Labor informality, common in Latin American economies, is both a cause of low productivity and vulnerability, and a buffer that mitigates job destruction after negative shocks. In the current circumstances, informality is also associated with a higher risk of contagion, thus reducing the willingness of households to get involved in informal activities. To understand and quantify these mechanisms, we propose an SIR model featuring a dual labor market, where households imperfectly substitute informal and formal consumption, and calibrate it to Colombian and Peruvian data. Considering a higher risk of contagion from the informal sector doubles the size of the recession, whereas having less rigidities in markets allows for a faster recovery. Targeting transfers and using selective lockdowns have a similar epidemiological effect as its non-targeted counterparts, but at a lower economic cost. The paper also casts light on the inconvenience of long lockdowns.


In this paper we use the Mars implementation of the Planet Weather Research and Forecasting model, MarsWRF, to simulate the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) vertical profiles from six past missions: Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit, Phoenix, Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, and ExoMars 2016 (Schiaparelli), and compare the results with observed data. In order to investigate the sensitivity of the model predictions to the atmospheric dust distribution, MarsWRF is run with two prescribed dust scenarios. It is concluded that the MarsWRF EDL predictions can be used for guidance into the design and planning stage of future missions to the planet, as it generally captures the observed EDL profiles, although it has a tendency to underestimate the temperature and overestimate the density for heights above 15 km. This could be attributed to an incorrect representation of the observed dust loading. We have used the model to predict the EDL conditions that may be encountered by two future missions: ExoMars 2020 and Mars 2020. When run for Oxia Planum and Jezero Crater for the expected landing time, MarsWRF predicts a large sensitivity to the dust loading in particular for the horizontal wind speed above 10‐15 km with maximum differences of up to ±30 m/s for the former and ±15 m/s for the latter site. For both sites, the best time for EDL, that is, when the wind speed is generally the weakest with smaller shifts in direction, is predicted to be in the late morning and early afternoon.


Standard approaches to sample surveys take as the point of departure the estimation of one or several population totals (or means), or a few predefined sub-totals (or sub-means). While the model-based prediction approach provides an attractive framework for estimation and inference, a model-based theory for the variety of randomization sampling designs has been lacking. In this paper we extend the model-based approach to the prediction of individuals in addition to totals and means. Since, given the sample, the conditional prediction error is zero for the selected units but positive for the units outside of the sample, it is possible to use the sampling design to control the unconditional individual prediction mean square errors. This immediately raises the need for probability sampling. It turns out that balancing between optimal prediction of the population total and control over individual predictions provides a fruitful model-based approach to sampling design. Apart from raising the need for probability sampling in general, it leads naturally to a number of important design features that are firmly established in the sampling practice, including the use of simple random sampling for homogeneous populations and unequal probability sampling otherwise, the division of a business population into the take-all, take-some and take-none units, the most common two-stage sampling designs, the use of stratification with proportional allocation, etc.. Most of them have not received adequate model-based treatment previously. Our approach enables us to give an appraisal of these methods from a prediction point of view.


A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of Master of Science (agronomy) in the school of agriculture and enterprise development, kenyatta university. May, 2018


Chemical communication is the basis of host-microbe interaction. Insights into this communication will provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that govern these complex associations, in beneficial as well as pathogenic contexts. In this dissertation, we used the beneficial relationship between the Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes and its symbiont, bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri as a model system to investigate the molecular transfer from symbiont to host. Using correlative transmission electron microscopy and quantitative ion microprobe isotopic imaging (NanoSIMS; nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry), the transfer and localization of 15N-labeled V. fischeri-derived molecules into tissues of newly-hatched squids were studied. Together, these data suggest that the squid is able to take up and incorporate bacterial products released from the symbiont and from other Gram-negative bacteria. Inoculating squids with strongly 15N-labeled V. fischeri cells, or with outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) released by these cells, resulted in widespread 15N-enrichment inside the host light organ. 15N-enrichment was observed in the light-organ epithelia and in other squid tissues, such as the gills and gut. 15N-enrichment in light-organ tissues was most notable inside cell nuclei: preferentially in the euchromatin regions and the nucleoli. Squids exposed to a mixture of 15N-enriched amino acids showed comparable cellular 15N-distributions, suggesting that the majority of bacterial molecules were transferred to the host as part of a more general chemical transfer from the environment. Inoculating squids with non-symbiotic Vibrionaceae cells (Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Photobacterium leiognathi) produced 15N-enrichment patterns similar and comparable to V. fischeri-induced patterns. It is likely that the similar host 15N-enrichment patterns between all bacterial treatments is induced by molecules that have shared structural and functional features and/or are processed by similar pathways within the host cells. On the other hand, substantial differences in the host 15N-enrichment were observed when squids where exposed to OMVs derived from different bacteria; specifically, V. fischeri, V. parahaemolyticus, and Escherichia coli. These 'OMV 15N-enrichment patterns' were distinct, especially between the Vibrio strains and E. coli, demonstrating a clear host capacity for specific uptake of molecules derived from different bacteria. This thesis provides new insights into the chemical transfer that might occur in the squid's natural habitat. The results indicate that, in addition to the highly specific molecular interactions V. fischeri is known to have with its host, a general molecular exchange takes place. Although the nature of this molecular uptake cannot be inferred from the observations presented here, the molecules involved might have an essential role in interactions between the bacteria and their animal host. In broader terms, this work demonstrates the unique link between the spatial and functional information provided by the NanoSIMS imaging, which has the potential to open a new frontier for the study of communication between host and symbiont.


Automatic discovery of physical topology in support of network management is essential for Ethernet to succeed in metropolitan networks. Nevertheless, to date there is no mechanism capable of automatically discovering the physical topology of Ethernet networks in a heterogeneous multi-vendor environment. This paper introduces such a mechanism. The algorithm collects information available even in low-cost off-the- shelf Ethernet switches, calculates the physical topology of the entire network and keeps the topological view updated during normal network operation as changes in the topology occur. This paper describes the method and its implementation in a testbed network for assessing the performance and the robustness of the mechanism.


At least three marine transgressions of Piliocene age are recorded by littoral to inner-shelf sediments of the Gubik Formation, which mantles the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska. The three recognized transgressions were eustatic high sea levels that, from oldest to youngest, are informally named the Colvillian, Bigbendian, and Fishcreekian transgressions. The geochronology is based up amino acid geochemistry, paleomagnetic studies, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, and strontium isotope age estimates. Pollen, plant macrofossils, and marine vertebrate and inventebrate remains indicate that these transgressions occurred when the Arctic was at least intermittently much warmer than it is now. The Colvillian transgression took place at sometime between 2.48 and 2.7 Ma, when adjacent coastal areas supported an open boreal forest or spruce-birch-woodland with scattered pine and rare fir and hemlock. The Bigbendian transgression occurred about 2.48 Ma. Climate conditions were probably slightly cooler than during the Colvillian transgression, but probably too warm for permafrost and too warm for even seasonal sea ice in the region. Nearby vegetation was open spruce-birch woodland or parkland, possibly with rare scattered pine. The Fishcreekian transgression took place sometime between 2.14 and 2.48 Ma and was also characterized by warm marine conditions without sea ice. During the waning stages of this transgression, however, terrestrial conditions were relatively cool, and coastal vegetation was herbaceous tundra with scattered larch trees in the vicinity. Other marine units from this time period occur around the Arctic Basin. The three oldest transgressions recognized from the Seward Peninsula may be broadly correlated with the three Piliocene transgresions of the Arctic Coastal Plain. The Tusatuvayam beds in Kamchatka possibly correlate with one of the two younger transgressions of northern Alaska. The non-marine Worth Point Formation of Banks Island may be younger than all three of the transgressions of the Arctic Coastal Plain, and marine sediment of the Beaufort Formation on Meighen Island is slightly older than the Colvillian transgression. None of the Piliocene marine units on Baffin Island can be confidently correlated with the high sea level events of northern Alaska. The upper Kap Kobenhavn Formation and the upper Loden Elv Formation of Greenland most likely correlate with the Fishcreekian transgression. Key words: Arctic, amino acids, Pliocene, Pleistocene, paleoclimate, marine transgressions, sea level, Alaska, Gubik Formation


