The youth aged between 15 to 34 years account for about 37 per cent of the Kenyan population (KNBS 2009). This implies that about four-fifths of Kenya's population is less than 35 years old. In Kenya, unemployment is one of the most daunting economic challenges facing the youth in Kenya. It is one of the major vices impinging on the youth in Kenya (KNYP 2006). Statistics indicate that the magnitude of the unemployment problem is left by the youth with approximately 38% of the youth in Kenya neither in school or work. Approximately 67% of the unempleyed are young people below the age of 30 years while 45% of the unemployed are below 24 years of age. In addition 90% of the unemployed youth do not have appropriate vocational or professional training, which further limits their chances of fully participating in the labor market. In its attempt to address the increasing employment among the Youth in Kenya, the Government of Kenya mooted the idea of Youth Enterprise Development Fund. There has been growing recognition of the important role small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play in economic development. They are often described as efficient and prolific job creators, the seeds of big businesses and the fuel of national economic engines. However, the revolving fund that was meant to help Kenyan Youth start businesses is now chalking up bad debt, causing fear of a looming liquidity crisis that could also rob them support from financiers. The average National repayment rate ofC-YES stands at mere 35.22%. In Likoni the repayment rate stands at a dismal rate of 9.28%. The purpose of this study therefore was to identify factors that influence repayment of YEDF loan disbursed to funded Youth groups. This study examined related literature on issues influencing repayment of YEDF loan and further presented a theoretical review of theories related to factors influencing repayment of YEDF. A conceptual framework with regard to objectives of the study was later developed in this chapter. The research design adopted was a descriptive. The Target population of this study was comprised of the 56 funded youth groups in Likoni Constituency. Purposive sampling was employed and all the 56 funded youth groups were interviewed. A structured questionnaire was developed and utilized in this study. The questionnaire that had both open and close ended items for collection of primary data was used. The organised data was interpreted on account of concurrence to objectives using assistance of computer packages especially statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) version 20 to communicate research findings. In analysis of data, a content analysis and descriptive analysis was employed which included frequencies and percentages. The researcher organized the results around the four objectives of the study. While the study reveals that the level of education attained by majority of the members of the funded youth groups would be adequate for well management of their entreprises, the dismal repayment rate of youth fund amongst the funded youth groups would be attributed to the loopholes in the lending procedure which lacked physical vetting of the funded groups, lack of guarantors requirements and inappropriate repayment mode. It's noted that lack of entrepreneurial experience amongst the


The Mediterranean Large Elasmobranchs Monitoring (MEDLEM) database contains over 3000 records (more than 4000 individuals) of large elasmobranch species from 20 different countries around the Mediterranean and Black seas, observed from 1666 to 2017. The main species included in the archive are the devil fish (1 813 individuals), the basking shark (939 individuals), the blue shark (585 individuals) and the great white shark (337 individuals).In the last decades other species such as the shortfin mako (166 individuals), the spiny butterfly ray (138) and the thresher shark (174 individuals) were reported with an increasing frequency. This was possibly due to an increased public awareness on the conservation status of sharks, and a consequent development of new monitoring programmes. MEDLEM does not have a homogeneous reporting coverage throughout the Mediterranean and Black seas and it should be considered as a database of observed species presence. Scientific monitoring efforts in the south-eastern Mediterranean and Black seas are generally lower than in the northern sectors and the absence in our database of some species does not imply their actual absence in these regions. Some considerations are made on the frequency and spatial distribution of records, size structure of the observed individuals for selected species, general area coverage and species involved as by-catch by fishing gear.


While international agricultural markets experienced an ongoing liberalisation in terms of tariffs and quantitative restrictions within the past years, the significance of sanitary and phytosanitary standards which can act as an impediment to trade is continuously rising. As a part of these standards, food quality and safety standards as required by the private industry are expected, due to the complexity of their requirements, to have an especially severe impact on agricultural export sectors in developing countries. The paper presents a case study carried out for the mango export sector in Piura, Peru. It investigates the implementation of EurepGAP, a private industry standard for good agricultural practices which is required by a large part of the European market. The research involves quantitative and qualitative socio-economic research, based on the concept of a compliance process in three stages: information stage, decision stage and implementation stage. Information on the standard forms the key condition to make a decision in favour or against the implementation of a standard. At the implementation stage the producer experiences the costs and benefits of the implementation. The results suggest that a large part of the producers do not dispose of the necessary information and hence do not fulfil the minimum condition to comply with the standard. Evidence is also given on the socio-economic factors that characterise this group and influence in the quality of information a producer has. The analysis at the decision stage shows that the implementation of the standard is limited to a small group of producers, excluding smallholders, producers with low education and producers with little access to financial resources, among other factors. The results at the implementation stage show, that the implementation of the standard causes significant costs but also provides a series of benefits for the producer. In general the picture can be drawn, that private industry standards like EurepGAP can have a serious impact on the sectors, accelerating consolidation tendencies and excluding certain producers which are not able to comply with the standard, due to their specific socio-economic conditions.


This paper presents a cross-layer algorithm for joint routing, scheduling, and power control in wireless sensor networks. We consider the case of energy-constrained sensor nodes that continually communicate data packets to a common base station. The objective is to reduce energy consumption of individual nodes and the overall network without severely degrading network throughput. Our cross-layer design studies two multi-hop routing protocols. One routing protocol determines packet routes according to a shortest-path criterion. The other prot ocol selects routes that minimize the maximum cumulative energy consumption within the network. Hence, this energy-aware routing protocol does not only factor in l ink qualities but also node energies—it introduces fairness in the way energy is consumed across the network. The algorithm jointly performs link scheduling and power control to minimize packet delays and transmit powers. Simulation results of network throughput and energy consumption indicate performance improvements for the cross-layer protocol with energy-aware routing.


In this work, a phase-field model for recrystallization is developed based on the conservation laws. There has been no attempt to develop a phase-field model of recrystallization based on the conservation laws, even though various phase-field simulation models to reproduce the recrystallization phenomenon have been proposed. However, it is unclear what conservation laws are required for such a model. In the previous paper, toward solving this problem, we developed conservation laws of mass, momentum, angular momentum, and energy and a law of entropy at the lattice scale for the process of recrystallization. In this paper, first, two continuous variables, i.e., the order parameter and crystal orientation, are introduced into the balance equation of mass for a single phase and that of angular momentum for the lattice, respectively. Next, the fluxes of the order parameter and crystal orientation are derived from the law of entropy by the use of rational thermodynamics. Moreover, the diffusion coefficient and mass source are modeled to derive the evolution equations, i.e., phase-field equations of the order parameter and crystal orientation. Finally, for the phase-field equation of the crystal orientation, neglecting the conservative part and integrating the equation with respect to time under the first-order approximation, a phase-field model that is used for stable calculations is developed. This work aims to develop a phase-field theory on the basis of the change in crystal lattice during recrystallization. This paper gives a physical background to the methodological phase-field approach in the case of recrystallization.


Abstract There is an increasing need to have a safety system, which allows safe collaboration of operators and industrial robots. Industrial robots are powerful and therefore dangerous impacts and crashes need to be prevented by keeping safe distance between moving robot and the operator. Safe distance can be achieved by monitoring the position and speed of the robot and the position of the operator. Separation distance, speeds and performance of the control system, sensors and actuators are regulated by standards, which must be followed. VTT has developed a dynamic safety system, which monitors the speed and separation between persons and the robot in order to keep the stopping distance of the robot small enough to avoid impacts. The dynamic safety system enables safe continuous working beside the robot and automated restarting after a safety-rated monitored stop. An assistance system is applied to switch safety modes of the robot according to separation distance. Configuring and validating the safety system are safety-critical and time-consuming phases of design. Therefore, a configuration tool is required to get a coherent configuration, which support validation process.


A sinking-type time-keeping vessel ( tarjahar ) of al-Jazari Atilla Bir, Mustafa Kacar, Mahmut Kayral In ancient Egypt the priests needed to tell the time during the night, so that the rites and sacrifices could be duly performed. On clear nights they could use the stars to designate the hours, but they needed a clock when it was cloudy. The Egyptians had a water-clock for this purpose in their temples which made use of the flow of water through a fine orifice for time regulation. Since the Egyptians used a linear scale on the inside of their clocks to mark the hours, the bottom of the vessel had to have a smaller cross-sectional area then the top. The submersive float is another type of time measuring device. It was used in Antiquity to determine a given time duration. A vessel with a fine orifice on the bottom is put on a water surface. When the vessel sinks one knows that a predetermined time has passed. If desired, one can pour out the water and put the vessel for a second time on the water surface. If the vessel cross-section is equal along the height of the vessel the sinking rate is constant, and time scale generally marked on the in- or outside wall of the vessel is linear. This kind of time devices were in use from Antiquity till the beginning of twentieth century to determine the lecturing time of a speaker or the irrigation  time in agriculture. The most important work on engineering written before the Renaissance was the book on mechanics Kitab al-hiyal of Ibn al-Razzâz al-Jazari. It was composed in Diyarbakir (present day Turkey) in 1206. There are 50 different devices, such as water clocks, trick vessels, liquid dispensers, and phlebotomy measuring instruments, fountains, musical automata, and water-raising machines, as well as a submersive float ( tarjahar ) like the one described above. This is a 1½ span-long (app.35 cm) sinking vessel in the form of an elegant boat in which a boatman stands and plays a flute. The boat put on water surface sinks after one hour and the boatman informs the end of the hour by blowing a tone. In this paper first, a detailed mathematical model of the outpouring and sinking process is given. Secondly, a calculation method is developed and applied for the orifice diameter in the determination of the al-Jazari type time-keeping vessel. Key words : automata, al-Jazari, Kitab al-Hiyal, time measuring, tarjahar; Anahtar kelimeler : el-Cezeri, Kitab el-Hiyel, otomatlar, tarcahar, zaman olcme.


