"School/madrasah as an educational institution is an institution that serves as an agent of change to solve the nation's problems. Therefore, in order to produce the quality of education, it is necessary to implement the concept of TQM (Total Quality Management) that in history has successfully led the business world in creating production quality best and can even exceed the satisfaction of customers standard. This study used a qualitative approach with methods of library research. The formulation of the problem involves understanding implementation of TQM, TQM in education, implementation of TQM principles in educational institutions, the pillars of TQM in educational institutions, measures the implementation of TQM in education and description of the failure in the implementation of TQM. The study results were obtained, among others; The first, implementation of total quality management (TQM) is an implementation or embodiment of a management concept that involves all components in the organization to jointly contribute to the organization's policies oriented to the improvement of product quality to customer satisfaction. Second, in educational institutions, implementation of TQM are used to improve administrative functions and operations, to manage the educational process as a whole, integrate TQM in the curriculum, the use of TQM in teaching methods in the classroom, the use of TQM for managing research and development activities. In addition, educators must be responsible for their duties proactively, they must develop a problem-solving process that makes sense and can identify and towards the main cause, capable of being the organization model and can measure what's working well and what is not, so that we will get a good system in institutional schools / madrasah. Third, in applying TQM, there are some principles that should be held, among others; focusing on consumers (users of educational services), broad involvement (teachers, staff, students, and community), their measurements, to understand education as a system, and their continuous improvement. Fourth, the five main pillars of TQM here are their products, relying on the process undertaken, the leader who moves in producing quality products, and a commitment among the leaders in the organization. Fifth, steps in implementing TQM in educational institutions include; the preparatory phase, the planning phase and the implementation phase. Sixth, the failure may occur in implementing TQM in educational institutions, if; there is a gap in the commitment of top management, one focus of attention, lack of adequate staff and support, relying solely training, the hope of obtaining results of a moment and force adopt a method that doesn't comply with the requirement."


For the operation of distribution systems, loading balance of distribution feeders is important for reducing power loss and mitigating power flow overloading. In this paper, a loop power controller (LPC) is applied for the control of real power and reactive power flows by adjusting voltage ratio and phase shift so that the loading balance of distribution feeders can be obtained. To incorporate photovoltaic (PV) power generation in feeder loading balance, a Taipower distribution feeder with large PV installation is selected for computer simulation. Daily loading unbalance is determined by analyzing PV power generation recorded by the system and by constructing daily power load profiles based on distribution automation system (DAS) data. The load transfer required to achieve loading balance and the line impedance of distribution feeders are used to derive the voltage, ratio and phase shift of the LPC. Computer simulations indicated that loading balance can be achieved in distribution feeders with large PV system installation by using loop power controllers according to the variation of solar energy and power loading of study feeders. The system power loss reduction resulting from feeder loading balance by LPC is also investigated in this paper.


Collaborative tagging systems are now deployed extensively to help users share and organize resources. Tag prediction and recommendation can simplify and streamline the user experience, and by modeling user preferences, predictive accuracy can be significantly improved. However, previous methods typically model user behavior based only on a log of prior tags, neglecting other behaviors and information in social tagging systems, e.g., commenting on items and connecting with other users. On the other hand, little is known about the connection and correlations among these behaviors and contexts in social tagging systems. In this paper, we investigate improved modeling for predictive social tagging systems. Our explanatory analyses demonstrate three significant challenges: coupled high order interaction, data sparsity and cold start on items. We tackle these problems by using a generalized latent factor model and fully Bayesian treatment. To evaluate performance, we test on two real-world data sets from Flickr and Bibsonomy. Our experiments on these data sets show that to achieve best predictive performance, it is necessary to employ a fully Bayesian treatment in modeling high order relations in social tagging system. Our methods noticeably outperform state-of-the-art approaches.


Immigration and family change are two demographic processes, which have changed the face of European societies and are associated with inequalities in child outcomes. Yet there is little research outside the United States on whether the effects of family dynamics on children's life chances vary by immigrant background. We asked whether the effect of parental separation on educational achievement varies between immigrant backgrounds (ancestries) in Sweden. We used Swedish population register data on two birth cohorts (born in 1995 and 1996) of Swedish-born children and analyzed parental separation penalties on grade sums and non-passing grades (measured at ninth grade) across ten ancestry groups, defined by the mother's country of birth. We found that the parental separation effects vary across ancestries, being weakest among children with Chilean-born mothers and strongest among children with mother's born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In general, the effects were weaker in groups in which parental separation was a more common experience.


The North American weevil ( Euhrychiopsis lecontei (Dietz)) is being considered as a biological control agent for Eurasian watermilfoil ( Myriophyllum spicatum L.). This native insect damages watermilfoil plants and is frequently associated with declining watermilfoil populations. Weevils and watermilfoil interact over at least four different spatial scales—1) the level of the individual plant, 2) the level of beds within lakes, 3) lakes within geographic regions and 4) geographic regions— and we still have much to learn about the interaction at these different scales. For example, at the level of the individual plant, we have a good idea of how weevil herbivory influences plant growth but we still need to determine whether or not weevils can cause plant death. At the level of beds, we do not know how long it takes a weevil population to reach a density that will result in a significant reduction in watermilfoil biomass. Finally, at the level of lakes within geographic regions, we do not know if differences in lake productivity influence the weevil-watermilfoil interaction. It is my hope that addressing these questions and filling in the gaps in our knowledge will lead to a better understanding of the interactions between these two species and to more efficient use of the insect in watermilfoil control projects.


Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) was initially developed to protect the myocardium from ischemia through altered cardiocyte metabolism. Because of the observed effects on metabolism and oxygen kinetics, IPC gained interest as a potential ergogenic aid in sports. Limited research evaluating the effects of IPC on maximal short-duration activities has been performed, and of the existing literature, mixed outcomes resulting from intrasubject variation may have clouded the efficacy of this technique for enhancing sprint performance. Therefore, the current study employed a randomized repeated-measures crossover design with IPC, placebo (SHAM), and control conditions while using sprint-trained athletes (N = 18) to determine the effect of IPC (3 × 5-min occlusions, with 5-min reperfusion), concluding 15 min prior to maximal 10-s and 20-m sprinting. A visual analog scale was used in conjunction with the sprint trials to evaluate any possible placebo effect on performance. Despite a "significantly beneficial" perception of the IPC treatment compared with the SHAM trials (P < .001), no changes in sprint performance were observed after either the IPC or SHAM condition over 10 m (IPC Δ  < 0.01 [0.02] s, SHAM Δ  < 0.01 [0.02] s) or 20 m (IPC Δ = -0.01 [0.03] s, SHAM Δ < 0.01 [0.03] s) compared with control. Thus, an IPC protocol does not improve 10- or 20-m sprint performance in sprint-trained athletes.


Satoshi Okada is the principal of Satoshi Okada Architects founded in Tokyo in 1995. He completed graduate studies in architecture at Columbia University and received his PhD from Waseda University in 1993. His built work has been widely published in internationally renown publications. In 2009, his first monograph was released from Electa architettura with an introduction by Francesco Dal Co. He has won several international prizes and awards; Dedalo Minosse International Prize (Grand-prix, Italy 2006), the International Architecture Design Award (Grand-prix, Russia 2006), The International Architecture Award (USA 2007, 2008, 2010), Design for Asia Award (Gold Award, Hong Kong 2009), and Perspective Awards (Hong Kong 2011). He is also a Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture at Chiba University and a research fellow at the Toyota Foundation. Since 2010, he is also a visiting professor at IUAV in Venice. He regularly publishes writings, and lectures at major academies and institutions around the world.


Pyogenic granuloma was first described in 1897 by two French surgeons, Poncet and Dor, who named this lesion botryomycosis hominis. Pyogenic granulomas and hemangiomas of the oral cavity are well-known benign lesions. Although, pyogenic granuloma is known to show a striking predilection for the gingiva and capillary hemangioma for lips, cheek and tongue, palatal occurrence of these lesions is extremely rare. The clinical diagnosis of such an uncommon occurrence can be quite challenging, as they sometimes may mimic more serious lesions such as malignancies. The purpose of this article is to report an unusual case of benign tumor occurring on hard palate, which was clinically diagnosed as pyogenic granuloma and histopathologically as capillary hemangioma. The treatment options available are conventional surgical excision; electrocautery and lasers—erbium or diode. This article highlights the use of 940 nm diode laser in surgical excision of oral pyogenic granuloma enumerating its advantages over the conventional available treatment options.


This project provides the first comprehensive empirical study of copyright registrations and renewals over the entire scope of American History since the Constitution. Relying on our a newly developed dataset of copyright registration filings, including data for the years before 1870 that has never been seen before, as well as renewal filings from 1909–2005, we provide a history of copyright registration in America and make a number of new findings about the trajectory of copyright registrations over a 225 year period. In addition to these new findings, we engage longstanding questions about the effectiveness of copyright law and the effects of statutory, economic, and technological changes on the maintenance of federal copyrights. The project builds on existing research into the effectiveness of copyright law, including studies by William Landes and Richard Posner as well as more recent work by Raymond Ku. It also complements ongoing work by Robert Brauneis and Dotan Oliar on copyright registrations since 1978 and provides an increasingly holistic picture of the development of U.S. copyright in the modern age.