Recent findings based on molecular data support the occurrence in the Azores of several independently evolving lineages of the beetle genus Tarphius Erichson, 1845 (Coleoptera: Zopheridae Solier, 1834) and higher species richness masked by cryptic diversity, needing formal taxonomic description. All Tarphius from the Azores are revised using an integrative taxonomic approach, using evidence from morphology, morphometrics and molecular data to delimit species. Our results reveal that Azorean Tarphius comprise at least five phyletic lineages, two of which share a similar morphology, despite being divergent at the molecular level. A total of four new species are described grouped into two complexes: i) two new species in the "complex tornvalli" with the new taxa Tarphius relictus sp. nov. (Terceira) and Tarphius furtadoi sp. nov. (São Jorge, Faial and Pico) and; ii) two new species in the "complex azoricus-wollastoni-depressus" with the new taxa Tarphius gabrielae sp. nov. (Pico) and Tarphius floresensis sp. nov. (Flores). Descriptions, photographs of holotypes and morphological details, and remarks on diagnostic features comparing similar species are presented. Additional information on the distribution and conservation status of the 12 described species in the archipelago is also provided.


The article is an answer to the reproches moved by some English-speaking theologians against John Duns Scotus. In their opinion the contemporary secularization of the Christian culture would be caused remotely by the alleged scission between philosophy and theology, promoted by Scotus at the end of XIII century and ingrained in his teaching of the univocity of being instead of its analogy. All this would have resulted from the pretended abandon of Augustin's traditional Christian philosophy, which on the contrary would have been cultivated by Thomas Aquinas. - The author shows that this new criticism contains many errors and offers a wrong and misleading image of John Duns Scotus, which is not in conformity with the sources and with the most serious scholarship. In their light, indeed, the Franciscan Master was the protagonist of the return of Augustinism to the universities of Europe, after the Aristotelian revolution, around 1270 operated in Paris, as well as the doctor of its renewed, riper and more profound configuration.


In this study, the writer analyzed on the problems faced by the teacher in teaching speaking at Mahesa course Pare Kediri, how do the teachers cope with the problems. The writer used descriptive qualitative research design in which it only purposed to describe the problems faced by the teacher in teaching english speaking. Meanwhile, the instrument used is interview and observation. The English teachers of speaking class at Mahesa course in Pare Kediri are the subject of this study. The six teachers of speaking class of three classes are as the subject the study.
After analyzing the problems faced by the teacher in teaching English speaking at Mahesa course Pare Kediri, the writer concludes that there are two the problems faced by the teacher in teaching speaking; a) The teachers got problems while teaching speaking, b) The teacher try cope problems by using particular techniques and strategies in their teaching. What are the problems faced by the teachers there were: 1) In teaching speaking the teachers faced some problems in their class. Some their students had different ability and age. The teachers get problems in giving appropriate topic to their students. For example: some students have low ability in English, some students have high ability in English, and some of students are older than the teachers. 2) The teachers faced problems of their student in which some of the students were shy and afraid to speak English. for example: when a student was asked by the teacher to speak in front of the class, he/she said that he/she was shy and afraid to speak. 3) The teachers get problems in teaching speaking because the educational background of the students was different, for example: students were from senior high school, student from S1 program, students were undergraduate students. 4) The problems that face by the teachers in teaching speaking was the motivation to improve their English speaking, but other students had low motivation in learning English speaking.
The teacher cope the problems were as follows: 1) The teachers selected appropriate topic or material that might that might cover all students' ability. The topic or material was not too difficult too easy for the students. 2) The teachers give games and role play to make their students interesting to learn English, especially speaking. 3) The teachers make grouping of the students. In these
activities, every student had the opportunity to speak out and the other students expected to help the other student to speak. 4) The teachers motivate students and give reward. By giving motivation and reward, the teachers expect that reward can stimulate students to be active and the students have good motivation or high motivation.


We follow the sinking of two massive black holes in a spherical stellar system where the black holes become bound under the influence of dynamical friction. Once bound, the binary hardens by three-body encounters with surrounding stars. We find that the binary wanders inside the core, providing an enhanced supply of reaction partners for the hardening. The binary evolves into a highly eccentric orbit leading to coalescence well beyond a Hubble time. These are the first results from a hybrid "self-consistent field" (SCF) and direct Aarseth N-body integrator (NBODY6), which combines the advantages of the direct force calculation with the efficiency of the field method. The code is designed for use on parallel architectures and is therefore applicable to collisional N-body integrations with extraordinarily large particle numbers (>105). This creates the possibility of simulating the dynamics of both globular clusters with realistic collisional relaxation and stellar systems surrounding supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei.


Mathematical morphology is an active research field in image processing. Conventional morphology operates on the entire image in a regular order. In some applications objects of interest only occupy a small portion of the image. The paper proposes directional morphology which only performs on the interesting parts of an image and reacts to certain properties of the region. The operation is carried out in a specific order which is decided dynamically in the process. The new concept leads to an efficient boundary detection algorithm.


Abstract This article examines the effectiveness of International Labour Organisation Complaints (ILO) as a means to protect workers' ability to bargain collectively in the United States. It focuses, as a case study, on an ILO Committee on Freedom of Association ("CFA") report that was issued in 2007. Two years prior, in 2005, The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America ("UE") filed an ILO complaint alleging that a North Carolina statute, NCGS § 95-98, which prohibits any public entity from entering into a collective bargaining agreement with a trade union, violated international law and the United States' treaty obligations under the ILO regime. The CFA agreed and recommended that the statute be repealed.Any attempt to enforce the CFA's report (UE Report) in a U.S. district court would be fraught with obstacles. This article addresses these obstacles in turn. Part I discusses the UE Report in relation to domestic precedent upholding NCGS § 95-98 under United States constitutional law. Part II examines the legal basis of the UE Report under international law, including whether the right to bargain collectively is a preemptory norm. Part III, finally, considers the domestic enforceability of ILO treaty law and the UE Report under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Medellín v. Texas, an immediately important transnational law decision.


Manufacture of textiles significantly contributes not only to water resources, natural resources and inputs of pollutants into the atmosphere, setting and the amount of waste entering the landfill. Majority of textile products are made from mixed the composition of inorganic substances that naturally hard to break down. Textile waste can be recycled and can be used in new product development. In this paper, waste flows of textile cutting evaluated in the selected company, on the strength of the waste management hierarchy scheme, scenarios were offered for industrial textile waste and was created a model. The model was introduced to reduce industrial textile waste disposal to a landfill. It was recommended by the author that industrial textile waste can be new products, such as accessories, bags, animal wear and bearings, etc. The amount of textile waste to evaluate in the company set up research methodology, which is based on a real examination (cutting process monitoring, textile waste measuring, weighing) one month. Also, a methodology was developed to assess the actual textile waste streams and their change after installation scenarios analyzed. Methodology - evaluate the effectiveness of the model, based on sustainability indicators. Based on the waste hierarchy diagram, were created and evaluated textile scrap handling scenarios, according to the model developed. The created model was assessment of environmental, social and economic indicators. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.75.1.21703


We provide a theoretical characterization of international stochastic discount factors (SDFs) in incomplete markets under different degrees of market segmentation. Using 40 years of data on a cross-section of countries, we estimate model-free SDFs and factorize them into permanent and transitory components. We find that large permanent SDF components help to reconcile the low exchange rate volatility, the exchange rate cyclicality, and the forward premium anomaly. However, integrated markets entail highly volatile and almost perfectly comoving international SDFs. In contrast, segmented markets can generate less volatile and more dissimilar SDFs. In quest of relating the SDFs to economic fundamentals, we document strong links between proxies of financial intermediaries' risk-bearing capacity and model-free international SDFs. We interpret this evidence through the lens of an economy with two building blocks: limited participation by households and financiers who face an intermediation friction.