AIMS: To study whether differences in eradication rates of antibiotics may be explained by differences in secretion of antibiotics in gastric juice. METHODS: A single intravenous dose of either ampicillin 500 mg, erythromycin 500 mg, or metronidazole 500 mg was administered to four healthy Helicobacter pylori negative volunteers on different days. Antibiotic concentrations were measured in gastric juice before and every 10 minutes after administration of the drug for two hours and after one hour in serum. RESULTS: No ampicillin was detected in gastric juice. Erythromycin concentrations in gastric juice showed considerable individual variation and reached maximum concentrations of 2.2-4.8 mcg/ml between 30 and 80 minutes after dosing. Metronidazole concentrations in gastric juice showed much less individual variation and maximum concentrations of 5-6 mcg/ml were reached within 30 minutes and remained high during the study period. CONCLUSION: Metronidazole and erythromycin are secreted across the gastric mucosa, but ampicillin is not.


Abstract. Floods and flash floods are frequent in the South of Europe resulting from heavy rainfall events that often produce more than 200 mm in less than 24 h. Even though the meteorological conditions favorable for these situations have been widely studied, there is a lingering question that still arises: which are the sources of humidity that could explain so much precipitation? To answer this question, the regional atmospheric Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with a recently implemented moisture tagging capability has been used to analyze the main moisture sources in two famous flood events occurred during the autumn of 1982 (October and November) in the Western Mediterranean area, which is regularly affected by this type of adverse weather episodes. The procedure consists in selecting a priori potential moisture source regions for the considered extreme event, and then performing simulations with the tagging technique to quantify the relative contribution of each selected source to total precipitation. For these events we study the influence of four possible potential sources: 1) evaporation in the Western Mediterranean; 2) evaporation in the Central Mediterranean; 3) evaporation in the North Atlantic; 4) advection from the tropical and subtropical Atlantic and Africa. Results show that these four moisture sources explain most of the accumulated precipitation, with the tropical and subtropical input being the most relevant in both cases. In the October event, evaporation in the Western and Central Mediterranean and in the North Atlantic also had an important contribution. In the November episode, however, tropical and subtropical moisture accounted for more than half of the total accumulated rainfall, while evaporation in the Western Mediterranean and North Atlantic played a secondary role and the contribution of the Central Mediterranean was almost negligible. Remote sources were therefore crucial: in the October event they played a similar role to local sources while in the November case they were clearly dominant. In both episodes, long distance moisture transport from the tropics and subtropics occurred mostly in mid tropospheric layers, through well-defined moisture plumes with maximum mixing ratios at medium levels.


Hydrocalcite (CaCO3 • H2O) with exactly one molecule of hydrate water is the main component of carbonate scales deposited from cold water in contact with air. When the magnesium content of the water is high, the hydrocalcite occurs together with MgCO3 • 3H2O (nesquehonite). From the conditions under which hydrocalcite is transformed into calcite and aragonite, it appears that in some cases aragonite in nature may be formed by way of an intermediary of CaCO3 • H2O.


: The necessity of a subject-machine-object interaction (SMOI) reference model and its application in electronic publishing of the objects of our culture is considered. The components of such a model are listed. The proposed relatively full Reference Model of the SMOI components allows designers to divide the interaction task into subtasks more easily. It allows an easier choice of standardisation fields and conversion of an Object's models description and presentation.


This paper revisits the problem of tidal conversion at a ridge in a uniformly stratified fluid of limited depth using measurements of complex-valued added mass. When the height of a sub-marine ridge is non-negligible with respect to the depth of the water, the tidal conversion can be enhanced in the supercritical regime or reduced in the subcritical regime with respect to the large depth situation. Tidal conversion can even be null for some specific cases. Here, we study experimentally the influence of finite depth on the added mass coefficients for three different ridge shapes. We first show that, at low forcing frequency, the tidal conversion is weakly enhanced by shallow depth for a semi-circular ridge. In addition, added mass coefficients measured for a vertical ridge show strong similarities with the ones obtained for the semi-circular ridge. Nevertheless, the enhancement of the tidal conversion at low forcing frequency for the vertical ridge has not been observed, in contrast with its supercritical shape. Finally, we provide the experimental evidence of a lack of tidal conversion due to the specific shape of a ridge for certain depth and frequency tuning.


6 International Symposium on Canine and Feline Reproduction & 6 Biennial EVSSAR Congress European Veterinary Society for Small Animal Reproduction "Reproductive biology and medicine of domestic and exotic carnivores" University of Veterinary Sciences 9 – 11 July 2008 Vienna, Austria Editors: G. England, P. Concannon, S. Schäfer-Somi Close this window to return to IVIS


OBJECTIVE
To assess the oral health related quality of life among periodontal risk patients before and after periodontal therapy.

METHOD
The study population consisted of 183 patients reporting to the outpatient department of periodontics, who were grouped into low, moderate and high risk patients based on the periodontal risk assessment model. The patients were asked to complete the OHQoL-UK 16 questionnaire before and after periodontal therapy. The change in the patient perception of quality of life before and after treatment was assessed.

RESULTS
Periodontitis had a considerable negative impact on the quality of life of patients in the high risk group in comparison to low and moderate risk groups (p < 0.001). Treatment brought about an improvement in the OHQoL scores in the moderate and high risk group.

CONCLUSION
This study shows that risk of periodontal disease is significantly related to oral health related quality of life and periodontal therapy improves the quality of life of patients.


Abstract The Ukrainian feather-grass steppe ecosystems are highly vulnerable to climate changes. To study the impact of climatic factors on steppe ecosystems' productivity, the correlation and stepwise regression analysis between ANPP and other variables were provided. The correlation of bioclimatic variables (month precipitation, relative humidity and air and soil temperatures) and above-ground net primary production (ANPP) were investigated for three study plots that represent major steppe microrelief: plain, slope and lowland. The results of multiple regression analysis showed the major components that influenced the ANPP at each of the study plots 'Plain', 'Slope' and 'Lowland'. The precipitation and relative humidity in the months before the vegetation peak were most important for ANPP accumulation. Results of this study are important for the prediction of ecosystem changes under the climate changes and also for the development of nature conservation programmes.


Many property-casualty insurers are subject to an elaborate state-based regulatory regime that enforces prohibitions against "excessive" and "unfairly discriminatory" rates. Extensive economics research suggests that this regulation is not in the public interest. Building on this literature, this Essay suggests that insurance rate regulation evolved out of a set of market and regulatory conditions that no longer prevail in most property-casualty insurance markets. The persistence of traditional insurance rate regulation in many states thus represents a failure of these jurisdictions to evolve along with the markets they oversee. In developing this argument, the Essay shows how insurance rate regulation emerged out of the view that property-casualty insurance markets share key characteristics with natural monopolies. In both settings, unique market conditions were understood to "naturally" stymie socially-beneficial competition. And in both settings, states tolerated these naturally-occurring anticompetitive market conditions, but subjected firms in these markets to extensive rate regulation designed to prevent excessive or unfairly discriminatory rates. Despite these parallels in their development, modern-day insurance markets no longer resemble natural monopolies. Insurers can, and do, compete vigorously in ways that promote social welfare and do not rely on plausibly anti-competitive practices. Preserving public utility style insurance rate regulation makes little sense in light of these shifts in insurance market structure, even if insurance rate regulation oriented towards broader social goals like privacy and social mobility remain sensible.


Traditionally, the high cost of network communication between servers has hidden the impact of cross-core coordination in replicated systems. However, new technologies, like kernel-bypass networking and faster network links, have exposed hidden bottlenecks in distributed systems. This paper explores how to build multicore-scalable, replicated storage systems. We introduce a new guideline for their design, called the Zero-Coordination Principle. We use this principle to design a new multicore-scalable, in-memory, replicated, key-value store, called Meerkat. Unlike existing systems, Meerkat eliminates all cross-core and cross-replica coordination, both of which pose a scalability bottleneck. Our experiments found that Meerkat is able to scale up to 80 hyper-threads and execute 8.3 million transactions per second. Meerkat represents an improvement of 12X on state-of-the-art, fault-tolerant, in-memory, transactional storage systems built using leader-based replication and a shared transaction log.


Throughout the 1990s, tens of thousands of Australian taxpayers invested in mass-marketed tax effective schemes. They enjoyed generous tax breaks until the Australian Taxation Offi ce (ATO) told them in 1998 that they abused the system. This study examines the circumstances surrounding taxpayers' decision to invest in scheme arrangements. It also explores investors' perceptions of the way the ATO handled the schemes issue and, perhaps more importantly, why such a large number of investors defi ed the ATO's demands that they pay back taxes. Data were taken from in-depth interviews conducted with 29 scheme investors. Consistent with the procedural justice literature, the fi ndings revealed that many scheme investors defi ed the ATO's demands because the procedures the ATO used to handle the situation were perceived to be unfair. Given these fi ndings, it will be argued that to effectively shape desired behaviour, regulators will need to move beyond enforcement strategies linked purely to deterrence. A strategy that aims to emphasise the procedural justice aspects of a regulatory encounter will be discussed.


