This study employs a dual approach, in that it first considers a synthesis of the studies run by researchers in the field of internal audit within the public sector, ideas on this topic published into the professional literature, and regulations drawn up by national and international accounting regulators and accounting professional bodies. Secondly, it uses an empirical survey based on a questionnaire to get responses from public hospitals in Romania. All respondents consider that internal audit has its contribution to the improvement of public hospitals performance and it is a partner to their management. They consider the deficiencies identified by the internal audit within hospitals to be prevented in the future to a great extent, as well as the fact that the assessment of internal control and the elimination or diminution of unjustified expenses are the ways through which internal audit adds value to public hospitals. Nevertheless, it is reckoned that the absence of the internal audit function as a result of its conditioning by the number of hospital beds and the traditional role it plays in hospitals, imposes a resizing of the regulations and approaches into the field, in accordance with the existing realities, in order to contribute to the improvement of public hospitals performance in Romania.

 Key words: Romania, public sector, public hospital, internal audit, performance.


As of May 2014, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed close to ten thousand fully open access, peer reviewed, scholarly journals. Most of these journals do not charge article processing charges (APCs). This article reports the results of a survey of the 2567 journals, or 26% of journals listed in DOAJ, that do have APCs based on a sample of 1432 of these journals. Results indicate a volatile sector that would make future APCs difficult to predict for budgeting purposes. DOAJ and publisher title lists often did not closely match. A number of journals were found on examination not to have APCs. A wide range of publication costs was found for every publisher type. The average (mean) APC of $964 contrasts with a mode of $0. At least 61% of publishers using APCs are commercial in nature, while many publishers are of unknown types. The vast majority of journals charging APCs (80%) were found to offer one or more variations on pricing, such as discounts for authors from mid to low income countries, differential pricing based on article type, institutional or society membership, and/or optional charges for extras such as English language editing services or fast track of articles. The complexity and volatility of this publishing landscape is discussed.


The hypothesis that older adults have more difficulty than younger adults suppressing irrelevant information has been both supported and refuted by past research. The 'gold standard' for measuring inhibitory functioning is the negative priming paradigm. This study examined variables that might help explicate the contradictory findings from past research with this paradigm with the goal of understanding better the age changes in attentional processes. In Experiment 1, 31 young and 31 older adults were tested under three negative priming procedures, considered to require different depths of processing. Older adults did not show inhibition in the low processing procedure but did in the other two procedures while younger adults showed inhibition in all three tasks. The inhibition effect for older adults exceeded that for the young in the task requiring the deepest level of processing. In Experiment 2, 87 older adults, classified as Low, Mid or High in level of Off-target verbosity, believed to be associated with inhibitory deficits, were tested on the same tasks. As in Experiment 1, older adults did not show an inhibition effect in the low processing procedure but did show an effect in the other two procedures. In addition, the inhibition effect for those in the highest group was greater than for the other groups in the deepest processing task. In Experiment 3, 50 young adults and 49 older adults were administered a new negative priming procedure. Level of processing was manipulated in two ways. One manipulation resulted in equal inhibition effects for both age groups and the other resulted in a greater effect for older adults than for younger adults. The results from these experiments support the notion that depth of processing is related to the extent to which older adults will show an inhibitory effect and that requiring greater depths of processing may result in excess inhibition as opposed to a reduction in inhibition. Discussions include an attempt to integrate both the inhibition and the episodic retrieval models. Recommendations include a need for a reevaluation of the negative priming paradigm and for examining the association between different brain functions and different inhibitory functions.


Recent research has demonstrated that the parahippocampal place area represents both the shape and texture features of scenes, with the importance of each feature varying according to perceived scene category. Namely, shape features are predominately more diagnostic to the processing of artificial human–made scenes, while shape and texture are equally diagnostic in natural scene processing. However, to date little is known regarding the degree of interactivity or independence observed in the processing of these scene features. Furthermore, manipulating the scope of visual attention (i.e., globally vs. locally) when processing ensembles of multiple objects—stimuli that share a functional neuroanatomical link with scenes—has been shown to affect their cognitive visual representation. It remains unknown whether manipulating the scope of attention impacts scene processing in a similar manner. Using the well-established Garner speeded-classification behavioral paradigm, we investigated the influence of both feature diagnosticity and the scope of visual attention on potential interactivity or independence in the shape and texture processing of artificial human–made scenes. The results revealed asymmetric interference between scene shape and texture processing, with the more diagnostic feature (i.e., shape) interfering with the less diagnostic feature (i.e., texture), but not vice versa. Furthermore, this interference was attenuated and enhanced with more local and global visual processing strategies, respectively. These findings suggest that the scene shape and texture processing are mediated by shared cognitive mechanisms and that, although these representations are governed primarily via feature diagnosticity, they can nevertheless be influenced by the scope of visual attention.


This guide contains instructional materials designed to help learners build the basic computer skills defined by the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessments.


This study examined new teachers' perspectives of the mentoring they were or were not receiving, who their mentors were, types of mentoring they were receiving, and roles played by facilitators at the Teachers College New Teacher Institute. (NTI). Data came from focus groups and interviews with nine past NTI teachers, needs assessment focus groups with new teachers, and needs assessment interviews with principals. The general theme that surfaced was that of variation in terms of formal mentoring. Many new teachers were not assigned mentors. Those who were assigned mentors reported varying structures of their individual mentoring experiences. The frequency and duration of formal mentoring sessions also varied among respondents. Both principals and NTI facilitators recognized these inconsistencies in mentoring experiences. Many of the new teachers took a self advocacy role in their efforts to get their mentoring needs met. Many respondents mentioned a desire for a mentor to model lessons and for more frequent mentoring, preferably from a teacher within the district. New teachers felt that the NTI could better meet their mentoring needs by having former new teachers come and speak to them in varying ways. (Contains 41


Telomeres are noncoding genetic repeats protecting the ends of linear chromosomes. Long telomeres are often associated with high individual survival, and interindividual variation in telomere length has recently been proposed as a proxy for individual quality. Therefore, one might expect individuals of either sex with long telomeres to be of higher intrinsic quality and to be preferred in the context of mate choice. Thus, in sexually monomorphic species where individuals discriminate mates on the basis of signals of intrinsic quality, mate choice should lead to assortative pairing by telomere length, and it should be associated with breeding performance. We tested these two predictions in the King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus J.F. Miller, 1778), a sexually monomorphic seabird. Over 3 years of study and 73 penguin pairs under contrasting environmental conditions, we found strong assortative pairing by telomere length. Interestingly, only female telomere length was positively associated to chick survival up to fledging, and this relationship was only apparent when foraging conditions at sea were average. The positive link between telomere length and breeding success confirmed that telomere length is somehow related to individual biological state at a given time. The proximate mechanisms by which birds assess individual state related to telomere length remain to be discovered.


Many countries regard open government data (OGD) as an engine to stimulate innovation and economic value, and establish an effective OGD platform (OGDP) for public to access and utilize data. Many literature discuss OGD-based and data-driven business model, type of data application, new product development and other commercial value creation process, however, there are still lacks of reliable empirical study and lacks of in-depth analysis of impact mechanism of OGDP on enterprise innovation. This paper will use difference-in-difference method to empirically examine causal effect of OGDP on enterprise innovation performance in different areas, and reveal effect mechanism of OGDP on enterprise innovation. The empirical results not only expand the application field of open innovation theory and data-driven research, but also fill the gap about lacks of empirical study on OGDP impact. Meanwhile, the confirmation of the impact relationship and mechanism of OGDP on enterprise innovation will promote the development of OGDP and guide governments to implement OGDP in most countries.


Abstract. Floodplain and terrace features can provide information about current and past fluvial processes, including channel response to varying discharge and sediment flux, sediment storage, and the climatic or tectonic history of a catchment. Previous methods of identifying floodplain and terraces from digital elevation models (DEMs) tend to be semi-automated, requiring the input of independent datasets or manual editing by the user. In this study we present a new method of identifying floodplain and terrace features based on two thresholds: local gradient, and elevation compared to the nearest channel. These thresholds are calculated statistically from the DEM using quantile–quantile plots and do not need to be set manually for each landscape in question. We test our method against field-mapped floodplain initiation points, published flood hazard maps, and digitised terrace surfaces from seven field sites from the US and one field site from the UK. For each site, we use high-resolution DEMs derived from light detection and ranging (lidar) where available, as well as coarser resolution national datasets to test the sensitivity of our method to grid resolution. We find that our method is successful in extracting floodplain and terrace features compared to the field-mapped data from the range of landscapes and grid resolutions tested. The method is most accurate in areas where there is a contrast in slope and elevation between the feature of interest and the surrounding landscape, such as confined valley settings. Our method provides a new tool for rapidly and objectively identifying floodplain and terrace features on a landscape scale, with applications including flood risk mapping, reconstruction of landscape evolution, and quantification of sediment storage and routing.


