Convective vortices are common features of atmospheres that absorb lower-entropy-energy at higher temperatures than they reject higher-entropy-energy to space. These vortices range from small to large-scale and play an important role in the vertical transport of heat, momentum, and tracer species. Thus, the development of theoretical models for convective vortices is important to our understanding of some of the basic features of planetary atmospheres. The heat engine framework is a useful tool for studying convective vortices. However, current theories assume that convective vortices are reversible heat engines. Since there are questions about how reversible real atmospheric heat engines are, their usefulness for studying real atmospheric vortices is somewhat controversial. In order to reduce this problem, a theory for convective vortices that includes irreversible processes is proposed. The paper's main result is that the proposed theory provides an expression for the pressure drop along streamlines that includes the effects of irreversible processes. It is shown that a simplified version of this expression is a generalization of Bernoulli's equation to convective circulations. It is speculated that the proposed theory not only explains the intensity, but also sheds light on other basic features of convective vortices such as their physical appearance.


Research on how preservice teachers (PTs) learn to employ the teaching games for understanding (TGfU) model is in its infancy. The purpose of this study was to examine the combined effects of a package of university-based methods and the employment of the model during an early field experience (EFE) on PTs' delivery of TGfU during the teaching internship. The theoretical framework employed was occupational socialization. Participants were 2 PTs. Data were collected with 7 qualitative techniques and analyzed using analytic induction and constant comparison. Although the PTs understood elements of TGfU, a combination of their pedagogical struggles with and misconceptions of TGfU and their prior and concurrent socialization served to mediate and reduce the effects of their initial training. Consequently, neither PT was able to deliver the full version of TGfU during the internship. We suggest that faculty who are training PTs focus on a number of areas including recruiting teaching-oriented PTs, emphasizing the origins of the model in sport, contrasting TGfU and traditional pedagogies, debunking the idea that TGfU and foundational pedagogies are oppositional, providing a graded series of EFEs, teaching within small-sided games, and identifying tactical problems.


The effect of acute hypoglycaemia on platelet function was examined in patients undergoing an insulin stress test. Enhanced platelet aggregation was observed in all cases but platelet count, platelet adenine nucleotides, and the plasma level of von Willebrand factor were unchanged overall. The onset of the hypoglycaemia-induced increase in platelet aggregation coincided with the lowest blood glucose levels recorded and with the clinical signs of adrenaline release. Increased platelet aggregation was maintained thereafter for the two-hour test period. There was no apparent correlation with changes in cortisol, growth hormone, and prolactin. No change in platelet function was observed after the administration of L-dopa. We suggest that the measurement of platelet aggregation during a standard insulin stress test may provide a means of evaluating platelet function in vivo and the influence of drugs thereon.


Field experiment was conducted in the years 1998–2000 in GD Felin. The influence of no-tillage cultivation and conventional tillage with spring ploughing on weed infestation of onion was compared. In experiment four cover crop mulches ( Sinapis alba L., Vicia sativa L., Phacelia tanacetifolia B., Avena sativa L.) were applied. From annual weeds in weed infestation of onion in great number Matricaria chamomilla L., and Senecio vulgaris L. stepped out, and from perennial – Agropyron repens (L.) P.B. Reduced soil cultivation system (no-tillage) caused the significant growth of primary weed infestation of onion in comparison with conventional tillage. In all years of investigations the executed pre-sowing ploughing limited significantly the annual weeds' number in primary weed infestation. The applied mulches from cover plants limited in considerable degree the number of primary weed infestation. In all years of investigations the most weeds stepped out on control object. Among investigated cover crop mulches Vicia sativa L. and Avena sativa L. had a profitable effect on decrease of onion's primary weed infestation. Soil cultivation system and cover crop mulches had no signi ficant residual influence on the secondary weed infestation of onion.


In this study, the physical and mineralogical properties of three chromite ores taken from three different locations of Turkey (ore A, B, and C) were determined before the lab scale concentration studies. In this context, the mineralogical determination of mineral structure, liberation degree of valuable/gangue minerals, grindability properties (Bond work index, BWI), and size distributions of each ore were determined in detail. An empirical equation was derived based on the liberation size of Cr2O3, and the F80 and P80 values (80% passing size of feed and product in grinding, respectively) of the sample were obtained from the BWI tests for each ore. An estimation approach for the primary grinding size with the help of this equation was realized for each ore in the laboratory scale experiments. The results of first series of enrichment test for ore A showed that the chromite content of the concentrate (45% Cr2O3) was slightly lower depending on insufficient liberation size compared to ore B and ore C. On the other hand, due to the insufficient liberation in coarse size fractions, the middling with relatively high Cr2O3 content were obtained for ores B and C. After the optimization of the test conditions, saleable concentrates having 49–51% Cr2O3 grades with suitable chromite recoveries could be obtained for each type of ores. The empirical formula proposed in this research provided very suitable results (concentrates having saleable grades and higher metal recoveries) for the selection of primary grinding size of the ores. However, the results of the equation were limited to the ores used in these experimental studies. Therefore, it is recommended that the validity of this equation should be tested for other types of ores.


As we begin to reach the limits of classical computing, quantum computing has emerged as a technology that has captured the imagination of the scientific world. While for many years, the ability to execute quantum algorithms was only a theoretical possibility, recent advances in hardware mean that quantum computing devices now exist that can carry out quantum computation on a limited scale. Thus, it is now a real possibility, and of central importance at this time, to assess the potential impact of quantum computers on real problems of interest. One of the earliest and most compelling applications for quantum computers is Feynman's idea of simulating quantum systems with many degrees of freedom. Such systems are found across chemistry, physics, and materials science. The particular way in which quantum computing extends classical computing means that one cannot expect arbitrary simulations to be sped up by a quantum computer, thus one must carefully identify areas where quantum advantage may be achieved. In this review, we briefly describe central problems in chemistry and materials science, in areas of electronic structure, quantum statistical mechanics, and quantum dynamics that are of potential interest for solution on a quantum computer. We then take a detailed snapshot of current progress in quantum algorithms for ground-state, dynamics, and thermal-state simulation and analyze their strengths and weaknesses for future developments.


Nights of the Dark Moon is a collection of 13 dark folktales compiled from around Asia, with two bonus stories from Africa, retold in the Gothic tradition, known for its air of brooding mystery and chilling fear. The tales feature haunted places, ancient curses, supernatural creatures and desperate maidens. Ranging from the eerily thrilling to the pitiably tragic, the stories evoke dread and terror, but also longing, affection and sorrow. Some serve as cautionary tales, reminding us that there are monsters lurking among us in the real world. A few are well known in their country of origin and have become part of the national folklore. Others are obscure folktales waiting to be discovered, perhaps long forgotten even in the places they originated. The folktales have been extensively researched to be the most complete version published. Since they are not simple retellings, even the familiar will appear strange and fascinating.


Abstract. Realistic simulation of the Earth's mean-state climate remains a
major challenge, and yet it is crucial for predicting the climate system in
transition. Deficiencies in models' process representations, propagation of
errors from one process to another, and associated compensating errors can
often confound the interpretation and improvement of model simulations.
These errors and biases can also lead to unrealistic climate projections and incorrect attribution of the physical mechanisms governing past
and future climate change. Here we show that a significantly improved global
atmospheric simulation can be achieved by focusing on the realism of process
assumptions in cloud calibration and subgrid effects using the Energy
Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Atmosphere Model version 1 (EAMv1). The
calibration of clouds and subgrid effects informed by our understanding of
physical mechanisms leads to significant improvements in clouds and
precipitation climatology, reducing common and long-standing biases across
cloud regimes in the model. The improved cloud fidelity in turn reduces
biases in other aspects of the system. Furthermore, even though the
recalibration does not change the global mean aerosol and total
anthropogenic effective radiative forcings (ERFs), the sensitivity of
clouds, precipitation, and surface temperature to aerosol perturbations is
significantly reduced. This suggests that it is possible to achieve
improvements to the historical evolution of surface temperature over EAMv1
and that precise knowledge of global mean ERFs is not enough to constrain
historical or future climate change. Cloud feedbacks are also significantly
reduced in the recalibrated model, suggesting that there would be a lower
climate sensitivity when it is run as part of the fully coupled E3SM. This
study also compares results from incremental changes to cloud microphysics,
turbulent mixing, deep convection, and subgrid effects to understand how
assumptions in the representation of these processes affect different
aspects of the simulated atmosphere as well as its response to forcings. We
conclude that the spectral composition and geographical distribution of the
ERFs and cloud feedback, as well as the fidelity of the simulated base
climate state, are important for constraining the climate in the past and
future.


The allies of the night prepare for the final, deadly confrontation. Darren and Mr Crepsley will get more than they bargained for when they come face to face with the Vampaneze Lord. The allies of the night prepare for the final, deadly confrontation. Darren and Mr Crepsley will get more than they bargained for when they come face to face with the Vampaneze Lord. Outnumbered, outsmarted and desperate, the hunters are on the run. Pursued by the vampaneze, vigilante mobs and the police, Darren Shan, the Vampire Prince, is public enemy Number One! With their enemies baying for blood, the vampires prepare for deadly confrontation. Is this the end for Darren and his allies?


The prediction of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in thermal power industry belongs to the small sample, poor information gray system. On this basis, this paper established a combination forecasting model based on support vector machine (SVM) and radial basis function neural network (RBFNN). The weights of the model are obtained by using genetic algorithm (GA). At last, on the basis of the historical data of thermal power industry during 1991 to 2012, it predicts SO2 emissions of thermal power industry for the next 8 years. The results showed that, the predicted results were accurate by using this model, which is an effective method for the predict of SO2 emissions of thermal power industry in our country in the future.


