The Plynlimon headwater catchments in mid-Wales have been a landmark study of water resources in the UK uplands for over 30 years. The main physical features of the catchments have been digitised as the basis for linking new model developments and process understanding. Examples are given of how the main physical attributes are related to land management, hydrology and water quality. These data are also being used to provide insights into catchment processes that may underpin the development of new research. This work is particularly relevant given the need for the assessment of water status under the Water Framework Directive . The paper presents hypothetical management scenarios for the catchments, to show how ecological status may be improved, for example, by selectively restructuring areas of commercial forest. Keywords: Plynlimon, GIS, catchment study, forestry, hydrology, WFD


The Department of Justice Watches Over the Law But Who Watches the Watchmen? The Department of Justice is America's premier federal law enforcement agency. And according to J. Christian Adams, it's also a base used by leftwing radicals to impose a fringe agenda on the American people. A five-year veteran of the DOJ and a key attorney in pursuing the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, Adams recounts the shocking story of how a once-storied federal agency, the DOJ's Civil Rights division has degenerated into a politicized fiefdom for far-left militants, where the enforcement of the law depends on the race of the victim. In Injustice, Adams reveals: * The inside story of how the Obama DOJ spiked the voter intimidation lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party--and the Panthers' little-known public appearance with Obama * How the Obama administration changed DOJ hiring policy to ensure radical leftists would dominate the Civil Rights Division * The Obama DOJ's bizarre agenda, from insisting on kids' rights to attend school dressed as transvestites, to litigating for teachers' rights to take paid vacations to Mecca * How the DOJ has repeatedly sided with political bosses who flagrantly disenfranchise entire communities of white voters * Why the DOJ's fixation on racial grievance threatens the integrity of the 2012 elections If you thought the federal government was dedicated to race-neutral equal protection, Injustice will set you straight. This searing indictment of government malfeasance unveils the astonishing political extremism and outright lawlessness that now infects on of the government's most powerful agencies. With everything from civil rights laws to America's voting system at risk, Adams sound the alarm on a gathering threat to our nation's future.


Many real-world domains can be expressed as graphs and, more generally, as multi-relational knowledge graphs. Though reasoning and learning with knowledge graphs has traditionally been addressed by symbolic approaches, recent methods in (deep) representation learning has shown promising results for specialized tasks such as knowledge base completion. These approaches abandon the traditional symbolic paradigm by replacing symbols with vectors in Euclidean space. With few exceptions, symbolic and distributional approaches are explored in different communities and little is known about their respective strengths and weaknesses. In this work, we compare representation learning and relational learning on various relational classification and clustering tasks and analyse the complexity of the rules used implicitly by these approaches. Preliminary results reveal possible indicators that could help in choosing one approach over the other for particular knowledge graphs.


BACKGROUND
Monitoring for the presence of hazardous drug (HD) residue is recommended as part of a comprehensive HD safety program. However, a single wipe test provides limited information without the ability to evaluate interventions.

OBJECTIVES
This quality improvement project was designed to evaluate the benefits of performing sequential HD wipe testing during a six-month period in an ambulatory cancer center.

METHODS
Four areas in the pharmacy department and two areas in the infusion department were selected for testing, which was conducted at three time points. Cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, and paclitaxel were tested using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry.

FINDINGS
The initial test demonstrated HD contamination on the legs of the IV pole and the pharmacy transport bin. All other areas were below the limit of detection. Changes were made to cleaning practices in the pharmacy and infusion departments prior to the subsequent tests at the three- and six-month time points, which produced levels below the limit of detection.


With the qualities of smooth operation, high efficiency and small size, the planetary gear box was widely used in transmission field. In this paper, a 2-stage planetary gear box was studied. CAXA and Pro/E were used for modeling. The FEA analysis results were obtained by ANSYS, both the contact stress and the bending stress of the gear tooth root. The results showed that with the continuous action of cyclic loads, the excessive contact stress is the direct reason of the failure. Then, the system reliability evaluation was made, which can provide guidance for engineering practice.


Of 191 consecutive clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae tested for antibiotic susceptibility with the agar dilution technique 87 % were fully sensitive to all of 11 antimicrobial agents examined. 90 % of the strains were inhibited by 0.016 μg/ml of benzylpenicillin, by 0.032 μg/ml of ampicillin, cefuroxime, erythromycin, clindamycin or rifampicin, by 0.13 μg/ml of cephalothin, oxacillin or doxycycline, by 4.0 μg/ml of chloramphenicol and by 8.0 μg/ml of cotrimoxazole. 18 strains exhibited a reduced susceptibility to one (11 strains) or more (7 strains) of erythromycin, doxycycline, chloramphenicol and cotrimoxazole. One of these strains also showed a reduced susceptibility to all 5 examined beta-lactamantibiotics, as did another 4 strains. Two of these 5 strains were isolated from small children recently adopted from 2 Asian countries. Cotrimoxazole-resistant strains were significantly more often isolated from children 1 yr of age or less than from older patients. All strains were fully sensitive...


A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 10 October 2016.


Background: The present study was aimed at describing a multicentre clinical experience in the treatment of Inoperable carcinoma pyrifom fossa. Carcinoma pyriform fossa is the most frequent cancer arising from the hypopharynx, is rarely diagnosed in its early stage and still a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in developing countries. Despite improvement in overall survival for pyriform fossa cancer, the locally advanced cancer remains essentially incurable.

Methods: This prospective observational study was carried out to compare the effects of concurrent chemoradiation and radiotherapy alone in locally advanced carninoma pyriform fossa cancer. The main objectives of this study are to assess the response and early toxicities in both concurrent chemoradiation and radiotherapy alone.

Results: A total number of 90 patients, 45 in each arm having advanced pyriform fossa cancer were included in the study. Highest percentage of the patients was habituated with smoking, betal nut chewing and tobacco leaf user. The most common presenting symptoms were cervical lymphadenopathy, sore throat and hoarseness of voice. Overall response of patients treated with concurrent chemoradiation was better than in comparison to only radiotherapy. As only a new treatment of locally advanced carcinoma of pyriform fossa concurrent chemoradiation (group-A) represents better symptom improvement, more toxicities and better tumor responses than radiotherapy alone (group-B) regimen.

Conclusion: In the treatment of locally advanced carcinoma pyriform fossa, concurrent chemoradiation with paclitaxel (40mg/m2I/V) weekly, represents better symptom improvement, tumor responses with manageable toxicities than radiotherapy alone.


The interaction between a falling hammer on a floor system is considered as well as the interaction between a foot and a floor system during a "normal" step. The two cases involve two contact conditions. The first one implies some type of rebound condition whereas the later one a stuck to the floor condition. The floor system is mainly governing by the dynamic behavior of the floor cover. In the model for the cover an air-gap is included, which is often found in practice since it is almost impossible to obtain perfectly plane layers and floor surface. The influence of the airgap is studied.


Two widely known standalone technologies, such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and membrane permeation, have been extensively developed and applied in industry for gas separation. Their process configurations have been widely studied to either minimize recompression work for reducing final operational costs, or to give a better reuse to some waste gases that are not usually recovered by using more conventional methods. Although there is some published work on the development of hybrid systems integrating these two technologies, the awareness for innovative hybrid permeation- and sorption-based processes was seen only recently as an opportunity to further reduce the amount of waste, recover its energy, and recycle as much as possible.In applications where membranes can provide a moderately pure product at low cost, the separation may actually be inexpensively upgraded by a subsequent process. Likewise, the separation performance of fully established non-permeating technologies can be improved with marginal costs, if one uses truly synergistically hybrid schemes involving membranes. This fact has motivated active research on the integration of membranes with other separation processes, such as PSA. Accordingly, the present chapter intends to show the better of these two technologies in a cooperative mode of operation, rather than in a competitive one. New advances in membrane-based hybrid processes for gas separation and waste reduction via adsorption are examined, and the future prospects for synergistic coupling of separation processes are also suggested. The areas of potential waste reduction focused are natural gas, landfill gas, synthesis gas, hydrogen from reformer off-gas and olefin/paraffin separation.


: A new apparatus is described which delivers a functional electric stimulation, controlled by the peak EMG output signal as recorded from the forearm muscles. Twelve paretic hands were stimulated with this apparatus. The EMG output, the stimulus strength, the stimulus frequency, and the corresponding improvement of the wrist extension force were measured. Different arrangements of electrodes and various relay adjustments were tested. The investigations showed that even severely paretic muscles were capable of delivering an efficient EMG output, and the resulting improvement of wrist extension force was statistically significant. The necessary stimulus intensity showed no relationship to the degree of paresis, but a certain relationship to the recovery tendency of the hand was evident. Acceptance of the apparatus among the patients was satisfactory; only a few complained of pain during stimulation.


Phospholipase D (PLD) is regulated by many factors including the small G-proteins, RhoA and ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF). The present study examined the distribution of RhoA- and ARF-responsive PLD in membranes, microsomes and cytosol of rat tissues and in rat liver subcellular fractions. PLD was present in all tissue fractions examined and was stimulated by guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate (GTP[S]), with the highes: specific activities being in lung, kidney and spleen. When myristoylated recombinant ARF (mARF) was added with GTP[S], the PLD activity was stimulated further, but the addition of RhoA was without effect. However, in extracts from crude membranes both mARF and RhoA enhanced the stimulation by GTP[S], with high specific activities of PLD being observed in all tissues except muscle. The response to mARF was usually greater than to RhoA, and the responses were additive, except for liver, which showed synergism. When the PLD activity of subcellular fractions of liver was examined, GTP[S] caused increases in all fractions except microsomes and mitochondria, which exhibited low activity. All fractions except mitochondria showed responses to RhoA and mARF, with the response to RhoA being greater in plasma membranes and that to mARF being greater in Golgi and nuclei. Western blotting showed that RhoA was located mainly in the cytosol and plasma membranes, whereas ARF was principally in the cytosol. These findings demonstrate the widespread occurrence of significant activity of both Rho- and ARF-responsive forms of PLD in membranes from all tissues except muscle, and the presence of both forms in liver subcellular fractions except mitochondria. The large variations in the relative responses of PLD to Rho and ARF observed in different tissues and fractions support the existence of different isoforms of the enzyme.