A quasi-two-dimensional (cid:126) 2D (cid:33) Stockmayer model is developed in which the center of mass of the molecule is confined on a plane while the dipole of the molecule can rotate freely in three dimensional space. This model entails essential characteristics of systems such as dipolar molecules physisorbed on a solid surface, or a Langmuir monolayer consisting of short-chain molecules with a dipolar tail. The Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo technique is employed to determine the vapor– liquid equilibria of the model fluids. An Ewald sum for this quasi-2D model is formulated to account for the long-range dipolar interactions. Three systems with different reduced dipole moments were studied. The critical point of each system is determined by fitting the vapor–liquid coexistence data to a 2D scaling law and the rectilinear law. We find that in general the critical temperature of the system is reduced due to the confinement and is sensitive to the strength of the dipole moment, whereas the critical density is not. The effect of reducing the dispersion part of potential on the vapor–liquid equilibria is also studied. We find the dispersion potential reduction leads to a lower critical temperature and a higher in-plane part of molecular dipole moment; however, because the reduced critical temperature is relatively small compared with that of a 3D system, disappearance of the critical point is not observed in the quasi-2D SM system within practical scope of the simulation. © 1997


For several decades, shareholder value maximization has been considered the main goal that companies should pursue. The quest for deeper ethical roots in capitalism, new societal needs, and CEOs who highlight different strategic views for companies are broadening the scope of the firm?s goals. Moreover, the global financial crisis calls for a reflection on how to make capitalism work better, creating simultaneously economic prosperity and social value. This paper focuses on the role of firms in society and their contribution to renew capitalism. I argue that firms are not only mechanisms for value creation, but also social institutions that are indispensable for economic growth and social progress. As institutions that aim at their long-term survival, companies and senior business leaders need to be respected by customers, employees and investors. In this paper, I explain why society needs respected companies, why this notion can help improve capitalism and how to develop and assess those companies.


A simple and novel assay method for determining colostral and serum against soluble verotxin 2 (VT2) titers by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) assay using latex sensitized with VT2 was devised. The latex particles did not auto-fluoresce, and nonspecific reactions disappeared after washing with phosphate buffered saline containing 3 M Nacl. The highest titer measured by neutralizing test was observed at 1 day after delivery. The highest titer for each immunoglobulin class measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or IFA using latex sensitized with VT2 was also observed at 1 day after delivery. The changes in titer measured by each method showed similar patterns. Furthermore, the titers for IgG antibody were higher than those for IgM or IgA antibodies. Thus, the titers


Summary Background Ventilation with high positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) can lead to hepatic dysfunction. The aim of this study was to investigate the hepatic effects of strategies using high airway pressures either in pressure-controlled ventilation (PCV) or in high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) combined with an arteriovenous extracorporeal lung assist (ECLA). Material/Methods Pietrain pigs underwent induction of lung injury by saline lavage. Ventilation was continued for 24 hours either as PCV with tidal volumes of 6 ml/kg and PEEP 3 cmH2O above the lower inflection point of the pressure-volume curve or as HFOV (≥12 Hz) with a mean tracheal airway pressure 3 cmH2O above the lower inflection point combined with arteriovenous ECLA (HFOV+ECLA). Fluids and norepinephrine stabilized the circulation. The indocyanine green plasma disappearance rate, serum bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, γ-glutamyltransferase, alkaline phosphatase, glutamate dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase were determined repeatedly. Finally, liver neutrophils were counted and liver cell apoptosis was assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick end labeling (TUNEL). Results Aspartate aminotransferase increased in the PCV group about three-fold and in the HFOV+ECLA group five-fold (p<0.001). Correspondingly, creatine kinase increased about two-fold and four-fold, respectively (p<0.001). Lactate dehydrogenase was increased in the HFOV+ECLA group (p<0.028). The number of neutrophils infiltrating the liver tissue and the apoptotic index were low. Conclusions High airway pressure PCV and HFOV with ECLA in the treatment of lavage-induced lung injury in pigs did not cause liver dysfunction or damage. The detected elevation of enzymes might be of extrahepatic origin.


Polymer-bonded explosives (PBXs) are complex viscoelastic materials exhibiting rate dependent and time dependent mechanical behavior which are largely influenced by the binder. Researching the response of PBXs is critical to developing an accurate constitutive model to address potential survivability, safety issues and design improvements. In this paper, a viscoelastic constitutive model based on actual damage mechanisms has been established to describe both the quasi-static response and dynamic response of polymer-bonded explosives (PBXs), which accounts for complex phenomenology including temperature, strain rate, and aging effects. Quasi-static uniaxial compression and tensile tests and split- Hopkinson pressure bar test have been modeling and simulation to study mechanical responses and damage evolutions of PBXs at different loading conditions.


The paper shows functioning of management control in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and its objectives, tasks and measures as the main element of the management control system. Based on the current regulations, there were used analysis of documents and the comparative method. Apart from that in the paper one can find an example of developing management control proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development who is responsible for its elements, implementation and improvement. The paper shows description of some instrument like monitoring and an internal audit that can identify control problems.


To reduce the adverse consequences of exertion-related and acute intentional dehydration research has focused on monitoring hydration status. This investigation: 1) compared sensitivity of urine specific gravity (Usg), urine osmolality (U(osm)) and a criterion measurement of hydration, plasma osmolality (P(osm)), at progressive stages of acute hypertonic dehydration and 2) using a medical decision model, determined whether Usg or U(osm) accurately reflected hydration status compared to P(osm) among 51 subjects tested throughout the day. Incremental changes in P(osm) were observed as subjects dehydrated by 5% of body weight and rehydrated while Usg and U(osm) showed delayed dehydration-related changes. Using the medical decision model, sensitivity and specificity were not significant at selected cut-offs for Usg and U(osm). At the most accurate cut-off values, 1.015 and 1.020 for Usg and 700 m(osm)/kg and 800 m(osm)/kg for U(osm), only 65% of the athletes were correctly classified using Usg and 63% using U(osm). P(osm), Usg, and U(osm) appear sensitive to incremental changes in acute hypertonic dehydration, however, the misclassified outcomes for Usg and U(osm) raise concerns. Research focused on elucidating the factors affecting accurate assessment of hydration status appears warranted.


The effect of five constraint conditions in cooling process on the residual stress distributed in the adhesively bonded single lap steel joint under a 100°C thermal shock was investigated using the elasto-plastic finite element method (FEM). The results from the numerical simulation show that the effect of constraint model is significantly to the residual stress distributed in both mid-bondline and adherend near the interface of the adhesively bonded single lap steel joint. The constraint to the longitudinal of the adherend is much significantly to the residual stress than that of the transversal one. Comparing the action of the constraint model C and model E, the effect of the model E on the residual stress along the mid-bondline is higher than that of the model C.


In statistical pattern recognition, it is important to avoid density estimation since density estimation is often more difficult than pattern recognition itself. Following this idea—known as Vapnik's principle, a statistical data processing framework that employs the ratio of two probability density functions has been developed recently and is gathering a lot of attention in the machine learning and data mining communities. The purpose of this paper is to introduce to the computer vision community recent advances in density ratio estimation methods and their usage in various statistical data processing tasks such as nonstationarity adaptation, outlier detection, feature selection, and independent component analysis.


German urban renewal programs are favoring the cities in the Eastern part since the reunification in 1990. This was accompanied additionally by attractive tax incentives, designed as an accelerated declining balance method of depreciation for housing investments during the late 1990s. The accumulated needs for comfortable housing after 40 years of a disastrous housing policy of the GDR era were generally accepted as justification for the subvention policy. But various subsidies and tax incentives caused a construction boom, false allocations, and a price bubble in Eastern Germany. After recognizing that the expansion of housing supply was not in line with the demographic development and that high vacancy rates were jeopardizing housing companies and their financial backers, policy changed in 2001. Up to now, the government provides demolition grants to reduce the vast oversupply. By means of a real option approach, it is explained how different available forms of subsidies and economic incentives for landlords lift real estate values. The option value representing growth expectations and opportunities is calculated as an observable market value less an estimated fundamental value. Empirical results disclose higher option premiums for cities in Eastern Germany and a strong correlation of the option premium with urban renewal spending.


Abstract Context. Aerial surveys provide valuable information about the population status and distribution of many native and pest vertebrate species. They are vital for evidence-based monitoring, budget planning and setting management targets. Despite aircraft running costs, they remain one of the most cost-effective ways to capture distribution and abundance data over a broad area. In Australia, annual surveys of large macropods are undertaken in several states to inform management, and in some jurisdictions, to help set commercial kangaroo harvest quotas. Improvements in the cost efficiencies of these surveys are continually sought. Aerial thermal imaging techniques are increasingly being tested for wildlife surveys, but to date no studies have directly compared population data derived from thermal imaging with data collected by human observers during the same flight. Aims. During an aerial survey of western grey kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus), eastern grey kangaroos (M. giganteus) and red kangaroos (Osphranter rufus) across the state of Victoria, Australia, the objective was to conduct a direct comparison of the effectiveness of thermal camera technology and human observers for estimating kangaroo populations from aerial surveys. Methods. A thermal camera was mounted alongside an aerial observer on one side of the aircraft for a total of 1360 km of transect lines. All thermal footage was reviewed manually. Population density estimates and distance sampling models were compared with human observer counts. Key results. Overall, the kangaroo density estimates obtained from the thermal camera data were around 30% higher than estimates derived from aerial observer counts. This difference was greater in wooded habitats. Conversely, human-derived counts were greater in open habitats, possibly due to interference from sunlight and flushing. It was not possible to distinguish between species of macropod in the thermal imagery. Conclusions. Thermal survey techniques require refining, but the results of the present study suggest that with careful selection of time of day for surveys, more accurate population estimates may be possible than with conventional aerial surveys. Implications. Conventional aerial surveys may be underestimating animal populations in some habitats. Further studies that directly compare the performance of aerial observers and thermal imaging are required across a range of species and habitats.