The article presents the significant, though not universally acknowledged, role of marketing in generating imbalance in the developmental processes of modern economy and society. As the foundation of such analysis, the authors adopted the category of values, which constitutes on the one hand ethical reflection accompanying human activities connected with sustainable development, and on the other explains the nature of market behaviour of the modern consumer. In the search for the mechanism disturbing sustainable development, the authors pointed to the phenomenon of degradation of household as the most important component of the socio-economic system. Such degradation occurs under pressure from the market powered by innovation, the enterprise exposed to fierce competition and the state which supports in its policy the concentration of capital and unbalanced consumption. It has been proved that the processes which shorten the market life cycle of goods and reduce the contemporary human, market participant, to the role of an unreflective consumer, are in conflict with the principles of sustainable development. Modern marketing can be oriented to the realization of the principles of sustainable development, introducing the paradigm of ecologisation into the theory and practice of marketing activity – with reference to the model of managing a modern enterprise as well as to the process of revision in consumers' consciousness and attitudes, gradually turning them into eco-consumers.


ABSTRACT The physiological plasticity of five cyanobacteria microbial mats from an extreme high temperature intertidal environment (SW Iceland) was analysed both daily and seasonally. Daily cycles under in situ natural conditions were monitored from June to October using pulse-amplitude modulated (PAM) fluorometry and pigment composition in order to study the photosynthetic performance of these microbial mats in relation to environmental fluctuations linked to irradiance and temperature. In vitro temperature and salinity experiments of photosynthetic responses were also conducted. A total of 10 taxa were identified, the most abundant species being Cyanobacterium sp. and Geitlerinema sp. The microbial mats showed a remarkable photosynthetic adaptation to daily and seasonal changes in temperature and solar radiation. For all microbial mats, rETRmax values decreased from June to October, while Fv/Fm remained constant in terms of absolute values. Although high irradiances during June and July affected photosynthesis through photoinhibition, recovery was observed under high temperatures (between 40–50°C), which supports the hypothesis that temperature is a determining factor in the photosynthetic performance of these cyanobacterial mats. Our results showed a significant increase in the Chla-b and phycobiliproteins content from June to October, as well as a significant decrease in total carotenoids content.


Mental toughness has frequently been associated with successful performance in sport; however, recent research suggests that it may also be related to academic performance in Higher Education. In a series of three exploratory studies, we examined the relationship between mental toughness and different aspects of educational performance in adolescents aged 11–16, focusing on academic attainment, school attendance, classroom behaviour and peer relationships. Study 1 revealed significant associations between several aspects of mental toughness (but particularly control of life) and academic attainment and attendance. Study 2 revealed significant associations between several aspects of mental toughness (but again particularly control of life) and counterproductive classroom behaviour. Finally, Study 3 demonstrated significant associations between aspects of mental toughness (confidence in abilities and interpersonal confidence) and peer relationships. The results are discussed in terms of the potential value of mental toughness as a useful concept in education.


We present new observations and photoionization calculations for investigating gaseous regions that represent expected nuclear processing in the Crab Nebula supernova remnant. High helium abundance is shown to cause a very efficient [N II] λλ6548,6583 emitting zone which can account for some strong nitrogen emission. This high helium abundance causes strong emission of [C I] λλ9823,9850. When emission line measurements are compared with model simulations, most of the nebular gas appears to have depleted or solar nitrogen and enhanced carbon. This argues for a precursor star that had a mass greater than 9.5M . We also use images of selected emission lines along with photoionization calculations to investigate the overall spatial distribution of elements in the Crab Nebula. We introduce new methods of calibrating direct images, including using existing Fabry-Perot data to take into account the different line-of-sight velocities of each individual filament. After processing, we compare these flux distributions with a large number of numerical model simulations to produce abundance maps of helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur in the Crab Nebula. These maps show evidence of gas that has undergone Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen processing, helium-burning, and oxygen-burning. High sulfur abundances mixed with gas representative of CNO processing were most likely generated from an off-center oxygen flash and then repositioned north and southeast from the pulsar by a relativistic wind. Clear evidence of oxygen burning material in the remnant gives strong support for a precursor star mass near 10M .


As global temperatures rise, drought-induced human relocation is expected to increase. Using original national survey data from Kenya, we investigate whether people who report relocating due to drought are more likely to be victims of violence than people who do not move. We also examine whether this migrant sample supports the use of violence at higher levels than the general population, conditional on their experiences. We measure the duration of relocation (temporary versus permanent) as well as the characteristics of the arrival area, including co-ethnic demographics. Controlling for many individual-level and contextual variables, we find that those who have relocated are consistently more likely to be victims of violence than those who have not. We also find that those who relocated temporarily support the use of violence at higher levels than the general population if and only if they are themselves victims of violence. Vulnerable migrant populations may be subject to violence as observational aggregate studies suggest, but they are not likely to be the sources of violence unless victimized first.


Laser Sintering is an Additive Manufacturing technology that uses digital files to construct 3-dimensional parts by depositing and consolidating layers of powdered material. Application of the technology for metal and ceramic powders is common but the focus of this work was on polymer laser sintering. A significant drawback for polymer laser sintering is the limited selection of materials currently available for use compared with more conventional processes such as injection moulding. This constrains the usefulness of the technology for designers and engineers. A primary reason for this is a lack of detailed understanding of the development process for new materials for laser sintering. This PhD investigation examines some of the key attributes and requirements needed for successfully implementing new polymer-based laser sintering materials.

A strategic method for characterizing and identifying new polymer materials was created utilizing thermal measurements, practical and analytical methods to quantify sintering rate, and degradation studies. Validation of this work occurred through the successful integration of a new laser sintering material at industrial project partner Burton Snowboards. Thermal degradation as a result of the laser sintering process was studied in detail and resulted in the creation of a proposed new parameter: Stable Sintering Region (SSR). The term acknowledges and defines the region above the melting point that is the minimum requirement for sintering to occur and an upper limit beyond which polymer deterioration impedes on mechanical properties. A quantitative approach to define the SSR was developed and explored with three different laser sintering materials, two of which were flexible elastomers. The ability to specifically interpret laser sintering process parameters from thermal degradation characterization was created and used to explore the effects of high energy input on tensile properties and molecular weight. The results of these tests showed the potential to identify an Optimum Sintering Range based on maximizing mechanical properties through the control of energy input and molecular weight.

This thesis makes a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of polymer laser sintering, especially in the context of materials development. Novel concepts such as the Stable Sintering Region were developed using a theoretical approach and practical measurements and were also thoroughly explored for verification. Additionally, a new method to use a powder characterization technique to predict the actual machine parameters of a material in the laser sintering process was quantified. This has several implications for testing new materials for laser sintering and efficiently identifying appropriate processing conditions.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are astonishingly versatile molecular species and radicals that are poised at the core of a sophisticated network of signaling pathways of plants and act as core regulator of cell physiology and cellular responses to environment. ROS are continuously generated in plants as an inevitable consequence of redox cascades of aerobic metabolism. In one hand, plants are surfeited with the mechanism to combat reactive oxygen species, in other circumstances, plants appear to purposefully generate (oxidative burst) and exploit ROS or ROS-induced secondary breakdown products for the regulation of almost every aspect of plant biology, from perception of environmental cues to gene expression. The molecular language associated with ROS-mediated signal transduction, leading to modulation in gene expression to be one of the specific early stress response in the acclamatory performance of the plant. They may even act as "second messenger" modulating the activities of specific proteins or expression of genes by changing redox balance of the cell. The network of redox signals orchestrates metabolism for regulating energy production to utilization, interfering with primary signaling agents (hormones) to respond to changing environmental cues at every stage of plant development. The oxidative lipid peroxidation products and the resulting generated products thereof (associated with stress and senescence) also represent "biological signals," which do not require preceding activation of genes. Unlike ROS-induced expression of genes, these lipid peroxidation products produce nonspecific response to a large variety of environmental stresses. The present review explores the specific and nonspecific signaling language of reactive oxygen species in plant acclamatory defense processes, controlled cell death, and development. Special emphasis is given to ROS and redox-regulated gene expression and the role of redox-sensitive proteins in signal transduction event. It also describes the emerging complexity of apparently contradictory roles that ROS play in cellular physiology to ascertain their position in the life of the plant.