Asynchronous programming model is commonly used in mobile systems and Web 2.0 environments. Asynchronous race detectors use algorithms that are an order of magnitude performance and space inefficient compared to conventional data race detectors. We solve this problem by identifying and addressing two important problems in reasoning about causality between asynchronous events. Unlike conventional signal-wait operations, establishing causal order between two asynchronous events is fundamentally more challenging as there is no common handle they operate on. We propose a new primitive named AsyncClock that addresses this problem by explicitly tracking causally preceding events, and show that AsyncClock can handle a wide variety of asynchronous causality models. We also address the important scalability problem of efficiently identifying heirless events whose metadata can be reclaimed. We built the first single-pass, non-graph-based Android race detector using our algorithm and applied it to find errors in 20 popular applications. Our tool incurs about 6x performance overhead, which is several times more efficient than the state-of-the-art solution. It also scales well with the execution length. We used our tool to find 147 previously unknown harmful races.


A previously healthy girl, without heart disease, who ingested 2400 mg of verapamil developed hypotension, trifasicular block pattern, mental confusion, mild metabolic acidosis, and hyperglycemia. She recovered with symptomatic and supportive therapy. A discussion is presented about the action mechanism of the drug.


The effect of size and volume fraction of ceramic particles, with sliding velocity on the wear properties were investigated for the metal matrix composites fabricated by the pressureless infiltration process. The metal matrix composites exhibited about 5.5 - 6 times the wear resistance compared with AC8A alloy at high sliding velocity, and by increasing the particle size and decreasing the volume fraction, the wear resistance was improved. The wear resistance of metal matrix composites and AC8A alloy exhibited different aspects. Wear loss of AC8A alloy increased with sliding velocity, linearly ; whereas, metal matrix composites indicated more wear loss than AC8A alloy at the slow velocity region. However, a transition point of wear loss was found at the middle velocity region, which shows the minimum wear loss. Further, wear loss at the high velocity region exhibited nearly the same value as the slow velocity region. In terms of wear mechanism, the metal matrix composites generally exhibited abrasive wear at slow to high sliding velocity; however, AC8A alloy showed abrasive wear at low sliding velocity and adhesive and melt wear at high sliding velocity.


A home-made automatic analyzer to determine the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in seawater was introduced in this paper. This analyzer was based on ultraviolet-potassium persulphate oxidation method. The analyzer has 7 parts, including sampling, purging of inorganic carbon, enter sample, oxidation, cooling, apart of gas/liquid and analysis of CO2. The program was compiled by programming language of Visual Basic as the control system. All of the action of the analyzer is auto controlled. Different samples are separated by worked air and Milli-Q water and enter the system using six-way valve. With the catalysis of ultraviolet radiation, the organic matter in samples can be oxidated to CO2 quantitatively by K2SO2O8 and analyzed by non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) detector latter. The results showed that the oxidation efficiency, as well as the detect limit and the veracity are satisfying. The home-made analyzer was compared with the high temperature oxidation method, and the results showed that the two methods have little difference. The cost of the instrument is cheaper, and need not expensive catalyst, so the DOC in seawater can be analyzed with much lower prices.


Farmers expanded the smallholder plantation to the protected tropical rainforest area due to declining of coffee productivity by the old age of coffee trees and degraded soils in West Lampung, Sumatra Island of Indonesia. The research aimed to study the performance of rehabilitated Robusta coffee trees and citronella grass ( Andropogon nardus L.) as a conservation crop to improve the smallholder coffee plantation productivity. The old Robusta coffee trees (more than 25 years old) were rehabilitated by side grafting. Scions for the grafting were superior clones such as Sumber Asin (SA) 237, Besoekish Proefstation (BP) 436, and 534. In the experiment, two scions were grafted to each of 600 local Robusta coffee trees. To know the effect of grafting, the coffee trees were observed using stratified random sampling with equal sample allocation. The strata were varying positions of land on the hill, i.e., peak, ridge, and bottom, and the other were the three clones. The citronella was planted along the contour line among the coffee trees, with a vertical interval (VI) was 1.25 m. On average, the two grafted branches of coffee trees could produce green beans 453 g. It was higher than the average yield of the farmers' coffee trees, i.e., 387 g tree -1 . The SA 237, however, was vulnerable to the attack of berry borer ( Hypothenemus hampei) . Besides, to control erosion, the citronella grass under 40 to 60% covered by coffee trees canopy, produced fresh leaves 10-ton ha -1 year -1 or essential oil as much as 87 L (essential oil content of leaves 0.87%), approximately. That was equivalent to $1,115 in a year. The citronella also improved the soil chemical properties, especially organic-C, P 2 O 5 , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , and Al 3+ .


In this study high quality of Al doped ZnO (ZAO) thin films were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering on glass substrates at room temperature in order to study the thickness effect upon their structure, electrical and optical properties. XRD results show that the films are polycrystalline and with strongly preferred (002) orientation perpendicular to substrate surface whatever the thickness is. The crystallite size was calculated by Williamson-Hall method, while it increases as the film thickness increased. The lattice stress is mainly caused by the growth process. Hall measurements revealed electrical parameter very dependent upon thickness when the thickness of ZAO film is lower than 700 nm. The resistivity decreased and the carrier concentration and Hall mobility increases as the film thickness increased. When film thickness becomes larger, only a little change in the above properties was observed. All the films have high transmittance above 90% in visible range. Red shift of the absorption edge was observed as thickness increased. The optical energy bandgap decreased from 3.41eV to 3.30 eV with the increase of film thickness.


Background : Natura-ceutical antioxidants increases plasma antioxidant power , and reduce risk of diseases such as cancer , heart disease, and stroke . Therefore , in this study, we will determine the effect of marjoram on blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability and neurologic deficits caused by stroke . Methods: In this experimental study , 35 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (n=7) . First groups (control) received distilled water, while other three treatment groups, received oral Origanum vulgare extract for 30 days (50, 75 and 100 mg/kg/day, respectively). Thereafter, each main group underwent 60min middle cerebral artery occlusion 2hours after the lost dose of Origanum extracts. Assessment of blood brain barrier permeability and neurologic deficit score was done 24 hours . Sham groups (n=7) did not receive pretreatment and ischemia induction procedures. Results: The hydroalcoholic extract of Origanum reduced permeability of the blood brain barrier and neurologic deficits in three doses 50, 75 and 100mg/kg compared with control group. Conclusion: It seems that the extract of Origanum due to have effective antioxidant compounds , has a protective effect on stroke .


The purpose of this research is to design and develop cognitive style measurement instruments In Junior High School students. The method used is research and development in phases: designing and developing instruments that come with manual charging and usage tips, expert testing, pre-test the empirical, and empirical testing. Test experts or assessments by experts through quantitative and qualitative assessment. Pre empirical testing or pre field test is a test instrument on a small scale and empirical testing or field testing is testing on a large scale to Junior High School students. The stage of pre-test of empirical and empirical testing is testing the validity and instrument reliability calculation. Each stage of testing experts and empirical testing, followed by refinement or revision of the instruments developed. Based on the results of this study concluded that cognitif style measurement instrument can be developed with six indicators consist of: The ability to think, learn orientation, ability to remember material, reinforcement Receiving, Choosing the type of lesson, and problem solving skills. The dimention of cognitive style consist of field dependent dan field independent.


Three interrelated issues in international investing are explored here. First, despite (or because of) years of underperformance, international equity investment strategies are very much worth pursuing. Second, high levels of active risk are not necessarily a winning strategy in international equities; an aversion to active risk is just as rational in international markets as it is domestically. Finally, when investment decisions that are naturally separate are in fact separated, the efficient frontier moves up and to the left?portfolio efficiency improves?because we use more of the information collected by the analyst. Thus, in international portfolios, the investment manager should make security, country, and currency decisions independently of one another, and arguably admit short as well as long positions.


Based on recent works on Wyner-Ziv coding (or lossy source coding with decoder side information), we consider the case with noisy channel and addresses distributed joint source-channel coding, while targeting at the important application of scalable video transmission over wireless networks. In Wyner-Ziv coding, after quantization, Slepian-Wolf coding (SWC) is used to reduce the rate. SWC is traditionally realized by sending syndromes of a linear channel code. Since syndromes of the channel code can only compress but cannot protect, for transmission over noisy channels, additional error protection is needed. However, instead of using one channel code for SWC and one for error protection, our idea is to use a single channel code to achieve both compression and protection. We replace the traditional syndrome-based SWC scheme by the parity-based one, where only parity bits of the Slepian-Wolf channel code are sent. If the amount of transmitted parity bits increases above the Slepian-Wolf limit, the added redundancy is exploited to cope against the noise in the transmission channel. Using IRA codes for practical parity-based SWC, we design a novel layered Wyner-Ziv video coder which is robust to channel failures and thus very suitable for wireless communications. Our simulation results show great advantages of the proposed solution based on joint source-channel coding compared to the traditional approach where source and channel coding are performed separately.


Traditional game theory assumes that the players in the game are aware of the rules of the game. However, in practice, often the players are unaware or have only partial knowledge about the game they are playing. They may also have knowledge that other players have only partial knowledge of the game they are playing, which they can try to exploit. We present a novel mathematical formulation of such games. We make use of Kripke semantics, which are a way to keep track of what different players know and do not know about the world. We propose a notion of equilibrium for such games, and show that equilibrium always exists.


We systematically investigate the plasmonic "dolmen" geometry and its constituent elements using electron energy-loss spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. In particular, we study the effects of the particle size and spacing on the resonant behavior and interparticle coupling. Because we apply both techniques on the same structures we can directly compare the results and investigate the radiative versus nonradiative character of the different modes. We find that the cathodoluminescence response is significantly lower than the electron energy-loss response for higher-energy modes because strong absorption reduces the scattering efficiency in this regime. Furthermore, we show that the overall resonant response roughly scales with size as expected for plasmonic structures but that the transverse resonant modes do become more dominant in larger structures due to a relative reduction in Ohmic dissipation. Using EELS and CL we can rigorously study coupling between the elements and show that the coupling diminishes for larger spacings.