How did people in South West Britain respond to the impact of Rome? What did the end of
Roman rule mean for Cornwall? How were the lifestyles and identities of indigenous British
communities affected by Rome? These are amongst the searching questions explored in
Excavations at Trethurgy Round, St Austell, a new publication which analyses the findings of
the 1973 excavation.
The site at Trethurgy is an excellent example of a round, a type of small enclosed settlement of
considerable status and authority, prevalent in Cornwall from the Later Iron Age until the early
Post-Roman period. Trethurgy remains the only round whose interior has been fully excavated,
showing continuity in architecture and material culture from the mid-2nd century to the 6th
century AD.
The defended enclosure exhibited a basic site layout which was maintained throughout periods of
refurbishment and contained large oval houses together with a wide range of other structures
including a possible shrine. Artefacts from the site reflected the distinctive material culture of
Roman Cornwall and include gabbroic pottery and bowls, mortars and weights produced in local
stone. Post-Roman import wares from the 5th to 6th centuries were also present.
Authoritatively presented by well known archaeologist Henrietta Quinnell, this important
publication provides the most up to date commentary on life in Cornwall during Roman times. It
is essential reading for everyone with an interest in Cornish archaeology and the regional
character of Roman Britain.


Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has emerged as a must-have capability for the modern firm irrespective of size and sector. The importance of CRM can be attributed to the need for today's businesses to be customer-centric or customer-focused. As a business strategy, CRM seeks to develop and improve relationships with targeted customers to optimize customer value, competitiveness, and corporate profitability. While CRM has a truly strong business case, approximately 70% of CRM implementation projects do not create the intended business value. With this in mind, this work has reviewed relevant literature and explored 8 CSFs that can guide SMEs wishing to successfully implement CRM projects. The 8 CSFs cover the people, technologies, and processes – the core elements of a CRM strategy. In particular, the 8 CSFs include senior leadership sponsorship, customer-oriented CRM strategy, effective change management, customer data quality and availability, human resource management, the right CRM technology, CRM implementation methodology, and systems integration. Future studies may consider ranking the significance of the 8 CSFs based on the findings of an empirical research.


For more than a decade now, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been quite effective in providing anti-counterfeits measures in the supply chain. However, the genuineness of RFID tags cannot be guaranteed in the post supply chain, since these tags can be rather easily cloned in the public space. In this paper, we propose a novel product ownership management system (POMS) of RFID-attached products for anti-counterfeits that can be used in the post supply chain. For this purpose, we leverage the idea of Bitcoin's blockchain that anyone can check the proof of possession of balance. With the proposed POMS, a customer can reject the purchase of counterfeits even with genuine RFID tag information, if the seller does not possess their ownership. We have implemented a proof-of-concept experimental system employing a blockchain-based decentralized application platform, Ethereum, and evaluated its cost performance. Results have shown that, typically, the cost of managing the ownership of a product with up to six transfers is less than U.S. $1.


Cancer of unknown origin (CUO) is defined by the absence of any primary tumour in biopsy-proved metastatic cancer. CUO accounts for a 5-10% of all malignancies. These tumors have a specific biology with clinical characteristics of rapid progression and atypical metastases. Diagnostic evaluation is directed at the identification of treatable subset. Accurate diagnostic workup is crucial because both prognosis and survival rates depend mainly on detection of the primary tumor site. Although these patients undergo extensive imaging procedures, nuclear medicine techniques are under-utilized despite their ability of providing molecular information. Positron emission tomography has an emerging role in this clinical challenge along with other nuclear medicine methods including, bone scan, thyroid scintigraphy.


At present-day, the age of the subducting plate at trench largely varies among subduction zones. It ranges in between 0 Ma where active spreading ridges are subducted (e.g., Patagonia) and ~150 Ma for the oldest subducted oceanic lithospheres. The age of the slab at a specific location can also vary through time, implying a change in the slab thickness and associated slab pull. Previous models have shown that such temporal changes can produce significant modifications of the geometry of the slab as well as changes of plates velocity and upper plate deformation. However, the evolution of plate age at trench also depends on the previous history of oceanic spreading, which may vary from one subduction zone to another. Here, we test with mantle-scale analogue models the effect of different rates of plate age decrease at trench (from ~0.25 Ma/My to ~6 Ma/My) by progressively reducing the thickness of the subducting lithosphere. All models show that a thinning slab is generally associated with a slab dip increase. The faster the change in plate age at trench is, the later the change in slab dip occurs, which results in a large variability of slab dip (up to 30-40°) for the same slab age at trench. The change of age at trench also largely impacts subduction velocity and its partitioning into subducting plate and trench advance or retreat, which may in turn impact the deformation regime in the upper plate. We also explore with numerical models how the changes in slab geometry and plate kinematics associated to variations in slab age modify the surface topography above the slab.


In this paper we report a novel four-step process for the production of jet and diesel fuel range alkanes from hemicellulose extracts derived from northeastern hardwood trees. The extract is representative of a byproduct that could be produced by wood-processing industries such as biomass boilers or pulp mills in the northeastern U.S. The hemicellulose extract tested in this study contained mainly xylose oligomers (21.2 g/l xylose after the acid hydrolysis) as well as 0.31 g/l glucose, 0.91 g/l arabinose, 0.2 g/l lactic acid, 2.39 g/l acetic acid, 0.31 g/l formic acid, and other minor products. The first step in this process is an acid-catalyzed biphasic dehydration to produce furfural in yields up to 87%. The furfural is extracted from the aqueous solution into a tetrahydrofuran (THF) phase which is then fed into an aldol condensation step. The furfural-acetone-furfural (F-Ac-F) dimer is produced in this step by reaction of furfural with acetone in yields up to 96% for the F-Ac-F dimer. The F-Ac-F dimer is then subject to a low-temperature hydrogenation to form the hydrogenated dimer (H-FAF) at 110–130 °C and 800 psig with a 5 wt% Ru/C catalyst. Finally the H-FAF undergoes hydrodeoxygenation to make jet and diesel fuel range alkanes, primarily C13 and C12, in yields up to 91%. The theoretical yield for this process is 0.61 kg of alkane per kg of dry xylose derived from the hemicellulose extract. Experimentally we were able to obtain 76% of the theoretical yield for the overall process. We estimate that jet and diesel fuel range alkanes can be produced from between $2.06/gal to $4.39/gal depending on the feed xylose concentration, the size of the biorefinery, and the overall yield. Sensitivity analysis shows that the prices of raw materials, the organic-to-aqueous mass ratio in the biphasic dehydration, and the feed xylose concentration in the hemicellulose extract significantly affect the product cost.


Systolic time intervals (STI) and the apexcardiographic A wave were measured to evaluate their predictive value with respect to angina pectoris (AP) in a group of 1231 men aged from 17 to 64 years. At entry 55 men had typical AP and during a 4-year follow-up 87 men developed AP. The mean STI values were significantly lengthened and the A wave height increased in subjects with manifest old AP compared with the other subjects. Analysis of the incidence of new AP by quintiles of STI showed that the AP incidence was related to the duration of electromechanical systole (QS2) and left ventricular ejection time (LVET). The lowest AP incidence was found in the second quintile of QS2 and increased gradually towards the highest QS2 quintile. The highest AP incidence was, however, found in subjects with the shortest QS2. The AP incidence analyzed by the quintiles of LVET showed a gradual decrease from the lowest to the fourth quintile, but the highest AP incidence was observed in the highest LVET quintile. These relationship between the STI and AP incidence persisted after age-adjustment. The A wave height was significantly increased in subjects who developed new AP. The quintile approach, however, failed to show an increase of age-adjusted AP incidence in the highest A wave quintile. Our data thus show that typical angina is associated with abnormal STI measurements and that in asymptomatic men a lengthened as well as shortened QS2 and LVET and a high apexcardiographic A wave are associated with an increased risk of angina pectoris.


A second order accurate, linear numerical method is analyzed for the Landau-Lifshitz equation with large damping parameters. This equation describes the dynamics of magnetization, with a non-convexity constraint of unit length of the magnetization. The numerical method is based on the second-order backward differentiation formula in time, combined with an implicit treatment of the linear diffusion term and explicit extrapolation for the nonlinear terms. Afterward, a projection step is applied to normalize the numerical solution at a point-wise level. This numerical scheme has shown extensive advantages in the practical computations for the physical model with large damping parameters, which comes from the fact that only a linear system with constant coefficients (independent of both time and the updated magnetization) needs to be solved at each time step, and has greatly improved the numerical efficiency. Meanwhile, a theoretical analysis for this linear numerical scheme has not been available. In this paper, we provide a rigorous error estimate of the numerical scheme, in the discrete $\ell^{\infty}(0,T; \ell^2) \cap \ell^2(0,T; H_h^1)$ norm, under suitable regularity assumptions and reasonable ratio between the time step-size and the spatial mesh-size. In particular, the projection operation is nonlinear, and a stability estimate for the projection step turns out to be highly challenging. Such a stability estimate is derived in details, which will play an essential role in the convergence analysis for the numerical scheme, if the damping parameter is greater than 3.


Two major approaches to understanding intellectual functioning - the psychometric and the cognitive-developmental approaches epitomised by the seminal work of Binet and Piaget, respectively - are here considered complementary rather than incommensurable and, in particular, as essentially manifestations of the same underlying construct but at different levels of scale. From this perspective, and by exploiting Item Response Theory, performances of persons on Raven's Progressive Matrices (exemplifying the psychometric approach) and performances on three Piagetian tasks (the Balance, Chemical Combinations, and Correlations tasks) are mapped onto a single continuum of intellectual development. The implication is that qualitative and quantitative conceptions of intellectual development are closely interlinked: within each cognitive-developmental stage, a series of small, incremental, quantitative changes occur and evolve into a major qualitative change in cognitive functioning. In order to clarify the nature of the transformations in thinking that occur at the transition points between one Piagetian stage and another a new taxonomy is developed to classify RPM items. Knowledge of the RPM items which are operational at each Piagetian transition indicates the transformations in thinking that are required.