A flow shop problem as a typical manufacturing challenge has gained wide attention in academic fields. In this paper, we consider a bi-criteria permutation flow shop scheduling problem, in which the weighted mean completion time and the weighted mean tardiness are to be minimized simultaneously. Since a flow shop scheduling problem has been proved to be NP-hard in strong sense, an effective multi-objective immune algorithm (MOIA) is proposed for searching locally Pareto-optimal frontier for the given problem. To prove the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, a number of test problems are solved and the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, based on some comparison metrics, is compared with a distinguished multi-objective genetic algorithm, i.e. SPEA-II. The computational results show that the proposed MOIA performs better than the above genetic algorithm, especially for large-sized problems


Two hundred and fifty-one cows fresh at least 37 days with normal reproductive tracts and palpable ovarian structures which clinicians believed to be corpora lutea and which were presumed to be producing progesterone were treated with 500 micrograms of cloprostenol. The cows were stratified into three groups based on milk progesterone concentrations in whole milk samples taken at the time of examination. The low group had milk progesterone concentrations less than or equal to 1 ng/ml, the intermediate group had milk progesterone concentrations between 1 and 3 ng/ml, and the high group had milk progesterone concentrations greater than or equal to 3 ng/ml. The proportion of cows in each group inseminated within 5 days of treatment and the fertility at that breeding were compared. There were no significant differences among the groups with respect to the proportion of cows that came into estrus within 5 days. However, the conception rate of the high group (54%) was significantly greater than that of the intermediate group (26%). To study the relationship between practitioner experience and diagnostic accuracy the proportion of cows with low, intermediate and high concentrations of progesterone selected by clinicians with more than 3 years experience was compared to that for clinicians with 3 years of experience or less. Less experienced clinicians were significantly more likely to make a false positive diagnosis of functional luteal tissue in cows with palpable ovarian structures than were more experienced clinicians.


Standard theory predicts persistence dependence in numerous economic relationships. (For example, persistence dependence is precisely the kind of nonlinear relationship posited in the Permanent Income Hypothesis; persistence dependence is the inverse of "frequency dependence" in a relationship.) Until recently, however, it was challenging to achieve credible inference about persistence dependence in an economic relationship using available methods. However, recently developed econometric tools (Ashley and Verbrugge, 2009a) allow one to elegantly quantify the variation in a time-series relationship across persistence levels, even when the data must be first-differenced because they are I(1), or nearly so. We apply these tools to study the velocity of money. Standard theory predicts that velocity should be positively correlated with the nominal interest rate: A high nominal interest rate raises the opportunity cost of holding wealth in liquid form, prompting agents to economize on money holdings. But as Cochrane (2012) pointed out, the velocity-interest rate linkage appears to be weak upon first-differencing. We argue that the root cause of this phenomenon is a particularly intuitive form of nonlinear dependence in the relationship: The strength of the relationship depends on the persistence level of a particular interest rate fluctuation. In particular, this relationship is substantially (and statistically significantly) stronger at low frequencies—i.e., at high interest rate fluctuation persistence levels. Because we allow for persistence dependence in the estimated relationship, this strong association is apparent despite the first-difference transformation applied to these data.


Background: After complete five-level root brachial plexus injury, free functional muscle transfer and intercostal nerve transfer to the musculocutaneous nerve are two potential reconstructive options for elbow flexion. The aim of this study was to determine the outcomes of free functional muscle transfer versus intercostal nerve–to–musculocutaneous nerve transfers with respect to strength. Methods: Sixty-two patients who underwent free functional muscle transfer reconstruction or intercostal nerve–to–musculocutaneous nerve transfer for elbow flexion following a pan-plexus injury were included. The two groups were compared with respect to postoperative elbow flexion strength according to the British Medical Research Council grading system; preoperative and postoperative Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand questionnaire scores. Results: In the free functional muscle transfer group, 67.7 percent of patients achieved M3 or M4 elbow flexion. In the intercostal nerve–to–musculocutaneous nerve transfer group, 41.9 percent of patients achieved M3 or M4 elbow flexion. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Changes in Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand questionnaire scores were not statistically significant. Average time from injury to surgery was significantly different (p < 0.01) in both groups. The number of intercostal nerves used for the musculocutaneous nerve transfer did not correlate with better elbow flexion grade. Conclusions: Based on this study, gracilis free functional muscle transfer reconstruction achieves better elbow flexion strength than intercostal nerve–to–musculocutaneous nerve transfer for elbow flexion after pan-plexus injury. The role of gracilis free functional muscle transfer should be carefully considered in acute reconstruction. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, III.


Based on data collected from interviews with former soldiers, this paper describes the modern information-based warfare exemplified in Afghanistan and other contemporary conflicts, and issues and implications surrounding Afghan interpreters' inclusion in Canadian units deployed in the Panjwaii district in Kandahar. The discussion uses a constructivist and postcolonial approach to consider interpreters' contribution to, and status in, the war for information, identifies several cultural causes of strain between interpreters and combatants, and reveals negative implications for military communications. This study concludes with a series of recommendations designed to improve the effective flow of communication and cultural understanding between interpreters and combatants.


The energy consumption of network infrastructures is increasing; therefore, research efforts designed to diminish this growing carbon footprint are necessary. Building on prior work, which determined a difference in the energy consumption of network hardware based on their forwarding configurations and developed a real-time network energy monitoring tool, this research proposes a novel technique to incorporate individual device energy efficiency into network routing decisions. A new routing metric and algorithm are presented to select the lowest-power, least-congested paths between destinations, known as Green Power Forwarding (GPF). In addition, a network dial is developed to enhance GPF by allowing network administrators to tune the network to optimally operate between energy savings and network performance. To ensure the scope of this research for industry adoption, implementation details for different generations of networking infrastructure (past, present, and future) are also discussed. The experiment results indicate that significant energy and, in turn, cost savings can be achieved by employing the proposed GPF technique without a reduction in network performance. The future directions for this research include developing dynamically-tuning network dial modes and extending the principles to inter-domain routing.


Interstellar synchrotron emission depends on Galactic magnetic fields and on cosmic-ray leptons. Observations of radio emission are an important tool for studying cosmic-ray propagation models and interstellar electron spectrum and distribution in the Galaxy. We present the latest developments in our modeling of Galactic synchrotron emission with the GALPROP code, including polarization, absorption, and free-free emission. Using surveys over a wide range of radio frequencies and polarization measurements, we derive constraints on the low- energy interstellar cosmic-ray electron spectrum, magnetic fields and cosmic-ray propagation models. This work is of interest for studies of interstellar gamma-ray emission with Fermi-LAT, and synchrotron for the Planck mission.


Social workers have a long-standing interest in the relation of knowledge and practice. Both the tasks of practice and the knowledge used to accomplish these tasks are defining characteristics of any profession. They are the basis by which professions differentiate themselves from one another and the means by which they legitimate their activities to the larger society and culture. Theorists and researchers of knowledge utilization have identified it as having both conceptual and instrumental aspects. To better understand knowledge utilization in the field of social work, a group of social work practitioners were asked to reflect on the utility of various types of formal information and knowledge and sources of that knowledge. Practitioner respondents expressed appreciation for theoretical knowledge, but gave highest utility ratings to knowledge that helps them solve problems they confront every day in practice, i.e., information about a social problem or information about the effectiveness of a particular social work intervention. Younger practitioners were more enthusiastic than older practitioners about the utility of formal knowledge.


Abstract Today's central banks wield extraordinary powers, both monetary and regulatory, and with a capacity to substitute for elected governments tempted to pass the buck. Debates about central banking's powers and legitimacy barely touch, however, on whether and how monetary independence fits with the values that drive constitutionalism. It turns out that, for modern economies using fiat money, independence is a corollary of the higher level separation of (fiscal) powers between the legislative and executive branches. Even though independence is necessary, it needs to be carefully constrained by a "money-credit constitution." Those general arguments, applicable in liberal democracies, do not carry across cleanly to the euro area. A principled case can be made for the ECB's mandate being specially tight, but that is in tension with its de facto role as the emergency economic actor for the euro area. Facing up to that will be necessary sooner or later.


The investigation discussed in this paper was motivated by a finding revealed through analysis of the dissertation grades of final year undergraduates on an education honours degree. A third of dissertations received grades equating to third class honours or fails and this was viewed by the Faculty as being unacceptable. As a Fellow of the UniversityA¢â'¬â"¢s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning with a focus on personal development, I was asked by the course leader to identify possible causes and suggest changes. My critical reflection on the dissertation suggested that its creation is predicated upon Personal Development Planning (PDP) processes practised through the mediation of the tutorial. I am investigating the effectiveness of the tutorial to support learner development over a two year period, contributing to an overarching action research project undertaken by the National Action Research Network (NARN). This paper presents the outcomes of the first cycle of my action research, involving the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from students and dissertation supervisors. At this stage it appears that the design of the dissertation meets the needs of some students but not all, particularly the lower third of the sample cohort. Furthermore some students, including a number of thirds and fails, do not perceive tutorial support as essential for the successful completion of their dissertations. Overall, it appears that the tutorial process requires review in order to support the autonomous and/or collaborative learning needed for effective learner development.