Recent infections caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) have led to global panic and mortality. Here, we analyzed the spike (S) protein of this virus using bioinformatics tools. We aimed to determine relative changes among different coronavirus species over the past two decades and to understand the conservation of the S-protein. Representative sequences of coronaviruses were collected from humans and other animals between 2000 and 2020. Evolutionary analyses found that the S-protein did not evolve overnight, but rather continuously over time. Virtual screening of S-protein against a phytochemical database of Ayurvedic medicinal compounds (n = 2103) identified the S-protein inhibitors. Among these, top ranked were Gingerol (IUPAC name: 4'-Me ether, 3,5-di-Ac 3,5-di-Gingerdiols), 1-(5-Butyltetrahydro-2-furanyl)-2-hexacosanone and Ginsenoyne N ginseng that stimulates Caspase-3, Caspase-8, and the immune system. Gingerol is found in the fresh ginger and has reputation of being a potent antiviral. These compounds might prove useful to design drugs against COVID-19.


Lucia Afiki and Esther Goodson are living positively with HIV. They are counselors for family planning and HIV & AIDS at Salima District Hospital in Malawi, where they openly tell their clients that they are HIV-positive. "When we are open with them about our status," says Afiki, "people say, 'Come closer, we want to learn from you.'" Goodson adds: "They say, 'What should I do to look as good as you?'" The counselors tell them to visit a doctor and join a support group. This is an approach that saves lives. It also transforms social norms about health and gender.


CONTEXT
Understanding the interplay of multiple contexts of adolescents' sexual risk behaviors is essential to helping them avoid pregnancy and STDs. Although a body of research has identified multiple individual- and family-level variables associated with adolescents' sexual risk behaviors, relatively few studies have examined relationships between these behaviors and latent indicators of unstable, chaotic environments.

METHODS
In 2007-2008, a sample of 241 sexually active adolescent females who were at high risk for pregnancy and STDs were recruited through two school-based clinics and two community clinics in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Confirmatory factor analysis was used with baseline data to specify latent constructs of individual risk and family disengagement. Structural equation models examined longitudinal relationships between baseline measures of these constructs and sexual risk behaviors assessed six months later.

RESULTS
The latent construct of individual risk encompassed substance use, violence perpetration, violence victimization and having witnessed violence; that of family disengagement included family disconnection, poor family communication and perceived lack of safety at home. Baseline level of individual risk was positively associated with number of male sex partners six months later (path coefficient, 0.2); it was not associated with consistent condom use at follow-up. Level of family disengagement was negatively associated with condom use consistency six months later (-0.3), but was not associated with number of male sex partners.

CONCLUSIONS
To meet the health needs of vulnerable adolescents, health systems should incorporate coordinated and interdisciplinary services that acknowledge adolescents' relevant familial and social contexts.


Smith and Brisman (2020) have argued that our social and cultural orientation toward environmental crises is influenced by the existence of an 'Environmental Crisis Industry' (ECI hereafter) that favours environmental 'solutions' that are palatable to state corporate interests and the global consumer classes ahead of systemic change. This article, however, argues that the ECI is evolving in the context of political-economic and geopolitical changes that have emerged as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and is becoming increasingly focused on renewable energy and the shoring up supply and control over the minerals and natural resources crucial to the energy transition. These, however, are not without their own harms. While green criminology has spent a great deal of time considering the harms and consequences of failing to seriously tackle climate change, it has scarcely considered the potential harms that could emerge if the ECI decided to seriously pursue zero-carbon targets. As the ECI gets more serious, this article considers these potential harms and the implications this has for criminologists and zemiologists interested in climate change and environmental harm.


PURPOSE
Pain, fatigue, and distress are common among patients with cancer but are often underassessed and undertreated. We examine the prevalence of pain, fatigue, and emotional distress among patients with cancer, as well as patient perceptions of the symptom care they received.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Seventeen Commission on Cancer-accredited cancer centers across the United States sampled patients with local/regional breast (82%) or colon (18%) cancer. We received 2,487 completed surveys (61% response rate).

RESULTS
Of patients, 76%, 78%, and 59% reported talking to a clinician about pain, fatigue, and distress, respectively, and 70%, 61%, and 54% reported receiving advice. Sixty-one percent of patients experienced pain, 74% fatigue, and 46% distress. Among those patients experiencing each symptom, 58% reported getting the help they wanted for pain, 40% for fatigue, and 45% for distress. Multilevel logistic regression models revealed that patients experiencing symptoms were significantly more likely to have talked about and received advice on coping with these symptoms. In addition, patients who were receiving or recently completed curative treatment reported more symptoms and better symptom care than did those who were further in time from curative treatment.

CONCLUSION
In our sample, 30% to 50% of patients with cancer in community cancer centers did not report discussing, getting advice, or receiving desired help for pain, fatigue, or emotional distress. This finding suggests that there is room for improvement in the management of these three common cancer-related symptoms. Higher proportions of talk and advice among those experiencing symptoms imply that many discussions may be patient initiated. Lower rates of talk and advice among those who are further in time from treatment suggest the need for more assessment among longer-term survivors, many of whom continue to experience these symptoms. These findings seem to be especially important given the high prevalence of these symptoms in our sample.


Cutting heat dissipation in high speed milling of medium carbon steel was experimentally investigated based on calorimetric method under the cooling conditions of hard cutting, applying compressed air or water. Special containers holding water medium were designed to collect cutting heat in chips, workpiece and tool respectively, and the heat distribution ratio in these components was calculated in terms of the temperature varieties of each component. The results were compared with the cutting power which came from the cutting forces measured.


1 The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effects of the X2-adrenoceptor agonists clonidine, guanabenz, detomidine and medetomidine on pepsin secretion in conscious rats provided with gastric chronic fistula and to compare this with acid secretion. 2 Basal interdigestive gastric secretion, which is mainly neurally driven in the rat, and the secretion directly stimulated by the two main stimulants of chief cells, cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK8) and methacholine, were studied. 3 Basal secretion of pepsin and acid was inhibited by all four drugs with comparable EC50s. 4 CCK-stimulated pepsin and acid secretion was less sensitive than basal pepsin and acid secretion to x2-adrenoceptor inhibition. 5 Methacholine-stimulated pepsin and acid secretion was not changed by clonidine and guanabenz; methacholine-stimulated acid was even marginally increased by clonidine. 6 These results do not favour the presence of a2-receptors on chief cells in the rat stomach. They rather suggest that pepsin inhibition by M2-adrenoceptor agonists is indirect and due to central or peripheral inhibition of the discharge of nerve fibres activating pepsin secretion.


Background: To estimate the value of treatments in multiple sclerosis (MS) – where lifetime costs and outcomes cannot be observed – outcome data have to be combined with cost data. This, in turn, requires that cost data be regularly updated. Objectives and Methods: This study is part of a cross-sectional retrospective study in 16 countries collecting current data on resource consumption, work capacity, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and prevalent symptoms for patients with MS. Descriptive analyses are presented by level of severity, from the societal perspective, in 2015 Danish Kronor (DKK). Results: A total of 830 patients (mean age of 54 years) participated; 78% were below retirement age and of these, 43% were employed. Employment was related to disease severity, and MS was felt to affect productivity at work by 73% of patients, most often through fatigue. Overall, 95% and 65% of patients felt that fatigue and cognition, respectively, were a problem. Mean utility and costs were 0.770 and 196,900DKK at Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 0–3, 0.619 and 287,300DKK at EDSS 4–6.5, and 0.302 and 533,250DKK at EDSS 7–9. The average cost of a relapse was estimated at 19,000DKK. Conclusion: This study illustrates the burden of MS on Danish patients and provides current data that are important for the development of health policies.


Introductory programming courses often concentrate on teaching students the syntax for a specific programming language and the relevant constructs for implementing sequence, selection, and iteration. A necessary component of teaching programming, a fundamental flaw is the omission of a suitable strategy for teaching students problem solving. The ability to manipulate a programming language from a syntactical perspective leaves the students with a cursory awareness but does not necessarily mean that given a complex problem they will have the ability to produce a suitable solution. Thus it is important to embed within the teaching of introductory programming an integrated approach to problem solving. This can be a challenge within itself as students are not always receptive to the traditional approach of defining the problem, planning the solution, coding and testing the program. Present such problems as a paper and pen based exercise, couple this with the student's perceptions of these problems as irrelevant and a recipe for lack of engagement ensues. Teaching introductory programming to Game Software Development students lead to an interesting observation; while playing various genres of game, when encountering a puzzle, they appeared to consider their options as if mentally processing a strategy or solution before proceeding. Thus a hypothesis was derived that the use of cerebral based puzzle games could be used to introduce computational thinking, its four key techniques and the mapping between these techniques and the basic programming building blocks in a fun and engaging manner far removed from the traditional approach. Game Software Development students were already, unwittingly, implementing the techniques of decomposing the problem, identifying patterns, abstracting out relevant information and developing suitable algorithms to solve the puzzle. This paper will present the initial research identifying the underlying pedagogical issues associated with the use of game based learning in respect of computational thinking and the genres of game considered for use and the pedagogical constructs they exhibit.