Post-steroid osteoporosis is one of the most common secondary osteoporosis observed. It is associated with multitude of clinical applications of glucocorticoids /GCS/ in number of chronic diseases of the locomotor system, hematology, transplantology, pneumology, where the therapeutic value of GCS is superior to the risk known from 1932 when Cushing first described their unfavourable influence on bone tissue. Importance of the disease that determines indication to use GCS repeatedly results in underestimating phenomenon of post-steroid osteoporosis until the moment of the first pathologic fracture, risk of which rises almost three times during chronic GCS therapy. Paper describes patomechanism of unfavourable direct and indirect influence of GCS on bone tissue, possibilities and strategy of therapeutic action in different groups of patients threatened with poststeroid osteoporosis, drugs used and potential trend of further investigations on prevention of poststeroid osteoporosis.


This paper presents FernUniversitat's conceptual and technical contributions to the second year of the Leonardo project "Mobile Learning: The Next Generation of Learning". We address the motivation behind the second application we developed, describe the challenges and design solutions we identified, and report on first feedback we acquired from our students. We also sketch a third learning application for mobile devices, which exploits the increasing popularity of mp3 players and the concept of podcasting. In our discourse we derive some requirements for useful mobility functions of learning management systems. Finally we also present some new evaluation data related to our first application, the Java-based learning object Histobrick.


Various studies in the Context of one-dimensional cellular automata (CA) have been done on defining parameters directly obtained from their transition rule, which might be able to help forecast their dynamic behaviour. Out of a critique of the most important parameters available for (his end, and out of the definition of a set of guidelines (hat should be followed when defining that kind of parameter, we took two parameters from the literature and defined three new ones, which, jointly provide a good forecasting Set. We then used them to define an evolutionary search heuristic to evolve CA that perform a predefined computational task; here the well-known Density Classification Task is used as reference. The results obtained show that the parameters are effective n helping forecast the dynamic behaviour of onedimensional CA, and can effectively help a genetic algorithm in searching for CA of a predefined kind


A class of machines called auxiliary pushdown machines is introduced. Several types of pushdown automata, including stack automata, are characterized in terms of these machines. The computing power of each class of machines in question is characterized in terms of time-bounded Turing machines, and corollaries are derived which answer some open questions in the field


Abstract By the use of Ehrlich ascites tumor and mouse thymic cells incubated with glucose, succinate, or 2,4-dinitrophenol, the correlation of their electrophoretic mobility and metabolic activity was studied. Ehrlich ascites tumor cells showed increased mobility associated with suppressed oxygen uptake on the addition of glucose. Neuraminidase treatment of the cells suggests that none of the removable sialic acid contributes to the observed increase in cell mobility. Furthermore, such mobility change was related to neither the high glycolytic activity of the cells nor the consequent reduction in the pH of the incubation medium. A similar increased mobility associated with suppressed oxygen uptake was observed when 0.05 mm 2,4-dinitrophenol was added to the cells. However, the addition of succinate caused decreased mobility associated with accelerated oxygen uptake. It was concluded that the suppressive change in the rate of respiration would alter the negative surface charge of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells so as to increase their mobility and, conversely, its accelerative change would cause a decrease in their mobility. On the other hand, thymic cells from normal mice did not show in the presence of glucose any changes either in their mobility or in oxygen uptake, and the changes in the rate of oxygen uptake induced by the addition of succinate or 0.05 mm 2,4-dinitrophenol did not result in any significant alterations in their mobility. Apparently, thymic cells differ from Ehrlich ascites tumor cells in biochemical characteristics as well as in cell surface properties. The mechanism of the linkage between the mobility and oxygen uptake of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells is discussed.


High operational reliability of the power transformers is one of the most important features. Fast failure detection
is the main aim. The power transformers producer faces the customer's pressure not only for failure detection and prediction.
Recently is also requested a failure identification. Economical pressure requires reducing of the revisions budget. This is the
reason why the system of diagnostics has to identify transformer failure. It helps to reduce the time needed for preparation
and repair. Recent known detection methods can be divided to on-line and off-line method. Both methods have their own
advantages and disadvantages. The results are not always satisfactory. Paper deals with summarization of recently used
partial discharges (PD) detection methods and their application in the power transformer diagnostics.


Direct radio-based vehicle-to-vehicle communication can help prevent accidents by providing accurate and up-to-date local status and hazard information to the driver. In this paper, we assume that two types of messages are used for traffic safety-related communication: 1) Periodic messages (ldquobeaconsrdquo) that are sent by all vehicles to inform their neighbors about their current status (i.e., position) and 2) event-driven messages that are sent whenever a hazard has been detected. In IEEE 802.11 distributed-coordination-function-based vehicular networks, interferences and packet collisions can lead to the failure of the reception of safety-critical information, in particular when the beaconing load leads to an almost-saturated channel, as it could easily happen in many critical vehicular traffic conditions. In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of transmit power control to avoid saturated channel conditions and ensure the best use of the channel for safety-related purposes. We propose a distributed transmit power control method based on a strict fairness criterion, i.e., distributed fair power adjustment for vehicular environments (D-FPAV), to control the load of periodic messages on the channel. The benefits are twofold: 1) The bandwidth is made available for higher priority data like dissemination of warnings, and 2) beacons from different vehicles are treated with ldquoequal rights,rdquo and therefore, the best possible reception under the available bandwidth constraints is ensured. We formally prove the fairness of the proposed approach. Then, we make use of the ns-2 simulator that was significantly enhanced by realistic highway mobility patterns, improved radio propagation, receiver models, and the IEEE 802.11p specifications to show the beneficial impact of D-FPAV for safety-related communications. We finally put forward a method, i.e., emergency message dissemination for vehicular environments (EMDV), for fast and effective multihop information dissemination of event-driven messages and show that EMDV benefits of the beaconing load control provided by D-FPAV with respect to both probability of reception and latency.


Ge1–xSnx epitaxial heterostructures are emerging as prominent candidates for the monolithic integration of light sources on Si substrates. Here we propose a suitable explanation for their temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) that is based upon the so far disregarded optical activity of dislocations. By working at the onset of plastic relaxation, which occurs whenever the epilayer releases the strain accumulated during growth on the lattice-mismatched substrate, we demonstrate that dislocation nucleation can be explicitly seen in the PL data. Notably, our findings point out that a monotonic thermal PL quenching can be observed in coherent films, in spite of the indirect nature of the Ge1–xSnx band-gap. Our investigation, therefore, contributes to a deeper understanding of the recombination dynamics in this intriguing group IV alloy and offers insights into crucial phenomena shaping the light emission efficiency.


A study has been carried out by experimental simulation of the loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in an Indian pressurized heavy water reactor (IPHWR). The experiment has been carried out taking a completely voided fuel channel of Indian PHWR at 40 bar inside pressure as test-section. In order to simulate the rate of heat generation during LOCA, the pressure tube (PT) was electrically heated with a 12VDC/3500A rectifier. Initially the set-up was maintained at 300 °C temperature by resistance heating of PT. After attaining nearly steady state a step input of 21 kW electrical heating was given to the test-section which resulted in the temperature rise of PT with a gross rate of 2.8 °C/s. The ballooning deformation of test-section tube i.e. PT initiated at 575 °C temperature. With the progress of ballooning the rate of temperature rise was reduced due to high heat transmission to CT and subsequently to water in the tank surrounding CT. The pressure tube (PT) and calendria tube (CT) contact established at the average PT temperature of 680 °C. The contact was also confirmed from the average temperature profile of CT.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Capital structure theory is one of the most important areas of finance and forms the basis for modern thinking on the capital structure of firms. Much controversy has resulted from comparisons of the theory of capital structure originally developed by Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller to real-world situations. Two competing theories have emerged over the years, the optimal capital structure theory and the pecking order theory. While hundreds of scholarly articles have been written on the subject of capital structure, this is the first book to test competing theories against measurements of firms' performance and their underlying capital structure. Ghosh begins with an overview of the controversies regarding capital structure theories, then statistically tests both the optimal capital structure and pecking order theories. Using the binomial approach to test the theories, he analyzes the determinants of capital structure, while discussing the role of market power in determining capital structure decisions. Ghosh probes the questions of new stock offerings and stockholders' returns, and analyzes capital structure and executive compensation. He then looks into debt financing and ownership structure, and the relationship between capital structure and firm profitability - a hotbed of controversy in the capital structure realm. Finally, he discusses the latest developments in the field of capital structure. "Capital Structure and Firm Performance" is a concise overview of a major issue in business economics and finance, provides a fuller understanding of its influence on the financial performance of firms, and will certainly stimulate further debate on this important topic.


A new observational network is being developed for ocean-ice-atmosphere climate survey over the Arctic Ocean, in the frame of the French IAOOS Equipex project, to better understand the role of aerosols and clouds in the Arctic. Automated backscatter microlidar measurements have allowed to profile aerosols and clouds in the low and mid- troposphere during first campaigns, and to retrieve aerosol optical properties in complement to CALIPSO and IASI observations. Measurements taken end during spring 2014 close to the North Pole and end of winter 2015 north of Svalbard show large occurrence of aerosol and haze layers both from ground and space observations. Analysis of trajectories have been done to link more closely both observations types and better identify aerosol sources. Observations are presented and first results are discussed.


Unnecessary surgery has been a focus of health policy concern for decades. Such events are supposed to be prevented by the (a) self-policing of hospital medical staffs, (b) oversight of state medical boards, (c) third-party restrictions on payment, and (d) threat of malpractice lawsuits. While critics may point to failures of will on the part of those responsible for such policing, this case study points to more fundamental problems. The case involved an extension of the diagnosis of Chiari malformation to justify surgery to help relieve symptoms of individuals previously identified as suffering from chronic pain or fatigue syndrome. It illustrates how strenuous efforts to reducewhat other members of the medical profession perceived as unnecessary surgery were overcome by (a) uncertainty concerning appropriate diagnosis and treatment, (b) patient desperationdriven self-referrals unrestricted by professional oversight or geographic boundaries, (c) the ambition of a surgeon determined to practice as he desired, (d) a businessfocused national hospital chain insulated from direct clinical accountability, and (e) the highly profitable nature of the surgery itself.


