems tract in which nearshore marine sediments progressively overstep/onlap the sequence boundary cratonward. It is herein suggested that in the Death Valley area the top of Lower Cambrian Grand Cycle B is coincident with this sequence boundary. This work shows that nonmarine deposition characterized much of the southwestern margin of cratonic North America during Early Cambrian time ( Bonnier-Olenellus zone). The stable tectonic setting and consistently low-latitudinal position of Laurentia during this time preclude tectonism and climactic variation, and associated changes in sediment flux, as principal forcing mechanisms of relative sea-level change. Consequently, eustatic variation was the probable first-order causative mechanism for systems-tract and facies development. The relative sea-level changes indicated in this study can be used to further aid the construction of global sea-level curves.