Aim: The aim of this master thesis was to explore contexts of initiation of substance use and to describe the social, physical and mental health situation of women injecting drug users (WIDU) in Tunisia.Relevance: In North Africa, people who inject drugs are an important risk group in the HIV epidemic. There is evidence that WIDU are even more vulnerable. However, in Arabic Muslim societies, rehabilitation, treatment for this subpopulation and research on this issue are scarce.Method: A qualitative study was conducted. Six in-depth interviews with WIDU in Tunis were recorded, transcribed and inductivelyanalyzed using thematic analysis.Findings: Four themes were identified. The first theme describes situation of women before dependence. Women were brought up within patriarchal cultural norms where they were victimized. The second theme is related to the circumstances of initiation of drug use characterized by the wish for escape and pursue of pleasures. The third theme describes the dependence, withdrawal and consequences on everyday life. Final and fourth theme is related to the way out of addiction.Conclusion and recommendations: The socio-ecological model and the gender relational theory helped to interpret the findings.WIDU in Tunisia suffer from marginalization and from social and health inequalities due to their gender and to their dependence. This puts them at a higher risk of violence, abuse, health hazards and blood-borne and HIV infections. Thus, awareness and policies should be designed in order to alleviate the stigma and bring services closer to this subpopulation.


This libguide was prepared for students and staff of the UWI, FMS, St Augustine, MBBS Clinical Programme. It provides information about the services of the Medical Sciences Library that are accessible to Users away from the campus as well as the resources


We introduce the concept of annulets in an Almost Distributive lattice(ADL) $R$ with $0$. We characterize both generalized stone ADL and normal ADL in terms of their annulets. We characterize $\star $-ADLs by means of their annulets. It is proved that the lattice $\mathcal{A}_{0}(R)$ of all annulets of a generalized stone ADL $R$ is a relatively complemented sublattice of the lattice $\mathcal{I}(R)$ of all ideals of $R$. Finally, it is proved that $\mathcal{A}_{0}(R)$ is relatively complemented iff $R$ is sectionally $\star $-ADL.


Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-γ (PPARγ), a transcription factor of the nuclear receptor superfamily plays a significant role in colorectal cancer pathogenesis. In most experimental systems PPARγ activation has tumor suppressing effects in the colon. PPARγ is regulated at multiple levels by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). At a first level, UPS regulates PPARγ transcription. This regulation involves both PPARγ transcription specific factors and the general transcription machinery. At a second level UPS regulates PPARγ and its co-factors themselves, as PPARγ and many co-factors are proteasome substrates. At a third level of regulation, transduction pathways working in parallel but also having interrelations with PPARγ are regulated by the UPS, creating a network of regulation in the colorectal carcinogenesis-related pathways that are under UPS control. Activation of PPARγ transcription by direct pharmacologic activators and by stabilization of its molecule by proteasome inhibitors could be strategies to be exploited in colorectal cancer treatment.


Who are the French workers? In what conditions do they work and how do they feel at work? Our exploitation of the latest Dares Working Conditions Survey (2013) answers these questions. Several profiles of individuals are thus defined by considering on the one hand their objective working conditions (working hours, remuneration, nuisances ...) and, on the other hand, their feelings about work (well-being, tensions, pride , feeling of being more or less well paid ...). This approach reveals, among other things, that one in five employees are exposed to difficult working conditions. We also note that management plays a key role in the employee's quality of life at work, which deteriorates very strongly when tensions arise with his or her management. We also note that job satisfaction obeys complex rules - that the company does not control all - and that the autonomy of the employee has a positive influence on his quality of life at work, but up to a certain threshold - after which it becomes an additional source of tension.


We discuss an analytical model that predicts the impact of the Kerr nonlinearity in optical communication systems when the signal spectrum is wide and the accumulated dispersion during propagation is large. A detailed derivation of this model is given for a generalized system by means of a perturbation analysis of the Manakov equation with attenuation, gain, and third order dispersion included. As in the case with previous studies, three simplifying assumptions are necessary. These are that (i) the nonlinearity is weak, (ii) the input signal is of a given specific form, and (iii) the signal-noise interaction can be neglected. Under these assumptions, the result is found exactly. We also discuss the accuracy of the analytical result and show that third order dispersion has a small impact in practice.


IJREE – International Journal for Research on Extended Education aims at creating international visibility and a stronger scientific profile for the research field of extended education. The double-blind peer reviewed journal is published by a group of internationally renowned educational researchers and was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). From early childhood to late adolescence, young people are enrolled in various public or private forms of educational arrangements. Some of them, particularly pre-school-aged children, attend kindergarten or participate in early learning courses. School-aged children often participate in schoolor community-based programmes, forms of private tutoring or after-school activities such as art courses or academic clubs, or they attend all-day schools. In as far as these activities and programmes focus on the social, emotional and academic development of children and young people and are pedagogically structured to make it easier for the participants to learn specific contents they can be summarized by the term extended education.


BACKGROUND: After licensure of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in the United States in 2000, the incidence of pediatric pneumococcal meningitis decreased significantly. However, cases continue to occur. It is unknown whether meningitis due to PCV7 and non-PCV7 serotypes causes similar morbidity and mortality. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of laboratory-confirmed pneumococcal meningitis among Utah children from 1997 to 2010. We reviewed medical records and obtained clinical data during the acute illness and follow-up data on neurologic sequelae. RESULTS: Sixty-eight cases of meningitis were identified. PCV7 serotypes caused 64% of cases before and 25% of cases after licensure of PCV7 (P < .01). The age range was similar before and after PCV7 licensure (P = .5). The overall case fatality rate was 13% and was similar among cases caused by PCV7 and non-PCV7 serotypes (P = .7). Children with PCV7 serotypes were more likely to require mechanical ventilation (68% vs 34%; P < .01). Of all survivors, 63% had neurologic sequelae, and the proportion was similar after infection with PCV7 or non-PCV7 serotypes (P = .1). More than one-half (54%) of all children who developed pneumococcal meningitis in the PCV7 period were eligible for PCV7 and had not been immunized. CONCLUSIONS: Pneumococcal meningitis continues to be associated with high mortality and morbidity; death and neurologic sequelae are common with both PCV7 and non-PCV7 serotype meningitis. The substantial burden of this disease and continued cases among unimmunized children reinforce the need for more effective immunization strategies and continued surveillance in the era of PCV13.


It is a well-known fact in nance that classical mean-variance optimization often leads to highly concentrated portfolios. Giving equal weights to all portfolio assets will instead allow for maximum nominal diversi cation. More sophisticated ways of nominal diversi cation are the maximum diversi cation approach proposed by Choueifaty and Coignard (2008) or the equal weighting of total risk contributions known as risk parity . Instead of looking for nominal diversi cation, investors may prefer a diversi cation of the risk factors that drive portfolio returns. In recent papers, risk factors have been modelled by principal components following Partovi and Caputo (2004). Meucci et al. (2013) show that principal components may not be the best way to model risk factors and propose minimum torsion bets instead. The present paper discusses di erent ways of managing diversi cation and backtests these strategies in a multi-asset portfolio.


The great amount of support schemes that initially fueled the fast and often uncontrollable, renewable energy sources (RESs) growth have been strongly reduced or revoked in many countries. Currently, the general trend is to try to equate RESs to traditional power plants. From the energy market point of view, this entails exposing RESs to market competition and mechanics. For example, it could be requested that RESs submit a production schedule in advance and are financially responsible for any deviation from it. This could push the wind farm (WF) operators to make accurate forecasts, thus fostering the electric system resiliency and an efficient use of balancing resources. From the forecasting point of view, this is not a trivial problem since the schedule submission is often due 10–12 h before the actual delivery. Since forecast errors are unavoidable, the submitted schedule could turn out to be infeasible, thus forcing the WF to adopt correcting actions, which are generally costly. This study estimates the revenue reduction that would affect a WF operating in the energy market due to forecast errors. To do this in a realistic way, a case study is selected, and realistic forecast scenarios are generated by using a copula approach. Relevant forecast error features, like autocorrelation and dependency on forecasted power level and forecast lead time, are modeled. The revenue reduction due to balancing actions is calculated on an annual basis, by using typical days. These were derived through a clustering procedure based on production data. Losses ranging from 5% to 35% have been found, depending on the days and market prices. A sensitivity analysis to the costs of balancing actions is performed. The effect of different market architectures and different RESs penetration level is considered in the analysis. Finally, the effectiveness of two techniques (i.e., curtailment and batteries) to reduce forecast error impact in highly penalizing market environments is assessed.


Introduction: Along with the swift spread of 3G and wireless network, wireless technologies are applied in many areas, especially in education. The advent of mobile learning overcomes several limitations and barriers of traditional classroom education. As for higher education in China, mobile learning is in its infancy stage. Understanding end-users' acceptance of mobile learning is crucial, because new technological advances cannot enhance performance if they are not accepted by end-users. This study focuses on three top Chinese universities and answers the following research questions: How do students perceive mobile devices as a learning tool incorporated in class and what are their attitudes towards mobile learning? What are the motivational factors that affect students' acceptance of mobile learning? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the proposed Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in explaining students' acceptance in three top Chinese universities. The goal of this work is to enhance the understanding of user acceptance of incorporating learning into mobile device inside and outside classes. Method: A deductive, theory-testing approach was used in this study. Eleven hypotheses were built based on a literature review and on the proposed TAM model, and were tested using primary data and literature review. Primary data was gathered via semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The data collected through the questionnaire was analysed by Structural Equation Modeling. Conclusion: Through testing the proposed model, the authors found that students are positive towards mobile learning but they do not have a strong willingness to adopt it. The proposed TAM model can improve the understanding of students' motivation by suggesting what factors are the most important in enhancing students acceptance of mobile learning.


OBJECTIVE
To compare serum amyloid A (SAA) concentration, plasma fibrinogen concentration, total WBC count, and serum albumin-to-globulin concentration ratio (A:G ratio) in clinically normal (CN) and clinically abnormal (CA) horses.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.

ANIMALS
111 CN horses and 101 CA horses hospitalized at a specialty clinical practice.