Lipases are known as glycerol ester hydrolases that catalyze the hydrolysis of triglycerides into free fatty acids and glycerol. Lipases are found in human, animal, plant, and microorganisms. The aim of this research is to identify lipase producers and characterize bacterial lipase from West Java plateau soil. Plateau soil bacteria samples were isolated on lipase screening medium containing Rhodamine B. Olive oil was used as a substrate in screening and production medium bacterial lipases. From 16 bacterial isolate of lipase producers, 14 were identified as Bacillus sp. and the others were identified as Pseudomonas alcaligenes. All isolates were taken into production step to determine their lipase activities. Moreover, top 3 lipase activities out of 16 lipase activities were chosen to find the optimum pH and temperature. Both characterizations showed pH optimum and temperature optimum from each lipase. These optimum condition were used in heat stability characterization for each lipase samples. The result showed that lipase from isolate COK 2 in optimum pH 4 and temperature 50 o C was the most stable lipase due to this sample has good and stable activity for 1 to 5 hours incubation time. Lipase sample from isolate COK 2 has good efficiency for lipase productivity in acid condition and high temperature. Results of this investigation could encourage utilization of these activity enhancers for various industrial applications.


Author(s): Ball, Molly Catherine | Advisor(s): Summerhill, William R | Abstract: Urbanization often follows on the heels of industrialization, and in Latin America, stark inequality has accompanied this growth. However, we know little about how and when this inequality became entrenched in the region. This dissertation looks at lived workers' experiences and inequality in the city of Si?½o Paulo, Brazil during the city's rapid Old Republic (1891-1930) growth. Si?½o Paulo is the ideal environment to study inequality. The city was one of the first in the region to experience rapid expansion, growing from 65,000 inhabitants in 1890 to over one million by 1933, and was also one of the most diverse, as immigrants and migrants flocked to the city. As the first comprehensive and systematic study of wage inequality in such an important city, my project contributes to the historiographical literature on labor, gender and development history in Latin America. Furthermore, the methodology of using firm-level data to measure inequality when official statistics are unreliable can be applied across regions and time periods. My dissertation directly examines the national, racial and gender discrimination workers faced in Si?½o Paulo's formal labor market using a variety of archival and official sources. It finds evidence that Afro-Brazilian, Portuguese and women workers encountered significant labor market discrimination. To analyze this discrimination, the dissertation addresses three related topics. It provides the first analysis of incoming immigrant groups' relative skill levels for the city. Immigrant registries suggest employers may have hired Germans into skilled positions and Portuguese into unskilled positions based on the expectation that they would be more or less skilled, respectively. Second, using firm-level employment data, the dissertation provides a much-needed wage series and shows real wages steadily declined and that skilled and unskilled wages diverged slightly in the 1920's. Finally, using firm-level data and a unique set of employee interviews, the dissertation shows that despite heavy criticism and labor market discrimination, some working- and middle-class wives and mothers chose to remain in the labor market. The dissertation findings suggest gender inequality was prominent during the Old Republic, but racial inequality actually expanded in the Vargas-era and Second Republic.


American soybean rust (AmSR) caused by Phakopsora meibomiae (Arthur) Arthur is limited to certain areas of the Western Hemisphere. It is not known to cause severe losses to economically important crops. Phakopsora meibomiae naturally infects 42 species of legumes of the subfamily Papilionoidea. During 2008, eight isolates of AmSR infecting Lablab purpureus were collected in the central mountainous area of Puerto Rico. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, including 5.8S ribosomal DNA (rDNA), were conducted. The topology of the trees generated by parsimony and by Neighbor-Joining methods was similar. Isolates were identified as Phakopsora meibomiae, with 98 and 100% identity. These isolates formed a monophyletic group. Asian Soybean Rust, Phakopsora pachyrhizi, the most closely related species, formed a second clade. Other rust species of the genera Uromyces, Puccinia, Tranzschelia, Hemileia, Ustilago smut, and the edible mushroom Boletus were included in the analyses as outgroups. Phakopsora species grouped in the Pucciniaceae family formed a sister clade to Phakopsoraceae and Uropyxidaceae families.


In his memoirs, Chief Justice Earl Warren singled out the redistricting cases as the most significant decisions of his tenure on the Court.1 A review of the changes redistricting introduced in Georgia supports Warren's assessment. Not only have the obligations to equalize populations across districts and to do so in a racially fair manner transformed the makeup of the state's collegial bodies, Georgia has provided the setting for multiple cases that have defined the requirements to be met when designing districts.

Other than the very first adjustments that occurred in the 1960s, changes in Georgia plans had to secure approval from the federal government pursuant to the Voting Rights Act. Also, the first four decades of the Redistricting Revolution occurred with a Democratic legislature and governor in place. Not surprisingly, the partisans in control of redistricting sought to protect their own and as that became difficult they employed more extreme measures.

When in the minority, Republicans had no chance to enact plans on their own. Beginning in the 1980s and peaking a decade later, Republicans joined forces with black Democrats to devise alternatives to the proposals of white Democrats. The biracial, bipartisan coalition never had sufficient numbers to enact its ideas. After striking out in the legislature, African-Americans appealed to the U.S. Attorney General alleging that the plans enacted were less favorable to black interests than alternativesoffered by the coalition. Every iteration, save for the plans drawn in the 1960s and 2011, bore the marks of what the Department of Justice (DOJ) believed necessary to secure equal treatment of African-Americans. As will become clear in the course of this Article, the DOJ's perspective has changed over time.

This Article is arranged chronologically and examines each of the major rounds of redistricting. Aside from adjusting for population shifts, which remain constant, a different concern or theme dominated each round. In the 1960s, Georgia and other states were like individuals who had begun flexing long-ignored muscles as they set about adjusting lines that had gone unchanged for decades. In the 1970s, as the need for redistricting merged with demands from the Voting Rights Act, pushback occurred as it did in the many other aspects of racial interaction as the nation finally began to take seriously its commitment to equality. A decade later, Georgia encountered a DOJ that had precise quantitative goals for what was necessary to provide African-Americans an opportunity to elect their preferences. In the 1990s, DOJ incorporated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act into its preclearance reviews and demanded that Georgia enhance the number of majority-black districts and that it maximize the black percentage in those districts. The turn of the new century found the generations-long Democratic control of Georgia slipping away and the majority party pulled out all the stops desperately trying to cling to power. Democratic efforts could not withstand the tide of partisan realignment and court challenges so that in 2011 Republicans sat at the computer terminals and redistricted Georgia. Republicans attempted to maximize their control over the legislature by devising plans that might produce super-majorities with two-thirds of the seats in each chamber.


Advances in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology has provided the availability of small and low-cost sensor nodes with capability of sensing various types of physical and environmental conditions, data processing, and wireless communication. In WSN, the sensor nodes have a limited transmission range, and their processing and storage capabilities as well as their energy resources are also limited. Routing protocols for wireless sensor networks are responsible for maintaining the routes in the network and have to ensure reliable multi-hop communication under these conditions. In this paper, we give a routing protocol for WSN and define the transmission on the basis of residual energy of Cluster Head (CH).


Purpose Introducing the relationship between the surgical instruments used in modified radical mastectomy and wound complications is important for preventing and decreasing complications. This prospective randomized trial was designed to assess the impact of scalpel, electrocautery, and ultrasonic dissector usage on wound complications and tissue damage. Methods Eighty-two consecutive patients operated with mastectomy were studied. The postoperative time period needed for hemovac drainage, the amount and duration of seroma, infection, flap ecchymosis and necrosis rates were compared. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in drainage fluids were determined to confirm the inflammatory response and tissue damage. Results The numbers of patients included in the scalpel, electrocautery and ultrasonic dissector groups were 27, 26, and 29, respectively. The groups were homogenous with respect to age, body mass index, stage, cormorbidities, breast volume and flap area. Operation time and the amount of bleeding were statistically higher in the scalpel group. The incidence of seroma was higher in the electrocautery group and arm mobilization had to be delayed in this group. There were no differences between groups with respect to hematoma, infection, ecchymosis, necrosis, hemovac drainage and the total and first 3 days of seroma volume. TNF-α and IL-6 levels were significantly higher in samples obtained from the drains of patients operated with electrocautery. Conclusion Ultrasonic dissector decreases operation time by decreasing the amount of bleeding without increasing the seroma incidence. High cytokine levels in drainage fluids from patients operated with elecrocautery indicates that electrocautery induces more tissue damage and acute inflammatory response. Therefore, seroma, due to acute inflammatory response, was seen more frequently in the electrocautery group. Ultrasonic dissector coagulates protein by breaking hydrogen bonds which may close vascular and lymphatic channels more precisely. But, its actual preventive effect on seroma formation might be related to diminished inflammatory response.