Ample evidence exists about the importance of physical activity for developing and maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle. As many habits are formed when young, well-planned and effective movement programs specifically designed for young children are important. In this paper, the influence of a new teaching resource designed to support teachers in implementing a fundamental movement skill program on the children in the classes is presented using a case study approach. The case studies were constructed with teachers and children in a range of early childhood settings. The impact of the program on the children's level of confidence, knowledge of fundamental movement skills and personal physical activity level is presented. This information was gathered using direct observation methods, observation records and questionnaires. The findings indicated an increase in the children's physical activity levels, confidence and knowledge about fundamental movement skills.


The flexural and dynamic mechanical behavior were evaluated for a new jute woven fabric/cork-reinforced polyester sandwich composite. To improve the fiber/matrix adhesion, jute fibers were treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and silane prior to composite preparation. The results indicated that the flexural strength and modulus of the composites increased after the alkali and alkali + silane treatments. Similarly, dynamic mechanical parameters, such as storage and loss modulus of the sandwiches, were enhanced as a result of alkali and silane treatments due to a better fiber/matrix adhesion compared with the untreated composites. It was also shown that the damping parameter decreased after the interfacial treatments, which indicated that the energy damping efficiency decreased as the interface quality was improved.


Two Lactobacillus spp. were isolated from four yogurt samples, which were identified on the basis of their colony morphologies grown on MRS (Man, Rogosa and Sharpe) media and on the basis of biochemical tests conducted in the laboratory. Based on biochemical characteristics and further screen, these two isolates were selected for probiotic screening and further study. Gram staining, Catalase test, Oxidase test, Sugar fermentation, Bile salt test, NaCl tolerance test and pH tolerance test were done in this regard. Based on the OD (Optical Density), it was evident that all isolates can grow from bile salt concentration 0.05% to 0.25% and pH 2.5 to pH 5.5, can be used as probiotic. For NaCl tolerance test, two isolates showed slight decrease of growth during 1% to 4% NaCl supplementation. After isolation of probiotic strain from yogurt, these strains were used for the development of probiotic milk drinks. These drinks were developed where one was controlled and other two were mixed with different concentration of fruit (mango juice). The analysis of probiotic milk drinks showed the highest fat content was 4.50%, protein content 3.99%, ash content 1.90%, acidity 0.78%. Storage studies were carried out for fifteen days at refrigeration temperature (5±10 ◦C) and samples were taken at an interval of three days. After 15 days acidity ranged between 0.91 to 0.95% and the counts of Isolate 1 and Isolate 2 ranged between 8.75∼9.55 log cfu/ml those were >5 log cfu/ml which makes probiotic milk drinks as health product. The sensory scores of the 10% mango juice mixed with probiotic milk drinks was significantly higher than that of the 5% (p<0.05) and the liking score ranged in the medium-like.


Epidemiological studies have reported significantly higher rates of self harm in South Asian women than South Asian men or White British women, particularly within the 16-24 age group (Cooper et al., 2006). Furthermore, findings of qualitative studies indicate that South Asian women do not feel able to access mainstream support services (Chew-Graham, Bashir, Chantler, Burman, & Batsleer, 2002). As a result researchers have emphasised the importance of developing services which are appropriate to South Asian women's needs and that achieving this will require understanding of self harm from the women's own frame of reference (Husain, Waheed, & Husain, 2006).

The present study aimed to explore the experiences and meanings of South Asian women who self harm; and their experiences and perceptions of support services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six women of South Asian ethnicity who have experience of self harm, five of which were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Individual and group level analyses were conducted and three superordinate themes of control, identity and communication emerged, although the interrelations between them were also important in understanding the women's experiences and meanings of self harm.

The meanings of self harm offered by the women in this study are similar to those described in other studies with South Asian women (Bhardwaj, 2001; Chantler, Burman, Batsleer, & Bashir, 2001; Marshall & Yazdani, 1999) and white western women (Babiker & Arnold, 1997); however, the participants' ambivalence regarding their self harm was more apparent. Qualitative methodology allowed exploration of the complexities and ambiguities in the women's experiences and meanings, including how they both endorsed and rejected concepts such as 'culture clash' and self harm as 'attention seeking'.

Participants simultaneously described both positive and negative experiences and perceptions of support services, including valuing a confidential forum within which to talk and feel understood. Themes which emerged included service responses inadvertently exacerbating distress; fear of judgment and the impact of ethnicity.

These findings are discussed in relation to the wider research and the extent to which the women's accounts speak to psychological models of self harm is also considered.

Strengths and limitations of the study, clinical recommendations and further research possibilities are outlined.


OBJECTIVE
Whereas left atrial (LA) strain has been well-validated using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), its detection using transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has not been studied. Conventional transesophageal views are known to be limited due to the posterior location of the LA. Here, the feasibility and accuracy of the deep transgastric long-axis LA focused view for peak atrial longitudinal strain (PALS) quantification was tested.

DESIGN
This was a retrospective study of patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery between 2018 and 2020. TEE deep transgastric long-axis view was compared to TTE 4-chamber atrial focused view as the reference standard. LA area, volume, and PALS were quantified independently.

SETTING
At Weill Cornell Medicine, a single, large academic medical center.

PARTICIPANTS
The population comprised 42 patients undergoing cardiac surgery who had a TTE and TEE within 14.9 ± 20.8 days.

INTERVENTIONS
TTE, TEE, and cardiac surgery.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
TEE-derived PALS strongly correlated with TTE- derived PALS (r = 0.92, p < 0.001), though absolute PALS were lower (20.7 ± 6.0% v 25.7 ± 6.8%; p < 0.001). Mean TEE-derived atrial length was similar to TTE-derived length (5.18 ± 0.61 cm v 5.24 ± 0.61 cm; p = 0.38), but mean LA area was significantly smaller (16.7 ± 3.5 cm2v 18.9 ± 3.7 cm2; p < 0.001), with significant correlations between the 2 modalities for both (r = 0.74, 0.74, respectively; all p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
This exploratory study supported the feasibility of TEE for assessing LA longitudinal strain. There was an excellent correlation between atrial strain derived via TEE versus TTE, although values tended to be smaller on TEE, and bias between values was highly variable, suggesting that the values were not interchangeable.


In this paper, we consider a simulation technique for stochastic trees. One of the most important areas in computational genetics is the calculation and subsequent maximization of the likelihood function associated with such models. This typically consists of using importance sampling and sequential Monte Carlo techniques. The approach proceeds by simulating the tree, backward in time from observed data, to a most recent common ancestor. However, in many cases, the computational time and variance of estimators are often too high to make standard approaches useful. In this paper, we propose to stop the simulation, subsequently yielding biased estimates of the likelihood surface. The bias is investigated from a theoretical point of view. Results from simulation studies are also given to investigate the balance between loss of accuracy, saving in computing time and variance reduction.


SC-FDMA for Mobile Communications examines Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA). Explaining this rapidly evolving system for mobile communications, it describes its advantages and limitations and outlines possible solutions for addressing its current limitations.The book explores the emerging trend of cooperative communication with SC-FDMA and how it can improve the physical layer security. It considers the design of distributed coding schemes and protocols for wireless relay networks where users cooperate to send their data to the destination.Supplying you with the required foundation in cooperative communication and cooperative diversity, it presents an improved Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)-based SC-FDMA system. It introduces a distributed spacetime coding scheme and evaluates its performance and studies distributed SFC for broadband relay channels. Presents relay selection schemes for improving the physical layer Introduces a new transceiver scheme for the SC-FDMA system Describes spacetime/frequency coding schemes for SC-FDMA Includes MATLAB codes for all simulation experiments The book investigates Carrier Frequency Offsets (CFO) for the Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) SC-FDMA system, and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) SC-FDMA system simulation software. Covering the design of cooperative diversity schemes for the SC-FDMA system in the uplink direction, it also introduces and studies a new transceiver scheme for the SC-FDMA system.