PROCEDURES
Shortly after admission, a blood sample (20 mL) was collected from each horse for a CBC, serum protein electrophoresis, and determination of plasma fibrinogen concentration; SAA concentration was assessed with a previously validated immunoturbidometric assay. Similar testing of a subset of CA horses was conducted at various points during treatment.

RESULTS
Total WBC count, A:G ratio, and SAA concentration were determined for all 212 horses; data regarding plasma fibrinogen concentration were available for 127 horses (of which 47 were CN and 80 were CA). Median SAA concentration, total WBC count, and plasma fibrinogen concentration and mean A:G ratio differed significantly between CN horses and CA horses. Correlations between these variables were poor to weak. For discrimination of CN horses from CA horses, the SAA assay had sensitivity of 53% and specificity of 94% (diagnostic accuracy, 75%); for the other assessments, accuracy ranged from 59% to 62%. Repeated assessment of SAA concentration in some CA horses revealed a gradual return to normal concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results indicated that assessment of SAA concentration can provide valuable information regarding the clinical state of horses and may be more useful for patient monitoring and as a prognostic indicator than are traditional markers of inflammation.


This article observes the process of distance education and the main characteristic features of it. Studying foreign languages with the help of telecommunications makes any student solve lot of problems. The authors tried to create a specially oriented technology for the formation of educational competence among university students. The technology is characterized by a number of components: the conceptual basis, the substantive and procedural parts. The technology for the formation of educational competence is theoretically justified by reasoning relating to both the specifics of the object being formed - educational competence, and the features of its functioning in the context of distance education. It is conceptualized. This technology provides for the formation of distance education forms of learning competence among students, the purpose of which is to remove difficulties that arise in the process of students' independent learning activities, accelerate (optimize) them, and increase their effectiveness.
The procedural aspect of the technology involves examining the sphere of practical interactions between a teacher and students in various types of activities, organized on the basis of clear goal-setting, systematization of training.
In order to justify the proposed approach the authors have studied this kind of interaction to justify its (approach) urgent need, to justify its scientific basis. A number of principles were established, according to which the process of formation of educational competence among students will be implemented.
 The procedural component of the technology required the study of the approaches. The authors identified principles that were substantiated from the standpoint of their suitability for the formation of educational competence.


Good Governance in regional autonomy is a phenomenon whose principle is talking about government or good government in terms of realizing good governance through the context of public services. The purpose of regional autonomy is solely to provide satisfaction to the community and prosperity of society in a government area. The purpose of this study is to determine the development of current regional autonomy in realizing Good Governance as intended. The research method used in the preparation of this study is a normative juridical method that is, in answering the problems of the realization of good governance, the legal point of view is based on the applicable legal regulations, henceforth it is connected with the reality in the field relating to the issues to be discussed. In terms of the development of regional autonomy, of course there are several things that are the main indicators, namely Equalization and Improvement of Development in the Regions, Improvement of Services for Communities, Optimization of Natural Resources and Human Resources in the Regions.


Biogas is a renewable energy produced through anaerobic digestion, which means that organic matter is degraded by microorganisms under anaerobic conditions. The produced biogas can then be used for cogeneration, electricity, heat or upgraded to vehicle gas. Eskilstuna Energy & Environment AB has four digesters at Ekeby water sewage treatment plant, Eskilstuna. One of the biogas reactor (RK4) is equipped with a jet-mixing system while the remaining digester uses top-mixing. The mixing system is an important parameter to achieve optimum operating conditions for the process regarding gas production and degree of digestion. This study aims to evaluate the two mixing systems, jet-mixing and top- mixing. The design of the reactors is identical and they are assumed to be fed with the same amount of substrate. By collection, analysis and compiling of process- and operational data such as gas production, degree of digestion and energy consumption for the two different systems their performance has been compared to each other. Different operational conditions considering the energy consumption for the jet-mixing system has been done theoretical to try to reduce the energy consumption. The result shows that both rectors operates under stable process conditions, although the result indicates that the gas production for the reactor installed with jet-mixing system is greater than the system with top-mixing system. Hopefully, the result of the study could be used of Ekeby water sewage treatment plant as an indication of how the system could be run.Keywords: Biogas, mixing, mixing system, anaerobic digestion, gas production, energy consumption, degree of digestion, Ekeby water sewage plant.Nyckelord: Biogas, omrorning, omrorningssystem, anaerob rotning, gasproduktion, energiforbrukning, utrorningsgrad, Ekeby reningsverk.


Friend of a Friend (FOAF) introductions are an effective means to grow detected social graphs in mobile applications. By detecting triadic closure in the social graph they both introduce co-present users who are not already acquainted, and improve the accuracy of the social graph. We searched for the presence of triadic closure in a real mobile social network, and tested the suitability of FOAF introductions as a means for efficient network growth. We found that triadic closure does occur in mobile networks, and that half of the triads found were suitable for FOAF introductions.


This Article suggests that, with the publication of Jack Balkin's Living Originalism, we are witnessing the "Balkanization" of originalism (when originalism splits into warring camps) along with the "Balkinization" of originalism (when even Balkin, hitherto a pragmatic living constitutionalist, becomes an originalist). It goes on to argue that Balkin's living originalism is what Ronald Dworkin has called a "moral reading" of the Constitution, for it conceives the Constitution as embodying abstract moral and political principles, not codifying concrete historical rules or practices. Furthermore, despite important differences, there are unmistakable affinities between Balkin's commitment to interpret the Constitution so as to redeem our faith in its promises and aspirations, and Dworkin's commitment to interpret the Constitution so as to make it the best it can be.


The collagens are a family of animal proteins containing segments of repeated Gly-Xaa-Yaa (GXY) motifs that form a characteristic triple-helical structure. Genes encoding proteins with repeated GXY motifs have also been reported in bacteria and phages; however, it is unclear whether these prokaryotic proteins can form a collagen-like triple-helical structure. Here we used two recently identified streptococcal proteins, Scl1 and Scl2, containing extended GXY sequence repeats as model proteins. First we observed that prior to heat denaturation recombinant Scl proteins migrated as homotrimers in gel electrophoresis with and without SDS. We next showed that the collagen-like domain of Scl is resistant to proteolysis by trypsin. We further showed that circular dichroism spectra of the Scl proteins contained features characteristic of collagen triple helices, including a positive maximum of ellipticity at 220 nm. Furthermore the triple helices of Scl1 and Scl2 showed a temperature-dependent unfolding with melting temperatures of 36.4 and 37.6 °C, respectively, which resembles those seen for collagens. We finally demonstrated by electron microscopy that the Scl proteins are organized into "lollipop-like" structures, similar to those seen in human proteins with collagenous domains. This implies that the repeated GXY tripeptide motif is a structural indicator of collagen-like triple helices in proteins from such phylogenetically distant sources as bacteria and humans.


Phytophagous insects commonly interact through shared host plants. These interactions, however, do not occur in accordance with traditional paradigms of competition, and competition in phytophagous insects is still being defined. It remains unclear, for example, if particular guilds of insects are superior competitors or important players in structuring insect communities. Gall-forming insects are likely candidates for such superior competitors because of their ability to manipulate host plants, but their role as competitors is understudied. We investigate the effect of invasive populations of an oak gall wasp, Neuroterus saltatorius, on a native specialist butterfly, Erynnis propertius, as mediated by their shared host plant, Quercus garryana. This gall wasp occurs at high densities in its introduced range, where we stocked enclosures with caterpillars on trees that varied in gall wasp density. Biomass production of butterflies was lower in enclosures on high-density than on low-density trees because overwintering caterpillars were smaller, and fewer of them eclosed into adults the following spring. To see if the gall wasp induced changes in foliar quality, we measured host plant quality before and after gall induction on 30 trees each at two sites. We found a positive relationship between gall wasp density and the percentage change in foliar C:N, a negative relationship between gall wasp density and the percentage change in foliar water at one site, and no relationship between the percentage change in protein-binding capacity (i.e., phenolics) and gall-wasp density. Additionally, there was a negative relationship between foliar quality and butterfly performance. Our results provide evidence for a plant-mediated impact of an invasive oak gall wasp on a native butterfly and suggest that gall wasps could act as superior competitors, especially when they occur at high densities.


Spin-dependent charge transport in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) can be manipulated by a temperature gradient, which can be utilized for spintronic and spin caloritronic applications. Evaluation of the thermally induced phenomena requires knowledge of the temperature differences across the oxide tunnel barrier adjacent to the ferromagnetic (FM) leads. However, it is challenging to accurately measure thermal properties of an oxide tunnel barrier consisting of only a few atomic layers. In this work, we experimentally interrogate the temperature evolutions in Ru/oxide/FM/seed/MgO (oxide=MgO, MgAl2O4; FM=Co, CoFeB; seed=Pt, Ta) structures having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy using ultrafast thermometry. The Ru layer is optically thick and heated by ultrafast laser pulses; the subsequent temperature changes are monitored using thermoreflectance of Ru and magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) of the FM layers. We independently measure the response times of Co and CoFeB magnetism using quadratic MOKE and obtain {\tau}em=0.2 ps for Co and 2 ps for CoFeB. These time scales are much shorter than the time scale of heat transport through the oxide tunnel barrier, which occurs at 10-3000 ps. We determine effective thermal conductivities of MgO and MgAl2O4 tunnel barriers in the range of 0.4-0.6 W m-1 K-1, comparable to an estimate of the series conductance of the Ru/oxide and oxide/FM interfaces and an order of magnitude smaller than the thermal conductivity of MgO thin films. We find that the electron-phonon thermal conductance near the tunnel barrier is only a factor of 5-12 larger than the thermal conductance of the oxide tunnel barrier. Therefore, the drop in the electronic temperature is approximately 20-30% larger than the drop in the phonon temperature across the tunnel barrier.