We claim that presence is elicited most strongly when information is presented as an inhabitable, external world. Technical developments that permit this, such as the creation of interactive, immersive virtual environments herald a profound change in how people relate to sources of information, and how they communicate. This change has psychological, social and cultural effects. It has been claimed that in many ways, our relationship to information becomes that of our ancestral, pre-literate relationship to the physical world. By this view, we are heading for a post-literate future of body-based communication. But this view is too simple, since information must serve a variety of purposes, and how much presence is desirable in a communicative situation depends on many factors, including the communication devices available, the intended use and the context of use. In addition, differences between individuals, such as personality, as well as physical and psychological state, will affect how readily presence is invoked and also its impact on the individual concerned. In this chapter, we expand on the general notion of presence as a dimension of communication, and how this perspective can inform an understanding of designed variations in presence as a function of use, context, and individual psychological factors.


We report XMM-Newton observations of the intermediate polar (IP) GK Per on the rise to the 2002 outburst and compare them to Chandra observations during quiescence. The asymmetric spin light curve implies an asymmetric shape of a semi-transparent accretion curtain and we propose a model for its shape. A low Fe xvii ($\lambda\lambda$15.01/15.26 A) line flux ratio confirms the need for an asymmetric geometry and significant effects of resonant line scattering.
Medium resolution PN spectra in outburst and ACIS-S spectra in quiescence can both be fitted with a leaky absorber model for the post shock hard X-ray emission, a black body (outburst) for the thermalized X-ray emission from the white dwarf and an optically thin spectrum. The difference in the leaky absorber emission between high and low spin as well as quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) or flares states can be fully explained by a variation in the absorbing column density. For the explanation of the difference between outburst and quiescence a combination of the variation of the column density and the electron and ion densities is necessary. The Fe fluorescence at 6.4 keV with an equivalent width of 447 eV and a possible Compton scattering contribution in the red wing of the line is not significantly variable during spin cycle or on QPO periods, i.e. a significant portion of the line originates in the wide accretion curtains.
High-resolution RGS spectra reveal a number of emission lines from H-like and He-like elements. The lines are broader than the instrumental response with a roughly constant velocity dispersion for different lines, indicating identical origin. He-like emission lines are used to give values for the electron densities of $\log n_{\rm e} \sim 12$. We do not detect any variation in the emission lines during the spin cycle, implying that the lines are not noticeably obscured or absorbed. We conclude that they originate in the accretion curtains and that accretion might take place from all azimuths.


The concentration of homovanillic acid (HVA) in the lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 18 patients with endogenous depression was significantly lower than that of 18 neurological controls not affected by extrapyramidal diseases, epilepsy, senile or presenile dementia. The 5hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) was also decreased in the depressed group but not significantly so. These data support the concept of an involvement of dopamine metabolism in affective disorders. After one week of treatment with dexamethasone (0.75 mg, daily) no significant change was observed in HVA or 5-HIAA levels in the CSF; after two weeks of imipramine hydrochloride (50 mg, three times a day) 5-HIAA, but not HVA, was significantly reduced. No negative correlation was found between levels of HVA or 5HIAA and scores on the Hamilton and Beck Rating scales for various symptoms of depression. Age was also not correlated with HVA or 5HIAA.


This paper presents a 372 ps 64-bit adder using fast pull-up logic (FPL) in 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. Fast pull-up logic is devised and applied to decrease pull-up time which is critical in domino-static adder. The implemented adder measures the worst case delay of 372 ps. The adder has a modified tree architecture using load distribution method and has 6 logic stages.


Due to the reputation of smart mobile devices and the low cost of monitoring systems, automated forensic investigations increasingly take visual data. Digital videos were widely used in identifying, analyzing, presenting and reporting evidence as key evidence sources. The primary purpose of this paper is to establish advanced methods for the forensic video analysis to support forensic science. We propose first a framework for forensic analyzes using an effective video / image improvement technique for low quality footage analysis eco-based forensic analysis.


M2PI is an active single chain mini-proinsulin with a 9-residue linker containing the turn-forming sequence 'YPGDV' between the B- and A-chains, but which retains about 50% of native insulin receptor binding activity. The refolding efficiency of M2PI is higher than proinsulin by 20-40% at alkaline pH, and native insulin is generated by the enzymatic conversion of M2PI. The solution structure of M2PI was determined by NMR spectroscopy. The global structure of M2PI is similar to that of native insulin, but the flexible linker between the B- and A-chains perturbed the N-terminal A-chain and C-terminal B-chain. The helix in the N-terminal A-chain is partly perturbed and the -turn in the B-chain is disrupted in M2PI. However, the linker between the two chains was completely disordered indicating that the designed turn was not formed under the experimental conditions (20% acetic acid). Considering the fact that an insulin analogue, directly cross-linked between the C-terminus of the B-chain and the N-terminus of the A-chain, has negligible binding activity, a flexible linker between the two chains is sufficient to keep binding activity of M2PI, but the perturbed secondary structures are detrimental to receptor binding.


The study presented in this paper is concerned with a search for evidence that the 'behavior setting', modified or altered by en-vironmental lighting, produces (creates) environmental cues or signals; and that the participants may tend to respond or act upon these cues in some consistent way. The experiment was conducted in a room in which the only physi-cal alterations were changes in the lighting arrangements. The methods for evaluating the subjective quality of space were a number of scientific techniques, most notably: (1) semantic dif-ferential rating scales for factor analysis, (2) ultidimension-al scaling, and (3) observation and mapping of overt behavior.


Background and Aim: Birth of a premature infant can instigate emotional crisis for the parents and encounter them with a variety of needs. The aim of this study was to specify the educational needs of parents of premature infants admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Materials and Methods: The study was performed by qualitative research approach. Twelve participants including 9 parents of infants in NICU, 2 nurses and 1 pediatrist were selected by purposive sampling method. Data were gathered by semi-structured interview in akbarabadi, aliasghar, firoozgar hospitals. Data were analyzed content analysis approach. Results: Two themes emerged from data analysis which expressed educational needs of parents of premature infants admitted in NICU. These themes were: need for knowledge and information about prematurity, and need for acquiring skills for caring premature infants. Conclusion: Most parents have not sufficient knowledge and information about premature infants and resolving these needs can help them to achieve a better sense of control over the situation. Understanding of these needs can help care team to provide better services for parents premature


Post-activation potentiation (PAP) can be defined as an acute effect of improved muscular performance as a result of their contractile history. PAP is typically induced through weight resistance exercises. Manual Resistance Training (MRT) is a form of accommodating resistance, but it's feasibility as an alternative method to elicit PAP is not known. PURPOSE: 1) To assess if potentiation can be achieved through the use of MRT, and 2) to compare the effectiveness of MRT applications of eliciting PAP to that accomplished through an isokinetic dynamometer. METHODS: Six (2 males and 4 females) young adults (mean ± SD; age = 21.6 ± 1.0 years, weight = 49.8 ± 4.1 kg, BMI = 24.2 ± 3.4, BF (%) = 25.8 ± 4.1 %) were recruited. Subjects participated in a Maximal Voluntary Contraction (MVC) baseline testing using a 5-sec isometric knee extension test at a 90-degree angle. Following the MVC test, subjects were randomly placed into one of three conditions: Baseline PAP (PAP), Constant Manual Resistance Training (CMRT), and Practical Manual Resistance Training (PMRT). For the PAP condition, subjects performed all knee extensions on a Biodex isokinetic dynamometer. The subjects performed 4-repetitions of knee extensions at 60 deg/sec, then performed 4-repetitions at 180 deg/sec. During the CMRT condition, subjects performed 4-repetitions of knee extensions on a custom-made device that allowed the application of constant resistance controlled by a partner, followed by 4-repetitions on the isokinetic dynamometer at 180 deg/sec. During PMRT condition, subjects performed 4-repetitions of knee extensions with the research assistant applying force on the distal portion of the shank, followed by isokinetic knee extensions at 180 deg/sec. Peak force from the 4-rep isokinetic leg extensions done at 180 deg/sec was used for analysis. Data was analyzed on SPSS 23 IBM. Data normality was assessed using a Shapiro-Wilk test. Data appeared to be non-normally distributed, therefore, a non-parametric Friedman test was used to assess differences between conditions. RESULTS: The Friedman test revealed no differences between the PAP (115.93 ± 46.72 Nm), CMRT (108.4 ± 47.0 Nm), and PMRT (113.98 ± 50.7 Nm) groups (p = 0.241). CONCLUSION: A traditional PAP, CMRT and PRMT methods might be viable methods to induce similar PAP effects on peak torque during knee extension. CMRT and PMRT might represent alternative methods to induce PAP that can be used in practical and sport settings in where no equipment might be available.