General purpose pitch-based carbon fiber (PCF) was pretreated with steam to develop pores on the surface of fiber. After immersed in cobalt salt solution, PCF was used as raw materials to prepare activated carbon fiber (ACF) through steam activation process. The effect of pretreatment of carbon fiber on specific surface area, mesopore volume and pore size distribution was investigated by N2 adsorption, and morphology of the resultant ACF was observed with scanning electron microscope(SEM). The results show that pretreatment of PCF enlarges specific surface area and mesopore ratio of ACF remarkably. The best ACF obtained in experiment is the one with specific surface area of 2670 m2/g and mesoporosity of 61.8%. Cobalt has evident catalysis in preparing ACF from activation of PCF, while specific surface area and pore size of ACF get smaller with cobalt salt immersion when pretreatment is too strong.


The use of digital technology has increased considerably since the late 1990's and for young people in particular digital platforms are an integral part of their lives. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have a range of important benefits for children and adolescents, but children can also encounter a range of online risks that can have serious effects on their well-being and development. An increasing amount of research is being carried out into young people's experiences of cyberaggression and cyberbullying, which have been found to have serious psychological, emotional, behavioural and educational effects. This is an issue that not only impacts the individuals involved, but also has serious implications in relation to school safety and the school social climate.
This report outlines a study conducted by the University of Buckingham and Sir John Cass's Foundation, that examined the online behaviours and experiences of 320 adolescents aged 13-18 years as well as the perceptions of 130 parents.

The findings showed that adolescents had a high level of access to ICTs and engaged in a number of online activities which were mainly social in nature. Most adolescents in the sample (69%) had experienced at least one type of cyberaggression, which was most likely to involve being called a hurtful name online, having a picture posted online to embarrass them, or having rumours or gossip spread about them online. Of these adolescents, 43% reported that they had been cyberbullied. These findings are towards the high end of those reported in other studies
globally. In addition to victimisation, nearly half of adolescents (48%) admitted perpetrating an act of cyberaggression and most adolescents (77%) had witnessed cyberbullying while online. The findings show the complexity of cyberbullying acts and the need to address the multiple roles associated with these behaviours. When asked about their experiences in the past 12 months, a quarter of adolescents reported that they had been cyberbullied during this time. Although face-to-face
bullying continues to be the most common form of bullying experienced by young people, experiences of cyberbullying and face-to-face bullying were often linked. Adolescents reported serious emotional effects due to these experiences. Our findings also indicated that adolescents were most likely to confide in friends about these experiences rather than adults and that parents and teachers were largely removed from young people's online experiences. This was clear from the data obtained from
parents, which showed that they significantly underestimated their child's experiences and engagement in cyberaggression and overestimated their monitoring of ICT use in the home.

The findings in this report reflect the importance of working with adolescents to build digital literacy, empathy and resilience as well as the importance of including parents in online safety efforts. Importantly, the report advocates a multi-level approach to addressing the issue of
cyberaggression and cyberbullying and highlights the need for action by government, external support services, funding bodies and organisations, schools and teachers as well as parents and young people. A comprehensive approach to tackling cyberaggression and cyberbullying and enhancing online safety of young people is needed, which would include effort at all levels. The report outlines key recommendations for involvement at each level in an effort to drive forward an impactful response to this important issue.


The health care climate is one of stormy relations between various entities. Employers, managed care organizations, hospitals, and physicians battle over premiums, inpatient rates, fee schedules, and percent of premium dollars. Patients are angry at health plans over problems with access, choice, and quality of care. Employers dicker with managed care organizations over prices, benefits, and access. Hospitals struggle to maintain operations, as occupancy rates decline and the shift to ambulatory care continues. Physicians strive to assure their patients get quality care while they try to maintain stable incomes. Businesses, faced with similar challenges in the competitive marketplace, have formed partnerships for mutual benefit. Successful partnerships are based upon trust and the concept of "win-win." Communication, ongoing evaluation, long-term relations, and shared values are also essential. In Japan, the keiretsu contains the elements of a bonafide partnership. Examples in U.S. businesses abound. In health care, partnerships will improve quality and access. When health care purchasers and providers link together, these partnerships create a new value chain that has patients as the focal point.


In this paper, a high-order and conditionally stable stochastic difference scheme is proposed for the numerical solution of $rm Ithat{o}$ stochastic advection diffusion equation with one dimensional white noise process. We applied a finite difference approximation of fourth-order for discretizing space spatial derivative of this equation. The main properties of deterministic difference schemes, i.e. consistency, stability and convergence, are developed for the stochastic case. It is shown through analysis that the proposed scheme has these properties. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the computational efficiency of the stochastic scheme.


Abstract
Purpose
In a period of moral and economic crisis all the alternative solutions to finance economic activities are interesting to study, specifically those embedded in solidarity practices. The nature of the ties (bonding ties, linking ties or bridging ties) and solidarities (institutional solidarity, formal or informal solidarity, intergenerational solidarity) must then be examined.

Methodology/approach
The exchanges between the people are governed by three different modes: the market, the redistribution and the reciprocity which acts to maintain the relation (Lavoue, Jezequel, & Janvier, 2010, p. 34). The exchanges are not only of economic order and also participate in the symbolic world. Our main question is: can the relations of exchange become emancipated from the reification? We illustrate this chapter with the case of the Kabylian traditional society and market (Benet, 1957–1975) where the practices of exchanges are not only of economic order (redistribution …) but also matter with the symbolic world (honour).

Findings
Even today, in Kabylia, the survival of an ancestral social organisation (tajmaat) which has anchored in tradition and rooted values (tirugza) and practices (tiwiza) sometimes allows the local populations to offer the missing public goods or the solidarity towards those who need help (elders, orphans).

Originality/value
In traditional Kabyle society, exchange practices are not only economic in nature (they contribute to mutual assistance, redistribution, etc.), but are also symbolic.


We propose an operational form for the kernel of a mapping between an operator acting in a Hilbert space of a quantum system with an symmetry group and its symbol in the corresponding classical phase space. For symmetric irreps of , this mapping is bijective. We briefly discuss complications that will occur in the general case.


Abstract Nowadays, the increasing number of non-linear loads influences the grid, causing grid voltage disturbances. These disturbances may be very dangerous for the equipment and can create faults in converter behaviour. However, the right control algorithm can improve the reliability of the work. For a current source rectifier, the finite control set model predictive control has been proposed. This method is very flexible because of the variety of the possible cost function forms. It has been examined under grid voltage disturbed by the higher harmonics and the voltage drop. Simulation results prove the ability to damp the distortions and to ensure the unity power factor. Summing up, the algorithm is a very good solution for use in applications such as battery charging, active power filtering and low-voltage direct current load feeding.


Background Point-of-care testing has been developed to provide rapid test results. Most published studies focus on analytical performance, neglecting its impact on patient outcomes. Objective To review the analytical performance and accuracy of point-of-care testing specifically planned for immunoassay and to evaluate the impact of faster results on patient management. Methods A search of electronic databases for studies reporting immunoassay results obtained in both point-of-care testing and central laboratory scenarios was performed. Data were extracted concerning the study details, and the methodological quality was assessed. The analytical characteristics and diagnostic accuracy of six points-of-care testing: troponin, procalcitonin, parathyroid hormone, brain natriuretic peptide, C-reactive protein and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin were evaluated. Results A total of 116 scientific papers were analysed. Studies measuring procalcitonin, parathyroid hormone and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin reported a limited impact on diagnostic decisions. Seven studies measuring C-reactive protein claimed a significant reduction of antibiotic prescription. Several authors evaluated brain natriuretic peptide or troponin reporting faster decision-making without any improvement in clinical outcome. Forty-four per cent of studies reported analytical data, showing satisfactory correlations between results obtained through point-of-care testing and central laboratory setting. Half of studies defined the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care testing as acceptable for troponin (median sensitivity and specificity: 74% and 94%, respectively), brain natriuretic peptide (median sensitivity and specificity: 82% and 88%, respectively) and C-reactive protein (median sensitivity and specificity 85%). Conclusions Point-of-care testing immunoassay results seem to be reliable and accurate for troponin, brain natriuretic peptide and C-reactive protein. The satisfactory analytical performance, together with an excellent practicability, suggests that it could be a consistent tool in clinical practice, but data are lacking regarding the patient outcomes.