We report an age revision for the low-mass detached eclipsing binary CM Draconis and its common proper motion companion, WD 1633+572. An age of 8.5 ± 3.5 Gyr is found by combining an age estimate for the lifetime of WD 1633+ 572 and an estimate from galactic space motions. The revised age is greater than a factor of two older than previous estimates. Our results provide consistency between the white dwarf age and the system's galactic kinematics, which reveal the system is a highly probable member of the galactic thick disk. We find the probability that CM Draconis and WD 1633+572 are members of the thick disk is 8500 times greater than the probability that they are members of the thin disk and 170 times greater than the probability they are halo interlopers. If CM Draconis is a member of the thick disk, it is likely enriched in α-elements compared to iron by at least 0.2 dex relative to the Sun. This leads to the possibility that previous studies under-estimate the [Fe/H] value, suggesting the system has a near-solar [Fe/H]. Implications for the long-standing discrepancies between the radii of CM Draconis and predictions from stellar evolution theory are discussed. We conclude that CM Draconis is only inflated by about 2% compared to stellar evolution predictions.


The term cluster-tic syndrome (CTS) is used to designate a clinical pain pattern in which symptoms of cluster headache (CH) and tic douloureux (TD) coexist. The TD elements of the attack occur in paroxysms of many seconds or minutes, always affect the maxillary or mandibular divisions of the trigeminal nerve, with spread into the ophthalmic division in some cases, and may be triggered by slight superficial stimuli. These features may occur independent of CH elements but more often the two blend together. Four patients with CTS unresponsive to medication underwent surgery. Blood vessels were found to cross compress the trigeminal nerve in all four patients and the nerve was decompressed. A similar condition was found affecting the facial nerve in two of the three patients in whom that nerve was explored and the facial nerve was decompressed in these two. The TD component of the CTS disappeared after surgery in all four patients. The CH component of the syndrome returned after surgery but in a modified form. In three patients, the CH changed from what had been chronic cluster to infrequent episodic cluster periods; additionally in two patients, the duration of cluster was shorter and the pain was of lesser severity.


In the last decades, dialectometry has emerged as a new field of dialectology. As this kind of research requires large amounts of data, many dialectometric studies used data from "traditional" dialect atlases (e. g. ALF, AIS, RND) which were collected by investigating representatives of the oldest dialects available in the survey locations (i.e. the so-called NORMs, cf. Chambers & Trudgill 2004: 29). Moreover, these data contained mostly lexical and phonological (and sometimes morphological) variables, while syntactic phenomena are largely absent in traditional atlases. In this paper we would like to present results of a dialectometric study that focuses on three aspects which have not been given much attention in previous research. The first aspect concerns the research area, German-speaking Switzerland. Although it is one of the liveliest and at the same time best researched dialect areas in Central Europe, until recently (cf. Goebl et al. 2013, Scherrer & Stoeckle accepted) there have been very few dialectometric studies in this area (cf. Kelle 2001). The second aspect regards the investigated linguistic level: our analyses are based on syntax data from the Syntactic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland ('Syntaktischer Atlas der deutschen Schweiz', SADS; cf. Glaser & Bart 2015) which were collected between 2000 and 2002 in 383 locations German-speaking Switzerland. A special characteristic of this atlas – which leads to the third aspect we will focus on – lies in the large number of informants and their varying socio-demographic backgrounds. Whereas in traditional atlas projects, generally one or two representatives were interviewed at each survey location, in the SADS a total of almost 3200 informants participated in the survey (i. e. on average about 8 speakers per location). This gives us not only the possibility to work with frequency instead of binary data for each location, but more importantly, this setting allows us to include socio-demographic variables into our analyses. In other geographic and sociolinguistic contexts, extralinguistic variables other than geography turned out to be important explanatory factors for dialect variation (cf. Hansen-Morath 2016, Hansen-Morath & Stoeckle 2014). As for German-speaking Switzerland, various studies focusing on single phenomena from the SADS revealed high correlations between syntactic and socio-demographic variation (cf. Stoeckle accepted, Friedli 2012, Richner-Steiner 2011). However, it is still unclear whether this correlation can be observed for aggregated data and what role socio-demographic variables play in explaining syntactic variation. In order to answer these questions, we will pursue a twofold approach. On the one hand, we will create different subsets with respect to socio-demographic variables and perform dialectometric analyses for each of these subsets. A comparison of the results will help to answer the question whether a change in the geographic dialect structuring can be observed. On the other hand, we will perform regression analyses in order to determine the importance of different extralinguistic factors in explaining linguistic variation. Finally, the results will have to be interpreted in the light of the specific Swiss-German diaglossic situation, where (contrary to many other contexts) change toward both dialectal and standard structures can be observed.


This paper considers the problem of efficiently maintaining a clustering of a dynamic set of data points that move continuously in two-dimensional Euclidean space. This problem has received little attention and introduces new challenges to clustering. The paper proposes a new scheme that is capable of incrementally clustering moving objects. This proposal employs a notion of object dissimilarity that considers object movement across a period of time, and it employs clustering features that can be maintained efficiently in incremental fashion. In the proposed scheme, a quality measure for incremental clusters is used for identifying clusters that are not compact enough after certain insertions and deletions. An extensive experimental study shows that the new scheme performs significantly faster than traditional ones that frequently rebuild clusters. The study also shows that the new scheme is effective in preserving the quality of moving-object clusters.


This paper investigates acoustic, phonetic, and phonological representations of spoken vowels. For this purpose four experiments have been conducted. First, by drawing the analogy between the spectral energy distribution of vowels and the vowel space concept of Dependency Phonology, we achieve a new phonologically motivated vowel quality representation of spoken vowels which we name the / /-/ /-/ /-ness. As a second step, it is shown that the extension of this approach is connected with the work of Pols, van der Kamp & Plomp 1969 [1] who, among other things, predicted formant frequencies from the spectral energy distribution of vowels. Third, the vowel quality relating to the IPA vowel diagram is derived directly from the spectral energy distribution. Finally, we compare this method with a formant and fundamental frequency based approach introduced by Pfitzinger 2003 [2]. While both the /i/-/a/-/u/-ness of vowels as well as the perceived vowel quality prediction are quite robust and therefore useful for both signal pre-processing and vowel quality research, the formant prediction achieved the lowest accuracy for the mapping to the IPA vowel diagram.


In this paper, we present measurements of visual, facial parameters obtained from a speech corpus consisting of short, read utterances in which focal accent was systematically varied. The utterances were recorded in a variety of expressive modes including certain, confirming, questioning, uncertain, happy, angry and neutral. Results showed that in all expressive modes, words with focal accent are accompanied by a greater variation of the facial parameters than are words in non-focal positions. Moreover, interesting differences between the expressions in terms of different parameters were found.


Coir is a natural fibre extracted from the husk of coconut and used in a wide range of domestic products including floor mats, door mats, brushes and mattress filling. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the use of this renewable resource as a horticulture growing medium.


Background and aims Autoantibody reactivity patterns are important disease and risk stratification marker in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We have recently identified autoantibodies against the major vault protein (MVP) in SLE. Although the exact biological function of MVP is not well understood, MVP is an interesting autoantibody target, because it plays a pivotal role in virus-induced host response. MVP expression is induced by IFNγ and induces upregulation of interferon (IFN) type I expression. Methods Anti-MVP antibodies were discovered by high-content autoantibody profiling and validated in >700 SLE samples and autoimmune disease controls. To enable the development of smaller marker panels, we have developed anti-MVP into prototypic bead-based ELISA format. Results Discovery and validation experiments using the NavigAID SLE array showed that anti-MVP antibodies occurred with frequencies of 15%–30% in three different SLE cohorts at a specificity of 97%. Exploratory testing of multi-marker panels consisting of anti-MVP in combination with anti-dsDNA, anti-ribosomal P and anti-SmD yielded a 6% increase in sensitivity at 98% without loss of specificity. Multivariate data projection methods revealed that anti-MVP is detected in a subset of SLE patients with little overlap to established marker..A bead-based ELISA was developed for measuring anti-MVP antibodies and showed good correlation with Luminex data (R=0.88) indicating successful platform transfer. Conclusions Anti-MVP autoantibodies represent a useful marker in SLE and, in combination with established markers, optimises the strategy for autoantibody testing. Furthermore, although more studies are needed, our findings suggest a previously undescribed linkage of type I IFN and autoantibody targets in SLE.


We investigated the general patterns of movements in willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) populations. We analyzed data from 300 radiocollared willow ptarmigan from 3 study areas in the Swedish mountain range, and from 2 previous studies of recoveries of wing-tagged chicks from 3 areas in southern Norway. We found that 80% of juvenile females dispersed more than 5 km from their natal area, whereas only 25% of juvenile males established a summer range more than 5 km from the area where they were caught as chicks. Mean dispersal distances of juvenile females were 3 times longer (10.4 km) than those of juvenile males (2.4 km). Movement differences within sexes were not associated with apparent female breeding success or ptarmigan density in the natal area, and adult females migrated between wintering areas used as juveniles and their first breeding site. We found no differences in dispersal distances between the Norwegian and Swedish populations. Movements of adult and juvenile females during spring were similar in all respects. At scales of more than 5 km, the movements of juveniles and adult females play a role in redistributing birds within landscape units, and represent important inter-population movements. The results of this study explain the apparent contradiction between non-compensatory mortality based on data from radio-marked ptarmigan, and the almost complete compensation based on annual counts. Estimating the extent of immigration into areas with high local mortality is difficult because of predation or harvest under conditions of high, fixed emigration and immigration dependent on local conditions. This represents a problem if dispersal distances include areas that are considerably larger than the size of the study area. © 2014 The Wildlife Society.