People are talking about "sustainability" these days. With the development of the economy in China, great changes have taken place in the dwelling modes and small units have gradually become an important component of city life. Obviously, dwelling space with different users has significant differences. Through analysis based on small dwelling units of different users, we can find that: if we take the possibility of development and change into account at the beginning of the planning or design, the dwelling space will be adapt to social development and changes in family structure. We can achieve the goal of "sustainable" development besides the technological approaches. [1]


Memory caching has long been used to fill up the performance gap between processor and disk for reducing the data access time of data-intensive computations. Previous studies on caching mostly focus on optimizing the hit rate of a single machine. But in this paper, we argue that the caching decision of a distributed memory system should be performed in a cooperative manner for the parallel data analytic applications, which are commonly used by emerging technologies, such as Big Data and AI (Artificial Intelligence), to perform data mining and sophisticated analytics on larger data volume in a shorter time. A parallel data analytic job consists of multiple parallel tasks. Hence, the completion time of a job is bounded by its slowest task, meaning that the job cannot benefit from caching until all inputs of its tasks are cached. To address the problem, we proposed a cooperative caching design that periodically rearranges the cache placement among nodes according to the data access pattern while taking the task dependency and network locality into account. Our approach is evaluated by a trace-driven simulator using both synthetic workload and real-world traces. The results show that we can reduce the average completion times up to 33% compared to a non-collaborative caching polices and 25% compared to other start-of-the-art collaborative caching policies.


E-government is an emerging concept of new technology for the provision of services to the public resulting in increase in transparency and efficiency. Political stability means the stability and peaceful conditions of politics and government. Happiness is the state of mind in which a person is away from negativity and is full of satisfaction and well being. The basic purpose of this study is to check the impact of e-government and political stability on the level of happiness of people in the presence of two control variables, literacy rate and GDP growth. For research purpose, data is collected from ASEAN countries for 29 years from reliable resources. For research purpose, several techniques and tests are used such as panel unit root test, panel cointegration test, coefficient estimation test, Granger casualty test etc. As the consequence of these tests, the impact of e-government and political stability as well as the control variable, GDP growth on happiness level of people are accepted while the impact of a control variable, literacy rate are rejected. This study has several benefits and implications related to theoretical, practical and policy making benefits for the future researchers, citizens of a country and the government as well.


Using data from a year of participant observation, this study provides a detailed description of resident selection procedures in a for-profit Connecticut skilled nursing facility. A system of multiple payers for nursing home services created a hierarchy of admission preferences that privileged those who could pay and denied access to the least profitable and the sickest individuals. Prescreening and waiting list juggling were strategies employed by the home to maximize the selection of private-paying residents and residents requiring the least care.


Integration of active photonic components on silicon and silicon on insulator (SOI) would be versatile for nanophotonics since CMOS compatible processes are available for fabricating passive devices on Si/SOI. Selective area growth of III-V semiconductors is also attractive for realising periodic structures for nanophotonics. Here we report on the recent results of high quality InP on Si and InP on SOI achieved by means of nanopatterning. MQW structures have been realised on InP/Si and InP/SOI. We would elaborate routes for monolithic integration of active and passive devices for nanophotonics.


Objective To study the clinical efficacy and relevant factor of interventional therapy of malignant obstructive jaundice.Methods 38 patient with malignant obstructive jaundice were treated by procedure of percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography and drainage(PTCD 21 cases)or uncovered metal stent insertion(17 cases),and also treated by regional trget-artery infusing chemotherapy or embolization 2 weeks after procedure.The underlying disease was biliary cancer in 11 patients,gastric metastasis in 8 patients,pancreatic cancer in 9 patients,liver cancerr in 8 patients and breast metastasis in 8 patients,pancreatic cancer in 9 patients,liverr cancer in 8 patients and breast metastasis cancer in 1 patient.Results The procedures were technically succeeded in all patients.The total serum bilirubin value decreased and the liver function improved in all patients.The total serum bilirubin except that one case died of bleeding 2 days after the procedure.the mean survival time was 9 months and the longest was 21 months.In the follow-up of half-years period,4 out of 17 stent developed occlusion and were performed interventional procedure again,5 out of 25 drainage catheter were replaced for bad draining or dropping out.Conclusion Interventional therapy was effective to treat patients with malignant obstructive jaundice,improving life quality and prolonging survival time.


IoT devices are quickly becoming a critical source of information about the physical world considered in business processes. Blockchains are a promising platform for such processes if they involve multiple parties with no shared, commonly trusted IT infrastructure. Transacting with a blockchain, however, requires software whose footprint overwhelms many lightweight IoT devices. In this paper we introduce the concept of a blockchain proxy to which an IoT device can offload a large part of this software footprint. The proxy only requires a slim proxy SDK on the device that holds a regular blockchain identity with its own private key, retaining full control of the transactions in the device. We discuss security implications and present cold-chain monitoring as a use case. Preliminary results show significant savings in CPU time and communication bandwidth for the IoT device.


This paper discusses the tensions between antitrust policy and industrial policy from a U.S. perspective. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, in the wake of the slowdown of the U.S. economy and the apparent ascendancy of the Japanese economy, the pluses and minuses of a formal industrial policy were debated in the U.S.; but there was never an explicit adoption of anything that had the appearance of a formal industrial policy. Nevertheless, there is a long tradition of governmental intervention in the U.S. that is at odds with the spirit and letter of antitrust policy's pursuit of more competitive and efficient markets. After offering definitions of antitrust and of industrial policy, this paper offers details on the types of governmental intervention that are at odds with antitrust. It then provides some reflections on the reasons for these tensions and conflicts.


The main objective of this work was to evaluate the composition, nutritional, physical and rheological properties of wheat flour and dough from genetically modified wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Hi-Line 111 (GMW) compared to conventional wheat (non-GMW). Analyses were conducted to measure the proximate chemical composition with references to 18 components including total solid, protein, lipids, crude fiber, ash, carbohydrate, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids. In addition, physical and rheological properties such as water absorption, arrival time, dough development time, stability value, dough weakening value, extensibility of dough, resistance to extension, and ratio of resistance/extensibility were evaluated. The results showed that there were no significant differences between GMW and non-GMW in terms of chemical composition. Results revealed the presence of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids wherein there were no significant differences between GMW and its counterpart in the levels of fatty acids. In addition, there were no significant differences on the levels of amino acids. In addition, there were no significant differences between the GMW and non-GMW in the physical and rheological properties. From these results, it can be concluded that GMW Hi-Line 111 is confirmed to have nearly the composition and rheological properties as non-GMW.


Specimens from fourteen outcrops of bedrock in the Gulf of Maine were collected with the submersible Alvin and include one felsic aphanitic pyroclastic rock, two calc-alkalic granites, and eleven peralkalic granites. The peralkalic granites range from hypersolvus to subsolvus varieties and exhibit slightly different textures and mineralogical features that reflect minor differences in their local crystallization and subsolidus histories. Similar chemistry and zircon ages of 400 to 450 m.y. indicate that all of these peralkalic granites from the gulf are genetically related. On the basis of similar mineralogy, texture, rock chemistry, and primary radiometric ages, these granites are interpreted to have been intruded during the same igneous episode as the subaerial alkalic granites of eastern Massachusetts.

The Gulf of Maine lies within the Avalon Platform province. The local occurrences of Upper Ordovician–Lower Silurian alkalic granites may indicate an igneous-tectonic episode that accompanied intraplate epeirogenic doming following the major compressional phase of the Taconic orogeny which more severely deformed rocks farther west. Emplacement of alkalic granite probably was completed before renewed plate convergence and the final phase of Acadian plate collision during Devonian and throughout much of the rest of Paleozoic time.


Background: Caffeine consumption continues to escalate and purchases of caffeine-containing beverages are increasing. The widespread availability of caffeinated beverages along with numerous caffeinated supplements creates concerns for significant adverse outcomes from overconsumption of caffeine. Despite labelling with caffeine content on packaging, over-the-counter (OTC) supplements are not required to validate actual caffeine content. When caffeine is derived from a natural source the amount of caffeine may be difficult to standardize and quantify. Therefore, there is a need to accurately measure the actual amount of caffeine content in OTC supplements available at local retailers.
Methods and Findings: A high pressure liquid chromatography method to determine caffeine concentrations was developed. The caffeine content in three OTC supplements (Hydroxy-Cut, Black Jax, and Swarm) were measured. A standard curve was created and utilized to determine caffeine concentrations using area under the curve data.
Results and Discussion: Of the three supplements tested a higher than stated caffeine concentration was routinely detected in Hydroxy-cut samples with an average concentration 20% above what is stated on the product labelling. Black Jax and Swarm were roughly at or below the ± 10% threshold required by the United States Pharmacopeia for stated content.
Conclusion: Stated caffeine content on OTC supplements described as being energy boosters or weight loss supplements may or may not be as labelled. Consumers and health care workers should be aware that caffeine content may vary from product to product especially if the source of caffeine is difficult to quantitate.