In an essay first published in 1967, Donald W. Winnicott finds in playing «the location of the cultural experience». Therefore, the toy (or the transitional object) positions itself as expression of the prevailing culture and the social codes that mould the different educational structures each time. According to the historian Maria Rumi, ever since mass production, dolls is overall one of the best selling toys in the male tradition and in the female world. This contribution aims to analyse the present changes within the production of fashion dolls in a three-way visual viewpoint: the revolution of the bodily stereotype of Barbie, which after representing the initial male fetish, becomes the embodiment of female identity; the cultural model of the Islamic dolls, which in opposition to western culture, propose female models which are milder and are subject to the dominant theo-political dictates; finally, we find the strange case of the widely unknown doll of Hugo Chavez, which became symbol of a popular revolution (for some, populist) to the point of being a great success among adult supporters of the then President of Venezuela. In this way, the doll becomes an instrument of inclusion or exclusion, according to the specific way to approach it. The fashion doll ceases to be an inanimate object and takes shape in the social imaginary and educates, not always intentionally, the consciences of adults and children. Keywords inclusion; society; education; politics


Trimethyl (1), tributyl (2), and triphenyl tin (3) derivatives of sodium (R)-4-((3R,5R,8R,9S,10S,12S,13R,14S,17R)-3,12-dihydroxy-10,13-dimethyl-hexadecahydro-1H-cyclopenta[a]phenanthren-17-yl)pentanoate (sodium deoxycholate) were synthesized by refluxing sodium deoxycholate with the corresponding triorganotin(IV) chloride in 1 : 1 M ratio. All the three compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, 1H, 13C, 119Sn NMR, and X-ray diffraction studies. From FT-IR spectra, Δν values proposed bridging or chelating behavior of the ligand. The three compounds gave a trigonal bipyramidal geometry in the solid state and tetrahedral geometry in solution. Single crystal of 1 showed polymeric trigonal bipyramidal geometry. Synthesized compounds obtained were screened for their antimicrobial and antitumor activities against A2780 cell line. Results revealed that only 2 showed significant antibacterial activity. However, all the three compounds exhibited promising antifungal and anticancer activities. Graphical Abstract The synthesized compounds inhibit strong antifungal activity even higher than the standard drug, Turbinafine. Keeping in view their antifungal activity, they might be used as potent antifungal agent.


Using standard Einstein theory, baryonic mass cannot account for observed galactic rotation velocities and gravitational lensing, attributed to galactic dark-matter halos. In contrast, theory constrained by Weyl conformal scaling symmetry explains observed galactic rotation in the halo region without invoking dark matter. An explanation of dark halos, gravitational lensing, and structural stabilization, without dark matter and consistent with conformal theory, is proposed here. Condensation of uniform primordial matter into a material cloud or galaxy vacates a large surrounding spherical halo. Within such an extended vacancy in the original cosmic background mass-energy density, conformal theory predicts centripetal acceleration of the observed magnitude.


Historians have traditionally drawn distinctions between Ulysses S. Grant's military and political careers. In Let Us Have Peace , Brooks Simpson questions such distinctions and offers a new understanding of this often enigmatic leader. He argues that during the 1860s Grant was both soldier and politician, for military and civil policy were inevitably intertwined during the Civil War and Reconstruction era. According to Simpson, Grant instinctively understood that war was 'politics by other means.' Moreover, he realized that civil wars presented special challenges: reconciliation, not conquest, was the Union's ultimate goal. And in peace, Grant sought to secure what had been won in war, stepping in to assume a more active role in policymaking when the intransigence of white Southerners and the obstructionist behavior of President Andrew Johnson threatened to spoil the fruits of Northern victory.


BACKGROUND
We hypothesized that the persistence of albumin microbubbles within the myocardium during crystalloid cardioplegia (CP) infusion and ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) occurs because of endothelial injury.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The myocardial transit rate of albumin microbubbles was measured in 18 dogs perfused with different CP solutions and in 12 dogs undergoing I-R. Electron microscopy with cationized ferritin labeling of the glycocalyx was performed in 9 additional dogs after CP perfusion and in 3 additional dogs undergoing I-R. Microbubble transit was markedly prolonged during crystalloid CP perfusion. The addition of whole blood to the CP solution accelerated the transit rate in a dose-dependent fashion (P<0.05), which was greater with venous than with arterial blood (P<0.05). The addition of plasma or red blood cells to CP solutions was less effective in improving transit rate than addition of whole blood (P<0.05). Microbubble transit rate was independent of the temperature, K+ content, pH, PO2, osmolality, viscosity, and flow rate of the perfusate. Similarly, a proportion of microbubbles persisted in the myocardium after I-R, which was related to the duration of ischemia (P<0.01) but not of reflow. Crystalloid CP perfusion and I-R resulted in extensive loss of the endothelial glycocalyx without other ultrastructural changes. This effect was partially reversed in the case of crystalloid CP when it was followed by blood CP.

CONCLUSIONS
Sonicated albumin microbubbles persist within the myocardium in situations in which the endothelial glycocalyx is damaged. The measurement of the myocardial transit rate of albumin microbubbles may provide an in vivo assessment of endothelial glycocalyx damage.


OBJECTIVES
Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is an infection of the vagina's mucous membranes, caused by Candida albicans in more than 90% of acute VVC. Several topical and oral azole agents are available in a variety of formulations, and all seem to have similar effectiveness. Azoles are fungistatic, meaning that the fungi are inhibited from growth or replication but are not eradicated. Recurrent infection and developing azole resistance demonstrate a significant need for alternative treatments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
One hundred twenty-six women were randomized to 1 of the following 3 treatment cohorts: CD101 3% gel (n = 50) applied intravaginally on days 1 and 2, CD101 6% ointment (n = 50) applied intravaginally on day 1, or oral fluconazole 150 mg (n = 26) on day 1. Primary outcomes of clinical and mycological cure, as demonstrated by changes in the vaginal scores and mycological culture, were assessed on day 7 (±2 days), day 14 (±2 days), and day 28 (±7 days). Safety assessments included treatment-emergent adverse events.

RESULTS
Ninety-nine women with positive Candida culture remained in the modified intent-to-treat population with 40 in each CD101 arm and 19 in the fluconazole arm. In the CD101 gel, CD101 ointment, and oral fluconazole groups, 35%, 30%, and 52.6% demonstrated clinical cure and 45%, 40%, and 57.9% had mycological cure at day 28, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
CD101 3% gel and CD101 6% ointment were well tolerated and produced similar rates of clinical and mycological cure in patients with an acute, moderate-to-severe episode of VVC. However, cure rates for these 2 formulations and regimens of CD101 were lower than those in patients treated with fluconazole.


This study is a quasi experiment comparing the software defect rates and implementation costs of two methods of software defect reduction: code inspection and test-driven development. We divided participants, consisting of junior and senior computer science students at a large Southwestern university, into four groups using a two-by-two, between-subjects, factorial design and asked them to complete the same programming assignment using either test-driven development, code inspection, both, or neither. We compared resulting defect counts and implementation costs across groups. We found that code inspection is more effective than test-driven development at reducing defects, but that code inspection is also more expensive. We also found that test-driven development was no more effective at reducing defects than traditional programming methods.


A new fluorophore pyrido[1,2-a]benzimidazole was synthesized and used as a ratiometric fluorescent probe based on an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism for sensing sulfite. The probe showed high selectivity and sensitivity toward SO32− with a fast response time (10 s) and a detection limit of 10.6 nM. Furthermore, the probe showed great potential for the detection of SO32− in real samples (dry white wine).


Several metamorphic and plutonic events have been recognized in the Klamath Mountains utilizing potassium-argon and rubidium-strontium mineral and whole-rock ages. The oldest known metamorphic event in the region produced the Abrams Mica Schist and the co-extensive Salmon Hornblende Schist. Strontium evolution diagrams indicate that the age of primary metamorphism of the Abrams Mica Schist is approximately 380 m.y. (Devonian). The Stuart Fork Formation of Davis and Lipman (1962), the schists of Condrey Mountain, and related schists were produced during a Middle and Late Jurassic metamorphic event. Granitic plutonic rocks are divided into four groups that are different in age and somewhat different in chemical characteristics. The oldest pluton, the Pit River stock, has a minimum age of 246 m.y. (Permian) and is grouped with the Castle Crags pluton. The other three plutonic groups are Middle and Late Jurassic and are characterized by the following ranges in isotopic age: 165 to 167 m.y., 145 to 155 m.y., and 127 to 140 m.y. The principal lode gold deposits in the California part of the Klamath Mountains seem to be related to the youngest group of plutons. If the Nevadan orogeny in this area is restricted to a Middle and Late Jurassic deformational, metamorphic, and plutonic event, the orogeny includes the emplacement of plutons of the three younger groups and the metamorphic development of the Stuart Fork Formation, schists of Condrey Mountain, and related schists.


Honda of America has developed a comprehensive approach to teaching the principles of lean production to its suppliers in which Honda and the supplier work intensively on narrowly targeted improvement projects in the supplier's plant. Called BP (for "Best Process," "Best Performance" "Best Practice"), this approach has been quite successful in enhancing supplier performance; suppliers participating in the program in 1994 averaged productivity gains of 50% on lines reengineered by BP. However, Honda has found there is high variation in the extent to which suppliers were able to transfer the lessons taught beyond the line or plant where the BP intervention occurred. Drawing on case studies of three of Honda's U.S. suppliers, this article explores how the BP process interacts with the broader relationship between customer and supplier in terms of organizational learning, technology transfer, and the transplantation of Japanese management practices to the United States. These cases illustrate the dynamics of the learning process and the complex relationship that emerges between the "teacher" (provider) of valuable knowledge and the "student" (recipient).


This book explores the management of change to improve public service effectiveness. It breaks new ground in addressing why public service change is becoming increasingly complex to manage, how people cope with this new complexity, what implications arise for improving policy and practice, and which avenues for further research and theory-building look particularly promising.

The contributors are all leading researchers from the USA, Canada and the UK. Together they provide a synthesis of state-of-the-art thinking on the complex change process in Anglo-American contexts, policy-making for public service reform that generates managerial complexity, and practice in service organizations to improve provision. Special reference is made to education and health: the largest and most complex of the public services. The analysis has wider relevance for other public services and national contexts.