The essay maps out the contestation for imagery of nation with the Marcoses on the one hand, and two of the most outstanding filmmakers of the era on the other hand. The Marcoses set out a megalomania of infrastructures and images that echoed the Imeldific vision of "the true, the good, and the beautiful." I counterpose the major city films of Lino Brocka (Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag) and Ishmael Bernal (Manila by Night) to provide a contest to the official imagery of the nation. These two films uniquely evoke an intimate dialog with and critique of the Marcoses' design of (what eventually became) Metro Manila and the nation, figuring contrary bodies and responses as consequences of collective lives under the jurisdiction and administration of the conjugal dictatorship.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
The Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital Munich has conducted a pilot project for 4 years, aiming at the integration of homeopathic concomitant treatment into daily clinical practice. This study was carried out to clarify whether the project is successful and accepted by physicians, nurses, and parents.

METHODS
Questionnaires, all standardized and anonymous, were handed out to 137 physicians, 212 nurses and paramedics, and 1,048 parents of children treated at the hospital.

RESULTS
69% of the physicians appreciated concomitant homeopathic treatments, more than 60% believed the integration of homeopathy is suggestive, 75% saw a need for clinical research in homeopathy. 25% of the staff now had a more positive view towards homeopathy. 63% of the parents appreciated concomitant treatment, but only 19% are willing to participate in double-blind studies.

CONCLUSIONS
Integration of homeopathy in a university hospital is possible. Therapeutic work should be accompanied by scientific research.


Abstract A total of 38 Newcastle disease virus (NDV) isolates were obtained from 6060 fecal samples from northern pintail (Anas acuta) ducks collected in the Tohoku district in Japan during 2006–09. One isolate from each sampling location and date was selected for a total of 38 isolates, then 15 of these were characterized for their pathogenicity by mean death time of minimum lethal dose (MDT/MLD) using chicken embryos and by plaque formation on chicken embryo fibroblasts. Furthermore, nine isolates were randomly selected from these 15 isolates, and the fusion protein genes were sequenced to characterize amino acid sequences around the cleavage site. All 15 were confirmed to be nonvirulent by MDT/MLD test, and nine isolates were also confirmed as nonvirulent by the cleavage site of the fusion protein 112G/E-K/R-Q-G/E-R*L117 that was specific for nonvirulent NDVs. The characteristics of nine isolates identified by phylogenic analysis of the fusion protein gene indicated that the isolates belong to genotype I or II. In addition, we also isolated 68 avian influenza viruses and 28 other hemagglutinating viruses. Our data indicate that northern pintails are subclinically infected by, perpetuate, and distribute NDV along with different subtypes of avian influenza viruses and other hemagglutinating viruses during their migrations across vast areas over the Northern Hemisphere to Japan.


Abstract. The PROFILE model, now incorporated in the ForSAFE model can accurately reproduce the chemical and mineralogical evolution of the soil unsaturated zone. However, in deeper soil layers and in groundwater systems, it appears to overestimate weathering rates. This overestimation has been corrected by improving the kinetic expression describing mineral dissolution by adding or upgrading breaking functions. The base cation and aluminium brakes have been strengthened, and an additional silicate brake has been developed, improving the ability to describe mineral-water reactions in deeper soils. These brakes are developed from a molecular-level model of the dissolution mechanisms. Equations, parameters and constants describing mineral dissolution kinetics have now been obtained for 102 different minerals from 12 major structural groups, comprising all types of minerals encountered in most soils. The PROFILE and ForSAFE weathering sub-model was extended to cover two-dimensional catchments, both in the vertical and the horizontal direction, including the hydrology. Comparisons between this improved model and field observations is available in Erlandsson Lampa et al. (2019, This special issue). The results showed that the incorporation of a braking effect of silica concentrations was necessary and helps obtain more accurate descriptions of soil evolution rates at greater depths and within the saturated zone.


Non-aqueous system are well known as solvent or drug suspension vehicles and oleogels micro emulsion with no aqueous phase (anhydrous, non-aqueous oil-in-oil emulsion) have had relatively scant attention yet may have uses as drug reservoir as well as template for the preparation of microemulsion combination with a cosurfactant. Microemulsions have emerged as novel vehicles for drug delivery which allow sustained or controlled release for percutaneous, oral, topical, transdermal, ocular and parenteral administration of medicaments. They offer the advantage of spontaneous formation, ease of manufacturing and scale-up, thermodynamic stability, improved drug solubilization of hydrophobic drugs and bioavailability. Delivery of drug using  theses  microemulsion through skin increase the local systemic delivery of the dug by different mechanism that make them suitable vehicles for the delivery of antifungal agent. Novel anhydrous micro emulsions, which may offer some advantages as depot or reservoir vehicles for lipophilic drugs in controlled delivery systems, intramuscular absorption. Keywords : Microemulsions, Topical delivery, Surfactants, Cosurfactants.


The Food Stamp Program (FSP) is working under the deadline of October 1, 2002, to coordinate a change from the current paper disbursement system of paper food stamps to an electronic transfer system of benefits, known as EBT. The Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been studying the effectiveness of differing vehicles for benefit dispersal since the inception of the FSP in the 1960's. The merits of a direct cash payment have been compared to those of the paper system by the USDA and an array of professional groups and research organizations. The adoption of the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system engenders a new set of questions about the effects of EBT on benefit recipients, retailers and the administering government agencies. Issues surrounding the transition from paper to plastic are still problematic for retailers in spite of the rapidly approaching deadline. National interoperability of EBT as well as fees involved with EBT operation are still points of contention for retailers. Anecdotal evidence from retailers also point to kinks in the institutional operation of EBT. Peak-loading problems with the electronic network system generate a host of undesirable consequences for benefit recipients and retailers. These problems impede the electronic system from taking advantage of the positive network effects that could arise from this new technology.


Each document in a multi-label classification is connected to a subset of labels. These documents usually include a big number of features, which can hamper the performance of learning algorithms. Therefore, feature selection is helpful in isolating the redundant and irrelevant elements that can hold the performance back. The current study proposes a Naive Bayesian (NB) multi-label classification algorithm by incorporating a wrapper approach for the strategy of feature selection aiming at determining the best minimum confidence threshold. This paper also suggests transforming the multi-label documents prior to utilizing the standard algorithm of feature selection. In such a process, the document was copied into labels that belonged to by adopting all the assigned characteristics for each label. Then, this study conducted an evaluation of seven minimum confidence thresholds. Additionally, Class Association Rules (CARs) represents the wrapper approach for this evaluation. The experiments carried out with benchmark datasets revealed that the Naive Bayes Multi-label (NBML) classifier with business dataset scored an average precision of 87.9% upon using a 0.1 % of minimum confidence threshold.


In situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and TUNEL staining were applied to renal biopsy specimens of immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) patients to determine the expression of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) (mRNA and protein), p53, and their potential roles in renal cell apoptosis in relation to the development of pathologic lesions. Fifty-one cases were categorized into four subgroups (A-D) according to the presence of progressive histopathological features. A cell type-specific and differential overexpression of iNOS mRNA and protein was demonstrated in glomerular cells in subgroups (A-C) and was found to correlate well with the upregulation of p53 protein by glomerular endothelium and epithelium in early- and advanced-stage disease. In the tubulointerstitium, induction of iNOS products was evident in damaged tubules in late-stage disease, in parallel with the upregulation of p53 protein levels in these tubules. Increased TUNEL staining observed in glomeruli with progressive lesions and tubules with degenerative changes positively correlated with the expression levels of iNOS and p53 in glomerular endothelium, epithelium, and their overexpression in damaged tubules. Clinicopathologic correlations demonstrated that induction of iNOS products in renal cells was associated with indices of poor renal prognosis in human IgAN. The coupled induction of iNOS and p53 upregulation in intrinsic renal cells of IgAN may be linked with both pro- and anti-apoptotic activities, thus playing an important role in mediating progressive renal injury and determining renal outcome in human IgAN.