Flow-induced vibration and noise problems can lead to deleterious effects such as loss of performance and significant maintenance. While the strong oscillation and cavitation erosion of organ-pipe water jet can improve the working efficiency in fields like rock breaking and deep-hole drilling inversely. During the working process, there is great difference in the performance between resonating jet and off-resonating jet. The frequency property and cavitation behavior in different oscillating state is important for the jet technology. In this paper, the self-resonating oscillation mechanism of organ-pipe water jet is discussed and a reasonable structure of organ-pipe nozzle is designed. Based on the detection of the pressure pulse signal in pipeline outside the high-pressure tank and the acquisition of cavitation noise near the target plate inside the tank, the variation of frequency property and cavitation noise of organ-pipe water jet in different oscillation state is identified. The test results show that the jet frequency spectrum differs significantly in different oscillation state. The leading resonant nonlinear interaction between the characteristic frequencies is a triad resonance involving the sub-harmonic, the fundamental the 3/2 harmonic, which is also found in the shear layer by PETERSEN. The cavitation noise is characterized by its wide frequency spectrum, and the dominant jet-noise frequency is closely related to the vibration signal. The erosion capability of organ-pipe water jet is improved by its strong oscillation and cavitation effect. The study of organ-pipe water jet provide a theoretical base for the improvement of erosion effect of jet technology under submerged condition.


A perpendicularly magnetized film is essentially important for spintronics applications, such as spin-transfer-torque type magnetoresistive random access memories, STT-MRAMs, and large perpendicular anisotropy energy, K u, with small saturation magnetization, M s, is required for reducing the critical current for the STT induced magnetization switching phenomenon. In this study, an equiatomic intermetallic compound, MnGaGe, was investigated in epitaxially grown film samples. Perpendicularly magnetized films with an M s value of about 260 emu/cm3 at 300 K were fabricated onto MgO (100) single crystal substrates. The maximum value of K u was 8.1 × 106 erg/cm3 at room temperature. Microstructure analysis using a scanning transmission electron microscope atomically revealed the Cu2Sb type crystal structure in the film sample. First principles calculations were also carried out to discuss the electronic structure. Using the analysis of the projected density of states for 3d-orbitals, the hybridization of the 3d-orbitals was suggested as a possible factor for promoting magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The MnGaGe film with the large K u and relatively small M s would be potentially used for spintronics applications.A perpendicularly magnetized film is essentially important for spintronics applications, such as spin-transfer-torque type magnetoresistive random access memories, STT-MRAMs, and large perpendicular anisotropy energy, K u, with small saturation magnetization, M s, is required for reducing the critical current for the STT induced magnetization switching phenomenon. In this study, an equiatomic intermetallic compound, MnGaGe, was investigated in epitaxially grown film samples. Perpendicularly magnetized films with an M s value of about 260 emu/cm3 at 300 K were fabricated onto MgO (100) single crystal substrates. The maximum value of K u was 8.1 × 106 erg/cm3 at room temperature. Microstructure analysis using a scanning transmission electron microscope atomically revealed the Cu2Sb type crystal structure in the film sample. First principles calculations were also carried out to discuss the electronic structure. Using the analysis of the projected density of states for 3d-orbitals, the hybrid...


820. [K. 2. d.] Note on Feuerhach's Theorem. Let A, B, 0 denote the vertices of a euclidean plane triangle, Av Blt C1 the midpoints of the sides BO, CA, AB respectively, 0 the centroid, I the incentre, and N the nine-point centre of ABO, F the point of contact of the incircle and the nine-point circle, / their common tangent at F. Let the line 01 meet the lines BjG^ ClA1, A^ at P, Q, B respectively, and let P', Q', B' respectively denote the harmonic conjugates of P, Q, B with respect to Bv and C1, C f 1 and Av Ax and B1 respectively. Then the circles, p, q, r, on PP', QQ', BB' respectively as diameters, touch at F, their common tangent being the line IN, and their line of centres the Feuerbaeh tangent / . For it is known that the lines FP, FQ, FB (Mannheim's lines) are respectively perpendicular to the lines FP', FQ', FB' (Hamilton's lines); thus the circles p, q, r meet at F. Also P, P'; Q, Q'; B, B' are the pairs of opposite vertices of a complete quadrilateral, of which A1B101 is the diagonal triangle ; the nine-point circle of ABO, which contains F, is thus the circumcircle of the diagonal triangle of the quadrilateral, and is therefore orthogonal to each of the three circles p, q, r. The theorem follows immediately. The Feuerbach tangent / is the medial line of the quadrilateral, and the line IN its orthocentric line. The quadrilateral is conjugate to every circle which touches the incircle at F. (For references to the lines of Hamilton and Mannheim, see Maihesis, xxxvi. (1922), p. 51.) J. P. GABBATT.


Effects of behaviour change on cognitions are rarely examined within the Theory of Planned Behaviour. We tested whether increases in physical activity resulted in more positive beliefs about further change among a cohort of sedentary adults participating in a behavioural intervention trial (ProActive). At baseline, 6 and 12 months, 365 adults completed questionnaires assessing physical activity and cognitions about becoming more active over the coming year. Objective activity was assessed at baseline and 12 months. Participants reporting larger increases in activity were no more positive about making further increases than those reporting less behaviour change (p-values  >  0.05). Participants with larger increases in objective activity reported weaker perceived control (β = −0.342; p = 0.001) and more negative instrumental attitudes (β = −0.230; p = 0.017) at 12 months. Participants may have felt that they had changed enough or measures of perceived success may be more sensitive to behaviour change. Alternatively, long measurement intervals may have missed immediate cognitive and affective consequences of behaviour change, or such effects may require participants to consistently self-monitor or receive feedback on performance. Future studies could test the effect of such techniques on physical activity and a wider range of cognitive, affective and physiological consequences, using more frequent measurement intervals.


Abstract Open technique septorhinoplasty (SRP) provides better surgical control and stronger anatomical assessment; however, one of its biggest disadvantages is postoperative columellar scar. In this study, the authos aimed to compare the absorbable polyglactin 910 (PG) (Vicryl Rapide 6/0; Ethicon Inc.) and nonabsorbable polypropylene (PP) (Prolene 6/0; Ethicon Inc.) suture materials and their effects on the postoperative columellar scar. In this study, 89 patients (61 females and 28 males) who underwent primary open technique SRP were included; 42 patients were included in the PP group and 47 were included in the PG group. Sutures were removed in PP group on 7th postoperative day. Sutures were left to be absorbed in the PG group. Columellar scar was assessed with visual analog scale (VAS) subjectively and with the modified Stony Brook Scar Evaluation Scale (SBSES) objectively in 6th postoperative month. SBSES results in PG and PP groups were 3.88 ± 0.80 and 3.67 ± 0.80, respectively. There was no statistical significance between the two groups (p = 0.352). VAS results in PG and PP groups were 8.04 ± 0.91 and 7.71 ± 0.85, respectively. There was no statistical significance between the two groups (p = 0.200). No postoperative wound infection was seen in either of the groups. PG delivers good postoperative results in columellar scar. We recommend using PG for columellar incision closure since it provides less discomfort and anxiety for the patient, and less office time for the surgeon during the suture removal.


Background Rugby-7s is growing in popularity, however there is a comparative lack of injury data. Objective To report incidence of contact and non-contact causes of US Rugby-7s injuries. Design Prospective descriptive epidemiology study. Setting The study encompassed U19 to elite players in USA Rugby tournaments (2010–2014). Participants A total of 24,418 US players (Men=17,770; Women=6.768; age: 13–49 years) were included over 57 tournaments (72 days) of 4,448 matches (Men=3,238; Women=1,261) in 2,038 teams (Men=1,474; Women=564). Assessment of Risk Factors Contact and non-contact causes of match injuries. Main measurement outcome Injury incidence (per 1000 player-hour (ph)) and mechanism, captured using Rugby Injury Survey & Evaluation (RISE) Report. Time-loss injuries=players who did not return to play the day of their injury. Medical attention injuries=players who had injuries evaluated with no absence from play. Severity=days absent before return to training/competition (including post tournament). Results Contact injuries (54%; n=823) occurred more often than non-contact (46%; n=697) (P<0.001). Medical attention injuries occurred more often (contact=30.4/1000 ph; non-contact=29.2/1000 ph; P<0.001), than time-loss injuries (contact=23.8/1000 ph; non-contact=16.7/1000 ph; P<0.001). Non-contact causes encountered no differences (men=48.1/1000 ph; women=46.95/1000 ph; P=0.621). Non-contact causes occurred in 20–25 year olds at 54% (n=354). Days absent were frequent among 63% with follow-up data (contact=34 days; CI: 26.5–41.3; non-contact=32 days; CI: 26.6–39.3). New acute match injuries (94%) were most common (contact 57%; non-contact 43%; P<0.001) with tackles (contact=77%; non-contact=52%), followed by open play (non-contact=32%). Ligament injuries were most common among causes (non-contact =23%; contact=30%). Similar rates among non-contact causes were found with field types (grass=46.1/1000 ph; artificial=52.4/1000 ph; P=0.467). Conclusions Due to the frequency of contact injuries, tackling techniques must be evaluated as an area for injury prevention in Rugby 7s. The cause of non-contact injuries with increased open-play needs attention for injury prevention and management.