Managing Change in the Public Services is essential reading for all concerned with public service improvement - leaders and managers in service organizations, administrators, trainers, advisers and consultants who support the management of change, policy-makers and public servants, and advanced course students and academics. The book also offers general insights for the theory and practice of managing organizational and systemic change.


Network pharmacology and polypharmacology are emerging as novel drug discovery paradigms. The many discovery, safety and regulatory issues they raise may become tractable with polypharmacological combinations of natural compounds found in whole extracts of edible and mixes thereof. The primary goal of this work is to get general insights underlying the innocuity and the emergence of beneficial and toxic activities of combinations of many compounds in general and of edibles in particular. A simplified model of compounds' interactions with an organism and of their desired and undesired effects is constructed by considering the departure from equilibrium of interconnected biological features. This model allows to compute the scaling of the probability of significant effects relative to nutritional diversity, organism complexity and synergy resulting from mixing compounds and edibles. It allows also to characterize massive indirect perturbation mode of action drugs as a potential novel multi-compound-multi-target pharmaceutical class, coined Ediceuticals when based on edibles. Their mode of action may readily target differentially organisms' system robustness as such based on differential complexity for discovering nearly certainly safe novel antimicrobials and anti-cancer treatments. This very general model provides also a theoretical framework to several pharmaceutical and nutritional observations. In particular, it characterizes two classes of undesirable effects of drugs, and may question the interpretation of undesirable effects in healthy subjects. It also formalizes nutritional diversity as such as a novel statistical supra-chemical parameter that may contribute to guide nutritional health intervention. Finally, it is to be noted that a similar formalism may be further applicable to model whole ecosystems in general.


We present a novel "brick and mortar" strategy for creating highly efficient transparent TiO2 coatings for photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications. Our approach is based on the fusion of preformed titania nanocrystalline "bricks" through surfactant-templated sol−gel titania "mortar", which acts as a structure-directing matrix and as a chemical glue. The similar chemical composition of both bricks and mortar leads to a striking synergy in the interaction of crystalline and amorphous components, such that crystallization is enhanced upon thermal treatment and highly porous and highly crystalline structures are formed at very mild conditions. Coatings with a broad variety of periodic mesostructures and thicknesses ranging from few nanometers to several micrometers are accessible using the same organic template, and the final structures are tunable by varying the fraction of the "bricks". The beneficial combination of crystallinity and porosity leads to greatly enhanced activity of the films in photocata...


The propulsion system of a medium-voltage dc (MVDC) ship is subject to large thrust/torque variations due to interactions of the ship and the propeller with sea waves. These variations induce steep power fluctuations on the MVDC bus, adversely impacting the stability, efficiency and power quality. Hybrid energy storage system (HESS) is a promising solution for mitigating these power fluctuations. Dictating the energy that the HESS components must deliver/absorb, the energy management strategy (EMS) impacts the size/capacity of the energy storage system (ESS). Based on this consideration, sizing and EMS of a battery/supercapacitor (SC) HESS are jointly optimised by using a deep reinforcement learning-based method. The proposed method splits the power between the HESS components such that while the operational constraints are satisfied, energy storage size and losses are minimised. Its features are adaptability to varying sea states, real-time implementation feasibility, while obviating the requirement for knowledge of the ship propulsion power profile. The efficacy of the joint sizing/EMS on reducing the ESS size is validated by comparing the sizes when battery-only, SC-only and HESS are employed in the MVDC shipboard power system. Real-time implementation feasibility and adaptability to various ship propulsion power profiles is confirmed through real-time simulations.


Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are popular machine learning tools for modeling and forecasting sequential data and for inferring dynamical systems (DS) from observed time series. Concepts from DS theory (DST) have variously been used to further our understanding of both, how trained RNNs solve complex tasks, and the training process itself. Bifurcations are particularly important phenomena in DS, including RNNs, that refer to topological (qualitative) changes in a system's dynamical behavior as one or more of its parameters are varied. Knowing the bifurcation structure of an RNN will thus allow to deduce many of its computational and dynamical properties, like its sensitivity to parameter variations or its behavior during training. In particular, bifurcations may account for sudden loss jumps observed in RNN training that could severely impede the training process. Here we first mathematically prove for a particular class of ReLU-based RNNs that certain bifurcations are indeed associated with loss gradients tending toward infinity or zero. We then introduce a novel heuristic algorithm for detecting all fixed points and k-cycles in ReLU-based RNNs and their existence and stability regions, hence bifurcation manifolds in parameter space. In contrast to previous numerical algorithms for finding fixed points and common continuation methods, our algorithm provides exact results and returns fixed points and cycles up to high orders with surprisingly good scaling behavior. We exemplify the algorithm on the analysis of the training process of RNNs, and find that the recently introduced technique of generalized teacher forcing completely avoids certain types of bifurcations in training. Thus, besides facilitating the DST analysis of trained RNNs, our algorithm provides a powerful instrument for analyzing the training process itself.


In this study we compared second language (L2) vocabulary learning with real objects versus nonobjects as referents (a) to test the effects of increased semantic processing (when learning nonobjects) and (b) to assess the viability of using L2 vocabulary learning with nonobjects (which forces learners toward concept mediation) for future studies on the development of conceptual mediation. Native English speakers attempted to learn 24 pseudowords using real objects and nonobjects as referents. After the learning phase, they completed two posttests: picture-to-L2 recall (productive) and word-picture verification (receptive). Scores were submitted to analyses of variance with condition (object, nonobject) as a within-subject independent variable. Other analyses tested whether object familiarity and nonobject similarity ratings had an effect on participants' ability to learn the words. Regression analyses were used to test whether condition (object, nonobject) affected the participants' accuracy in learning the words on the word-picture verification task. Additional analyses were also performed on the extent to which the mismatch between learning and testing as objects and nonobjects affected accuracy. The results of the study suggest that (a) the additional semantic processing involved in learning with nonobjects decreases learners' ability to learn new word forms and that (b) L2 vocabulary learning with objects and nonobjects is a viable experimental paradigm for measuring the extent to which L2 vocabulary learning involves L1 lexical mediation.


The 2013 M_L 6.4 Ruisui earthquake struck a seismic gap around the northern part of the Longitudinal Valley where rare earthquakes have occurred for at least two decades. Seismic data with different frequency bands connote a diverse scale of source characteristics. The slip model derived by a previous study using long-period seismic data provided us with the preliminary earthquake source properties in low-frequency energy radiation. However, the high-frequency part of the seismic energy needs to be considered for the strong motions in the comprehensive frequency band. As a case study, we carried out broadband strong motion simulations through the hybrid scheme, which simulated waveforms combining the low-frequency motions (frequency-wavenumber integration method) and high-frequency motions (empirical Green's function method) to reveal the strong ground motion and source characteristics of the 2013 Ruisui earthquake. The results show that even though the local structure is complicated this hybrid simulation can effectively rebuild the overall broadband strong ground motion characteristics for the 2013 Ruisui earthquake. Additional study issues are required to better understand the nature of localized high peak ground acceleration and the related seismic hazards for future earthquakes.


The present work was carried out between 1985 and 1990, mainly on harpacticoid copepods collected from Ardmore Bay, Clyde Estuary, Scotland. The purpose of this work was to determine the annual cycle of population density of sediment dwelling harpacticoids in the intertidal zone in Ardmore Bay, to compare in detail the summer and winter population densities of harpacticoid and nematode populations in the intertidal zone and to relate these to particle size parameters, and to conduct behavioural studies on sedimentary harpacticoid copepods collected from the intertidal zone at Ardmore. Some preliminary taxonomic work is also described on the external anatomy of Calanus finmarchicus. a taxonomic description is given of the intertidal sand- dwelling harpacticoid, Tachidius discipes. and the anatomy of the two species is compared. Scanning electron microscopy showed differences between the two species Calanus finmarchicus and Tachidius discipes. The body of Calanus finmarchicus is smooth, the abdomen is much narrower than the thorax, the first antenna is as long as the body length, and few hairs are present on the external side of the exopodites and endopodites of the legs. The body of Tachidius discipes is broadly elongated, having 9 segments. The abdomen is thinner than the thorax, and long setae are carried by the caudal rami. The thoracic segments have hairs along their posterior margins which may keep the joints between the segments clean and also aid in movement through the sediment. The five pairs of legs have spines and setae which are likely to be important in moving between sediment grains. The setae at the distal end of the legs are also likely to be important in swimming when the adults emerge from sediments. In contrast, Calanus finmarchicus. which is entirely pelagic, is smoother and has no spines but many setae on its legs, which are clearly an adaptation for swimming. The annual survey of harpacticoids at Ardmore Bay showed that at low and mid tide population densities were low in winter and high in summer. At high tide there was a peak in autumn (October) and spring (February). Copepodites were abundant throughout the year at low tide, but at mid tide peaked in winter (December, January). Virtually no copepoditcs were found at high tide. The high tide population may therefore be replenished from the low and mid tide regions. During the survey, adults and copepodites were found to be most abundant in the top 2 cm of sediment. Detailed comparisons of harpacticoids, nematodes and particle size in summer and winter were conducted at five stations on a transect from high tide to low tide at Ardmore Bay and showed that the summer population of harpacticoids and nematodes was much higher than winter population at all five stations. Nematodes were more abundant at deeper depths in the sediment in winter than summer, suggesting a downward migration to avoid cold winter temperatures. In contrast to harpacticoids, nematodes although more abundant near the sediment surface occurred to a depth of at least 14 cm. The high tide stations tended to have finer sediments with larger standard deviations (less well sorted), and lower kurtoses (less peaked). There were fewer differences in particle size parameters vertically into the sediment, and more between summer (July) and winter (January). Harpacticoids were restricted to sediments having a narrower range of mean particle size than were nematodes. Harpacticoids and nematodes were most abundant in sediments having intermediate standard deviations and a high negative skewness. The behaviour experiments showed that harpacticoid copepods migrate out of sediments into the overlying water in the dark. This is considered to be an important dispersal mechanism. Vertical migration out of the sediments is inhibited by light, by high and low temperatures (20