The aim of this research is to observe the antiproliferation activity of temulawak (Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb.) ethanol (70%) extract on MCA-B1 and MCM-B2 cell lines in vitro. Cells were cultivated in tissue culture plate 24 wells with vinblastin (positive control) and 5 dose level extracts in 5 replicates. The concentrations of extract were 0 ppm (negative control), 15 ppm (P1), 30 ppm (P2), 45 ppm (P3), 60 ppm (P4), and 75 ppm (P5). After 3 days incubated at 37 derejad C, cells were harvested and total cells were counted using a haemocytometer Neubauer. The results showed that 70% temulawak extract had antiproliferation activity to MCA-B1 and MCM-B2 cell lines. The best result was occured on the 75 ppm doses, with the ant-proliferation activity reached for 70,0% in MCA-B1 cell line and 75.4% in MCM-B2 celll line. Overall, the results indicated that temulawak may have a possible therapeutic potential againts cancer. Keywords: tumor, temulawak, antiproliferation, MCA-B1, MCM-B2, in vitro.


This study deals with a multiple-access transmission scheme based on random permutations, which allows one to obtain both spectrum spreading and time spreading. In particular, one is interested by the multi-user detection when the transmission is achieved in the context of asynchronous frequency-selective and time-varying channels. For this detection, it is assumed that the channel coefficients and delays are unknown at the receiver side. Instead, only rough estimates of the minimum and maximum delays are available. However, it is supposed that the transmitter sends pilot signals, that is, training bit sequences, which allow the receiver to perform an LMS (least-mean-square)-type detection. This study provides theoretical performance results. Moreover, this random permutation-based transmission scheme is compared with the DS-CDMA system, for which a similar LMS receiver is defined, under the same assumptions. It is then shown that, for time-varying channels, the permutation-based system presents lower bit-error rates than the DS-CDMA system, since the former provides time diversity.


Purpose For infants with prenatally detected lung lesions, a chest CT is performed prior to surgery. The chest CT is performed as close to the surgery date as possible, because it is presumed that the visualization of lung fissures would be poor in the immediate neonatal setting. However, this presumption has never been formally studied. The purpose of this study is to assess differences in lung fissure visualization on chest CT in different infant age groups. Methods This was a retrospective study of clinically indicated chest CT approved by the institutional review board performed in infants of different ages. The visibility of pleural fissures was subjectively assessed by three pediatric radiologists who were blinded to age group. Results In the 0–2 months age group, 80% of all fissure segments were visible versus 92% in the 5–6 months group (p=0.04) and 95% in the 7–9 months group (p=0.01). Conclusions The ability to visualize pleural fissures on CT increases with infant age. This observation should be taken into consideration when choosing the optimal timing of preoperative CT for asymptomatic congenital lung lesions.


Corrosion protection of water injection Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) has been identified as a multi discipline challenge facing the industry. Readily available solutions often lead to excessive riser weight and top tensions, expensive materials, complex welding solutions, and increased fabrication time and risk. Currently, a technology qualification program for an integrated liner system in dynamic riser service is aiming to address this and achieve formal Technology Readiness Level 5 (TRL5 from DNVGL-RP-A203) by Q3 2020.
 Individual components of a liner system are often unique and proprietary requiring individual qualification. This multi discipline program utilizes an integrated liner system incorporating carbon steel host pipe (including girth welds), polymer liner (including butt fusion welds), electrofusion welded polymer connectors (EWPC), and mechanical corrosion resistant alloy terminations (MCRAT). Fatigue testing is the primary method of assessment in this case, a series of nine fatigue trials spread over three stress ranges; 200MPa, 150MPa and 100MPa, have been scoped.
 Initial positive results have proven the concept of using the integrated liner system components in the dynamic riser application with successful completion of high stress range (200MPa) fatigue tests utilizing the full integrated liner system. To date, the conducted fatigue testing achieves performance equivalent to DNVGL-RP-C203 S-N curve D (in water with cathodic protection) after subjecting the pipe to pre-straining via reeling trials. Upon scope completion, it is expected to extend performance to meet the requirement for S-N curve C/2. Completion of testing with an intact corrosion barrier combined with assessment of vertical orientation on the system enables design of polymer lined pipelines suitable for dynamic riser service.
 The integrated liner system offers a potential step change in SCR and SLWR design. The technology application is able to provide key benefits such as an optimized design over the life of the pipeline, improved flow assurance, minimized installation complexity, optimized host and operational needs, thus resulting in an efficient and optimized field life cycle.


: Anti-TNF medications have revolutionized the care of patients with in fl ammatory bowel disease. However, despite an initial robust effect, loss of response is common and long-term results are disappointing. Much of this lack of durability may be due to inadequate dose optimization, and recent studies suggest a correlation between serum drug concentrations and clinical outcomes. Currently, in clinical practice, measurement of drug concentrations and antibodies to drug are typically performed only when a patient presents with active in fl ammatory bowel disease symptoms or during a potential immune-mediated reaction to anti-TNF ( " reactive " setting). However, proactive monitoring of anti-TNF concentrations with titration to a therapeutic window (i.e., therapeutic concentration monitoring) represents a new strategy with many potential clinical bene fi ts including prevention of immunogenicity, less need for IFX rescue therapy, and greater durability of IFX treatment. This review will cover the salient features of anti-TNF pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and provide a rational approach for the use of anti-TNF concentration testing in both the reactive and proactive settings. (In amm Bowel Dis 2015;21:1435 – 1442)


Director independence rules are an important component of the duty of loyalty as both a substantive standard and a standard of review. To apply the director independence standards, courts necessarily invest relationships with legal consequence beyond the actual relationship itself. Messiness, for example, can be tidied by taking refuge in formal structural economic analysis. Analysis can also be simplified by taking refuge in stock stories and assumptions. Both, it seems, is what the Court of Chancery did in the Disney litigation in which shareholders challenged both the very lucrative employment agreement awarded to Michael Ovitz to become president of the Walt Disney Company in 1995 and the even more generous terms under which that contract was terminated in 1996. The Disney litigation, however, ought to have provided a rich vehicle for the examination of reality beyond formality and stock assumptions. This Article focuses on the application of the independent director standard to one director in particular: Reveta Bowers, an African-American female and the principal of the school that Michael Eisner's children attended. What makes Ms. Bowers particularly interesting is the peculiar way in which the Chancery Court sought to apply the director independence standards to her: the Court of Chancery effectively rejected plaintiffs' attacks on her independence on public policy grounds, that is, were Ms. Bowers' independence effectively challenged, 'regular folks' would be unable to serve on boards of directors of corporations like Disney. Though that analysis has attracted little attention among legal academics, the Chancery Court's application of a peculiar construction of the director independence rules for Ms. Bower's benefit opens a window to the way corporate law intersects with social assumptions of race and class expressed as public policy. The inherent difficulties arising from that intersection and the resulting contradictions of the current Delaware approach to directorial independence in the face of competing policies - often unwritten, and not necessarily derived from legislative pronouncements - suggest that the current Delaware independence standard is of limited value in duty of loyalty cases. These deficiencies, however, might be overcome by incorporating into the narrow formalism of the current standard some of the relational insights of critical race and feminist theory. Relational analysis exposes the subtle ways in which class, gender, and race affect the application of standards in fact driven contexts-like determinations of director independence - and may help courts and litigants strive for fairer and more realistic results. Emerging from this analytical approach is a fundamental notion: subordination and dependence tend to be the critical factors in determining the independence of relationships, even those considered primarily economic relationships. This is a very different analysis from that of Vice Chancellor Strine in Oracle, an approach criticized by the Delaware Supreme Court. In place of the current Delaware analysis, this Article suggests an alternative approach, the touchstone of which is subordination and burden shifting. Subordination would encompass all hierarchical and affective relationships. Subordination should serve as both a substantive rule-subordination destroys all claims of independence. Subordination should also serve as a procedural rule-establishment of a relationship of subordination ought to shift the burden of proving independence from the plaintiff to the director seeking to establish independence for purposes of validating board of directors' actions. The Article ends by assessing the utility of the proposed subordination-relational standard. Application of the standard to the facts of the Disney litigation demonstrates the ways in which the alternative standard yields different results. Had the Chancery Court applied a subordination based relational standard it would have been far more likely that a greater number of directors, perhaps even more than a majority of directors, might have been found not to be independent. Application of such a standard might have avoided the approval of the Ovitz Employment Agreement as ultimately signed, the invocation of the termination provisions as ultimately approved, or the litigation over that agreement that sapped the resources of the corporation from 1997 through 2005. And the price to be paid would have been small enough: ensuring that directors actually approving the transactions could meet the more rigorous and legitimating standards of a subordination based relational approach to independence.


Mzonjani, dated to the third/fourth century AD represents the earliest expression of the Iron Age in Natal. Apart from Enkwazini it is the only excavated site of this period, and Mzonjani has produced the largest ceramic assemblage, which is described and illustrated. This material is compared with 21 related sites in Natal, and Schofield's classification is shown to be incorrect in terms of sequence and interrelationships. Some tentative ideas on the economy and ecology of these settlements are discussed. There is a close resemblance between these Natal assemblages and eastern Transvaal ones of similar age, as well as undated material from southern Mozambique. To cite this article: Maggs, T. 1980. Mzonjani and the beginning of the Iron Age in Natal.  Annals of the Natal Museum 24 (1): 71-96.