A narrative is a form of discourse that tells about a series of events related to a community. Narration is an integral component of the literary texts which reflect the social, cultural, psychological, economic and political contexts of a nation. The nations and communities establish their identity and image through their narratives which reflect their culture, history, myths, idioms, proverbs, heroes and ideological roots. In the historical perspectives, colonialism, for instance, was established by force and power, however, later on, it was promoted and strengthened by the European poets and writers in their creative works. The novelists like Jane Austin, Joseph Conrad, Chenua Achebe, Rudyard Kipling and E.M. Forster advocated the narratives of their people which still hold good and are sold in the international community for the enhancement of the soft image of their societies. These accommodative and adoptive narratives reflect the attitude and behaviour, politics, climatic conditions, history, relationship, culture, characters and characterization, Economic philosophies, rivers, titles, themes, Settings, Hydronymy, Psychology and Symbolism in their novels. For instance, the colonial narrative is always exploited for 'blaming the accused' in the texts of the colonial period. Our country is in need of such novelists to come up with their imaginative creations for sensitizing the readers to the issues which have globally threatening humanity and its peaceful and productive future. They, as the children of a successful anticolonial struggle, can accommodate Pakistani narrative in their novels to the international community which is painting and presenting our negative picture. In this paper a brief analysis is drawn about the inserting of a Pakistani narrative in the socio-political, psychological and historical perspectives.


The Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbine (DAWT) combines a diffuser and a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT). This set-up was designed with the intention to accelerate upstream wind speeds to the wind turbine rotor using a diffuser thereby generating more power at a given upstream wind speed. The purpose of this research was to investigate the DAWT in terms of optimising performance through diffuser design and testing the effect of building integration on performance. Numerical studies were used to evaluate performance parameters: turbine disk loading, pressure coefficients, tip speed ratio and power coefficient. Augmentation factors quantified the improvement in wind turbine performance when applied with a diffuser using measured wind speeds and pressures. The first study observed the drop in performance between a free stream and roof-mounted DAWT. Following this, two 'shrouds' were compared where the diffuser outperformed the concentrator with an augmentation factor of 2.94 versus 1.87 respectively. Numerical studies then focussed on diffuser design by testing eight aerofoil cross-sectional profiles and applying design area (At/Ae) and length-to-diameter (L/D) ratios. The 'Optimum DAWT' design was identified as the A5 (FX60 PR281 At/Ae 0.25 L/D 2.5) model. The augmentation factor was an average of 1.42 and 7.43 based on the ratio of wind speeds. A study then tested the roof-mounted A5 model in four Atmospheric Boundary Layer's (ABL) each representing the wind speed profile of a different urban terrain. The change in ABL was found to have little influence on augmentation. The Optimum DAWT restored wind speeds otherwise lost at the rotor due to building presence. Higher wind speeds and a favourable pressure drop across the roof-mounted rotor in the direction of wind flow were better controlled and distributed with the diffuser. From experimental testing of the Optimum DAWT it was found that wind speeds to the test rotor increased by 136% from 1.02m/s to 2.41m/s. The augmentation ratio was 8.32 based on the ratio of wind speeds. The Optimum DAWT exhibited better responsive behaviour than the test bare wind turbine in terms of matching the expected output power profile and a smaller response time for output power in relation to changing in wind speeds.


This assay analyzes the docking of BLRU for the SG-Ⅲ Laser Facility, where centering and collision issues are pointed out as the key technologies for BLRU docking monitoring. The centering technology mainly transforms the three-dimensional problem into two-dimensional one, adopting the characteristic of machine version capturing to analyze the position and posture of BLRU. The collision monitoring technology mainly takes advantage of the principle that power is generated in the collision during the process of assembly and calibration. Monitoring the forces from each direction, the degree of indirect response to the collision, returning feedback to the docking platform after measurement data is analyzed, and amending the docking trajectory of the BLRU in time can achieve the light collision docking during the full process of BLRU.


A basic phosphoprotein defined by a monoclonal antibody named AF5 was found to be highly abundant in human hepatocellular carcinoma by Western immunoblotting. Under the same conditions, the levels of this phosphoprotein were low or undetectable in normal liver extracts. The AF5 antibody was used to screen a cDNA expression library of a human hepatoma cell line named FOCUS. A 960-base-pair cDNA was isolated and found to be a partial cDNA encoding the human protein-tyrosine kinase substrate p36, also known as lipocortin II. p36 expression was highly abundant in hepatocellular carcinomas at both the transcript and protein levels. Its expression was not induced significantly during rat liver regeneration following a partial hepatectomy. These results suggest that the induction of p36 expression is associated with malignant transformation of hepatocytes. p36 was previously shown to be phosphorylated upon transformation of normal fibroblasts by retroviral oncogenes without significant modulation of expression. We report here the initial description of the association of increased p36 expression with malignant transformation.


A non-smooth optimization approach for designing constant output-feedback controllers for linear time-invariant systems is considered. The design requirements combine H∞ performance requirements with regional pole constraints. The pole constraints are embedded in the design criterion using a transformation on the system model which modifies the H∞-norm of the closed-loop system via a barrier function that is related to the closed-loop poles damping. The method is applied to various flight control examples.


The paper presents a fast algorithm for real-time image processing for counting and classification of vehicles in heterogeneous traffic recorded using a single stationary camera. The proposed method uses a single feature as the base parameter which is given by the user to classify the vehicles into four different classes. The algorithm has an error of 6.1% on an average for the total count when studied under varying illumination and weather conditions.


This report assesses the future impact of two dynamically transforming economies – China and India – on Russia's economy. China is slowing down and rebalancing its economy whereas India is rapidly expanding. What does this hold for Russia? The report begins with a snapshot of findings, followed by eight chapters. Chapter one motivates the topic and identifies analytical and empirical gaps that this report fills. Chapter two examines the current pattern of trade between Russia and the two countries, and it discusses how important – or not – China and India's economies are for Russia. Chapter three follows by summarizing the results of three complementary approaches for measuring Russia's trade potential with China and India (and also the rest of the world). Chapter fourth intuitively describes the customized methodology developed for this report; its major caveats and assumptions, and its possible extensions (technical details, for those interested, are in the annexes). Chapter fifth outlines four plausible scenarios of the potential impact on Russia of changes in China and India, and chapter sixth presents the results. Chapter seventh explores the sensitivity of results to changes key in assumptions. Finally, chapter eighth concludes with emerging policy implications for Russia.


Abstract This paper first reviews the salt basins and depositional ages in the South Atlantic salt province. This comprises a series of salt basins separated by basement highs, deep graben (that never dried up), later volcanic highs and subaerial ocean spreading ridges. Initial halite and anhydrite deposition occurred first in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin of NE Brazil at c. 124.8 Ma, and was closely followed by deposition in the Kwanza Basin, Angola between 124.5 and 121 Ma. The later potassium-magnesium-rich salts were deposited in the Sergipe-Alagoas and Gabon-Congo basins before 114.5 Ma. The age of the main Santos-Campos salt is not known precisely, but the latest anhydrites deposited on the southern margin of the Santos Basin post-date volcanic rocks dated at 113.2 Ma. The paper then compares the salt tectonics of the wide Campos-Santos Basin segment with the narrow South Bahia basins segment. Sediment loading in the Santos Basin produced a landward-dipping base salt, which led to the development of counter-regional faults, and inhibited downslope sliding, and enhanced later contractional effects caused by either gravity spreading or regional tectonic compression. Folding occurred in simultaneous pulses across the Santos Basin, suggesting that regional tectonic compression occurred. The narrow salt basins of South Bahia have a steeply dipping base salt horizon (4°) and pronounced folding, which initiates at the oceanward pinch-out of the salt and propagates back up the slope. The topographic highs, above fold anticlines, are rapidly eroded on narrow margin slopes, which allows the folds to grow more easily to large amplitudes at the top salt horizon.