To predict structural responses due to random sound pressure fields are of great interest within many fields of aircraft development, particularly within acoustic fatigue problems and definition of vibration requirements. Today there exist some methods to quantify sound pressure fields affecting the air-fighters. Some of them are considered to be expensive, time consuming or with high computational cost. Examples of this would be to measure a real flight, produce data from wind tunnels, use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) or obtain data from an engineering database. Once the sound pressure levels are known they can be applied as loads to structural models and this is the area studied in this work. To study these problems a new working tool is made using MATLAB. The tool's main purpose is to give an opportunity to study structural responses caused by random sound pressure fields with different correlation methods. Because of the complexity of both the sound pressure and different structures of the aircraft a few limitations are considered. The plate is used since this makes is easy to produce different mode shape functions. The mode shape function is an important part in this work as it can be used to create all possible frequency response functions in a structure. Then, to determine a structure response, different methods to produce pressure fields are used. The methods are called correlation-models and five different models are considered: uncorrelated, fully correlated and moving correlated load (MCL) and two empirical models due to the similarity to real sound pressure fields called Turbulent Boundary Layer (TBL) and a diffuse excitation model. To prove the accuracy of the created working tool, an independent FE-solver is used called Abaqus. Abaqus is used to validate the mode shape- and the frequency response-fucntions. Another advantage with Abaqus is that the solver already includes three of the correlation models which therefore simplify the verification of the new tool. Finally, a simulation study is carried out in order to validate the MATLAB functions and test the sensitivity to different correlation models. In order to do this, the sound pressure field is to be reasonable approximated and therefore data from the database ESDU (acronym of Engineering Sciences Data Unit) is used that predicts sound pressure fields for different flight envelopes. In the simulation study all correlation models are compared to TBL due to its sound pressure and here it can be seen that fully correlated loads fails to predict response due to certain modes. On the other hand, the MCL model increases this accuracy for low Mach numbers and even more for high Mach numbers due to its velocity dependence. The diffuse model, which is supposed to imitate a real pressure chamber load, is often believed to be conservative but in this study it can be seen that this is not always the case.


Grain boundary (GB) grooving, induced by surface drift-diffusion and driven by the combined actions of capillary forces and applied uniaxial tensile stresses, is investigated in bi-crystal thin films using self-consistent dynamical computer simulations. A physico-mathematical model, based on the irreversible thermodynamics treatment of surfaces and interfaces with singularities allowed auto-control of the otherwise free-motion of the triple junction at the intersection of the grooving surface and the GB, without having any a priori assumption on the equilibrium dihedral angles. In the present theory, the generalised driving forces for stress-induced surface drift-diffusion arise not only from the usual elastic strain energy density (ESED), but also much stronger elastic dipole tensor interactions (EDTI) between the applied stress field and the mobile atomic species situated at the surface layer and in the GB regions. Accelerated groove-deepening kinetics shows that the surface drift-diffusion enhanced by the applied uniaxial tensile stresses through EDTI is dominant over the GB flux leakage at the triple junction. At high uniaxial stress levels (≥500 MPa for a 100-nm thick copper film), a sequential time-frame for micro-crack nucleation and growth is recorded just before specimen failure took place. These non-equilibrium thermokinetics discoveries (kinetics and energetics) contradict or at least do not support the hypothesis of the steady-state diffusive GB micro-crack formation and propagation due to 'constant' flux drainage through GB enhanced by tensile stresses acting normal to it.


Rural households in developing countries are buffeted by environmental, social, health and economic shocks. This paper provides an empirical vignette of the frequency and spatial distribution of such shocks in Madagascar. The association between shocks, community and household assets, and levels of economic well-being (as measured by per-capita expenditures) is then explored, along with the implications for reducing levels of chronic poverty.


A new subspecies of Artemisia arbuscula is described, A. arbuscula ssp. longicaulis Winward & McArthur, ssp. Nov. This taxon is a landscape dominant in portions of northwestern Nevada and adjacent California and Oregon at elevations from 1050 to 2000 m on shallow or argillic (clayey) soils. It differs from A. arbuscula ssp. arbuscula in its long floral stalks and large leaves. Morphological, chemical, ecological, and cytological data suggest that it is of hybrid origin. It is hexaploid (6x). We hypothesize that 2x A. arbusucla ssp. arbusucla and 4x A. tridentata ssp. wyomingensis are its parents.


The most common physical deformity includes upper and lowers limbs deformity that could be acquired or congenital. Such deformity produces difficulty in daily life activities including reaching, walking, lifting, and carrying things. The present study aimed to explore life satisfaction and attitude towards disability between congenital and acquired physical disabilities. A sample of eighty (N=80) participants was included in the study out of which (n=40) were congenital and (n=40) were acquired physical disables. The sample was collected from different rehabilitation and paraplegic centers as well as institutions through the purposive sampling technique. Satisfaction with life scale and attitude toward disabled person scales were included. It was hypothesized that there will be a significant difference in terms of life satisfaction between congenital and acquired physical disables. The second hypothesis was the attitude towards disability will be positive among the congenital group than the acquired one. An independent sample t-test (IBM SPSS statistics version 20) was applied to analyze the difference between congenital and acquired physical disables.  Results of the study indicated that congenital physical disabled were found with highly satisfied from their life (α=.000) and possess a positive attitude towards disability (α=.000) than the acquired physical disables.


This document reports on research undertaken in an effort to understand the basic ecology of the Calcasieu River/Lake Complex and to evaluate the effects of human activities on that ecology. Part of the work involved surveying the Calcasieu Estuary for the presence of anthropogenic substances as well as analyses of the effects of human activities on the biotic communities within the estuary. Routine sampling locations were located throughout the estuary from the salt water barrier on the Calcasieu River north of Interstate 10 to the mouth of the system at Cameron. Station designations and descriptions together with latitude and longitude are given. The impacts of land use on the estuary were investigated through seven major substudies: (1) Water Quality and Special Pollutants; (2) Chemistry; (3) Primary Producers; (4) Zooplankton; (5) Benthos; (6) Nekton; and (7) Hydrology. The findings of each substudy are presented in separate chapters (1 through 7). Volume 1 contains chapters 1 and 2. Volume 2 contains chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6. Volume 3 contains chapter 7. Volume 4 contains appendices. Each chapter was processed separately for the Energy Data Base.


We have investigated the interactions with isolated mitochondria and intact cells of chloromethyltetramethylrosamine (CMTMRos), a probe (Mitotracker OrangeTM) that is increasingly used to monitor the mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) in situ. CMTMRos binds to isolated mitochondria and undergoes a large fluorescence quenching. Most of the binding is energy-independent and can be substantially reduced by sulfhydryl reagents. A smaller fraction of the probe is able to redistribute across the inner membrane in response to a membrane potential, with further fluorescence quenching. Within minutes, however, this energy-dependent fluorescence quenching spontaneously reverts to the same level obtained by treating mitochondria with the uncoupler carbonylcyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenyl hydrazone. We show that this event depends on inhibition of the mitochondrial respiratory chain at complex I and on induction of the permeability transition pore by CMTMRos, with concomitant depolarization, swelling, and release of cytochrome c. After staining cells with CMTMRos, depolarization of mitochondriain situ with protonophores is accompanied by changes of CMTMRos fluorescence that range between small and undetectable, depending on the probe concentration. A lasting decrease of cellular CMTMRos fluorescence associated with mitochondria only results from treatment with thiol reagents, suggesting that CMTMRos binding to mitochondria in living cells largely occurs at SH groups via the probe chloromethyl moiety irrespective of the magnitude of Δψm. Induction of the permeability transition precludes the use of CMTMRos as a reliable probe of Δψm in situ and demands a reassessment of the conclusion that cytochromec release can occur without membrane depolarization and/or onset of the permeability transition.


The distributed searching of state spaces containing cycles is a challenging task and has been studied for several years. Traditional parallel search algorithms either ignore the cyclic nature of the state space and waste much time in duplicated search effort, or they rely on heavy communication to reduce duplicate work, resulting in a large communication overhead. Both methods perform poorly, even when using a fast, local interconnection. A recently-developed task distribution scheme, called transposition-driven scheduling (TDS), performs much better, since it communicates asynchronously and efficiently suppresses duplicate search effort. TDS, however, requires bandwidths of megabytes per second per processor. In this paper, we investigate how cyclic state spaces can be searched efficiently on a meta-computing system containing multiple clusters, connected by high-latency, low-bandwidth wide-area links. This is quite a challenge, because the wide-area links provide neither the bandwidth required for TDS nor the latency required for traditional distributed search algorithms. We propose a scheme that strongly reduces communication between clusters at the expense of some duplicate search effort. Performance measurements for several applications show that the new scheme outperforms traditional schemes by a wide margin.


Herein, a novel water-soluble comb-shaped polyzwitterion (PNMASt) was prepared by introducing N-maleoyl chitosan, 2-(dimethyl(5-methyl-4-oxohex-5-en-1-yl)ammonio)ethyl sulfite, and other hydrophilic hydrophobic monomers into HPAM via free-radical copolymerization. Chemical structure determination and heat endurance analysis were accomplished via XRD, FTIR and 1H-NMR spectroscopy, SEM, and TGA. A simulated reservoir environment (shear rates, temperature, and salinity) was used to survey the solution performance and the rheology of the polyzwitterion as a function of the apparent viscosity and changing conditions. PNMASt exhibited excellent thickening efficiency, surface activity, anti-shear behavior, restorable action after shearing, heat tolerance, ageing tolerance, viscoelasticity, and salt tolerance as compared to HPAM under the same simulation environment. Furthermore, a core flooding experiment showed the remarkable flow control capability (Rf = 18.23 and RRf = 6.62), excellent oil production enhancement (13.32%), and remarkable residual oil displacement capacity (6.11%) of PNMASt as compared to those of HPAM.