Abstract In this study it is aimed to describe and evaluate comparatively the reading literacy exam results, the finance of education and schools, and socio-cultural status of parents inTurkey and the top-five OECD countries, Finland, Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand respectively, in the light reports and publications by OECD regarding PISA 2003 and 2006 evaluations. Pisa evaluation studies are helpful to understand the current outcomes of the educational systems and will definetly enhance the quality of future educatioanl policies with the help of comparison between the accomplishments of the rival countries. In this descriptive study, the data regarding Pisa results and country statistics have been obtained from the online OECD publications. It is observed that higher rate of sudents in Turkey has lower level reading skills, and a small rate of its students can accomplish high level reading skills contrary to the situation in the top-five OECD countries. Great majority of Turkish students lacks of advance skills such as working with abstract ideas, critical thinking, making links with the inferred knowledge with daily experiences. On the other hand, Turkish educational system is below the standarts of OECD countries in terms of educational sources because of lower level finance in education and schools, higher number of students per class and teacher, less amount of teacher salaries, which all paralel to its low level economic wealth. Moreover, Turkish citizens have low level of socio-cultural status with respect to other OECD countries in that most of Turkish students do not attend high school level education, and a great majority of parents, both mothers and fathers, have lower level of education. Key Words PISA, Turkish Education System, Reading Literacy, Primary School Students, Achievement. After 90's, there is a convergence of thougths regarding the future life style of 21st century foreseeing a transition from the industrial society to a new knowledge society (Bengshir, 1996; Cerit, 2001; Drucker, 1995; Ozdas, 1999). In this future context, individuals will run after information, and will need the ability to get it and use it effectively, thus they need to learn to learn in a constant and life-long process (Cerit, 2001; Findikci, 1996; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2003b). An educational system then should be able to create a new generation of information-processors, of innovation and creativity, and problem solvers. Thus, investment in education and in human capital is a must for the growth of both high-skilled individuals and nations in a competetive globalized world (Johansson, Karlsson, & Stough, 2001, cited in Cheung & Chan, 2008). OECD, like other international institutions that produce knowledge and policies for the economic growth and welfare of nations, evaluates educational systems and their educational outcomes in a comparative way, and determines each countries' performance and highlights the good examples for the production of education policies to be put into practice for better education outcomes (Grek, 2009; Rizvi & Lingard, 2006; Rochex, 2006). For this reason, OECD created PISA evaluation program and started to get use of it as a mean to investigate national education systems and to gauge the students' skills in reading, math, science and problem solving, most preferable qualities one should have in a new information society. These evaluations determine the level that students meet the requried skills in the information society, exploit their knowledge in their daily life situation, and measure the level of their working with concepts, and their aplication to reality (T.C. Milli Egitim Bakanligi Egitim Arastirma ve Gelistirme Dairesi Baskanligi [EARGED], 2007; OECD, 2001, 2003). In this sense, it does not measure what they will do with their acquired knowledge, but what they can do in real life with the knowledge acqired in school (Brozo, Shiel, & Topping, 2007, cited in Greg, 2009). …


This study determined relationships among total energy intake, nutrient intake, body composition, exercise group status, and annual rates of change (slopes) in bone mineral density in 66 Caucasian premenopausal women (mean age, 34.4 +/- 2.7) taking calcium supplements. Body composition components measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry included fat mass, soft tissue lean mass, and bone mineral density (g/cm2) of total body, spine (lumbar vertebrae 2-4), and three femur sites measured at baseline, 5, 12, and 18 mo. Nutrients were not significant variables in regression models predicting bone mineral density slopes (rates of change) at any femur site. The only significant variable in models predicting Ward's triangle bone mineral density slope was the initial fat mass and, for trochanter, exercise. Significant variables (P < 0.05) in models predicting total body bone mineral density slope included the initial fat mass and fat mass slope plus either vitamin A, carotene, fiber, magnesium, or phosphorus (R2 from 0.31 to 0.25) and fat mass slope plus sodium (R2 = 0.24). The significant variable in the model predicting L2-4 slope was energy intake (R2 = 0.17, P < 0.05). We conclude that nutrient intake, exercise, and body composition are related to bone mineral density rate of change and that relations among these variables vary by bone site.


The yeast Kex2 protease is the prototype of a family of eukaryotic proprotein processing proteases that includes PC1, PC2, and furin. The catalytic domains of these enzymes are homologous to the degradative serine proteases of the subtilisin family. Kex2 exhibits optimal activity toward substrates with Lys or Arg at P2 and Arg at P1 (Lys-Arg or Arg-Arg cleavage sites). However, mammalian proprotein processing proteases such as furin exhibit more stringent requirements for basic residues at P4 than at P2. Here we demonstrate that Kex2 protease also recognizes P4, with dual specificity for aliphatic and basic residues. Recognition of P4 is even more readily apparent in substrates having a poor P1 residue (Lys). Kinetic analysis of a series of otherwise identical fluorogenic substrates with Lys at P1 and different residues at P4 indicates that large, aliphatic P4 residues increase kcat/KM by 100-fold. However, smaller residues or acidic residues at P4 do not. P4 Arg also confers efficient cleavage on such a substrate, but the uncharged isostere of Arg, citrulline, does not. Kex2 may thus possess distinct subsites that recognize aliphatic or basic P4 side chains. Although a favorable P4 residue can partially compensate for the defects in kcat and kcat/KM seen with Lys in place of Arg at P1, this substitution resulted in a change in rate-determining step for all substrates examined. As previously seen in the case of subtilisin, effects of substitutions at the P1 and P4 positions were not independent, suggesting that interplay between these two positions is a common feature of substrate specificity for both processing proteases and degradative enzymes of the subtilisin superfamily.


The aim of the experiment was to assess the effect of bio-stimulants of different composition (Asahi SL - based on three nitrophenol compounds, naturally occurring in plants, as active ingredients; Optisil – mineral growth stimulant containing 24 g L-1 of Fe and 200 g L-1 of SiO2; Kelpak SL – manufactured from Ecklonia maxima and containing auxins and cytokinins) on the content of macronutrients and micronutrients in cucumber fruits (Cucumis sativus L.) and on the fruit yield of the Akord F1 variety. With three replications, the field experiment was conducted in a completely randomised design on a private farm in Wolka Leśna in Poland (N 52°11'59", E 22°24'30"). The experiment was carried out in three growing seasons between 2015 and 2017. Three types of growth regulators and a cucumber variety were used as experimental factors. During the experiment, it was found that in response to bio-stimulants, fruit protein content and the yield significantly increased relative to control. The highest yield was noted after application of the bio-stimulant containing Fe and SiO2. Additionally, the above products applied to cucumber plants significantly increased magnesium content in the fruits but decreased the amount of sodium. Similarly, higher amounts of iron, manganese, and boron in relation to control were recorded, and in the case of Optysil the content of Zn and Co also increased.

 Key words: Cucumis sativus L., growth stimulators, macronutrients, micronutrients, protein.


With the increase of multimorbidity due to population ageing, managing multiple chronic health conditions is a rising challenge. Machine-learning can contribute to a better understanding of persons with multimorbidity (PwMs) and how to design an effective framework of care and support for them. We present a risk model of older PwMs that was derived from the TILDA dataset, a longitudinal study of the ageing Irish population. This model is based on a 26-nodes Bayesian network that represents patients possibly having one or more chronic conditions among diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and arthritis, through a joint probability distribution of demographic, symptomatic and behavioral dimensions. We describe our method, give an exploratory analysis of the risk model, and assess its prediction accuracy in a cross-validation experiment. Finally we discuss its use in supporting management of care for PwMs, drawing on comments from health practitioners on the model.


Level of adiposity is linked to manifest dementia and Alzheimer's disease in epidemiological studies. Overweight and obesity in mid- and late-life may increase risk for dementia, whereas decline in body weight or body mass index and underweight in years preceding and at the time of a dementia diagnosis may also relate to dementia. The role of adiposity during the period of cognitive decline is, as yet, not understood; however, some hypotheses relating adipose tissue to brain can be drawn. This review focuses on potential, varied mechanisms whereby adipose tissue may influence or interact with the brain and/or dementia risk during the dynamic period of life characterized by both body weight and cognitive decline. These mechanisms relate to: a) adipose tissue location and cell types, b) body composition, c) endocrine adipose, and d) the interplay among adipose, brain structure and function, and genes. This review will illustrate that adipose tissue is a quintessential, multifunctional tissue of the human body.


Based on retrospective data collected from all over Bavaria, the influence of socioeconomic status defined for geographic areas rather than individuals and urbanisation on birth prevalence, fatality rate, and survival time of malformed infants was investigated. Urbanisation shows a negative effect on all of the outcome variables: the higher the degree of urbanisation, the higher the birth prevalence and fatality rate of malformed infants, whereas survival time decreases with increasing degree of urbanisation. Social status has a positive, but not statistically significant, effect on the outcome variabled «fatality rate» and «survival time», both of which can be influenced by postnatal care and medical intervention. Increasing social status increases birth prevalence. This effect is not statistically significant


Soft tissue tumors of the hand arise from skin, subcutaneous tissue, tendons, nerve, and blood vessels. Many of these lesions occur on other parts of the body; however, the hand remains a unique site because these tumors have symptoms, appearances, treatments, and prognoses that may be quite different than when on other parts of the body. Their characteristics and the severity of symptoms vary markedly depending on the exact location, size, and type of tumor—and many of these tumors can have multiple forms of presentation. Two articles are intended to provide an overview of benign (previous article) and malignant tumors (this article) of the hand. The rarer and more deleterious tumors are discussed in detail while the common tumors and epidermal lesions with which practitioners are familiar are briefly overviewed. At the completion of these review articles, participants should be able to identify and diagnose various benign and malignant hand tumors as well as understand the accepted current treatment of these growths.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the usefulness of the radiographic scoring method proposed by Rau, et al for evaluation of joint damage in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS
Radiographs of hands and feet of 30 prospectively observed patients with early RA were assessed by the Rau method, the Larsen method, and count of erosive joints. The standardized response mean (SRM) was used to estimate the sensitivity to change of each method of assessment.

RESULTS
Although the Rau method evaluates only the amount of bony erosion, nearly equivalent radiographic progression was observed with the Rau and the Larsen methods. Radiographic changes in the first year were sensitively identified by all 3 methods (SRM for Rau method 0.83, Larsen method 0.88, and count of erosive joints 0.84). However, in the period from 2 to 6 years after entry into the study, sensitivity to change was maintained with use of the Rau (SRM 1.38) and Larsen (SRM 0.95) methods, but not by count of erosive joints (SRM 0.49). While an apparent ceiling effect was observed after 2 years in count of erosive joints, no ceiling effects were noted for the Rau and Larsen methods.