A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated 2C-7T, was isolated from symptomatic bark of a Populus × euramericana canker. Growth occurred between 10 and 37 °C and between pH 6 and 10, with optimal growth at 30 °C and pH 7.0-8.0. Growth was present under 0-8 % (w/v) salinity conditions (optimum 1-2 %). Growth occurred in the presence of 10 mM chromium (Cr6+). The major fatty acids (≥10 %) of the novel strain were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phospholipid, glycolipid and two unknown lipids. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone MK-11. The cell wall amino acids were 2,4-diaminobutyric acid, alanine, glutamic acid and glycine. Strain 2C-7T was most similar to Leucobacter celer subsp. celer NAL101T (97.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), 'Leucobacter kyeonggiensis' F3-P9T (97.1 %) and Leucobacter chromiireducens L-1T (97.1 %). In the phylogenetic tree, the isolate formed a single distinct branch separate from those of L. celer subsp. celer NAL101T, 'L. kyeonggiensis' F3-P9T and Leucobacter chironomi DSM 19883T. The DNA-DNA hybridization values between the novel strain and the reference strains were lower than the accepted bacterial threshold level of 70 % for species delineation. The DNA G+C content of strain 2C-7T was 70.0 mol%. Based on the data, strain 2C-7T represents a novel species in the genus Leucobacter, for which the name Leucobacter corticis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 2C-7T (=CFCC 11901T=KCTC 39643T).


In the present work, 2-step mechanical coating technique (2-step MCT), an advanced MCT, was proposed and carried out to form TiO2/Ti composite photocatalyst film with anatase TiO2. The microstructures and photocatalytic activity of the composite film were investigated. The results show that the proposed 2-step MCT is a simple process for forming TiO2/Ti composite film. The composite film has a microstructure with a nonuniform thickness, like random distribution islands. The TiO2/Ti composite film has high photocatalytic activity, which is related with crystallinity and volume of the TiO2 in the composite film.


A joint model of scalable video coding (SVC) uses exhaustive mode and motion searches to select the best prediction mode and motion vector for each macroblock (MB) with high coding efficiency at the cost of computational complexity. If major characteristics of a coding MB such as the complexity of the prediction mode and the motion property can be identified and used in adjusting motion estimation (ME), one can design an algorithm that can adapt coding parameters to the video content. This way, unnecessary mode and motion searches can be avoided. In this paper, we propose a content-adaptive ME for SVC, including analyses of mode complexity and motion property to assist mode and motion searches. An experimental analysis is performed to study interlayer and spatial correlations in the coding information. Based on the correlations, the motion and mode characteristics of the current MB are identified and utilized to adjust each step of ME at the enhancement layer including mode decision, search-range selection, and prediction direction selection. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly reduce the computational complexity of SVC while maintaining nearly the same rate distortion performance as the original encoder.


Purpose
The purpose of this study is, first, to understand if the firms are displaying integrated approach toward electronic waste management and sustainability and, second, is there a business case for linking e-waste management with sustainable development goals (SDGs) pronounced by the United Nations.

Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts an extensive literature review to gather perspective from multiple disciplines and also carries out content analysis of annual reports/sustainability reports of the firms.

Findings
Bulk consumers have sustainability policies and/or strategies but many of these firms have not linked their e-waste management with their sustainability strategies practices. Also, based on the elaboration of different perspectives, this study provides an integrative framework that suggests focus of a particular perspective on a given SDG and commensurate business approach by the firms to find a synergy between the two.

Research limitations/implications
This study provides a wider perspective on the subject of electronic waste management and its linkage with SDGs to create business case, thus opening up many theoretical avenues.

Practical implications
The policy like extended producers' responsibility has a clear practical implication in terms of creating reputational capital for the firms by linking electronic waste management and SDGs.

Social implications
The SDG, detailing clean water and sanitation by asking firms not to pollute water bodies by dumping the waste, has clear social implications.

Originality/value
This study is first of its kind to explore the linkage between electronic waste and SDGs to understand the business case. It also throws good insights on whether the firms use integrated approach toward electronic waste management and sustainability.


The memory requirements of basic best-first heuristic search algorithms like A* make them infeasible for solving large problems. External disk storage is cheap and plentiful com- pared to the cost of internal RAM. Unfortunately, state-of- the-art external memory search algorithms either rely on brute-force search techniques, such as breadth-first search, or they rely on all node values falling in a narrow range of in- tegers, and thus perform poorly on real-world domains with real-valued costs. We present a new general-purpose algo- rithm, PEDAL, that uses external memory and parallelism to perform a best-first heuristic search capable of solving large problems with real costs. We show theoretically that PEDAL is I/O efficient and empirically that it is both better on a stan- dard unit-cost benchmark, surpassing internal IDA* on the 15-puzzle, and gives far superior performance on problems with real costs.


Abstract Arterial wall thickening, stimulated by low-grade systemic inflammation, underlies many cardiovascular events. As diet is a significant moderator of systemic inflammation, the dietary inflammatory index (DIITM) has recently been devised to assess the overall inflammatory potential of an individual's diet. The primary objective of this study was to assess the association of the DII with common carotid artery–intima-media thickness (CCA–IMT) and carotid plaques. To substantiate the clinical importance of these findings we assessed the relationship of DII score with atherosclerotic vascular disease (ASVD)-related mortality, ischaemic cerebrovascular disease (CVA)-related mortality and ischaemic heart disease (IHD)-related mortality more. The study was conducted in Western Australian women aged over 70 years (n 1304). Dietary data derived from a validated FFQ (completed at baseline) were used to calculate a DII score for each individual. In multivariable-adjusted models, DII scores were associated with sub-clinical atherosclerosis: a 1 sd (2·13 units) higher DII score was associated with a 0·013-mm higher mean CCA–IMT (P=0·016) and a 0·016-mm higher maximum CCA–IMT (P=0·008), measured at 36 months. No relationship was seen between DII score and carotid plaque severity. There were 269 deaths during follow-up. High DII scores were positively associated with ASVD-related death (per sd, hazard ratio (HR): 1·36; 95 % CI 1·15, 1·60), CVA-related death (per sd, HR: 1·30; 95 % CI 1·00, 1·69) and IHD-related death (per sd, HR: 1·40; 95 % CI 1·13, 1·75). These results support the hypothesis that a pro-inflammatory diet increases systemic inflammation leading to development and progression of atherosclerosis and eventual ASVD-related death.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the safety and clinical effectiveness of fluoroscopically guided balloon dilation in patients with esophageal stricture after radiation therapy (RT).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
From April 1993 through December 2004, fluoroscopically guided balloon dilation was performed in 15 patients with esophageal strictures secondary to previous RT. Technical success, clinical success, recurrence of dysphagia, primary and secondary patency rates, and complications related to the procedure were retrospectively evaluated.

RESULTS
Twenty-five balloon dilations were performed in 15 patients, with a mean of 1.7 dilations per patient (range, 1-5). Technical success was achieved in all procedures. One patient was immediately lost to follow-up and another underwent elective esophageal surgery 13 days after the procedure. Of the remaining 13 patients, clinical success was achieved 11 (85%). Two of 13 patients exhibited recurrence of dysphagia before 1 month after balloon dilation. Among the 11 patients in whom clinical success was achieved, seven exhibited maintained initial improvement of dysphagia until their last follow-up (mean, 174 days) and four exhibited recurrence of dysphagia after the first balloon dilation. Dysphagia recurred 2-128 days (mean, 67.2 d) after the first balloon dilation in six of the 13 patients (46%), who underwent further balloon dilation and/or stent placement. The primary and secondary patency rates at 1, 3, and 6 months were 86%, 68%, and 47% and 100%, 92%, and 62%, respectively. There were no major complications. Type 1 and 2 esophageal ruptures occurred after 12 dilations in nine patients; they were treated conservatively.

CONCLUSION
Fluoroscopically guided balloon dilation for esophageal stricture after RT can be safe and effective. However, the high rate of recurrent dysphagia requires repeated dilations.