This paper proposes a novel framework that enables us to manipulate and control formants in HMM-based speech synthesis. In this framework, the dependency between formants and spectral features is modelled by piecewise linear transforms; formant parameters are effectively mapped by these to the means of Gaussian distributions over the spectral synthesis parameters. The spectral envelope features generated under the influence of formants in this way may then be passed to high-quality vocoders to generate the speech waveform. This provides two major advantages over conventional frameworks. First, we can achieve spectral modification by changing formants only in those parts where we want control, whereas the user must specify all formants manually in conventional formant synthesisers (e.g. Klatt). Second, this can produce high-quality speech. Our results show the proposed method can control vowels in the synthesized speech by manipulating F1 and F2 without any degradation in synthesis quality. Index Terms: speech synthesis, hidden Markov model, formant, controllability


The Australian field of English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching is globally respected for its research and practice achievements over a period of some 30 years. However, this essential field of pedagogy is being diluted in the current Australian reform agenda which is firmly founded on a traditional vision of English as first language, and national standardised testing which maps progress in a one-size-fits-all "English as first language" development only. This paper will argue that the de-prioritising of ESL is directly related to the statistical processes which form the architecture of the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test. The paper first explores the economic rationalism which drives the need for standardised assessment, which in turn enables measurement of school performance according to broad statistical categories. Language Background Other than English (LBOTE) are examined, as the only statistical category used in NAPLAN for the apparent disaggregation of language effect on test performance. The limitations of the LBOTE category definition are contrasted with the complex understandings about second language acquisition, which have informed ESL pedagogy and assessment for some time in Australia. The paper draws on the author's recent PhD research, from which quantitative data will be discussed to show that the LBOTE category hides a heterogeneous group of ESL students and that understanding and responding appropriately to these needs is within the domain of ESL specialist knowledge. The paper argues that the LBOTE category is highly problematic to the Australian education reforms, to the professional knowledge that characterises the work of ESL educators and to the goal of equity for all Australian students.


DOI: http://doi.org.10.35654/ijnhs.v3i5.334 Abstract. The high degree of HIV transmission in the MSM circles resulted from the risky sexual behaviors. The study aimed to describe the behavioural intervention innovation to reduce sexual risk behavior among HIV-Positive MSM. This literature study was conducted to identify behavioral intervention innovations among HIV-Positive MSM. Articles were retrieved from Wiley Online, ProQuest, and Science Direct databases. The keywords used were bbehavioral Intervention, sexual risk behavior, and HIV-Positif MSM. The articles were limited based on inclusion criteria: English language full-text articles have been published from 2010 to 2019. Research studies also included several study design types, including a quasi-experimental study, a randomized control trial (RCT), and mixed-method design. Based on the research results on the selected journal, it is known that there is a wide range of behavioral therapy Innovations as an intervention carried out to reduce the sexual risk behavior among HIV-Positive MSM. Several interventions enhance the knowledge about HIV among HIV-Positive MSM, including integrated community and clinic-based intervention, Internet application, small group intervention, social network intervention, the treatment advocacy program, and brief Internet-based group intervention. In addition, man to man Sexual Health Seminar, Positive Sexual health (PoSH), Men speaking out, and community-based peer education can significantly decrease the sexual risk behavior, increase HIV tests improve attention, and search for health facilities. Behavioral intervention is an intervention that is part of nursing intervention, particularly in the hard-to-reach HIV-Positive MSM, because it is a minority group. With innovations, interventions are made more attractive and more convenient so that they are expected to change behaviors, especially sexual risk behavior that can transmit HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. This behavioral innovation tends to be more effective and can be applied in all countries, including developing countries, to reach all areas like those in Indonesia with extensive regions.


In a national survey, teachers were asked about their perceptions of the professional school counselor role as defined by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 2005). Teachers were questioned about the extent that they believed that school counselors should engage in and were engaged in a variety of tasks endorsed as appropriate or inappropriate by ASCA. This research revealed that teachers agreed that school counselors should engage in 13 and were engaged in 12 of the 16 appropriate responsibilities.


"There is no difference between academic skills and employment skills,"(Jackson, 2011, p1). This paper argues that there is often a false dichotomy in the minds of academics between employability, and the so-called 'skills agenda', and the teaching of academic disciplines. And even in professional courses, the view of employability can be very blinkered, limited to getting a job and working in the specific profession e.g. law, nursing, architecture. It is our argument that an explicit focus on the graduate attribute 'personal literacy' - literally the ability to 'read oneself', to be critically self-aware- can unite the academic and employability agendas and reveal them as one, joint enterprise. We also argue that both the development of employability and the learning of academic disciplines can be significantly improved through the development of students' critical self-awareness and personal literacy. Having made this case, we then go on to consider examples of how this might be achieved in practice.


This paper presents a new framework aimed at compile-time determination of satisfactory sub-optimal solutions to the mapping problem onto modern massively parallel computing systems. The approach incorporates realistic assumptions on the models both for parallel programs and target architectures. It is refined for the K-ary n-cube family of processor networks that use a deterministic routing algorithm and the wormhole flow control strategy. The proposed mapping heuristic is guided by an evaluation function that approximates the total completion time of a given assignment by taking into account communication delays caused by network contention which are the major contributors to message latencies when network traffic is heavy or unevenly distributed. Results achieved on several program-derived graphs with up to 784 tasks prove the effectiveness of this approach.<<ETX>>


Within the UK the concept of the 'city-region' has gained increasing prominence in both academic and policy realms, particularly within the inter-related domains of spatial planning, public service delivery and economic development. However, our knowledge on the concept is currently limited in several respects. This includes a paucity of de-tailed accounts of how city-regions are formed and an over-reliance in existing analyses which consider city-regions as contingent responses to globalising economic impera-tives.

The main aim of the thesis is to show how powerful city-regional narratives are materal-ised. To achieve this aim the research considers three key theoretical, methodological and empirical issues. In terms of theory, the research considers the role played by processes of narrative construction and institutionalisation in mediating the development of city-region agendas and subsequent material change. Methodologically, it asks how research can be designed to understand the relationship between these processes. Empirically, the research looks to increase our knowledge and understanding of these processes and events within South East Wales.

South East Wales was identified as a fertile geographic location for research attention in light of the significant progression of a city-regional debate and the unique social, historical, institutional, and economic characteristics of the area. The research covers a period between 1992 and 2008 and explores the changing geographies of state spatiality and region-building processes operating in and around the case study area.

The research approach draws on literature from several disciplines including human geography, political economy, international relations, and urban and regional planning. A three-stage analytical framework was developed to focus attention on particular elements of city-regionalism: i) the narrative construction of the city-region by key stakeholders; ii) institutionalisation of the narratives; and iii) materialisation of the city-region concept. Evidence was generated through the use of semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis and participant observation. The results indicate that greater attention should be given to the specific contexts in which city-regional agendas are promoted, including the roles played by personal relationships and the socio-economic conditions in the hinterland. The results also highlight the role played by the politics of scale as part of city-regional contestation and the tangible links which exist between discursive processes and the materialisation of city-regions.


Previous studies have investigated the association between the frequency of student learning management system (LMS) use (logins, discussion board use, resources used, etc.) and academic achievement. These studies indicate that low LMS use by students is likely to result in less academic success. However, these models fail to take into account self-beliefs that may also increase the explanatory value of learning analytics from the LMS. This study surveyed 310 students (M = 22.10 years, SD = 6.30 years) undertaking a first year health psychology subject. Results show the central role of self-efficacy in predicting student performance. Online activity was not predictive of performance, suggesting the primacy of psychological factors more so than online engagement in determining outcome. Of the motivational factors, amotivation was the single significant predictor of academic achievement. Proposed future research directions include the need to evaluate whether these results are sustained over time.


Abstract. We analyze Pc2-3 pulsations recorded by the CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellite in the F layer of the Earth's ionosphere, on the ground, and in the magnetosphere during quiet geomagnetic conditions. The spectra of Pc2-3 pulsations recorded in the F layer are enriched with frequencies above 50 mHz in comparison to the ground Pc2-3 spectra. These frequencies are higher than the fundamental harmonics of the field line resonances in the magnetosphere. High quality signals with dominant frequencies 70–200 mHz are a regular phenomenon in the F layer and in the magnetosphere. The mean latitude of the maximum Pc2-3 occurrence rate lies at L a 3.5 in the F layer, i.e., inside the plasmasphere. Day-to-day variations of the L value of the CHAMP Pc2-3 occurrence rate maximum follow the plasmapause day-to-day variations. Polarization and amplitude of Pc2-3s in the magnetosphere, in the ionosphere, and on the ground allow us to suggest that they are generated as fast magnetosonic (FMS) waves in the outer magnetosphere and are partly converted into shear Alfven waves near the plasmapause. The observed ground-to-ionosphere amplitude ratio during the night is interpreted as a result of the Alfven wave transmission through the ionosphere. The problem of wave transmission through the ionosphere is solved theoretically by means of a numerical solution of the full-wave equation for the Alfven wave reflection from and transmission through a horizontally stratified ionosphere. The best agreement between the calculated and measured values of the ground-to-ionosphere amplitude ratio is found for k = 5 × 10−3 km−1, i.e., the observed ground-to-ionosphere amplitude ratio corresponds to a wave spatial scale which could provide a Doppler shift within a few percent of the apparent frequency of the Pc2-3 pulsations as recorded by a low-orbiting spacecraft.