Petri nets with name creation and management (ν-PNs) have been recently introduced as an expressive model for dynamic (distributed) systems, whose dynamics are determined not only by how tokens flow in the system, but also by the pure names they carry. On the one hand, this extension makes the resulting nets strictly more expressive than P/T nets: they can be exploited to capture a plethora of interesting systems, such as distributed systems enriched with channels and name passing, service interaction with correlation mechanisms, and resource-constrained workflow nets that explicitly account for process instances. On the other hand, fundamental properties like coverability, termination and boundedness are decidable for ν-PNs. In this work, we go one step beyond the verification of such general properties, and provide decidability and undecidability results of model checking ν-PNs against variants of first-order μ-calculus, recently proposed in the area of data-aware process analysis. While this model checking problem is undecidable in the general case, decidability can be obtained by considering different forms of boundedness, which still give raise to an infinite-state transition system. We then ground our framework to tackle the problem of soundness checking over workflow nets enriched with explicit process instances and resources. Notably, our decidability results are obtained via a translation to data-centric dynamic systems, a recently devised framework for the formal specification and verification of data-aware business processes working over full-fledged relational databases with constraints. In this light, our results contribute to the cross-fertilization between the area of formal methods for concurrent systems and that of foundations of data-aware processes, which has not been extensively investigated so far.


The aim of this study was to identify which attributes impacted the dynamic liking of cheese and wine individually as well as when consumed together. Three wines (a white one, Pouilly Loché; and two red ones Maranges and Beaujolais) and three cheeses (Comté, Époisses, Chaource) were individually evaluated by a group of 60 consumers using monointake Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) with simultaneous hedonic ratings. The same data acquisition screen was used for all products showing a unique list of 14 descriptors (covering cheese and wine perception) and a hedonic scale for dynamical rating of liking. The dynamic hedonic data was associated to the TDS profiles obtaining Temporal Drivers of Liking (TDL). The nine wine-cheese associations were evaluated by multi-bite and multi-sip TDS, consumed in a free manner. Individually, Chaource had practically no TDL, in Comté mushroom flavor was a positive TDL, and in Epoisses salty was a negative TDL. All wines presented TDL, but negative were only present in the red ones: bitter, sour and astringent. In wines, the positive TDL were: fruity, spicy and woody. Dynamic perception changes had a bigger impact on liking in wine compared to cheese. For the associations, the negative TDL were only three and mostly wine related: sour (for 7/9 combinations), bitter (6/9) and astringent (5/9). Positive TDL were more varied (a total of 10 descriptors) and were related either to wine or cheese. As opposed to what was found in cheese alone, salty was a positive TDL in two of the combinations. It was observed that the dynamic sensory perception had a more important impact on liking in wine-cheese combinations than when consumed separately. This shows that TDS and TDL have a big potential in the study of food pairing which should be further exploited.


Companies aim to win customers loyalty by establishing long-term relationship with them. Relationship Marketing techniques as the marketing execution arms secure the existing customer retention and meet customers' needs and win their trust through a high quality relationship which eventually leads to their loyalty. Loyal customers, despite environmental factors and advertisement of competitors, tend to repurchase from the firm and guarantee its profitability in today's turbulent market. This research, following review of the prior research and collecting information from reliable sources, investigates the relationship of music on behavior of apparel consumers in the city of Tehran. In fact, present research seeks to answer the question as whether music exercises any influence in behavior of apparel consumers. The required data were gathered based on the research theoretical framework and through the distribution of 450 questionnaires among apparel buyers and consumers over city of Tehran. From 450 distributed questionnaires, 434 were appropriately filled and used for analysis. Using multivariate linear regression test the research hypotheses were examined. The results indicated that music broadcasting had no significant effect on the amount of time spent for search in attire store by the buyers, and an inverse correlation was found between music playing and the variable tendency repurchase and to recommend the store to others. The results of the regression tables report an adjusted R2 of 0.013, indicating the sum of independent variables explains only 1.3% of the total variance of the dependent variable and the rest of the variance is explained by other factors.


In this article I explore how theoretical metaphors about the contemporary rescaling of the capitalist economy are used by local policy actors to justify an entrepreneurial urban policy. I develop a new theoretical concept (scalar narrative), suggest an analytical approach (cultural politics of scales) and give evidence of a particular case (Bilbao). The article is structured in the following way. First, I briefly review the literature on politics of scales and contribute to the debate with an approach that incorporates elements from cultural political economy and interpretative policy analysis. Within this approach I mobilize the concept of 'scalar narrative' that has already been suggested in the literature but not fully explored. I then put this approach into practice with a particular case study, Bilbao, a city in the north of Spain, which has recently gone through extensive urban regeneration, where I describe the appropriation of three scalar narratives by the policymakers. To show this I draw from empirical work done in Bilbao that looks at statutory and strategic planning documents as well as urban marketing literature and interviews with key informants.


Galina Obmolova, Alexey Teplyakov, Pavel P. Khil, Andrew J. Howard, R. Daniel Camerini-Otero, and Gary L. Gilliland* Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Rockville, Maryland Genetics and Biochemistry Branch, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland Center for Synchrotron Radiation Research and Instrumentation, Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences Department, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois


Abstract. Our understanding of the natural variability of hydroclimate
before the instrumental period (ca. 1900 CE in the United States) is largely
dependent on tree-ring-based reconstructions. Large-scale soil moisture
reconstructions from a network of tree-ring chronologies have greatly
improved our understanding of the spatial and temporal variability in
hydroclimate conditions, particularly extremes of both drought and pluvial
(wet) events. However, certain regions within these large-scale network
reconstructions in the US are modeled by few tree-ring chronologies.
Further, many of the chronologies currently publicly available on the
International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) were collected in the 1980s and
1990s, and thus our understanding of the sensitivity of radial growth to soil
moisture in the US is based on a period that experienced multiple extremely
severe droughts and neglects the impacts of recent, rapid global change. In
this study, we expanded the tree-ring network of the Ohio River valley in
the US, a region with sparse coverage. We used a total of 72 chronologies
across 15 species to examine how increasing the density of the tree-ring
network influences the representation of reconstructing the Palmer
Meteorological Drought Index (PMDI). Further, we tested how the sampling
date and therefore the calibration period influenced the reconstruction
models by creating reconstructions that ended in the year 1980 and compared
them to reconstructions ending in 2010 from the same chronologies. We found
that increasing the density of the tree-ring network resulted in
reconstructed values that better matched the spatial variability of
instrumentally recorded droughts and, to a lesser extent, pluvials. By
extending the calibration period to 2010 compared to 1980, the sensitivity
of tree rings to PMDI decreased in the southern portion of our region where
severe drought conditions have been absent over recent decades. We emphasize
the need of building a high-density tree-ring network to better represent
the spatial variability of past droughts and pluvials. Further, chronologies
on the ITRDB need updating regularly to better understand how the
sensitivity of tree rings to climate may vary through time.


The pathogenesis of the primary stage of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) is poorly understood. There is no skin cell model and LGV pathogenesis studies are therefore carried out on cells of different origin. Moreover, such studies usually use reference strains, which may have evolved over the years in culture. In this study, a model was developed in which Chlamydia trachomatis enters and grows in human keratinocytes at 37 and 33 °C. Keratinocytes were infected with fresh clinical isolates and the three LGV reference strains L1, L2 and L3. Growth was monitored for 5 days post-infection using fluorescence microscopy and image analysis software. Chlamydial replication was quicker at 37 than at 33 °C, despite 33 °C being the temperature of human skin. The serovar L2 reference strain grew significantly faster than the other strains, although the fresh clinical isolates were also serovar L2. When grown in keratinocytes at 33 °C, the L2 and L3 reference strains produced much larger inclusions than the other strains tested. This model, which utilizes keratinocytes, better simulates the conditions present at the initial site of infection in LGV than previously published literature, making it a useful tool for future LGV pathogenesis studies. In addition, the results indicate that fresh clinical isolates should be included in LGV pathogenesis studies.