CONCLUSION
Our study showed that the usefulness of the Rau method is equivalent to the Larsen method in clinical assessment of radiographic progression in early RA.


type="main"> The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is fertile ground for examining how moral evaluations evolve over time and across different settings. We compare the discourse on AIDS in Malawi as presented in the media with that of everyday conversations. Drawing on two sets of texts, newspaper articles and conversational journals, produced over a ten-year period from 1999 through 2008, we analyze their moral injunctions, or what individuals should or should not do in response to the AIDS epidemic. The predominant injunctions in the early years in both sources were premarital abstinence and marital fidelity. Following the introduction of HIV testing and treatment, however, the discourses diverged. Discourse in the media turned toward moral injunctions requiring individuals to interact with authoritative institutions; thus the conceptual center of gravity of the struggle against AIDS in the media shifted from collectivities of individuals to collectivities of institutions. Rural Malawians, however, received these moral injunctions with great skepticism and continued to advise each other to prevent death by controlling one's sexual appetites.


We examine how principals should design incentives to induce time-inconsistent procrastinating agents to complete tasks efficiently. Delay is costly to the principal, but the agent faces stochastic costs of completing the task, and efficiency requires waiting when costs are high. If the principal knows the task-cost distribution, she can always achieve first-best efficiency. If the agent has private information, the principal can induce first-best efficiency for time-consistent agents, but often cannot for procrastinators. We show that second-best optimal incentives for procrastinators typically involve an increasing punishment for delay as time passes.


A review, with 17 refs., on prepn. and properties and uses of polyelectrolytes based on poly(4-vinylpyridine) via functionalization. Cationic polyelectrolytes and polymeric betaines with narrow mol. wt. distribution and styrene block copolymers contg. charged and uncharged blocks of different hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity are described. The block copolymers are useful stabilizers in pptn. and emulsion polymn. processes. [on SciFinder (R)]


Exposure to quartz dusts has been associated with lung cancer and fibrosis. Although the responsible mechanisms are not completely understood, progressive inflammation with associated induction of persistent oxidative stress has been discussed as a key event for these diseases. Previously we have evaluated the kinetics of pulmonary inflammation in the rat model following a single intratracheal instillation of 2mg DQ12 quartz, either in its native form or upon its surface modification with polyvinylpyridine-N-oxide or aluminium lactate. This model has been applied now to evaluate the role of inflammation in the kinetics of induction of DNA damage and response at 3, 7, 28, and 90 days after treatment. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cell counts and differentials as well as BAL fluid myeloperoxidase activity were used as markers of inflammation. Whole lung homogenate was investigated to determine the induction of the oxidative and pre-mutagenic DNA lesion 8-hydroxy-2-deoxy-guanosine (8-OHdG) by HPLC/ECD, while mRNA and protein expression of oxidative stress and DNA damage response genes including hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1) and apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE/Ref-1) were evaluated using Western blotting and real time PCR. Isolated lung epithelial cells from the treated rats were used for DNA strand breakage analysis using the alkaline comet assay as well as for micronucleus scoring in May-Gruenwald-Giemsa stained cytospin preparations. In the rats that were treated with quartz, no increased 8-OHdG levels were observed, despite the presence of a marked and persistent inflammation. However, DNA strand breakage in the lung epithelial cells of the quartz treated rats was significantly enhanced at 3 days, but not at 28 days. Moreover, significantly enhanced micronucleus frequencies were observed for all four time points investigated. In the animals that were treated with the PVNO modified quartz, micronuclei scores did not differ from controls, while in those treated with the aluminium coated quartz intermediate effects were found. These findings were in line with the kinetics of inflammation and epithelial proliferation in the rat lungs for the different treatments. Notably, a highly significant correlation was observed between neutrophil numbers and micronucleus frequencies, indicative for a role of inflammation in eliciting genomic instability in target cells of quartz-induced carcinogenesis. Our ongoing investigations focus on the evaluation of the causality between both in relation to quartz exposure.


Two isoallergens of Cyn d I were isolated using preparative isoelectric focussing, and were designated Cyn d Ia and b. These isoallergens differ in their pI, molecular weight (Cyn d Ia, 32 kD and Cyn d Ib, 31 kD) and their NH2-terminal sequence. Four monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) were produced using Cyn d Ia as antigen. These Mabs recognized both Cyn d Ia and b. One of the Mabs recognized four different pI forms of Cyn d I on 2D gels. The Mabs also recognized cross-reactive epitopes on proteins from eight other grasses including rye grass, timothy grass, Kentucky bluegrass and Johnson grass.


Bilingualism influences perceptual inhibition more than stimulus-response inhibition Henrike K. Blumenfeld San Diego State University Viorica Marian Northwestern University Abstract: Bilinguals outperform monolinguals at suppressing task-irrelevant information, with advantages likely deriving from cognitive mechanisms employed during bilingual processing. In this study, monolinguals' and bilinguals' inhibition performance was compared on two nonlinguistic inhibition tasks: a Stroop-like task (with perceptual conflict among stimulus features) and a Simon-like task (with stimulus-response conflict, given an arbitrary response rule). Bilinguals in their early twenties had an accuracy advantage over monolinguals on the Stroop task but not the Simon task. Bilinguals showed smaller Stroop than Simon effects in their performance accuracy, while monolinguals performed similarly on the two tasks. Findings suggest that bilingual experience may target Stroop-type inhibition more than Simon-type inhibition, likely due to the perceptual conflict component of Stroop tasks that is also present in bilingual processing. Findings have implications for identifying loci of influence of bilingual experience on the cognitive system, and suggest that Stroop-type cognitive mechanisms may be especially sensitive to bilingualism.


The title of the thesis - "Offshore Rankine Cycles" - is very general and cover a large range of engineering fields, e.g. thermodynamic cycles (Rankine, ORC, Brayton, Kalina, etc.), mechanical equipment (gas/steam turbine, heat exchangers and additional equipment) and safety concerns (flammable and/or toxic fluids, high temperature and pressures), to name the most important. The thesis try to give a brief overview of all critical points and alternatives, concerning employment of a waste heat recovery machine on offshore facilities, although focus has been on three more specified cases, namely: 1. Comparison of a steam cycle vs. an organic Rankine cycle for high temperature operating conditions. 2. Study of heat exchanger parameters on total cycle performance. 3. Investigation of a modular expander setup versus a single expander. To compare a steam cycle to an organic cycle, a choice of working fluid for the organic cycle had to be made. After some investigation, toluene was chosen as it is a "common" fluid with known properties and was found to be a viable option for high temperature heat sources, both for subcritical and supercritical operation. Due to water being constricted to subcritical operation a CO2 cycle was implemented as a comparison to the supercritical toluene cycle. The main focus of the comparison was exergy losses during heat transfer and power output. The heat exchanger parameter study was conducted with a printed circuit heat exchanger as an example. The study of overall cycle performance has close connections to the heat exchanger size, since it is an important parameter concerning offshore employment due to costly "footprint". The cycle's dependency on the heat exchanger is mainly by the heat transfer rate, or heat load, which the heat exchanger applies to the cycle. The heat transfer rate is given by the heat exchanger`s ability to reduce the temperature of the exhaust gases. This ability depends on the two fluids involved and the geometry of the heat exchanger. While the choice in working fluid and pinch points sets the amount of heat transferred, the remaining analysis rest on the overall heat transfer coefficient (UA) to balance the heat load. When fluid properties are determined, the UA - value is again dependent on heat exchanger geometry and further variation of these parameters will in turn reveal the size of the heat exchanger. When imposing a working fluid to the cold side of the heat exchanger an optimization in heat exchanger volume could be found at specified heat load. A VBA macro has been made where expander parameters (rated power and efficiency vs. volumetric flow rate values) could be used as inputs to calculate the power output of two expanders in a modular setup relative to a single expander as reference.


Egypt's revolution of January 25, 2011 was impelled by a desire to eliminate "conventional corruption," a particular form of corruption that occurs when government officials illegally abuse public office for private gain. Conventional corruption often involves illegal quid pro quo transactions, including acts of bribery, and is to be contrasted with "unconventional corruption," a form of corruption that occurs when elected officials put personal campaign finances ahead of the public interest (but without engaging in a quid pro quo transaction). Although these particular forms do not represent the universe of corruption, classification of corruption in these terms serves a purpose: when conventional corruption decreases, there is often a correlating increase in unconventional corruption. This relationship is relevant for purposes of analyzing corruption in Egypt because Egypt's new constitution, although imperfect, provides for greater restraints on executive power, and thus provides a foundation for a reduction in conventional corruption. However, as a result, problems of unconventional corruption are likely to emerge. Fortunately, unconventional corruption is not an inevitable side effect of progress — it can be contained. With a certain bit of insight and courage, the people of Egypt can reform their campaign finance system and bring forth a true democracy — one where elected officials make decisions not for the benefit of potential political funders, but rather, for the benefit of the people.


This paper will introduce a recently initiated COST Action entitled PEARL-PV and show its4-year research and work plan with the aim to create exposure, receive feedback from various stakeholders and involve new participants to this research network. PEARL-PV has started at theend of 2017 with the aim to improve the energy performance and reliability of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems in Europe leading to lower costs of electricity produced by PV systems by a higher energy yield, a longer life time eventually beyond the guaranteed 20 years as specified by manufacturers, and a reduction in the perceived risk in investments in PV projects. This objective will be achieved by analyzing data of the actual monitored long-term performancedefects and failures in PV systems installed all over Europe to quantitatively determine the absolute influences of components rated performance, key design of systems, installation, operation, maintenance practice, geographic location and weather factors on the performance, performance degradation over time and failure modes of these PV systems. It is very important to ensure the performance of PV systems to achieve long-term goals for PV systems in the future single energy market such as: economic viability, securing investments, environmental sustainability and security and predictability of supply. The PEARL-PV project aims at the formation of aninclusive network of PV system researchers, data resources that will be analyzed by researchers and experts that can include more-nuanced evidence-based reliability in PV system evaluationmethods and simulation and design tools.