Human embryonic stem (hES) cells provide an important means to evaluate specific soluble and cell-bound stimuli that regulate development of specific cell lineages. Here, we examined specific cytokines and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that support differentiation of hES cells to hepatocytes. Tests of several different conditions determined that addition of fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-4 and hepatocyte growth factor in completely serum-free cultures of hES cell-derived embryoid bodies subsequently allowed to attach to type I collagen-coated dishes led to maximal differentiation into cells, not only with the morphologic and phenotypic characteristics of hepatocytes but also the functional characteristics. Expression of common hepatic transcription factors including HNF-3beta, HNF-1, and GATA-4 were all significantly induced under these conditions. Hepatocyte function was demonstrated by multiple complementary criteria: production of urea and albumin, phenobarbital-induced cytochrome P450 expression, and uptake of indocyanine green. These hES cell-derived hepatocytes will serve as a resource to understand normal human hepatocyte development and for applications such as cell replacement therapies and screening of pharmacologic drugs.


District level rice yield forecast models were developed for 13 districts of the Brahmaputra valley of Assam using yield data and weekly weather data during 1990-2012 at vegetative (F1) and mid-season (F2) stages of rice crop through modified Hendrick and Scholl technique. The models were validated using independent data set of three years (2013-15). Stepwise regression technique was used for fitting the model and decided best by highest R2 and lowest percent error. The coefficient of determination (R2) ranged from 0.32 (Jorhat) to 0.88 (Kamrup) in F1 stage and 0.29 (Sonitpur) to 0.92 (Kamrup) in F2 forecast. In general, F2 forecast models were found comparatively better in forecasting rice yields than F1 models. Inclusion of BSSH along with temperature (maximum and minimum), rainfall and relative humidity (morning and afternoon) increased the accuracy of the yield forecast models, compared to the model developed without BSSH. Maximum temperature and relative humidity were the major weather parameters in determining rice yields in most of the districts located in central and upper part of the valley. On the other hand, rainfall in combination with maximum temperature and relative humidity were found relatively more important in the districts located in the lower part of the Brahmaputra valley.


This article undertakes a critical re-evaluation of a DFID-funded project in South Africa which ran between 1998 and 2001. The evaluation sought to test whether the development of community-led indicators would improve governance. Since the project ended, a series of papers have been published that are critical of such participatory methods, arguing particularly that they are apolitical and adopt a technocratic approach. In the light of these criticisms, this article re-assesses the DFID project, following on from the initial evaluation carried out by the author in 2001. Sobantu, a black township in Pietermaritzburg, was one of the original project sites. It was chosen as the subject for research because the local implementing agency was a politically astute, well-connected institution that understood the political nature of the process required to develop the indicators. Although the project achieved some positive outcomes, the long-term commitment to the indicators has since been compromised. This was in large part due to the inability of community members to engage meaningfully with key municipal service providers. However, recent changes to the South African planning regime might provide opportunities for the indicators to become more useful again.


The Flynn Creek crater is a 200 meter deep impact structure estimated to be formed in the Devonian period approximately 360 million years ago. The impact structure is 3.8 kilometers in diameter and is located 8 kilometers south of Gainesboro, in Jackson County, Tennessee (36°17' N, -85°40' W). When the impact occurred, the area was a shallow marine environment. The deposition of the Chattanooga Shale Formation was deposited after the impact occurred. The units effected by the impact were flat lithified Ordovician limestones and dolomites. The Chattanooga Shale near the Flynn Creek area is mainly black in color and can reach up to 55 meters in thickness. This research will test the hypothesis that the Chattanooga Shale formation inside the Flynn Creek crater may be older than the Chattanooga Shale formation outside of the crater. For this hypothesis, a hand-held Gamma Ray scintillometer was used to collect spectral data from the shale. Thirty-six measurements with the scintillometer will determine the amount of potassium (%), uranium (ppm), thorium (ppm), and overall gamma ray dose rate (nGy/h) for the two shale outcrops at Flynn Creek. Eighteen measurements were taken inside of the impact crater. The average gamma ray dose rate for this outcrop averages 172.13 nGy/h. Future field work will collect the remaining eighteen measurements outside of the Flynn Creek Crater. The average gamma ray dose rate of that outcrop will determine whether the two outcrops of Chattanooga Shale differ from one another in age.


Although singular approaches to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) have been taken, there might still be some aspects to be analysed in this novel. The aim of this dissertation is to give a deeper analysis on the evolution suffered by the main character, Alice, during her journey in Wonderland. To fulfil this task, this paper will analyse different aspects of the book. First of all, the author's life will be introduced so that a closer approach on the image of Lewis Carroll can be provided. In this point the work of Lewis Carroll will be also presented as an ending to this section. Then, the paper will focus mainly on the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and will try to explore a variety of opinions towards its characterization as literature for children and its place within the genre of fantasy where the specific characteristics of each genre will be introduced. After having gone through all these, the novel will be analysed on the basis of providing a physical and psychological portrayal of Alice since the book shows her not only as a child, but also as an adolescent. Within this section Alice's changes from one psychological stage to another will be exposed, together with her irregular physical growth and shrinkage, in order to show how they affect her evolution through the story. Later, the identity conflicts suffered by Alice in her quest will be explored so that a final depiction of the protagonist can be reached. Lastly, a conclusion will be presented by enclosing all the information given above and labelling this novel as a really complex one.


Abstract Does exposure to cyber terrorism prompt calls for retaliatory military strikes? By what psychological mechanism does it do so? Through a series of controlled, randomized experiments, this study exposed respondents (n = 2,028) to television news reports depicting cyber and conventional terror attacks against critical infrastructures in the United States, United Kingdom and Israel. The findings indicate that only lethal cyber terrorism triggers strong support for retaliation. Findings also confirm that anger bridges exposure to cyber terrorism and retaliation, rather than psychological mechanisms such as threat perception or anxiety as other studies propose. These findings extend to the cyber realm a recent trend that views anger as a primary mechanism linking exposure to terrorism with militant preferences. With cyber terrorism a mounting international concern, this study demonstrates how exposure to this threat can generate strong public support for retaliatory policies, depending on the lethality of the attack.


: By measuring central venous pressure during physical examination one quickly obtains information about the patient's volume status and cardiac function. For such measurements to be reliable there must be a free communication between the jugular vein (usually the right external or internal) and the right atrium. Venous pulsations must be visible and the point of venous collapse has to be clearly identified. During measurement the flow of blood through the vein must be halted. The sternal angle of the second rib is used as reference point. It is recommendable to use an instrument rather than the eye to estimate venous pressure. Although several studies have been performed to validate the external measurement of venous pressure, most of these are methodologically unsound.


The purpose of this paper is to derive a general analytical expression for the correlation coefficient of si gnals received by two different antennas as a function of the distance between them (baseline distance), the signal bandwidth, and the antenna beamwidth. The two antennas are supposed to be part of a radar system for detecting meteorological phenomena such as rain and clouds. One of the antennas transmits the radar signal and receives the echoes; the other antenna only receives the echoes. The good functioning of such a radar system depends on the correlation between the two antenna signals. The exact analytical framework derived here has been recently used in practice to assist in the design of a meteorological radar system for Orbisat Industria e Aerolevantamento S.A.


Studies on magnetic oxyhydrides have been almost limited to perovskite-based lattices with corner-sharing octahedra with a M-H-M (M: transition metal) angle of θ ∼ 180°. Using a high-pressure method, we prepared BaCrO2H with a 6H-type hexagonal perovskite structure with corner- and face-sharing octahedra, offering a unique opportunity to investigate magnetic interactions based on a θ ∼ 90° case. Neutron diffraction for BaCrO2H revealed an antiferromagnetic (AFM) order at TN ∼ 375 K, which is higher than ∼240 K in BaCrO3-xFx. The relatively high TN of BaCrO2H can be explained by the preferred occupancy of H- at the face-sharing site that provides AFM superexchange in addition to AFM direct exchange interactions. First-principles calculations on BaCrO2H in comparison with BaCrO2F and BaMnO3 further reveal that the direct Cr-Cr interaction is significantly enhanced by shortening the Cr-Cr distance due to the covalent nature of H-. This study provides a useful strategy for the extensive control of magnetic interactions by exploiting the difference in the covalency of multiple anions.


Discussed the necessity of development of the Concept of otorhinolaryngology in the Armed Forces in 2020, aims and objectives of the concept, the proposed solutions for implementation of the proposed concepts: standardization and differentiation of specialized otorhinolaryngological care; development of hospital-replace technologies, the introduction of innovative methods, development of monitoring and evaluation of care quality; staffing; optimization of medical supplies; improving of material and technical base; reform of medical records; creation of unified information and communication infrastructure; conduction of preventative works for healthy lifestyles.


The level of autoantibodies to nerve growth factor (NGF) was measured in the sera of infants with mental dysontogenesis and of patients with different mental diseases. The findings suggest that the excessive levels of NGF autoantibodies are responsible for nervous malformations that underlie some nervous and mental diseases and that the body has a certain capacity to normalize clinical and immunochemical parameters. A particular pattern of manifestations of these disorders depends on some factors and primarily on genetic predisposition. NGF autoantibody levels are recommended to be estimated during screening of infants to form mental dysontogenesis risk groups.