Abstract Much of Wyoming is underlain by Archean cratonic basement rocks and cratonized Proterozoic rocks that provide favorable geological environments for a variety of gemstones –notably diamond, iolite, ruby, sapphire, garnet, kyanite, andalusite, sillimanite, labradorite, jewelry grade gold, platinum and palladium nuggets, emerald, aquamarine, helidor, tourmaline, spinel, clinozoisite, zoisite, apatite, jasper, specularite, etc. Thick Phanerozoic sedimentary rock successions with lesser Tertiary volcanic rock cover large portions of the basement terrain. Some of these Phanerozoic rocks provide favorable hosts for other gemstones including opal, placer diamond, placer gold, placer platinum, placer ruby, jasper, agate, emerald, varisite, etc. Using traditional exploration and prospecting methods, dozens of gem and precious metal deposits were discovered over the past 3 decades, including major discoveries and geological and mineralogical evidence for significant undiscovered deposits. Major swarms of mantle-derived kimberlite, lamproite and lamprophyre, many of which have proven to be diamondiferous, also host colored gemstones including pyrope garnet (Cape Ruby), spessartine garnet, almandine garnet, chromian diopside (Cape Emerald) and chromian enstatite. One lamproite also yielded peridot. Favorable conditions for crystallization of metamorphogenic gemstones during regional amphibolite-grade metamorphism occurred during the Precambrian. In this terrain, metapelite in the central Laramie Range hosts kyanite, sillimanite and andalusite. These three minerals provide evidence of favorable pressures and temperatures needed for crystallization of aluminous gemstones including ruby, sapphire and kyanite. Cordierite (iolite) another aluminum-rich gemstone, formed during a later thermal event. This later event was responsible for deposition of world-class iolite (Water Sapphire) gemstone deposits. Evidence for undiscovered gemstone deposits is predicted based on mineralogical anomalies detected during various research projects from 1977 until 2005. These include ruby, sapphire, gold and aquamarine found in stream sediment samples as well as favorable geological terrains that remain unexplored. Other anomalies include pyrope garnet (several with G10 geochemistry), picroilmenite, and some chromian diopside that provide evidence for hundreds of undiscovered diamond deposits. Elsewhere, detrital diamonds reported by various prospectors provide direct evidence for undiscovered diamond deposits. Other geological and mineralogical evidence suggest the presence of additional undiscovered opal, cordierite (iolite) and kyanite deposits. Wyoming could potentially become a major source for gemstones including diamond, gold, platinum, palladium, Cape ruby, Cape emerald, iolite and opal. I dedicate this paper in memory of a friend and former colleague at the Wyoming State Geological Survey who greatly advanced the State's knowledge in industrial minerals and decorative stones. Ray E. Harris former Industrial Minerals and Uranium Geologist passed away too soon.


Metformin is one of the most used antidiabetic drugs, with extensive experience, multiple benefits and low costs. The issue of the benefits and risks of metformin administration during pregnancy is raised more and more frequently. Although more research is needed, we wanted to review the existing research data for both gestational diabetes and pre-existing diabetes.


The hexavalent chromium used in chromium plating is so toxic that it is very hazardous to human body and even carcinogenic. Therefore, it is indispensable to develop an alternative deposition technique. To explore the feasibility of sputtering as an alternative technique for chromium plating, we investigated the dependences of the deposition rate, the phases, the hardness, the surface roughness and the corrosion-resistance of CrNx deposited on the high speed steel substrate by using a dual ion beam sputtering system on the rf-powers. The deposition rate of CrNx depends more strongly upon the rf-power for argon ion beam than that of the nitrogen ion beam. The hardness of the CrNx film can be maximized by optimizing the rf-power, so that the volume percent of the Cr2N phase in the film is highest. Amorphous films are obtained when the rf-power for nitrogen ion beam is much higher than that for argon ion beam. The CrNx film deposited by using the sputtering technique under the optimal condition provides corrosion-resistance comparable to that of the electroplated chromium.


As a graphic designer, I am currently researching the archive of Edward C. Rigg. This is the story of an ordinary yet extraordinary life. Rigg's personal archive is a rich resource of personal and detailed historical narrative, focusing on his time in the RAF just after the Second World War and documenting his profession as a jet test pilot and transport pilot during the 1950's and 1960's. The purpose of this research is to
further evaluate the manifestations of data shadows and visual residues contained within artefacts and archives and their potential role in the generation of written and visual narratives in creative practice.
These visual residues are interpreted through my own auto-ethnographic investigation into the clues that form assumptions about everyday narratives that surround certain archives. Auto-ethnography can be described as a process of analysis of personal experiences that seek to understand and discuss cultural experiences.

This approach to the research process is examined through my own self-reflective narratives, where I re-tell the stories told to me by Rigg. I then translate my own personal experiences of the archival content into graphic outcomes. Graphic design methodologies and the design process have been fundamental in the production of distinct visual outcomes. The final images – on the Last Argosy website (www.lastargosy.com) – are part of the narrative distilling process, which in turn creates its own visual data. The graphic design process helps to connect stories from out of the archive to a wider cultural audience through exhibition and online digital platforms.

This paper will firstly, account for the role of the graphic designer as custodian of stories and their transcription into physical design. This is a mode of storying the self through visual analysis and the production of graphic forms. Secondly, the paper will address the mixing of narratives from out of the archive: between the researcher as narrator and the archive source (in this case Edward C. Rigg). Thirdly, the paper will discuss the benefits of this project for student engagements with storytelling. For example, in the Department of Art and Communication at the University of Huddersfield, undergraduate students have used the graphic platform to explore both found items and archival materials, which are then visually translated to create new narratives. This approach examines the role of storytelling in type and image selection and its relevance within graphic design. This will be analyzed through the mechanisms of auto-ethnography. The differences in inter-generational experience are reflected in the stories and work generated by students.


The wetting and evaporation behaviour of methanol-water droplets deposited on a smooth silicon substrate were investigated experimentally. Contact angle and droplet shape kinetics were studied using an optical technique. Drops were deposited onto a silicon substrate and enclosed in a cell with nitrogen as the ambient gas. Besides the case of pure water and pure methanol, three different volume fractions of methanol in water were investigated: 10%, 50% and 80%. Using a Kruss DSA100 contact angle analyser, the behaviour of the contact angle, droplet volume, and base width was determined as a function of time. Results show that evaporation of the droplet takes place in successive stages for mixtures. The more volatile component seems to evaporate principally in the first stage, during which the contact angle of the binary drop is closer to that of pure methanol. Because the wetting behaviour is partly dictated by the surface tension of the liquid-vapour interface, methanol is believed to be concentrated at the interface during this first stage. After complete evaporation of the methanol, the wetting behaviour of the droplet tends towards that of pure water. The mechanisms that dictate the evaporation and wetting behaviour of such binary droplets include many effects: diffusion of methanol in water in the liquid phase; accumulation of one of the component near the interface and preferential evaporation followed by diffusion of one component in another in the vapour phase. In order to model the phenomenon, the above effects must be taken into account. Solutal Marangoni stress as well as interfacial instabilities may also play an important role in the behaviour of theses systems.


Like many small-time companies there is a need to improve the flow of materials at HSP-Gripen AB. The company develops and manufactures hydraulic-powered grapples for the machine- and forest industry. By mapping the material flow in the current production and gathering necessary data, suggestions on how different parts of the production could be controlled is presented in this dissertation. This has been achieved by the study of relevant scientific literature. The suggested ways of controlling the production consist of 2-bin systems, hybrid material flow system as well as a cyclic product-planning. In the later part of this dissertation it is discussed how reliable the calculated bin-size is, the need for the suggested production system to have a headstart and the fact that 90 percent of the grapple models are handled in this dissertation.


The association of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) with its high-affinity receptor, c-met, has been shown to induce mitogenesis, motogenesis, and morphogenesis in renal epithelial cells (L. G. Cantley, E. J. G. Barros, M. Gandhi, M. Rauchman, and S. K. Nigam. Am. J. Physiol. 267 (Renal Fluid Electrolyte Physiol. 36): F271-F280, 1994), suggesting that HGF may be critical to the orchestration of both renal development and regeneration following injury. Although signal transduction pathways activated by c-met include the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI-3-kinase), phospholipase C gamma, ras, and others, the activation of PI-3-kinase has been the most striking in vivo. We therefore investigated whether the pathways that mediate phenotypic changes in inner medullary collecting duct cells are altered by inhibition of PI-3-kinase with the fungal metabolite, wortmannin. In these cells, the mean inhibitory concentration for in vitro wortmannin inhibition of PI-3-kinase was approximately 0.2 nM. At this low concentration, motogenesis (quantified by chemotaxis) and morphogenesis (by branching-process formation within collagen matrix) were inhibited in a striking and parallel fashion, while mitogenesis was inhibited to a lesser degree. These experiments suggest that activation of PI-3-kinase is critical for c-met-mediated chemotaxis and tubulogenesis.


'Kronio' is a Sicilian cultivar of sweet cherry (Prunus avium), nominally with the incompatibility genotype S(5)S(6), that is reported to be naturally self-compatible. In this work the cause of its self-compatibility was investigated. Test selfing confirmed self-compatibility and provided embryos for analysis; PCR with consensus primers designed to amplify S-RNase and SFB alleles showed that the embryos were of two types, S(5)S(5) and S(5)S(6), indicating that S(6) pollen failed, but S(5) succeeded, perhaps because of a mutation in the pollen or stylar component. Stylar RNase analysis indicated active S-RNases for both S(5) and S(6). The S-RNase alleles were cloned and sequenced; and sequences encode functional proteins. Cloning and sequencing of SFB alleles showed that S(6) was normal but S(5) had a premature stop codon upstream of the variable region HVa resulting in a truncated protein. Therefore, the self-compatibility can be attributed to a pollen-part mutation of S(5), designated S(5)', the first reported case of breakdown of self-incompatibility in diploid sweet cherry caused by a natural mutation at the S-locus. The second intron of the S-RNase associated with S(5)' contained a microsatellite smaller than that associated with S(5); primers designed to amplify across this microsatellite effectively distinguished S(5) from S(5)'. Analysis of some other Sicilian cherries with these primers indicated that S(5)' is also present in the Sicilian cultivar 'Maiolina a Rappu', and this proved to be self-compatible.