(E)-2-benzylidene-3-(cyclohexylamino)-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-one (BCI) is known as a dual specific phosphatase 1/6 or MAPK inhibitor. However, its precise anti-lung cancer mechanism remains unknown. In this study, the effects of BCI on cell viability were investigated in the non-small cell lung cancer cell lines NCI-H1299, A549, and NCI-H460. We confirmed that BCI significantly inhibited the cell viability of NCI-H1299 compared to those of NCI-H460 and A549 cells. The anti-cancer effects of BCI were evaluated by MTS assay, annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide staining, cell cycle analysis, reverse transcription-PCR, western blotting, and JC-1 staining in NCI-H1299 cells. BCI induced cellular morphological changes and inhibited viability of NCI-H1299 cells in a dose-dependent manner. BCI enhanced Bax expression and induced processing of caspase-9, caspase-3, and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase as well as the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria into the cytosol. BCI also down-regulated Bcl-2 expression but enhanced Bax expression in a dose-dependent manner in NCI-H1299 cells. In addition, BCI did not modulate death receptor expression or the extrinsic factor caspase-8 and Bid, a linker between the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways in NCI-H1299 cells. On the basis of these results, we conclude that BCI induces apoptosis through a mediated intrinsic pathway, but not extrinsic pathway in NCI-H1299 cells. These results suggest that BCI can be used as a therapeutic agent in lung cancer.


The entrepreneurial Kidder probably dictated this book with his students in mind; surely they would already know how to prepare meats from veal to venison for baking and how hot to make the fire. The notebook contains many recipes for meat "pyes" and pasties with meat, plus recipes for puddings and cakes and meat, poultry, and fish main dishes: First Dishes, Bottome Dishes, Side Dishes, For Ye Midle, Second Course, and Plates. Many recipes have surprising starting points, such as Pidgeon Peares: . Bone your pidgeons all but one leg & put that thro' ye side out at ye vent cut off ye toes & fill them with forcd meat made of ye hart & liver & cover them with a tender forcd meat being washd over with ye batter of egges & shape them like peares then wash them over & roul them in scalded chopt spinnage... and then a Regalia of Cowcumbers, a Swan Pye, and a Calves head hasht. These recipes predate modern squeamishness about cooking with organ meats and consuming animal fat and display a sense of familiarity with and awareness of flesh that are no longer second nature to cooks. From the perspective of the twentieth century the language seems oddly direct, "take ye flesh of a foul beef suet & marrow ye same quantity, " and personalized, as in "toss up a handfull of chopt capers." Everyone wishing to delve deeper into culinary history will find these recipes, the latest addition to the Iowa Szathmary Culinary Arts Series, fascinating as artifacts of culture and society.


Since the existing biological multicellular systems are characterized by high complexity and heterogeneity, coupled with the fact that there has been a remarkable upsurge in computer science, in-silico methods based on mathematical models are in a great use. Specifically, they are particularly helpful when we must deal with diseases that have abnormal and unpredicted behavior, such as cancer or auto-immune ones. The need for understanding and curing such kind of diseases, led us to the integration of different modelling frameworks that take into account the intraand the extra-cellular environment, as well as, the interplay between cells. Such an example is PhysiBoSS, that combines two other well-established frameworks to support its whole functionality and provide us a cell-fate decision model with an accurate representation of cells' population variance through the time under a specific treatment and conditions. Considering the fact that not all PhysiBoSS simulations are hopeful, to facilitate the procedure of results' collection and examination, the bad simulations must be excluded. This thesis' goal is to design a distributed and parallel system that implements a forecasting algorithm on a great amount of real-time running simulations and decides about the sustainability or not of a simulation's execution and finally maintains only the top k hopeful ones out of all the initial simulations. The algorithm's performance was evaluated both locally and remotely/distributively, giving us very positive results.


Today, total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the safest and most efficient surgical treatments. New materials, surgical techniques and design concepts intended to improve THA have not always been successful. Thorough preclinical and early clinical investigations can detect some aspects of under-performing, while continuing surveillance is recommended to detect and analyze reasons for any later appearing flaws. In this thesis, several ways to monitor and assess THA performance are explored and carried out, using survival analysis in registry studies, radiostereometry (RSA), radiology and clinical outcome. In Paper I, a study using the Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association (NARA) registry shows that HRA had an almost 3-fold increased early non-septic revision risk and that risk factors were found to be female sex, certain HRA designs and units having performed few HRA procedures. Papers II and III contain comparisons of highly cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) and conventional polyethylene (PE). XLPE had a considerably lower wear rate up to 10 years but showed no obvious improvements regarding implant fixation, BMD or clinical outcome. In the NARA registry, in 2 of 4 studied cup designs the XLPE version had a lower risk of revision for aseptic loosening compared to the PE version. Paper IV describes that stem subsidence and retrotorsion measured with RSA at 2 years predicted later aseptic stem failure in an unfavorably altered, previously well-functioning cemented femoral stem. In Paper V and VI, a novel approach to measure articulation wear with RSA in radiodense hip arthroplasty articulations was presented and evaluated. Subsequently, a comparison between ceramic-onceramic (COC) and metal-on-conventional PE uncemented THA displayed a considerably lower wear rate, smaller periacetabular bone lesions and a relatively high squeaking rate, the latter with unknown long-term consequences, in the COC hips. Implant fixation, heterotopic ossification and clinical outcome did not differ between articulation types. In conclusion, it was confirmed that implant surveillance can be done with RSA, also in radiodense THA. Early migration predicts later aseptic implant failure. Prolonged surveillance can confirm long-term material and design performance, verify or contradict anticipated advantages as well as detect unanticipated longterm complications.


Geographic variation of flower size is potentially affected by various biotic and abiotic factors such as pollinator size, abundance of nectar robbers, and temperature. To elucidate the effect of geographic variation of flower-visitor fauna on flower size, we investigated two spring-flowering, bumblebee-pollinated herbs, Lamium album L. var. barbatum (seven populations) and Meehania urticifolia (five populations), in central Japan. Flower-size variations were not correlated with altitude (an index of abiotic environmental change) in either species, but in both species they were related to the local species composition of flower visitors. In L. album, flowers were bigger in populations visited by long-tongued Bombus consobrinus and B. diversus queens, whereas they were smaller in populations visited by short-tongued bees such as Apis mellifera. Flower size did not vary much among populations of M. urticifolia visited by long-tongued bumblebees, but it was uniquely small in a population whose flowers were predominantly visited by the nectar-robbing bee Megachile japonica. In conclusion, both the size and nectar-robbing behavior of bees affect local flower-size adaptation in these two long-tubed, spring-flowering herbs.


The problem of forward and backward time delays is significantly important for both control and feedback loop of networked control systems. These time delays give rise to latency in performance and thereby may destabilize the system. Therefore numerous methods have been proposed about time delay identification/estimation and compensation for networked control systems, especially for bilateral teleoperation systems. However, most compensation methods have been accomplished by considering offline time delay estimation for linear/nonlinear time delay control systems. In this work, we propose an observer based estimation algorithm for round trip delay which is the sum of forward and backward time delays for a 1 degree-of-freedom nonlinear bilateral teleoperation system. Via Lyapunov based stability analysis, global boundedness of the observer errors along with their ultimate convergence and the convergence of the round trip delay estimator to the vicinity of its real value can be guaranteed in the closed-loop system. Finally, simulation and experimental studies are carried out utilizing the last link of a PHANToM Omni Haptic device moving like a one-link robot in the vertical plane.


1Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA; 2Department of Cell Biology and Physiology and Microbiome Core Facility, UNC School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; 3Brain Health Research Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA Purpose: The gut microbiome has been linked to cognitive function and appears to worsen with aging. Probiotic supplementation has been found to improve the health of the gut microbiome. As such, it is possible that probiotic supplementation may protect the aging brain. The current study examined the cognitive benefits of probiotic supplementation (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) in healthy middle-aged and older adults. Materials and Methods: The study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial. Two hundred community-dwelling adults aged 52–75 were enrolled (mean age=64.3, SD=5.52). A three-month intervention involved daily consumption of probiotic or placebo. Independent sample t-tests, chi-squared tests, and repeated measure ANOVAs compared groups and examined changes over time. Primary outcome was change in NIH Toolbox Total Cognition Score from baseline to followup. Results: A total of 145 participants were examined in primary analyses (probiotic=77, placebo=68) and excluded persons due to discontinuation, low adherence, missing data, or outlier values. Established criteria (ie ≥1 subtest t-scores ≤35; n=19, n=23) were used to operationally define cognitive impairment. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that persons with cognitive impairment who consumed probiotics exhibited a greater total cognition score improvement than persons with cognitive impairment in the placebo group and cognitively intact persons in probiotic or placebo groups. Conclusion: Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG probiotic supplementation was associated with improved cognitive performance in middle-aged and older adults with cognitive impairment. Probiotic supplementation may be a novel method for protecting cognitive health in aging.


In this paper, we study the existence of locally most powerful invariant tests (LMPIT) for the problem of testing the covariance structure of a set of Gaussian random vectors. The LMPIT is the optimal test for the case of close hypotheses, among those satisfying the invariances of the problem, and in practical scenarios can provide better performance than the typically used generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT). The derivation of the LMPIT usually requires one to find the maximal invariant statistic for the detection problem and then derive its distribution under both hypotheses, which in general is a rather involved procedure. As an alternative, Wijsman's theorem provides the ratio of the maximal invariant densities without even finding an explicit expression for the maximal invariant. We first consider the problem of testing whether a set of N-dimensional Gaussian random vectors are uncorrelated or not, and show that the LMPIT is given by the Frobenius norm of the sample coherence matrix. Second, we study the case in which the vectors under the null hypothesis are uncorrelated and identically distributed, that is, the sphericity test for Gaussian vectors, for which we show that the LMPIT is given by the Frobenius norm of a normalized version of the sample covariance matrix. Finally, some numerical examples illustrate the performance of the proposed tests, which provide better results than their GLRT counterparts.