: A new structural concept was developed for e-learning educational materials meant for improving innovation in textile field. The educational materials were composed of 35 new project solutions offered by five research providers in textiles. The project solutions resulted as need of the textile industry, identified by a SWOT analysis of a Benchmarking study with 64 enterprises on European level. The connections between the Opportunities from the SWOT analysis and the project solutions was included in a cluster table. The new e-learning concept was developed with Moodle resources and activities, in order to comply with the structure of the educational materials. Thus, within the logical approach, hyperlinks were provided between project solutions and the cluster table, while the cluster table Opportunities was linked to the SWOT analysis. Nonetheless, project solutions may be accessed in sequential approach, by Moodle activity Glossary. The attractive e-learning course was completed by three modules on innovation in Book resource format, multiple choice questions and Youtube videos with interviews of the project's research providers. The work on the educational materials and the new e-learning concept was developed within the Erasmus+ project TexMatrix - "Matrix of knowledge for innovation and competitiveness in textile enterprises" (2016-2018), having five experienced partners: INCDTP - Bucharest (coordinator), TecMinho - Portugal, Centrocot - Italy, University Maribor - Slovenia and Technical University Iasi. The Benchmarking questionnaire was leveraged by the management instrument of the Knowledge Matrix for Innovation, commonly prepared by the partners for textile enterprise's end-users. The project had an outstanding impact with 199 textile professionals and 137 young trainees prepared within multiplier events and blended courses. The English e-learning course may be accessed by Guests on www.advan2tex.eu/portal .


Nucellar projection (NP) and endosperm transfer cells (ETC) are essential tissues in growing barley (Hordeum vulgare) grains, responsible for nutrient transfer from maternal to filial tissues, endosperm/embryo nutrition, and grain development. A laser microdissection pressure catapulting-based transcriptome analysis was established to study NP and ETC separately using a barley 12K macroarray. A major challenge was to isolate high-quality mRNA from preembedded, fixed tissue while maintaining tissue integrity. We show that probes generated from fixed and embedded tissue sections represent largely the transcriptome (>70%) of nonchemically treated and nonamplified references. In NP, the top-down gradient of cellular differentiation is reflected by the expression of C3HC4-type ubiquitin ligases and different histone genes, cell wall biosynthesis and expansin/extensin genes, as well as genes involved in programmed cell death-related proteolysis coupled to nitrogen remobilization, indicating distinct areas simultaneously undergoing mitosis, cell elongation, and disintegration. Activated gene expression related to gibberellin synthesis and function suggests a regulatory role for gibberellins in establishment of the differentiation gradient. Up-regulation of plasmalemma-intrinsic protein and tonoplast-intrinsic protein genes indicates involvement in nutrient transfer and/or unloading. In ETC, AP2/EREBP-like transcription factors and ethylene functions are transcriptionally activated, a response possibly coupled to activated defense mechanisms. Transcriptional activation of nucleotide sugar metabolism may be attributed to ascorbate synthesis and/or cell wall biosynthesis. These processes are potentially controlled by trehalose-6-P synthase/phosphatase, as suggested by expression of their respective genes. Up-regulation of amino acid permeases in ETC indicates important roles in active nutrient uptake from the apoplastic space into the endosperm.


Research into converting solar light energy into electricity using so-called photovoltaic (PV) technology or solar cells (SCs) was started a long time ago. However, most developing countries tend to lag behind. The present work delivers a bibliometric mapping analysis of 30 years of Indonesian solar energy research papers in the Scopus database. A multidisciplinary point of view is used to cover the findings comprehensively, highlighting the emerging gaps, orientation, and promising future research that will benefit many researchers, governments, and industry. Two essential keywords, "photovoltaic" and "solar cell", were used to harvest the data. A total of 1886 documents were finally investigated. The VOSviewer was utilized as a proper complement for visualizing and analyzing the publication trends based on the keywords and authorships. Many aspects of solar research have been explored, including the basic science of semiconductors, simulation, lab-scale device fabrication, and the application of technologies and policies. The findings show that the two keywords determined the research characteristics. It also reveals that the geographical location had a remarkable impact on publication distribution. The most striking result is that a minimum of 1146 documents are centralized on Java Island. In addition, the policies related to renewable energy show a strong impact: two years after the policies were announced, the publications exhibited a two-fold increase. The results also suggest that future research should focus on the increasingly significant domestic component of silicon-based solar cells, the various multidisciplinary approaches for making PV utilization more affordable, and on shifting towards the use of perovskite solar cells. Solid national and international collaboration should be continued for the sustainability of Indonesian solar energy research.


The growing complexity of customizable embedded multi-processor architectures for digital media processing will soon require highly scalable network-on-chip based communication infrastructures. In this paper, we propose xpipes, a scalable and high-performance NoC architecture for multi-processor SoCs, consisting of soft macros that can be turned into instance-specific network components at instantiation time. The flexibility of its components allows our NoC to support both homogeneous and heterogeneous architectures. The interface with IP cores at the periphery of the network is standardized (OCP-based). Links can be pipelined with a flexible number of stages to decouple data introduction speed from worst-case link delay. Switches are lightweight and support reliable communication for arbitrary link pipeline depths (latency insensitive operation). xpipes has been described in synthesizable SystemC, at the cycle-accurate and signal-accurate level.


The concept of coherence is reviewed and the three basic types of coherence-temporal, spectral, and spatial-are described. Common applications of temporal and spatial coherence are briefly discussed, and novel applications of spectral coherence are explained. The link between cyclostationary and spectral coherence is presented. The spectral decomposition of general coherence is briefly reviewed and its application to the characterization of spectral coherence is explained. A variety of signal processing problems where spectral coherence can be exploited are described, and several new spectral-coherence-exploiting algorithms are presented, including a cycle detector and a spectral-correlation-ratio algorithm.<<ETX>>


Health-care providers frequently face clinical ethical dilemmas when working with transgender youth who require hormone therapy but lack parental support for this intervention. Through semi-structured interviews and grounded theory analysis, we explored ethical and clinical decision-making processes of health-care providers, as well as the health care experiences of trans youth with family discordance. We analyzed responses in relation to North American bioethics principles, best interests standard, and the harm principle, exploring issues of autonomy, evidence, and anti-trans bias. We propose an ethically acceptable clinical approach termed parallel process hormone therapy initiation to address the needs of transgender youth with complex family situations.


Abstract. Two configurations of RegCM3 regional climate model (RCM) have been used to downscale results of two atmosphere-ocean global climate model (AOGCM) simulations of the current (1961–1990) and future climates (2071–2100) over the eastern Mediterranean (EM) region. The RCM domain covering the EM region from northern Africa to central part of Asia Minor with grid spacing of 50 km was used. Three sets of RCM simulations were completed. Results of the RCM experiment support earlier projections of a temperature (annual precipitation) increase (decrease) to the end of 21st century over the EM. The roles of several major factors in controlling uncertainty of the climate change estimates are evaluated. The main uncertainty factors appear to be associated with possible inadequacies in RCM description of the EM-climate-controlling developments over remotely located areas as well as those in the simulations of the global climate and its trends by the AOGCMs.


For several decades, strong efforts have been made in France in research and development activities dedicated to nickel-based superalloys for high-pressure disks and blades. New superalloys were designed then developed within cooperative research programmes bringing together research institutes, alloy producers and engine manufacturers. Continuous research activities were carried out on these alloys in order to perform detailed analyses of the relationships between process parameters, chemistry, microstructural features, deformation mechanisms and mechanical behavior. Typical studies are illustrated by examples outlining some recent results.


Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) is an iron-containing protein encoded by the same gene that codes for uteroferrin, a placental iron transport protein. In human peripheral mononuclear cells, TRAP expression is inhibited by both hemin (ferric protoporphyrin IX) and protoporphyrin IX. Nuclear run-on assays confirmed that this inhibition occurs at the level of gene transcription. Previous studies with mTRAP deletion mutants showed that the hemin effect was dependent on repressor activity in the mTRAP 5'-flanking region at -1846 bp to -1240 bp relative to ATG (Reddy et al, J Bone Mineral Res 10:601, 1995). We now report that gel shift assays showed a DNA binding protein in nuclear extracts of hemin-treated cells termed hemin response element binding protein (HREBP). Additional studies have localized the HREBP binding region in the mTRAP 5'-flanking DNA to a 27-bp sequence at -1815 to -1789 bp relative to ATG. A tandem repeat sequence, GAGGC;GAGGC, contained within this DNA segment, was shown to be involved in binding of HREBP. Highly homologous sequences are present in the 5'-flanking region of the hTRAP gene. Binding of HREBP to the mTRAP DNA sequence was inhibited by anti-HAP1 antibodies, indicating homology between the hemin-responsive factor and the yeast heme-dependent transcription factor, HAP1. A 607-bp segment of the mTRAP 5'-flanking region containing the candidate hemin response element and surrounding sequences conferred hemin regulation on the viral SV40 promoter. Southwestern blotting experiments probing nuclear extracts of hemin-treated U937 cells with the 27-bp binding sequence showed two protein bands at 37 and 133 kD representing candidate HREBPs. A GENINFO search showed several other mammalian genes with tandem GAGGC motifs in noncoding regions, providing the possibility that additional genes may also be regulated by hemin at the level of transcription. These studies provide the first description of a novel iron/hemin-responsive transcriptional regulatory mechanism in mammalian cells.