Background Integrins are a group of transmembrane signaling proteins that are important in biological processes such as cell adhesion, proliferation and migration. Integrins are α/β hetero-dimers and there are 24 different integrins formed by specific combinations of 18 α and 8 β subunits in humans. Generally, each of these subunits has a large extracellular domain, a single pass transmembrane segment and a cytosolic tail (CT). CTs of integrins are important in bidirectional signal transduction and they associate with a large number of intracellular proteins. Principal Findings Using NMR spectroscopy, we determined the 3-D structure of the full-length α4 CT (Lys968-Asp999) and characterize its interactions with the adaptor protein paxillin. The α4 CT assumes an overall helical structure with a kink in its membrane proximal region. Residues Gln981-Asn997 formed a continuous helical conformation that may be sustained by potential ionic and/or hydrogen bond interactions and packing of aromatic-aliphatic side-chains. 15N-1H HSQC NMR experiments reveal interactions of the α4 CT C-terminal region with a fragment of paxillin (residues G139-K277) that encompassed LD2-LD4 repeats. Residues of these LD repeats including their adjoining linkers showed α4 CT binding-induced chemical shift changes. Furthermore, NMR studies using LD-containing peptides showed predominant interactions between LD3 and LD4 of paxillin and α4 CT. Docked structures of the α4 CT with these LD repeats suggest possible polar and/or salt-bridge and non-polar packing interactions. Significance The current study provides molecular insights into the structural diversity of α CTs of integrins and interactions of integrin α4 CT with the adaptor protein paxillin.


Neo vessel formation can be initiated by co-transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) with endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFC). The two adult stem cell types can be isolated and expanded from a variety of tissues to be used for regenerative applications pro-angiogenesis. Here we performed a systematic study to evaluate the neo-vasculogenesis potential of MSC and ECFC isolated from various human tissues. MSC were isolated, purified and expanded in vitro from umbilical cord (UC) and umbilical cord blood (UCB), white adipose tissue (WAT), bone marrow (BM), and amniotic membrane of placenta (AMN). ECFC were isolated from UC and UCB, WAT and peripheral blood (PB). ECFC and MSC and were co-transplanted admixed with extracellular matrix (Matrigel®) at a ratio of 5:1 to immune-deficient NSG mice, subcutaneously. The transplants were harvested after two weeks and the state of vessel formation and stability in the explants were investigated using immune-histochemical methods. The number of created micro-vessels was quantified using Hematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) staining followed by image J quantification. Results showed that ECFC and MSC possess variable capacity in contributing to neo-vasculogenesis. WAT and UCB-derived ECFC and WAT, UCB and BM-derived MSC are most potent cells in terms of neo-vessel formation in vivo. UC-derived ECFC and AMN-derived MSC have been shown to be least potent in contributing to neo-vasculogenesis. This variability might be due to variable phenotypes, or different genetic profiles of MSC and ECFC isolated from different tissues and/or donors. The findings might give an insight into better regenerative strategies for neo-vessel formation in vivo.


Ferroelectric PZT heterolayered thick films were fabricated by the alkoxide-based sol-gel method. PZT(20/80) and PZT(80/20) paste were made and alternately screen-printed on the alumina substrates. The coating and drying procedure was repeated 4 times to form the heterolayered thick films. The thickness of the PZT heterolayered thick films was approximately 60 μm. All PZT thick films showed the typical XRD patterns of a perovskite polycrystalline structure. The relative dielectric constant and the dielectric loss of the PZT thick films sintered at 1050oC were 283 and 1.90%, respectively.


Abstract The Kalahari is an ancient depositional environment with a complex history. The Mega Kalahari sand sea, at 2·5 million km 2 the largest on earth, is more extensive than the ill-defined Kalahari Desert and can best be considered as the surface expression of the Cretaceous to recent sediments in the Kalahari-Congo structural basin. These Kalahari Group sediments have accumulated and evolved through fluvio-deltaic, aeolian and groundwater processes, with characteristics due to primary deposition and subsequent modification being difficult to distinguish. Low fossil content, limited exposures and poor differentiation within the dominant and ubiquitous Kalahari Sand, together with the failure of scientists to comprehend the nature of the extensive duricrust suite, have delayed understanding the sedimentological and environmental history of the basin. However, despite the absence of a satisfactory stratigraphical framework, the post-Cretaceous tectonic history and drainage development provides a basis for subsequent evaluation of the palaeoenvironmental significance of the depositional landform suites found in the surface sediments of the Mega Kalahari.


We analyze the frequency evolution of millisecond oscillations observed during type I X-ray bursts with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer, in order to establish the stability of the mechanism underlying the oscillations. Our sample contains 68 pulse trains detected in a search of 159 bursts from eight accreting neutron stars. As a first step, we confirm that the oscillations usually drift upward in frequency by about 1% toward an apparent saturation frequency. Previously noted anomalies, such as drifts toward lower frequencies as the oscillations disappear ("spin-down" episodes) and instances of two signals present simultaneously at frequencies separated by a few Hz, occur in 5% of oscillations. Having verified the generally accepted description of burst oscillations, we proceed to study the coherence of the oscillations during individual bursts and the dispersion in the asymptotic frequencies in bursts observed over five years. On short timescales, we find that 30% of the oscillation trains do not appear to evolve smoothly in phase. This suggests either that two signals are present simultaneously with a frequency difference too small to resolve (≲1 Hz), that the frequency evolution is discontinuous, or that discrete phase jumps occur. On timescales of years, the maximum frequencies of the oscillations exhibit fractional dispersions of Δνmax/ ≲ 4 × 10-3. In the case of 4U 1636-536, this dispersion is uncorrelated with the known orbital phase, which indicates that a mechanism besides orbital Doppler shifts prevents the oscillations from appearing perfectly stable. In the course of this analysis, we also search for connections between the properties of the oscillations and the underlying bursts. We find that the magnitudes of the observed frequency drifts are largest when the oscillations are first observed at the start of the burst, which suggests that their evolution begins when the burst is ignited. We also find that radius expansion appears to temporarily interrupt the oscillation trains. We interpret these results under the assumption that the oscillations originate from anisotropies in the emission from the surfaces of these rotating neutron stars.


Novel Cu/nanoclay composites with antibacterial activity were synthesised by molten salt ion exchange method at two temperatures and at different times. The produced composites were characterised using X-ray diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The antibacterial activity of these composites was assayed by the disc inhibition method. XRD patterns indicate that nanoclay has a d-spacing (1.44 nm), higher than Cu/nanoclay composites (1.34–1.37 nm). This result implies that copper nanoparticles could exist in microspores of nanoclay. On the other hand, the UV-Vis findings confirm that no copper in the form of sulfate existed in the obtained composites. The antibacterial activity of Cu/ nanoclay nanocomposites against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus showed efficient bactericidal effect. On the other hand, results demonstrate that the antibacterial activity of the resultant composites does not depend on ion exchange time and temperature. Thus, the resultant composites show high stability that can last for a long time. The produced composites by this novel method can be used to synthesise nanoclay composite with antibacterial activity for various applications such as water treatment and biodegradable composites.


The calcium channel blocking agents are an exciting, entirely new class of drugs that will have widespread application in this country during the next several years. Actually, clinical experience with these drugs around the globe has already been extensive. However, many of the older studies performed with these agents, some of which had less-than-optimal controls, have for many years not met the vigorous standards of our regulatory agencies. Most would agree that this delay has been appropriate since, even during the writing of this article, critical clarification of these drugs continues. Some internationally performed studies have met with the rigorous investigational criteria expected by our regulatory agencies, but the bulk of studies that will eventually permit some of these drugs to reach our US market is currently being performed or has just recently been published. Until such time as a comprehensive evaluation is possible, initial approval will be limited to


The concept of microwave-driven smart material actuators is envisioned as the best option to alleviate the complexity associated with hard-wired control circuitry. Networked rectenna patch array receives and converts microwave power into a DC power for an array of smart actuators. To use microwave power effectively, the concept of a power allocation and distribution (PAD) circuit is adopted for networking a rectenna/actuator patch array. The PAD circuit is embedded into a single embodiment of rectenna and actuator array. The thin-film microcircuit embodiment of PAD circuit adds insignificant amount of rigidity to membrane flexibility. Preliminary design and fabrication of PAD circuitry that consists of a few nodal elements were made for laboratory testing. The networked actuators were tested to correlate the network coupling effect, power allocation and distribution, and response time. The features of preliminary design are 16- channel computer control of actuators by a PCI board and the compensator for a power failure or leakage of one or more rectennas.


In this study, urease production was investigated among thirteen strains of Aspergillus niger; seven strains isolated from soils of Semnan province in Iran and six strains obtained from Persian Type Culture Collection (PTCC). The enzyme production was screened in two submerged media quantitatively. The registered PTCC 5011 and the native S31 strains showed more urease production than the other eleven strains. The maximum enzyme productions by PTCC 5011 and S31 strains were 106 and 109 U.g -1 dry mass in submerged culture, respectively. Also, we used two solid media for screening all of the strains for urease production semi quantitatively. Due to the acceptable correlations between the two methods, the latter can be used as an ancillary method to mass screening of urease production by filamentous fungi. Iran. Biomed. J. 8 (1): 47-50, 2004


Objectives: To test the interrater agreement of photogrammetry used to assess postural alignment among children. Methods: Thirty- three variables were measured from images of 122 healthy children aged seven to ten years, that is, 58 boys (8.39±0.97 years) and 64 girls (8.42±1.06 years). A digital camera (Sony ® 6.0 MP DSC-T9) was positioned on a tripod (Vanguard VT-131) at a height of 90 cm and at a distance of 300 cm from the child. The anatomical points of interest were marked with colored adhesives (Pimaco ® ) on polystyrene spheres of 1 cm in diameter. The children were photographed wearing a bathing suit, in the upright position, in the anterior, posterior, lateral right and lateral left views. Each photograph was analyzed by three previously trained raters using the postural assessment software SAPo. The statistical software SASS/STAT v. 9 was used to obtain the interclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results: The results showed excellent interrater agreement (ICC>0.90) for 28 variables (84.85%) and good agreement (0.80>ICC>0.89) for five variables (15.15%), even with rigorous classification. Conclusion: This method was shown to be viable and to have the potential to generate reference data on postural alignment among children.