The Legris Lake Complex is a northeast-trending, 7.3 km long by 3.5 km wide, mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex located in the western Wabigoon Subprovince of the Archean Superior Province. It is one of a series of mafic-ultramafic igneous complexes, the most notable of which is the Lac des Iles Complex, host to Canada's only producing Pd mine with reserves of 93.5 Mt grading 1.53 g/t Pd as of December 2001 (North American Palladium Ltd., Annual Report 2001). Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization was first discovered in the Legris Lake Complex by a local prospector late in 1999. Shortly thereafter, the property was jointly optioned by Avalon Ventures Ltd. and Starcore Resources Ltd., who continue to discover significant Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization.

One of the most notable features of the Legris Lake Complex is the occurrence of extensive brecciation caused by multiple injections of volatile-rich magma. The Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization is hosted by leucogabbro within a 2 km long by 600 m wide, highly brecciated area in the northwestern area of the Complex. The mineralized rocks contain disseminated to blebby sulfides (1 to 5 vol.%), comprising chalcopyrite + pyrite ± pyrrhotite + millerite ± pentlandite, typically surrounded by epidote. The majority of the Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization displays low ratios of Pt/Pd (~0.20) and high ratios of Cu/Ni (~2.9), which are similar to those of the Lac des Iles and the River Valley mafic-ultramafic complexes. The lithologies in Legris Lake Complex bear similarities to the heterolithic gabbro of the Twilight and Roby Zone deposits at the nearby Lac des Iles mine. However, the mineralization at Legris Lake, which is restricted to leucogabbro overlying unmineralized clinopyroxenite, is similar to that of stratiform deposits such as the Stillwater and Munni Munni complexes. The mineralization at Legris Lake is best explained by the late-stage, immiscible separation of a sulfide melt from volatile-rich parental magmas and the subsequent minor redistribution of metals by deuteric fluids.


Financial crises have been pervasive for many years. Their frequency in recent decades has been double that of the Bretton Woods Period (1945-1971) and the Gold Standard Era (1880-1993), comparable only to the period during the Great Depression. Nevertheless, the financial crisis that started in the summer of 2007 came as a great surprise to most people. What initially was seen as difficulties in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, rapidly escalated and spilled over first to financial markets and then to the real economy. The crisis changed the financial landscape worldwide and its full costs are yet to be evaluated. One important reason for the global impact of the 2007-2009 financial crisis was massive illiquidity in combination with an extreme exposure of many financial institutions to liquidity needs and market conditions. As a consequence, many financial instruments could not be traded anymore, investors ran on a variety of financial institutions particularly in wholesale markets, financial institutions and industrial firms started to sell assets at fire sale prices to raise cash, and central banks all over the world injected huge amounts of liquidity into financial systems. But what is liquidity and why is it so important for firms and financial institutions to command enough liquidity? This book brings together classic articles and recent contributions to this important field of research. It is divided into five parts. These are (i) liquidity and interbank markets; (ii) the public provision of liquidity and regulation; (iii) money, liquidity and asset prices; (iv) contagion effects; (v) financial crises and currency crises. The aim is to provide a comprehensive coverage of role of liquidity in financial crises.


The Flood Frequency Analysis (FFA) concentrates on probability distribution of peak flows of flood hydro- graphs. However, examination of floods that haunted and devastated the large parts of Poland lead us to revision of the views on the assessment of flood risk of Polish rivers. It turned out that flooding is caused not only by the overflow of the levee crest but also due to the prolonged exposure to high water on levees structure causing dangerous leaks and breaches that threaten their total destruction. This is because the levees are weakened by long-lasting water pressure and as a matter of fact their damage usually occurs after the cul- mination has passed the affected location. The probability of inundation is the total of probabilities of exceeding em- bankment crest by flood peak and the probability of washout of levees. Therefore, in addition to the maximum flow one should also consider the duration of high waters in a river channel. In the paper the new two-component model of flood dynamics: "Duration of high waters-Discharge Threshold- Probability of non-exceedance" (DqF), with the methodol- ogy of its parameter estimation was proposed as a completion to the classical FFA methods. Such a model can estimate the duration of stages (flows) of an assumed magnitude with a given probability of exceedance. The model combined with the technical evaluation of the probability of levee breaches due to the duration (d) of flow above alarm stage gives the annual probability of inundation caused by the embankment breaking. The results of theoretical investigation were illustrated by a practical example of the model implementation to the series of daily flow of the Vistula River at Szczucin. Regardless of promising results, the method of risk assessment due to pro- longed exposure of levees to high water is still in its infancy despite its great cognitive potential and practical importance. Therefore, we would like to point out the need for and useful- ness of the DqF model as complementary to the analysis of the flood peak flows, as in classical FFA. The presented two- component model combined with the routine flood frequency model constitutes a new direction in FFA for embanked rivers


Engagement of toll-like receptors serve to link innate immune responses with adaptive immunity and can be exploited as powerful vaccine adjuvants for eliciting both primary and anamnestic immune responses. TLR7 agonists are highly immunostimulatory without inducing dominant proinflammatory cytokine responses. A structure-activity study was conducted on the TLR7-agonistic imidazoquinolines, starting with 1-(4-amino-2-((ethylamino)methyl)-1H-imidazo[4,5-c]quinolin-1-yl)-2-methylpropan-2-ol as a lead. Modifications of the secondary amine of the C2 ethylaminomethylene side chain are poorly tolerated. The 4-amino group must be retained for activity. Replacement of the imidazole ring of the scaffold with triazole or cyclic urea led to complete loss of activity. A systematic exploration of N(1)-benzyl-C2-alkyl substituents showed a very distinct relationship between alkyl length and TLR7-agonistic potency with the optimal compound bearing a C2-n-butyl group. Transposition of the N(1) and C2 substituents led to the identification of an extremely active TLR7-agonistic compound with an EC(50) value of 8.6 nM. The relative potencies in human TLR7-based primary reporter gene assays were paralleled by interferon-alpha induction activities in whole human blood models.


Background In most resource limited settings, new tuberculosis (TB) patients are usually treated as outpatients. We sought to investigate the reasons for hospitalisation and the predictors of poor treatment outcomes and mortality in a cohort of hospitalized new TB patients in Kampala, Uganda Methods and findings Ninety-six new TB patients hospitalised between 2003 and 2006 were enrolled and followed for two years. Thirty two were HIV-uninfected and 64 were HIV-infected. Among the HIV-uninfected, the commonest reasons for hospitalization were low Karnofsky score (47%) and need for diagnostic evaluation (25%). HIV-infected patients were commonly hospitalized due to low Karnofsky score (72%), concurrent illness (16%) and diagnostic evaluation (14%). Eleven HIV uninfected patients died (mortality rate 19.7 per 100 person-years) while 41 deaths occurred among the HIV-infected patients (mortality rate 46.9 per 100 person years). In all patients an unsuccessful treatment outcome (treatment failure, death during the treatment period or an unknown outcome) was associated with duration of TB symptoms, with the odds of an unsuccessful outcome decreasing with increasing duration. Among HIV-infected patients, an unsuccessful treatment outcome was also associated with male sex (P = 0.004) and age (P = 0.034). Low Karnofsky score (aHR = 8.93, 95% CI 1.88 – 42.40, P = 0.001) was the only factor significantly associated with mortality among the HIV-uninfected. Mortality among the HIV-infected was associated with the composite variable of CD4 and ART use, with patients with baseline CD4 below 200 cells/µL who were not on ART at a greater risk of death than those who were on ART, and low Karnofsky score (aHR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.02 – 4.01, P = 0.045). Conclusion Poor health status is a common cause of hospitalisation for new TB patients. Mortality in this study was very high and associated with advanced HIV Disease and no use of ART.


Current imaging techniques can capture temporal sequences of 3D images with very high time resolution over several hours. Comparing sequences covering the same time period opens the way to the study of developmental variability. Stitching together sequences captured from different embryos may help producing a sequence covering the whole development of the animal of interest. For this, it is necessary to align two sequences in both time and space. We present here a method to align two 3D+t time series, based on the detection and pairing of 3D+t landmarks. These landmarks, which correspond to periods of fast morphogenetic change, are deduced from the analysis of the non-linear transformations that allow to co-register pairs of consecutive 3D images in each sequence.


The sensitivity of semiconductor gas sensors depends on the exposed crystal planes. High-energy crystal planes usually have an open surface structure and more active sites which favor the absorption of gas molecules and thus might improve the gas sensing performance. However, it is commonly difficult for the high-energy crystal planes to be exposed. In this paper, the morphology and exposed facets of CeO2 nanoparticles in the CeO2 nanoparticles/graphene composites are tailored simply by changing the volume ratio of ethylene glycol to deionized water (EG/H2O) in the solution during fabrication. CeO2 nanocubes enclosed by the {100} facets are produced with an EG/H2O ratio of 1 : 1, otherwise CeO2 nanograins enclosed by the {111} facets are obtained, which is closely related to the changes in the energetics on the surface. Furthermore, it is found that the CeO2{100}/graphene composites deliver substantially enhanced gas sensing performance for NO2, as compared to CeO2{111}/graphene composites. First-principles calculations illustrate that the electrons flow from graphene to the CeO2{111} facets resulting in electron depletion on graphene. In contrast, the electrons flow from the CeO2{100} surface to graphene resulting in electron accumulation on graphene and the band gap of CeO2{100}/graphene is nearly zero implying a metallic behavior. The rapid charge exchange between NO2 and CeO2{100}/graphene composites leads to the improved gas sensing properties. The results present us a clear physical picture for the tunable facets and morphology as well as the enhanced performances of nanoparticles/graphene composites.