Pretraining reinforcement learning methods with demonstrations has been an important concept in the study of reinforcement learning since a large amount of computing power is spent on online simulations with existing reinforcement learning algorithms. Pretraining reinforcement learning remains a significant challenge in exploiting expert demonstrations whilst keeping exploration potentials, especially for value based methods. In this paper, we propose a pretraining method for soft Q-learning. Our work is inspired by pretraining methods for actor-critic algorithms since soft Q-learning is a value based algorithm that is equivalent to policy gradient. The proposed method is based on $\gamma$-discounted biased policy evaluation with entropy regularization, which is also the updating target of soft Q-learning. Our method is evaluated on various tasks from Atari 2600. Experiments show that our method effectively learns from imperfect demonstrations, and outperforms other state-of-the-art methods that learn from expert demonstrations.


System reliability performance is usually based on average customer interruption indices. The average values are valuable information, but provide only a single customer risk dimension without the underlying probability distributions. The average annual indices give no insight on how reliability may vary from year to year as a result of the random behavior of a bulk electric system. Reliability index probability distributions, therefore, provide additional valuable information and a more complete understanding of composite power system behavior. A significant advantage when utilizing sequential Monte Carlo simulation in bulk electric system reliability analysis is the ability to provide reliability index probability distributions in addition to the expected values of their indices. This paper illustrates the development of probability distributions for bulk electric system reliability performance indices using sequential simulation. The results obtained using the developed software show that the system performance index probability distributions have unique characteristics that are basically dependent on the system topology, operating philosophy and conditions. System conditions such as the peak load level and system reinforcement options have significant impacts on the performance index probability distribution characteristics. The basic concepts and their application in composite power system reliability evaluation are illustrated by application to a small practical test system


A universal human dignity, conceived as an inherent and inalienable value or worth in all human beings, which ought to be recognised, respected and protected by others, has become one of the most prominent and widely promoted interpretations of human dignity, especially in international human rights law. Yet, it is also one of the most difficult interpretations of human dignity to justify and ground. The fundamental problem rests on how one can justify bestowing an equal high worth to all human lives, whilst also attributing to all human life a worth that is superior to all non-human animal life. To avoid the speciesist charge it seems necessary to provide further reasons, over and above species membership, for why all humans have a unique worth and dignity. However, intrinsic capacities, such as autonomy, intelligence or language use, are too demanding for many humans (including foetuses or the severely cognitively disabled) to meet the required minimum standard, whilst also being obtainable by some non-human animals, regardless of where the level is set. This thesis offers a solution to this problem by turning instead to the significance of the relational ties between individuals or groups that transcend individual capacities and abilities, and consequently does not require that all individuals in the group need meet the minimum required capacity for full moral status. Rather, it is argued that a universal human dignity could be grounded in our social nature, the interconnectedness and interdependence of human life and the morally considerable relationships that can and do arise from it, especially in regards to our shared vulnerability and dependence, and our ability to engage in caring relationships. Care represents the antithesis to the dehumanizing effects of humiliation, and other degrading and dehumanizing acts, and as a relational concept, human dignity is often best realised through our caring relationships. The way that individuals and groups treat each other has a fundamental role in determining both an individual's sense of self-worth and well-being, as well as their perceived public value and worth. Thus, whilst species membership is not in itself morally fundamental or basic, it often shapes the nature of our social and moral relations. These relational ties between humans, it is argued, distinguish us most clearly from other non-human animals and accord human relationships a special moral significance or dignity.


To evaluate the effect of skin self-examination (SSE) on melanoma mortality, we estimated the survival for individuals performing SSE compared with those who did not. Participants were from a previously carried out case–control study, who were newly diagnosed melanoma cases in 1987–1989. A 20-year survival analysis was carried out using death (event) and other causes of death (competing). Cumulative incidence functions were evaluated using Gray's test and proportional subdistribution hazards regression models were fitted to study the effect of SSE and other covariates on melanoma survival. Forty-five percent of patients died, with 48.4% melanoma deaths. Individuals who did not perform SSE experienced a continuous increase in the risk of melanoma death trending toward significance for nearly 20 years after diagnosis, whereas melanoma deaths in skin self-examiners plateaued before 10 years after diagnosis (P=0.32). Univariate analyses suggested a 25% lower risk of melanoma death for those who performed SSE [hazard ratio (HR)=0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.43–1.32, P=0.32]. After adjusting for competing risks, the multivariate risk estimate was above one (HR=1.12, 95% CI=0.61–2.06, P=0.71). Skin awareness (HR=0.46, 95% CI=0.28–0.75, P⩽0.01) was associated independently with a decreased risk of melanoma death. Although we did not find a significant association between melanoma mortality and SSE when adjusting for competing mortality and other covariates, we extended previous findings that increased skin awareness and tumor thickness are strongly inversely related to survival. Research is needed to continue developing best practices for melanoma screening and to further explore the components of SSE and long-term melanoma survival.


In order to improve the robust performance for a type of nonlinear multivariable system, a new fuzzy variable structure control method is introduced in detail, which combined the features of traditional variable structure control method with the advantages of the fuzzy control theory. The present work realized the linearization of the nonlinear multivariable system, and then the new fuzzy variable structure control method is applied to control the linearization system. The robust experiments were carried out on the novel method. The results indicated that the required robust performance could be achieved with high efficiency by utilizing the new method.


Summary Tissue factor (TF) is an integral membrane glycoprotein that serves as a cofactor for blood coagulation factor VIIa. The induction of TF on the surface of endothelial cells is initiated by various stimuli including lipopolysaccharide, interleukin-1β, and tumor necrosis factor α. We have demonstrated that recombinant human C5a induces TF activity in a dose-dependent fashion in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). Peak activity (4.9-fold increase) was obtained 3-6 h after treatment with 10 μM C5a. TF mRNA as assessed by RT-PCR method was also significantly increased (3.75-fold) after 3 h incubation with C5a, suggesting that C5a induces TF activity on HUVEC, at least in part, by enhancing the level of TF mRNA. The increase in TF activity by C5a was inhibited by methylprednisolone. The induction of TF on endothelial cells by C5a may represent one of many potential interrelationships between the inflammatory and coagulation schemes.


The role of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE, peptidyl dipeptidase A) in metamorphic- and reproductive-related events in the Egyptian cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) was studied by using the selective ACE inhibitor captopril. Although oral administration of captopril had no effect on larval growth, topical administration to new pupae resulted in a large decrease of successful adult formation. Oviposition and overall appearance of adults emerging from treated larvae did not differ significantly from those emerging from non-treated larvae. In contrast, topical or oral administration of captopril to newly emerged adults caused a reduction in oviposition. By evaluating the effect of captopril on ecdysteroid titers and trypsin activity, we revealed an additional physiological role for ACE. Captopril exerted an inhibitory effect on ecdysteroid levels in female but not in male adults. Larvae fed a diet containing captopril exhibited increased trypsin activity. A similar captopril-induced increase in trypsin activity was observed in female adults. In male adults, however, captopril elicited reduced levels of trypsin activity. Our results suggest that captopril downregulates oviposition by two independent pathways, one through ecdysteroid biosynthesis regulation, and the other through regulation of trypsin activity. Apparently, fecundity is influenced by a complex interaction of ACE, trypsin activity, and ecdysteroid levels.


Bacanora is an artisanal beverage distilled from agave, which is manufactured on a small scale in the Sonora state, Mexico. The aim of this study was to identify the major volatile compounds in 77 artisanal Bacanora beverages by gas chromatography, to determine the samples that comply with the Mexican Standards for Bacanora. The samples were collected in 28 municipalities in the area of origin denomination. It was found that only 55.8% of the samples (43) meet the parameters established in the Official Mexican Standards, whereas 44.2% of the samples (34) do not comply: 3 samples for alcohol content, 8 for acetaldehyde, 1 for esters, 11 for methanol and 17 for higher alcohols. Some of the samples do not comply because of more than one analyzed parameter. The Bacanora samples showed great variability among the sampled regions as well as within the same municipalities (p ≤ 0.05).


Systemic immunosuppression is typically required to prevent allograft rejection. Antibody-based therapies that induce immune unresponsiveness represent an appealing alternative to nonspecific immunosuppression, which is often associated with significant morbidity. In mice, successful prevention of nerve allograft rejection has been demonstrated through interference with the CD40/CD40 ligand interaction. This study investigated the effectiveness of anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody as single-agent therapy in preventing rejection and supporting nerve regeneration across long nerve allografts in nonhuman primates. Twelve outbred cynomolgus macaques were arranged into six genetically mismatched pairs, with each animal receiving a 5-cm ulnar nerve allograft in the right arm and a 5-cm autograft in the left arm. Mixed lymphocyte reaction assays were used to assess resulting immune unresponsiveness. Treated animals (n = 10) received anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody 10 mg/kg one time, locally applied, and 20 mg/kg systemically on postoperative days 0, 1, 3, 10, 18, and 28, and then monthly. Untreated animals (n = 2) served as the untreated controls. At 4 or 6 months after transplantation, nerves were harvested for histological analysis. Four treated animals underwent an additional challenge after cessation of anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody therapy and nerve graft harvests. Autogenous and allogeneic skin and nerve inlay grafting was performed to assess the permanence of immune unresponsiveness induced by anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody. Animals that received anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody demonstrated robust regeneration across nerve allografts, similar to that seen in the autograft control in the contralateral arm. The histomorphometric analysis of allografts in the untreated animals demonstrated significantly worse measurements compared with their matched autograft controls. Animals that received anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody with concomitant skin allografts had virtually no evidence of nerve regeneration through allografts. Allogeneic skin and nerve allografts applied 2 to 12 months after withdrawal of anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody therapy were consistently rejected. This study demonstrates that anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody prevents rejection and allows regeneration of peripheral nerve allografts in nonhuman primates. The effect of anti-CD40 ligand monoclonal antibody appears to be transient, however, with restoration of immunocompetence shortly after withdrawal of therapy.