Server load balancing (SLB) technology as described by (T. Schroeder, et al. (2000)) has provided a fundamental cornerstone necessary to the success of the Internet. Global server load balancing (GSLB) as described in (E. Zegura, et al. (2000)), (J. Dilley, et al. (2002)) enhances application performance by allowing the client's server selection to be based upon server performance, network performance and the approximate network location of the client and the server. To help enable this technology for the tactical environment we have created the server load balancing registration protocol.


Abstract In this article we address gender differences in school performance and attitudes towards school using data from national (in Spain) and international evaluation reports and qualitative research to understand the perceptions of post-compulsory secondary students who continue their studies and do so successfully. Using a sample of twenty-six students (12 girls and 14 boys) who study Baccalaureate and Vocational Training, we investigate through in-depth interviews the shaping of feminine and masculine identities defined both in the reproduction of stereotyped cultural patterns as well as in the resistance and rupture. The findings reveal that girls have a clearer commitment to school work, being still very underrepresented in technical studies whose importance in the labour market is greater.


Background Adenosine Deaminase, the key enzyme of purine metabolism catalyzing the irreversible hydrolytic deamination of adenosine to inosine is implicated in a varied spectrum of human diseases ranging from SCID to TB and pneumonia. Estimation of ADA offers an easy, relatively affordable and reliable diagnostic alternative and/ or adjunct (specially in a TB endemic nation) which emphasizes the necessity of a feasible and implementable alternative method to the Diazyme method of ADA estimation requiring high end autoanalyzer and infrastructural setup. Methods Sixty body fluids samples (irrespective of gender, age, diagnosis or sample type) received by the Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal for fluid ADA estimation by the Diazyme assay method (cobas 6000) was simultaneously processed by the Galanti and Guisti manual method to estimate the comparability and the aggregability of results obtained by the two analytical techniques. Results The Galanti and Guisti manual method of ADA estimation showed aggregability with the Diazyme autoanalyzer method for 90% of the assayed study samples with the manual method uniformly showing higher values when compared to the analyzer method. A correction factor of 2.44 was arrived at which could effectively achieve comparability between the two assay methods. Conclusion The Galanti and Guisti manual method of ADA estimation might be a feasible, rapid, reliable and cost-effective method for estimation of fluid ADA when compared to the cost and infrastructure intensive autoanalyzer.


In the period 1974-1990 Argentina's income per capita fell by 25%. A Solow growth decomposition shows that at most one quarter of this fall can be explained by a reduction in the capital/labor ratio. A study of labor reallocation shows that between 1973 and 1993 employment expanded the most in sectors with a declining output per worker and this reallocation of labor explains 44% of the fall in output per worker. We argue that policies that increase the cost of capital may explain these observations. Consider a two sector model where capital/labor substitution is low in the tradable goods sector and high in the non-traded goods one. If the steady state capital stocks falls, labor .ows from the tradable goods sector to the non-traded goods one, leading to a reduction in income per capita, productivity and wages. Thus, policies that increase the cost of capital have a direct e.ect on output through the fall in the capital stock and an indirect e.ect that operates through a reallocation of labor induced by the fall in investment.


OBJECTIVE: Chronic hematoceles are rare scrotal masses. Most of them include trauma, torsion, tumor, and surgery as possible causes. We describe the case of an old diabetic patient, who is attended for presenting a marked increase in size of the right hemiescrotum and pain. METHODS: We described computed tomography and sonographic findings. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Frequently, a varicocele is an associated finding. Presumibly, minor trauma results in rupture of dilated vessels. In sonographic exploration, they have a more complex heterogeneous appearance with echogenic debris and septations. Most hematoceles spontaneously resolve with conservative therapy.


In 2005, Germany implemented the Single Payment Scheme which lead to the conversion of direct payments into tradable, production decoupled, single farm payments. The transition from coupled to decoupled support instruments may impact the rate of structural change. The rate of structural change may accelerate since farms with a high share of income derived from CAP payments will abandon farming and lease their land. However, there are also good reasons why the rate of structural change might decrease especially if farmers do not behave as profit maximizers. In Germany agricultural land use is very heterogeneous with respect to management orientation and productivity even at local level. Most of the concerns related to structural change and development of land use intensity, e.g. abandonment of high nature value farmland, are only relevant in a very specific local context. Therefore, it is necessary to establish indicators for farm development on adisaggregated level. The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we derive criteria and threshold values to classify regions according to their respective natural, socio economic conditions and land use. Second, we evaluate the stability of the link between a set of explanatory variables and the rate of structural change at different spatial scales. Our results indicate that only for a few variables a generally valid link between them and the rate of structural change can be established. For the majority of the explanatory variables, their respective impact on structural change depends heavily on the regional context.


We introduce a highly scalable video compression system for very low bit-rate videoconferencing and telephony applications around 10-30 kbits/s. The video codec first performs a motion-compensated three-dimensional (3-D) wavelet (packet) decomposition of a group of video frames, and then encodes the important wavelet coefficients using a new data structure called tri-zerotrees (TRI-ZTR). Together, the proposed video coding framework forms an extension of the original zero tree idea of Shapiro (1992) for still image compression. In addition, we also incorporate a high degree of video scalability into the codec by combining the layered/progressive coding strategy with the concept of embedded resolution block coding. With scalable algorithms, only one original compressed video bit stream is generated. Different subsets of the bit stream can then be selected at the decoder to support a multitude of display specifications such as bit rate, quality level, spatial resolution, frame rate, decoding hardware complexity, and end-to-end coding delay. The proposed video codec also allows precise bit rate control at both the encoder and decoder, and this can be achieved independently of the other video scaling parameters. Such a scheme is very useful for both constant and variable bit rate transmission over mobile communication channels, as well as video distribution over heterogeneous multicast networks. Finally, our simulations demonstrated comparable objective and subjective performance when compared to the ITU-T H.263 video coding standard, while providing both multirate and multiresolution video scalability.


Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of ultrafiltration for Acute Decompensated Heart Failure (ADHF) with diuretic resistance.
Methods: Totally 120 patients with ADHF combined with diuretic resistance were enrolled in Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University. According to the treatment methods, 62 cases were included the observation group and 58 cases included the control group. The control group received conventional therapy, while the observation group received blood ultrafiltration and then compared the differences of clinical efficacy.
Results: The heart rate and respiratory rate of the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (80.04 ± 15.60 vs. 91.27 ± 16.75, P<0.05) and (22.36 ± 1.82 vs. 25.67 ± 1.28, P<0.05), the oxygen saturation of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (94.42 ± 1.87 vs. 91.31 ± 1.54P<0.05). The serum creatinine and Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) of the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (213.54 ± 57.46 vs. 301.52 ± 78.33, P<0.05), (520.57 ± 62.10 vs. 612.41 ± 78.50, P<0.05), the volume of 24 h urine of the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (1085.47 ± 145.63 vs. 910.44 ± 120.63, P<0.05).
Conclusion: The ultrafiltration treatment for ADHF with diuretic resistance can improve the patients' heart and kidney function and prognosis, increase the urine volume and decrease the level of serum BNP, which is worthy of clinical application.


Apart from pests and diseases, a vital issue in the early mature of cocoa crop in Nigeria is soil nutrient degradation in relation to the ageing of the farms and annual mining of nutrients via yield harvests. Indigenous production of cocoa in southwest Nigeria has been on without fertilizer applications. This is the basis for the reduction average lifespan and productive years of the plantation. The aim of this study was to quantify the rates of soil nutrient losses via cycling channels in old cocoa farm using cocoa beans, leaves, litters, and pod husks in south western Nigeria forest belt. Old cocoa farms with an average age of 55 years were selected from Idanre, where nutrients in soil cultivated to cocoa and plant variables were experimentally evaluated. Identified variables were randomly sampled and the composite samples were subjected to laboratory analysis. Results through routine laboratory techniques were subjected to descriptive analysis. Using average and percentage, the results show that inputs from litter falls account for about 29%, pod husks (24%), leaves (28%), beans (13%) and soil (6%) approximately. Soil nutrient balance equation indicates that an average of 1.32% nutrient amounts to loss via annual cycle and the order of nutrient concentrations in old cocoa ecosystem is therefore considered as litter > leaves > podhusks > beans > soil. Results also showed that nutrient cycling in old cocoa farm was high while the loss was low. The study hereby recommends land evaluation, annual relocation and seasonal spreading of pod husks across the farm for redistribution of nutrients to compliment nutrients return through litter fall instead of its usual concentrations where not useful for plant development.


Modeling naturally fractured reservoirs requires a detailed understanding of the three-dimensional (3D) fracture-network characteristics, whereas generally only one-dimensional (1D) data, often suffering from sampling artifacts, are available as inputs for modeling. Additional fracture properties can be derived from outcrop analogs with the scanline method, but it does not capture their full two-dimensional (2D) characteristics. We propose an improved workflow based on a 2D field-digitizing tool for mapping and analyzing fracture parameters as well as relations to bedding. From fracture data collected along 11 vertical surface outcrops in a quarry in southeast France, we quantify uncertainties in modeling fracture networks. The fracture-frequency distribution fits a Gaussian distribution that we use to evaluate the intrinsic fracture density variability within the quarry at different observation scales along well-analog scanlines. Excluding well length as a parameter, we find that 30 wells should be needed to fully (i.e., steady variance) capture the natural variability in fracture spacing. This illustrates the challenge in trying to predict fracture spacing in the subsurface from limited well data. Furthermore, for models with varying scanline orientations we find that Terzaghi-based spacing corrections fail when the required correction angle is more than 60°. We apply the 1D well analog data to calculate 3D fracture frequency using stereological relations and find that these relations only work for cases in which the orientation distribution is accurately described, as results greatly vary with small changes in the orientation distribution.