This study reports on Japanese accentuation by non-native speakers (NNSs) of Japanese from the viewpoints of second language acquisition and implicit brain perception. The major focus was on the interlanguage strategies in their production of accentuation, their style-shifting of accentuation in comparison with that of Ibaraki dialect speakers (IBSs) of Japanese, their language management study of accentuation and the automatic brain perception of auditory accent patterns. The study used two major methods. One involved analyses of each participant's accentuation in natural discourse data, which is different from the general research on accentuation which focuses on the distinct use of an individual word. The second method involved examination of participants' brainwaves as measured without participants' attention to the stimulus sound of accent patterns, after which the mismatch negativity component (MMN) was analysed. The MMN provides the possibility of examining automatic brain responses to the auditory pitch patterns of accentuation. First, NNS participants' production of accentuation in discourse was investigated. Three types of interlanguage strategies (ILSs) of accentuation appeared to be produced on the basis of L2 norms, showing three developmental stages as well as free variations without conscious attention to the accentuation. On the other hand, participants also demonstrated the application of antepenultimate accent strategies and compound accent strategies, which appeared to be produced on the basis of universal norms. Thus, the accentuation of the same participants in the same discourse showed overlapping strategies on the basis of both the L2 and universal norms. Second, the style-shifting of accentuation between formal and informal situations is analysed and compared with that of the IBSs, who produce interdialect strategies (lOSs) showing strong resemblance to ILSs by NNSs of Japanese. It was found that both the NNSs and the Ibaraki dialect speakers showed systematic style-shifting of accentuation without explicit attention, although their style-shifting showed distinctly different characteristics. Third, since language management involves explicit conscious processes, the question of whether NNSs manage their accentuation in discourse is analysed on the basis of follow-up interviews. The following finding was observed: two of 11 participants managed their accentuation explicitly, although most of their management did not proceed to the implementation stage, and therefore, it was considered to be 'weak management'. It is presumed that they began to manage their accentuation, then stopped during the process and finally subconsciously produced ILSs. Lastly, the implicit processing of the two types of accentual pitch patterns in the brains of both NNS and NS participants was investigated by means of brainwave measurement, and the MMN was analysed. The results revealed the implication that both the NNSs and NSs implicitly noted accent patterns, and the unaccented pattern LHH was likely to be responded to as unnatural by both NNSs and NSs, presumably due to the influence of the pitch downtrend phenomenon observed in many languages. The results of this study, particularly the participants' implicit observations and the distinction of accent patterns in their brains, provide theoretical implications for studies on Japanese accentuation in SLA and neuronal correlates of pitch patterns in neuroscience, for example, the levelling of accent like 'specialists' accentuation' appears to be caused by the brain response to the feature of 'unnaturalness' of unaccented pattern. The discourse analyses also suggest new findings related to the influence of universal norms on the production of strategies for second language acquisition. The application of the findings to the teaching of accentuation in Japanese language education is also discussed.


Abstract Background/Objective: To predict recurrence of pressure ulcers (PrUs) in a high-risk populationofveterans with spinal cord injury (SCI). Design:Cross-sectional observational design. Participants: A convenience sample of 64 subjects from 6 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) SCI Centers who had been admitted to the hospital for the treatment of stage III-IV pelvic PrUs and were healed at the time of discharge back to the community. Main Outcome Measures:Primary outcome measures were pelvic PrU recurrence, defined as selfreported new skin breakdown (stage II or greater) in the pelvic area (not necessarily in the same location as previous ulcer) and time to recurrence. Results:There were no differences between those with/without recurrences with regard to age, age at/level of injury, number of previous ulcers or surgery, rate of or time, to recurrence. Mean age was 56 years; most were white and men, lived at home, and had some college education. Mean time since SCI was 22 years; 28% had tetraplegia; mean number of prior pressure ulcers was 3; and almost one half had a previous ulcer in the same location. The strongest predictor of recurrence in a multivariate logistic regression was African American race (odds ratio = 9.3). Additional predictors included higher scores on the Charlson Co-Morbidity Index (indicating a higher burden of illness), the Salzburg PrU Risk Assessment Scales, and longer sitting time at discharge. Conclusion:Identifying individuals at highest risk for recurrence and developing effective prevention programs are essential rehabilitation goals. We recommend that the unique findings of this exploratory study be considered preliminary until replication of these results is published.


The objective of this note is to present the results from the two recent papers. We study the Navier--Stokes equation on the two--dimensional torus when forced by a finite dimensional white Gaussian noise. We give conditions under which both the law of the solution at any time t>0, projected on a finite dimensional subspace, has a smooth density with respect to Lebesgue measure and the solution itself is ergodic. In particular, our results hold for specific choices of four dimensional white Gaussian noise. Under additional assumptions, we show that the preceding density is everywhere strictly positive.


Prefetching into CPU cache has long been known to be effective in reducing the cache miss ratio, but implementations of prefetching have been unsuccessful in improving CPU performance. The reasons for this are that prefetches interfere with normal cache operation by making cache address and data ports busy, the memory bus busy and the memory banks busy, and by not necessarily being complete by the time that the prefetched data is actually referenced. In this paper, we present the results of a very detailed cycle by cycle trace driven stimulation of a uniprocessor memory system, in which we vary several relevant parameters in order to determine when and if prefetching is useful. We find that in order for prefetching to actually improve performance, the address array needs to be double ported, and the data array needs to either be double ported or fully buffered. It is also very helpful for the bus to be reasonably wide, bus transactions to be split and main memory to be interleaved. Under the best circumstances, i.e. with a significant investment in extra hardware, prefetching can significantly improve performances.


The imagination is central to esoteric practices, but so far scholars have shown little interest in exploring cognitive theories of how the imagination works. The only exception is Tanya Luhrmann's interpretive drift theory and related research onmental imagery cultivation, which has been used to explain the subjective persuasiveness of modern ritual magic. This article draws on recent work in the neuroscience of perception in order to develop a general theory of kataphatic (that is, imagery based) practice that goes beyond the interpretive drift theory.Mental imagery is intimately linkedwith perception. Drawing on "predictive coding" theory, the article argues that kataphatic practices exploit the probabilistic, expectation-basedway that the brain processes sensory information and createsmodels (perceptions) of the world. This view throws light onawide rangeof features of kataphatic practices, from their contemplative andcognitive aspects, to their social organization and demographic make-up, to their pageantry and material culture. By connecting readily observable features of kataphatic practice to specific neurocognitive mechanisms related to perceptual learning and cognitive processing of mental imagery, the predictive coding paradigm also creates opportunities for combining historical research with experimental approaches in the study of religion. I illustrate how this framework may enrich the study of Western esotericism in particular by applying it to the paradigmatic case of "astral travel" as it has developed from the GoldenDawn tradition of ritualmagic, especially in the work of Aleister


CLINICAL STUDY. INTRODUCTORY. It may appear presumptuous to insert the word "pneumococcic" in the title of a paper which has to deal largely with a disease or condition with local manifestations involving the mucous membrane of the upper air passages and conjunctivae, because recent investigations tend to show that these anatomic situations are a normal habitat of the pneumococcus. It is, therefore, with a considerable degree of reserve that this title has been adopted, even after coupling a definite clinical picture with the persistent presence of an overwhelming number of pneumococci characterizing this series of cases. It is, of course, impossible to make a numerical division as to what constitutes a normal or an abnormal invasion of pneumococci in the mucous membrane of the eye, nose and throat. Therefore, we do not regard the increase in the number of these organisms, even though it be enormous, of sufficient importance to


Signal compression algorithms are required in speech processing system to support the limited bandwidth requirements. And while compressing the signal, speech quality must not be degraded and modern speech methods makes use of perceptual information present in the signal to distinguish which part of the signal needs to be sent and which needs to be discarded. Measures like Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) do not provide accurate measurement of speech quality of these modern communication systems. Traditionally, Mean opinion score(MOS) is an subjective quality measure with panel of listeners and conducting these tests is very expensive and time consuming making it impractical for all test conditions. An objective quality measure Perceptual evaluation of speech quality was recommended by ITU-T as an enhanced speech quality measure, especially in a laptop microphone system. This research includes the elimination of fan noise, keystroke noise and measurement of speech quality for different noises like factory noise, engine noise etc using PESQ at different SNRs varies from 0db to 45db. The speech enhancement algorithms like Wiener Beamformer, spectral subtraction and combination of Wiener Beamformer and Spectral Subtraction is implemented in Matlab environment, PESQ measures the speech quality range from 1 to 4.5, 1 means poor quality and 4.5 means excellent. In this thesis simulation results shows that the PESQ values for different noise (fan noise, keystroke, factory noise and engine noise) signals using different speech enhancement algorithms (systems) for various SNRs like 0db to 45db. Using these speech enhancement algorithms reduce the fan noise, keystroke noise, factory noise and engine noise for various SNRs with an SNRI and maintaining speech quality. In the simulation results of evaluation method-1, in which the pure speech signal is compared with itself, then PESQ score is observed as 4.5 on the scale of 4.5. In the evaluation method-2, the different noise signals with different sampling frequencies i.e fs=8K and 16K are tested with pure speech signal, to analyze the PESQ variation over different sampling frequencies. With the obtained results it shows that for fs=8kHz, the PESQ score is higher when compared to fs=16KHz as the SNR is gradually increasing from 0 to 45dB. In the evaluation method-3, the Wiener Beamformer system itself preserves the speech quality while attenuating different noises i.e. PESQ score is higher, when compared to SS system and combined system.