A significant increase in total phospholipid content of the endometrium took place during the secretory phase of the human menstrual cycle (26% increase from mid-proliferative to premenstrual stage). The major phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine, was increased by 30%, whereas phosphatidylethanolamine was unchanged. Phosphatidyl-serine and -inositol underwent the largest percentage increases (40%). Phosphatidic acid levels were the only ones to decrease (-52%), a finding consistent with the role of this lipid as precursor of the increased phospholipids. The changes did not markedly affect phospholipid composition, except for a significant decrease in the proportions of phosphatidate and phosphatidylethanolamine. Arachidonate and eicosatrienoate (n-6) were the major polyunsaturated fatty acids. C22 tetra-, penta- and hexa-enoic fatty acids of the n-3 and n-4 families were also present in all major endometrial glycerophospholipids throughout the cycle. The mass changes in phospholipids during the cycle occurred without alteration of their fatty acid composition.


Alterations of cell surface properties accompanying the complex life cycle of Termitomyces clypeatus have been monitored using atomic force microscopy (AFM). A new hyphae/mycelium is developed on cell division, and the cell wall of the mycelium undergoes a process of internal reorganization (or maturation) followed by morphological and chemical alterations. The changes of the surface ultrastructures during the growth process are correlated to the corresponding changes in relative viscoelasticity and rigidity of the cell wall by employing force spectroscopy. The cell wall rigidity and elasticity are found to be 0.34+/-0.02 N/m and 27.5+/-2.1 MPa, respectively, at the early logarithmic phase, on maturation increase to reach 0.81+/-0.08 N/m and 92.5+/-12 MPa, respectively, at the stationary phase, and thereafter decrease to 0.62+/-0.06 N/m and 61.6+/-6.6 MPa at the death phase. The alterations of the ultrastructural and nanomechanical properties of the cell surface as functions of growth phases affect the interaction involving chromium and T. clypeatus.


he paper discusses the physico-chemical formation conditions of minerals-pheno-crysts in basaltic complexes, which host massive sulfde deposits of the Urals and Siberia. It is found as a result of study of melt inclusions that clinopyroxene from basalts of the Valentorka (North Urals) and Kyzyl-Tashtyg (South Siberia) deposits crystallized from melts with similar temperature (1165–1130 and 1210–1085 °С, respectively) and chemical parameters. In both cases, the composi¬tions of basalt-andesite magmas (with features of igneous island arc and back-arc basin systems) evolved with a decrease in FeO, MgO, and CaO contents and increase in K2O and SiO2 contents. Modeling, which is based on the compositions of inclusions and clinopyroxene, showed that miner-als-phenocrysts crystallized from intermediate magma chambers of diferent depth, the parameters of which are consistent with each other and with data on present-day suprasubduction magmatism: Valentorka deposit – 33–27, 23–13, and 10–3 km, 1185–1090 °C; Kyzyl-Tashtyg deposit – 27–20, 15.0–6.7, and 5.0–1.7 km, 1215–1105 °С. Calculations using compositions of melt inclusions show a consistent change of melts from basalts to rhyolites, indicating that the combination of contrasting volcanic complexes of the deposits studied are a result of the evolution of initial basaltic magmas during their uplift to the upper crustal horizons. Our studies of rocks, clinopyroxene and melt inclu¬sions indicate that the basaltic complexes of the Valentorka and Kyzyl-Tashtyg deposits formed in an ancient suprasubduction island arc – back-arc basin system.


Using a rat model of hemiparkinsonism, we examined the time-course of D1 agonist, SKF-38393-induced changes in extracellular signaling regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) phosphorylation in the striatum and substantia nigra (SN). We unilaterally lesioned the rat median forebrain bundle with 6-hydroxydopamine. Dopaminergic lesioned rats were administered with SKF-38393 and perfused at 15, 30, 60, or 120 minutes after the drug. Immunohistochemical analysis of striatum and SN revealed, as expected, a loss of tyrosine hydroxylase and a decrease of substance P in lesioned rats. SKF-38393 induced a robust increase in phospho-ERK1/2 levels in the lesioned striatum, which peaked at 15 min and substantially declined by 120 min. We report for the first time that similar changes were observed in the SN. The time-dependent ERK 1/2 activation in the striatonigral neurons may play a role in the therapeutic and/or side effects such as dyskinesias related to the dopamine agonist treatment for Parkinson's disease.


In the paper authors analyse some of the characteristics of the advisory process on the selected farms in Vojvodina. By emphasising the extension as a process, authors wish to underline the necessity of proper understanding of complex social relations that surround and cause such processes and, within which, these relations are generated, as well. Authors' analysis stands within the theoretical-hypothetical frame of the recent contributions of the extension science. Analysed data stem from the systematic notes of agricultural advisors of the Agricultural Extension Service of Vojvodina that, in a pretty clear way, represent a live reflexion of their work and everyday relations with farmers/selected farms in Vojvodina.


Discovery of the intricate structure of self-assembled DNA has spurred an enormous research interest and inspired attempts to harness the properties of this fascinating biopolymer in synthetic analogs. Transferring the complementary hydrogen bonding characteristic of DNA and RNA nucleobases to synthetic polymers gives access to selective, dynamic behavior for unique materials properties. Adenine (A), thymine (T), uracil (U), cytosine (C) and guanine (G) derivatives of acrylic monomers were synthesized and used in reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) single monomer addition. Consecutive RAFT reactions with intermediate purification via flash chromatography enabled the preparation of multiple-hydrogen bond sequence-defined (MHB SD) oligomers. Optimized flash conditions were established by separating different insertion products of an oligomer mixture with 0–5 uracil-based monomer repeating units. These separation conditions were applied in successive RAFT polymerizations resulting in three MHB SD tetramers with sequences AAAA, ACAC and finally ACTG, the latter of which contains all four distinct DNA nucleobase derivatives. This approach offers complete freedom of the desired short nucleobase sequence where the selective hydrogen bonding is appealing for applications ranging from biosensors to polymer–DNA conjugates, adhesives or self-healing materials.


This paper shows the static strength analysis of the tractor front axle housing by using of the finite element analysis software ANSYS, visually shows equivalent stress and strain distribution and vertical displacement distribution of the front axle housing. At the same time it also shows the analysis results of the model processing, the results of accuracy and reliability, and the weak links of the structure. By analyzing the weakest link and the difference in strength between each node for the overall structure in the condition, it can provide a direction and theoretical basis for the design and optimization of geometric entities. And the results of the analysis may be as the basis for structural improvement. In this way, it can be verified that using computer virtual software for product development is positive.


The objective of this study is to find way to reduce poverty rate of farmer by looking for the most suitable farm institutions that could be applied nationally. By doing so, this study analyzes, first, poverty condition of farmer through social-cultural approach in order to find the root causes of the farmer poverty. Secondly, this study will analyze current farm institu- tions. Finally, this study will synthesize the findings and proceed with alternative policies that are based on collective actions to overcome the poverty problem for the farmer. ZOPP (Zielo- rientierte Projektplanung-Objective Oriented Project Planning) and collective action model are used as the main method of analyze. This study finds that there are eleven root causes of farmer poverty. Furthermore, this study suggest the existence of: market creation, activating and assisting KUT (Farmer Business Union) as well as Gapoktan (Farmer Club), and pro- viding a pilot field for farming for every village.


&NA; A major concern of the broiler industry is the volatilization of ammonia (NH3) from the mixture of bedding material and broiler excretion that covers the floor of broiler houses. Gypsum has been proposed as a litter amendment to reduce NH3 volatilization, but reports of NH3 abatement vary among studies and the mechanism responsible for decreasing NH3 volatilization is not well understood. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding 20 or 40% flue‐gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG) to broiler litter on pH, electrical conductivity (EC), water potential, urea‐degrading bacteria abundance, NH3 and carbon dioxide (CO2) evolution, and nitrogen (N) mineralization in several 21‐d experiments. The addition of FGDG to broiler litter increased EC by 24 to 33% (P < 0.0001), decreased urea‐degrading bacteria by 48 to 57% (P = 0.0001) and increased N mineralization by 10 to 11% (P = 0.0001) as compared to litters not amended with FGDG. Furthermore, the addition of FGDG to broiler litter decreased NH3 volatilization by 18 to 28% (P < 0.0001), potentially resulting from the significantly lower litter pH values compared to un‐amended litter (P < 0.0001). Findings of this study indicate that amending broiler litter with 20% FGDG can decrease NH3 volatilization and increase the fertlizer value of broiler litter.


The correlated production of Lambda and baryons has been studied using 4.3 million multihadronic Z(0) decays recorded with the OPaL detector at LEP. Lambda pairs were investigated in the full data sample and for the first time also in 2-jet and 3-jet events selected with the k(perpendicular to) algorithm. The distributions of rapidity differences, from correlated Lambda pairs exhibit short-ranger local correlations and prove to be a sensitive tool to test models: particularly for 2-jet events. The JETSET model describes the data best but some extra parameter tuning is needed to improve agreement with the experimental results in the rates and the rapidity spectra simultaneously. The recently developed modification of JETSET, the MOdified Popcorn Scenarium (MOPS), and also HERWIG do not give satisfactory results. This study of di-lambda production in 2- and 3-jet events supports the short-range compensation of quantum numbers.