The goal of STEM professional development for teaching is that participants continue to practice what they learn in the long term. However, we do not know if the outcomes are achieved and ultimately persist. We tracked postdoctoral participants from the Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching (FIRST) IV program into their current positions as early-career biology faculty. We assessed their teaching approaches, practices, and student perceptions of the learning environment over 6 to 9 years after finishing the program. Simultaneously, we evaluated paired faculty in the same departments. We found that professional development outcomes persisted over time and across a career transition. FIRST IV faculty maintained their learner-centered practices and were more learner-centered than their peers. Last, we found that teaching approaches were correlated with teaching practices in all faculty participants. These results provide evidence for the success of the FIRST IV program and the long-term persistence of professional development outcomes.


Western gray squirrels (Sciurus griseus griseus Ord) are rare in western Washington and population distribution information has proven difficult to gather. A variety of standard survey methods employed on the Fort Lewis Military Reservation in southern Puget Sound in 1998–99 yielded limited results, likely due to the squirrel's elusive behavior and low-density population. We tried a new survey approach in 2004 using hair-snare tubes, which proved successful in providing information on the distribution of habitat used by western gray squirrels and eastern gray squirrels, the latter previously unknown to be resident in the interior woodlands. The hair-snare tubes also contributed information on habitat use by western and eastern gray squirrels during management actions such as timber cutting and eastern gray squirrel trapping. Knowledge of squirrel distribution allowed managers to strategically allocate resources to improve habitat. Hair-snare tubes are relatively inexpensive to construct and easy to install, and have the potential to provide distribution information on squirrel populations that are widely distributed or occur at low densities, and difficult to detect visually. At the same time, interpretation of results obtained from hair-snare devices are constrained by unknowns regarding numbers of individuals depositing hair samples, and inter- and intra-specific behavioral interactions that influence hair deposition patterns. Despite the drawbacks, knowledge gained from hair-snares can serve as a basis for management planning and lead to the application of other direct study techniques, such as radio-telemetry, that are likely to yield more detailed information.


The ability to impute mental states to oneself or others, or Theory of Mind (ToM), has been intrinsically linked to trust between humans. However, less is known about how a robot mimicking ToM affects users' trust and behaviour. We explore this through an online study, where we compare three robot personas in a cooperative maze navigation task: one neutral, one that explains its reasoning in technical terms, and one that mimics ToM. We show that ToM influences human decision-making behaviour and trust in a way that makes it more appropriate with respect to the competencies of the robot. This is key for human-robot collaboration and adoption of robotics moving forward.


A new microsporidian pathogen of the cabbage butterfly, Pieris brassicae is described based on light microscopy, ultrastructural characteristics and comparative small subunit rDNA analysis. The pathogen infects the gut of P. brassicae. All development stages are in direct contact with the host cell cytoplasm. Meronts are spherical or ovoid. Spherical meronts measure 3.68 ± 0.73 × 3.32 ± 1.09 µm and ovoid meronts 4.04 ± 0.74 × 2.63 ± 0.49 µm. Sporonts are spherical to elongate (4.52 ± 0.48 × 2.16 ± 0.27 µm). Sporoblasts are elongated and measure 4.67 ± 0.60 × 2.30 ± 0.30 µm in length. Fresh spores with nuclei arranged in a diplokaryon are oval and measure 5.29 ± 0.55 µm in length and 2.31 ± 0.29 µm in width. Spores stained with Giemsa's stain measure 4.21 ± 0.50 µm in length and 1.91 ± 0.24 µm in width. Spores have an isofilar polar filament with six coils. All morphological, ultrastructural and molecular features indicate that the described microsporidium belongs to the genus Nosema and confirm that it has different taxonomic characters than other microsporidia infecting Pieris spp.


What happened in the aftermath of Caligula's assassination in January A.d. 41 in relation to the client kings of the period has been the subject of a stimulating note by A. A. Barrett. He has argued that a rescission of Caligula's acta invalidated the legal position of the client kings appointed by Caligula, and that Claudius' regularising of their position has been misunderstood by the ancient literary sources and has given rise to several apparent inconsistencies in their accounts.


Community detection, aiming to group the graph nodes into clusters with dense inner-connection, is a fundamental graph mining task. Recently, it has been studied on the heterogeneous graph, which contains multiple types of nodes and edges, posing great challenges for modeling the high-order relationship between nodes. With the surge of graph embedding mechanism, it has also been adopted to community detection. A remarkable group of works use the meta-path to capture the high-order relationship between nodes and embed them into nodes' embedding to facilitate community detection. However, defining meaningful meta-paths requires much domain knowledge, which largely limits their applications, especially on schema-rich heterogeneous graphs like knowledge graphs. To alleviate this issue, in this paper, we propose to exploit the context path to capture the high-order relationship between nodes, and build a Context Path-based Graph Neural Network (CP-GNN) model. It recursively embeds the high-order relationship between nodes into the node embedding with attention mechanisms to discriminate the importance of different relationships. By maximizing the expectation of the co-occurrence of nodes connected by context paths, the model can learn the nodes' embeddings that both well preserve the high-order relationship between nodes and are helpful for community detection. Extensive experimental results on four real-world datasets show that CP-GNN outperforms the state-of-the-art community detection methods1.


Forty-four patients fitted with fixed dentures made of stainless steel with TiN-based decorative coating were followed up for 2 years. Abrasion of the decorative coating at the site of the crown contact with the basis and clammers of plate dentures and at the site of cutting edges of frontal teeth was recorded in 11 (25 percent) subjects. Measurements of the electric potentials have revealed their essential increase in the patients fitted with dentures with TiN-based coating vs. those with dentures made of gold and steel.


Abstract Theories on the welfare and competitive effects of exclusive territories are numerous, yet they provide ambiguous results. This paper exploits a natural experiment in the U.S. brewing industry to identify the direction of change in welfare caused by the use of exclusive territories. On January 31, 1991, the state of Arkansas enacted legislation which mandated all beer manufacturers to have exclusive territory clauses in their agreements with distributors. To identify the effect, I employ brand-level sales data before and after the legal change both in Arkansas as well as in nearby Oklahoma and Texas. Results are broadly consistent with a positive relationship between the use of exclusive territories and welfare: the most credible results suggest that the legal mandate increased brand-level volume sales by 45%. I conduct several falsification exercises and robustness tests to rule out other possible explanations for this large effect.


This Article is the second in a series of primers on Louisiana Family Law. The Louisiana Civil Code of 1870, as amended to date, operates as the primary source of law, with other ancillary statutes and codes on particular subject matters. The law of absent persons appears in Title III of Book I of the Civil Code to prescribe the rules for those persons whose whereabouts are unknown. For the absent person or for those affected by his absence, the law provides a scheme to adequately protect the rights of the absent person while considering the needs of those affected by his absence.


In today's video game market there are hundreds of massively multiplayer online games, many of which boast dynamic content—the content that responds to player's actions and changes accordingly in runtime. Such content is not truly dynamic and is usually attributed to events on a timer. This presents a major flaw as it heavily affects the re-playability of a game. In this paper we examine four major frameworks: the TRUE STORY, Context Aware Petri Net, Hierarchical Generation, and The Grail Frameworks. These frameworks presented some very good ideas but they also suffered from drawbacks. We propose a new framework for creating dynamic content and called it the Ethos Framework. The Ethos Framework is based on four major components: Character, World State, Story, and Library, that will contribute towards the creation of dynamic content. The Ethos Framework takes the best pieces of current methods to create a unique practical design so that on every playthrough of a game the player has a genuinely unique experience.


Although emergent literature and anecdotal experience indicate the importance of parental involvement in their children's mathematics learning, there is still a void in literature with regard to involvement of parents with low formal education in their children's mathematics learning in culturally diverse contexts. In an attempt to address this void, a study that employed socio cultural learning and social constructivist theories investigated how parents with low formal education are involved in their children's mathematics learning in a rural Community, Ghana. Data was collected from six parents with low formal education, their 8-9 year old children as well as the children's class teachers through semi-structured individual face to face interviews and home visit observations.
Analysis of the data corpus revealed that 1) parents' mentorship and engagement in local business transactions, were used as learning and evaluation contexts for a child's mathematics competence; 2) parents perceived giving and receiving correct change as a key indicator of one's moral standing and mediated children's mathematics accordingly; 3) parents, teachers and children consider mathematics as a hallmark of future success; 4) parents' belief that increasing time spent on academic activities improved children's success, within the examination culture of the context;5) teachers see low formal education as a handicap of parental involvement in children's mathematics learning; 6) children typically corroborate their parents' perceived ways of supporting their mathematics learning. These findings are significant and offer insight into how parents with low formal education from a different cultural context are involved in their older children's mathematics learning. The study adds to the literature on the topic of parental involvement from a non-western context.


In this article, a new fitness assignment scheme to evaluate the Pareto-optimal solutions for multi-objective evolutionary algorithms is proposed. The proposed DOmination Power of an individual Genetic Algorithm (DOPGA) method can order the individuals in a form in which each individual (the so-called solution) could have a unique rank. With this new method, a multi-objective problem can be treated as if it were a single-objective problem without drastically deviating from the Pareto definition. In DOPGA, relative position of a solution is embedded into the fitness assignment procedures. We compare the performance of the algorithm with two benchmark evolutionary algorithms (Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA) and Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2)) on 12 unconstrained bi-objective and one tri-objective test problems. DOPGA significantly outperforms SPEA on all test problems. DOPGA performs better than SPEA2 in terms of convergence metric on all test problems. Also, Pareto-optimal solutions found by DOPGA spread better than SPEA2 on eight of 13 test problems.