This paper presents an efficient implementation of the SCIARA Cellular Automata computational model for simulating lava flows using the Compute Unified Device Architecture CUDA interface developed by NVIDIA and carried out on Graphical Processing Units GPU. GPUs are specifically designated for efficiently processing graphic data sets. However, they are also recently being exploited for achieving excellent computational results for applications non-directly connected with Computer Graphics. The authors show an implementation of SCIARA and present results referred to a Tesla GPU computing processor, a NVIDIA device specifically designed for High Performance Computing, and a Geforce GT 330M commodity graphic card. Their carried out experiments show that significant performance improvements are achieved, over a factor of 100, depending on the problem size and type of performed memory optimization. Experiments have confirmed the effectiveness and validity of adopting graphics hardware as an alternative to expensive hardware solutions, such as cluster or multi-core machines, for the implementation of Cellular Automata models.


Solenoid valve is the key component to determine the performance of electronic fuel injection system for the diesel engine. By theoretically analyzing the characteristics of solenoid valve driver, we found out that one of the factors that affect the closing and opening speed of solenoid valve is drive current. In this paper, GT-Flow software is used to simulate and analyze the drive current, and come to the optimal combination of current. The selected drive current is used to analyze the emission performance of 16V265H diesel engine, to determine the best advance angle for fuel supply, and to compare the simulation results with the experimental values.


PURPOSE
To determine more accurate regression formulas for estimating peak skin dose (PSD) from reference air kerma (RAK) or kerma-area product (KAP).

METHODS
After grouping of the data from 21 procedures into 13 clinically similar groups, assessments were made of optimal clustering using the Bayesian information criterion to obtain the optimal linear regressions of (log-transformed) PSD vs RAK, PSD vs KAP, and PSD vs RAK and KAP.

RESULTS
Three clusters of clinical groups were optimal in regression of PSD vs RAK, seven clusters of clinical groups were optimal in regression of PSD vs KAP, and six clusters of clinical groups were optimal in regression of PSD vs RAK and K AP. Prediction of PSD using both RAK andKAP is significantly better than prediction of PSD with either RAK or KAP alone. The regression of PSD vs RAK provided better predictions of PSD than the regression of PSD vs KAP. The partial-pooling (clustered) method yields smaller mean squared errors compared with the complete-pooling method.

CONCLUSION
PSD distributions for interventional radiology procedures are log-normal. Estimates of PSD derived from RAK and KAP jointly are mos t accurate, followed closely byestimates derived from RAK alone. Estimates of PSD derived from KAP alone are the least accurate. Using a stochastic search approach, it is possible to cluster together certain dissimilar types of procedures to minimize the total error sum of squares.


This work describes the implementation and validation of a library named Khorjin to receive and parse synchrophasor data from a PMU/PDC based on IEEE C37.118.2 protocol, map it to the IEC 61850 data model and transmit the synchrophasor data through either Routed-Sampled Value or Routed-GOOSE services defined in the IEC 61850-90-5 protocol. In addition, the library is capable of acting as the receiver and parser of IEC 61850-90-5 messages, extracting raw synchrophasor data and feeding to subscriber applications. The functionality of the Khorjin library is validated in a Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation environment to asses its conformance to the functional requirements of the IEC 61850-90-5 standard.


: Piracetam influence on the depth of consciousness loss and psychic function recovery was examined in two groups of 30 patients (study and control) selected at random. The study was carried out in conditions of a specialized department for patients with acute virus neuroinfections. Accelerated periods of egress from unconsciousness (including coma), high rate of reduction of psychoorganic and somatovegetative disorders followed by successful rehabilitation were characteristic of patients given piracetam from the disease onset. The results obtained permit recommending piracetam for wide use in neuroinfections.


A healthy environment is made up of many elements that are indispensable for our physical and spiritual health, our cultural wellbeing, and our happiness. Among these are, of course, breatheable air, drinkable water, and enough food to feed the community all of which can become contaminated. A healthy environment also includes factors that we don't often think about. Pollution from noise and light (excessive lighting where there should be shadows or darkness), as well as "visual pollution" (from fences, billboards, tall buildings, and other objects that obstruct visibility), may not harm us as quickly as toxins in our food, water, or air, but, over time, they erode our physical and mental health.


In this work, we have designed highly sensitive plasmonic metasensors based on atomically thin perovskite nanomaterials with a detection limit up to 10−10 refractive index units (RIU) for the target sample solutions. More importantly, we have improved phase singularity detection with the Goos–Hänchen (GH) effect. The GH shift is known to be closely related to optical phase signal changes; it is much more sensitive and sharp than the phase signal in the plasmonic condition, while the experimental measurement setup is much more compact than that of the commonly used interferometer scheme to exact the phase signals. Here, we have demonstrated that plasmonic sensitivity can reach a record-high value of 1.2862 × 109 µm/RIU with the optimum configurations for the plasmonic metasensors. The phase singularity-induced GH shift is more than three orders of magnitude larger than those achievable in other metamaterial schemes, including Ag/TiO2 hyperbolic multilayer metamaterials (HMMs), metal–insulator–metal (MIM) multilayer waveguides with plasmon-induced transparency (PIT), and metasurface devices with a large phase gradient. GH sensitivity has been improved by more than 106 times with the atomically thin perovskite metasurfaces (1.2862 × 109 µm/RIU) than those without (918.9167 µm/RIU). The atomically thin perovskite nanomaterials with high absorption rates enable precise tuning of the depth of the plasmonic resonance dip. As such, one can optimize the structure to reach near zero-reflection at the resonance angle and the associated sharp phase singularity, which leads to a strongly enhanced GH lateral shift at the sensor interface. By integrating the 2D perovskite nanolayer into a metasurface structure, a strong localized electric field enhancement can be realized and GH sensitivity was further improved to 1.5458 × 109 µm/RIU. We believe that this enhanced electric field together with the significantly improved GH shift would enable single molecular or even submolecular detection for hard-to-identify chemical and biological markers, including single nucleotide mismatch in the DNA sequence, toxic heavy metal ions, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα).


This volume is part of the successful book series "Collection of Architecture", an unparalleled resource that presents 1000 outstanding and creative projects from 1000 acclaimed and emerging architects revamping the architectural legacies of the past throughout the Americas. Comprised of varying typologies and split by numerous cultural and historical differences, North, Central and South America offer a plethora of innovative trends in the field of contemporary architecture. Stunning photography, informative texts and a comprehensive index are enclosed.


Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a disease mostly diagnosed in older adults. Treatment of older patients with AML remains challenging with higher rates of intrinsic chemotherapeutic resistance and decreased treatment tolerance. Indeed AML in older patients has different clinical and biologic characteristics compared to younger patients. Several treatment options are available for treatment of AML in older patients, namely conventional intensive chemotherapy ('3 + 7'), low-dose cytarabine, and hypomethylating agents. Combinations with new drugs have been recently approved or are in advanced stages of clinical testing, namely venetoclax, midostaurin, glasdegib. Clinical decision making should take into account disease characteristics (e.g. cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities, white blood cell count), patient characteristics (e.g. performance, comorbidities, geriatric assessment) and patients' preference when considering which treatment option is most suitable for the older patient. Allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) as post-remission strategy should also be considered for older patients with AML. Allogeneic HCT following reduced-intensity conditioning or non-myeloablative conditioning has made this treatment option more suitable for older patients with a reduction in treatment-related mortality.


In the paper an innovative alternative to automatic image parametrization on multiple resolutions, based on texture description with specialized association rules, and image evaluation with machine learning methods is presented. The algorithm ArTex for parameterizing textures with association rules belonging to structural parametrization algorithms was developed. In order to improve the classification accuracy a multiresolution approach is used. The algorithm ARes for finding more informative resolutions based on the SIFT algorithm is described. The presented algorithms are evaluated on several public domains and the results are compared to other well-known parametrization algorithms belonging to statistical and spectral parametrization algorithms. Significant improvement of classification results was observed when combining parametrization attributes at several image resolutions for most parametrization algorithms. Our results show that multiresolution image parametrization should be considered when improvement of classification accuracy in textural domains is required. These resolutions have to be selected carefully and may depend on the domain itself.


This paper attempted to constrain regional heat fluxes simulated by an atmospheric mesoscale model using the convective boundary layer (CBL) budget method and flux tower data over a mosaic of farmland. In tower footprint scales, the mesoscale model reproduced heat fluxes comparable to the tower measurement. In regional scales, the modeled heat fluxes were consistent with those from the CBL budget method only when the advection inside the CBLwas considered. Our analysis showed that the advection in the CBL, in conjunction with sea?land breeze and heat transport from the inland, played a critical role in estimating regional scale fluxes since the net change of temperature in the CBL was balanced with entrainment in the CBL budget method. However, inconsistent magnitudes and pattern of advection between the model and the CBL budget method hindered us from inferring reliable regional heat fluxes around the site.