Several studies in the auditory-perception literature hint that listeners may be able to anticipate the time of arrival of an approaching sound source. Two experiments are reported in which listeners judged the time of arrival of an approaching car on the basis of various portions of its auditory signal. Subjects pressed a computer key to indicate when the car would have just passed them, assuming that the car maintained a constant approach velocity. A number of variables were tested including (a) the time between the offset of the signal and the virtual time of passage, (b) duration of the signal, and (c) feedback concerning judgment accuracy. Results indicate that increasing the time between signal offset and virtual time of passage decreases judgment accuracy whereas the actual duration of the signal had no significant effect. Feedback significantly improved performance overall.


The Austrian School of Economics and Evolutionary Economics are two apparently incompatible heterodox approaches. The purpose of this paper is to advance an initial step towards the development of an approach that is both evolutionary and Austrian. I contend that one of the barriers to such an approach is the fact that F. A. Hayek resorted to group selection in his evolutionary interpretation of the markets and society. I argue that it is possible to develop an evolutionary Austrian perspective by interpreting evolutionary games as complex adaptive systems, abandoning the idea of group selection and introducing a proper selection unit.


In an actual system, the effects of nonlinear factors are inevitable. So in real practice, when a model for complex system is being built, all the features in it will be linearized. Though simplifying the designing and analyzing process, the model being built in this way is thought to be incapable of revealing the true characteristics of the system. In order to solve this problem, the paper analyzes a model combining both linear and nonlinear features while taking the parameter perturbation of the linear part into consideration, which enables the model to retain as many characteristics of the actual system as possible. Provided that the nonlinear function satisfies the Lipschitz constraint conditions, the robust guaranteed cost state feedback control law of nonlinear system is deduced using the Lyapunov function and then converted into the feasible solutions of linear matrix inequality (LMI). The proposed method optimizes the design of controller by modifying the previous oversimplified models that fail to reveal the real characteristics of the actual system, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is being verified through an algorithm simulation example.


We propose a mesh-based neural network (MESH2IR) to generate acoustic impulse responses (IRs) for indoor 3D scenes represented using a mesh. The IRs are used to create a high-quality sound experience in interactive applications and audio processing. Our method can handle input triangular meshes with arbitrary topologies (2K - 3M triangles). We present a novel training technique to train MESH2IR using energy decay relief and highlight its benefits. We also show that training MESH2IR on IRs preprocessed using our proposed technique significantly improves the accuracy of IR generation. We reduce the non-linearity in the mesh space by transforming 3D scene meshes to latent space using a graph convolution network. Our MESH2IR is more than 200 times faster than a geometric acoustic algorithm on a CPU and can generate more than 10,000 IRs per second on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU for a given furnished indoor 3D scene. The acoustic metrics are used to characterize the acoustic environment. We show that the acoustic metrics of the IRs predicted from our MESH2IR match the ground truth with less than 10% error. We also highlight the benefits of MESH2IR on audio and speech processing applications such as speech dereverberation and speech separation. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first neural-network-based approach to predict IRs from a given 3D scene mesh in real-time.


Over the past two decades studies on the cellular response to very low dose radiation have been revolutionizing historically-held paradigms of cellular radioresponse. Indeed a host of seemingly contradictory events have recently been reported to occur within this dose range of radiation exposure which make extrapolation of data derived from high dose studies to these low dose ranges no longer a feasible alternative. In this study we investigate the radioresponse of two human tumor cell lines A375 human melanoma cells and PC3 human prostate cancer cells which appear to behave quite differently in the very low dose radiation range. More specifically we (a) characterize the cell survival response following low dose radiation in the A375 human melanoma cells and PC3 human prostate cancer cell lines; (b) investigate the kinetics and magnitude of cell cycle arrest that occurs following low dose radiation exposure in these cell lines; and (c) ascertain whether signaling through the MAPK and NF-kB proliferative pathways is being stimulated following exposure to low doses of radiation. The results of these studies demonstrate that two different and contradictory survival responses are seen following exposure to very low dose irradiation (hyper-radioresistance in A375 cells vs. hyper-radiosensitivity in PC3 cells). Furthermore the data indicate that differential regulation of G2/M cell cycle arrest may be involved in the contradictory survival responses observed.


OBJECT Urgent ventriculostomy placement can be a lifesaving procedure in the setting of hydrocephalus or elevated intracranial pressure. While external ventricular drain (EVD) insertion is common, there remains a high rate of suboptimal drain placement. Here, the authors seek to demonstrate the feasibility of an ultrasound-based guidance system that can be inserted into an existing EVD catheter to provide a linear ultrasound trace that guides the user toward the ventricle. METHODS The ultrasound stylet was constructed as a thin metal tube, with dimensions equivalent to standard catheter stylets, bearing a single-element, ceramic ultrasound transducer at the tip. Ultrasound backscatter signals from the porcine ventricle were processed by custom electronics to offer real-time information about ventricular location relative to the catheter. Data collected from the prototype device were compared with reference measurements obtained using standard clinical ultrasound imaging. RESULTS A study of porcine ventricular catheterization using the experimental device yielded a high rate of successful catheter placement after a single pass (10 of 12 trials), despite the small size of pig ventricles and the lack of prior instruction on porcine ventricular architecture. A characteristic double-peak signal was identified, which originated from ultrasound reflections off of the near and far ventricular walls. Ventricular dimensions, as obtained from the width between peaks, were in agreement with standard ultrasound reference measurements (p < 0.05). Furthermore, linear ultrasound backscatter data permitted in situ measurement of the stylet distance to the ventricular wall (p < 0.05), which assisted in catheter guidance. CONCLUSIONS The authors have demonstrated the ability of the prototype ultrasound stylet to guide ventricular access in the porcine brain. The alternative design of the device makes it potentially easy to integrate into the standard workflow for bedside EVD placement. The availability of a fast, easy-to-use, inexpensive guidance system can play a role in reducing the complication rate for EVD placement.


Our motive of this study is to develop an application of the wavelet packet to PIV image compression processing in order to improve the spatial resolution and reliability furthermore. It was found that the reconstructed PIV image with a lower compression ratio may emphasize particle edges at a relatively high spatial resolution, and the reconstructed PIV image with a higher compression ratio may display the large-scale motion of particles and may deduce noisy. In this study, the relative error of the wavelet packet image compression technique was lower than that of the standard wavelet image compression technique. The higher compression ratio of 64:1 can be realized without losing significant flow information in PIV processing. It could say that the wavelet packet could provide a better compression performance than the standard wavelet image compression technique when compressing PIV images.


Traumatic experiences are an inherent part of many aspects of police work. Due to the personal and organisational costs they incur their impact is of growing concern to the New Zealand police. Recent research has indicated that reactivity is less a function of the type of event that officers' encounter and more a function of the event characteristics which officers are exposed to. The present study aimed to contribute to the definition of work related traumatic stressors among police officers. Fifty-two members of the New Zealand police were interviewed to examine their individual constructions of traumatic incidents, in order to gain an understanding of the factors which influence psychological morbidity following exposure to trauma. Taking an exploratory approach, the present study employed the repertory grid method to elicit officers' personal perceptions and constructions of traumatic events. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation led to the extraction and interpretation of six factors underlying police officers' descriptions of event characteristics: emotions, lack of control, work-related factors, training inadequacies, victim orientated, and aspects of death. The results highlighted the wide variety of incidents and event characteristics, which can be interpreted as traumatic among police officers. Despite the focus on traumatic events, the results also reflected the participants' concern with organisational and job stressors. The limitations of the research were mainly related to the small sample size and assumptions associated with the raw data.


We present a modified compute-and-forward scheme which utilizes Channel State Information at the Transmitters (CSIT) in a natural way. The modified scheme allows different users to have different coding rates, and use CSIT to achieve larger rate region. This idea is applicable to all systems which use the compute-and-forward technique and can be arbitrarily better than the regular scheme in some settings.


This paper reports the findings of structural level research into the process of commitment of criminal defendants as incompetent to stand trial because of insanty in Louisiana. Conceptualizing criminal courts as open systems, it was predicted their structural environments would operate as contingencies in the perception and labeling of defendants as being (or having been at the time of the offense) mentally incompetent. Several structural-cultural features were predicted to have contingency effects on forensic commitment. (1) mileage of parish seat to the state s single forensic facility, (2) ruralness, (3) metropolitanism (SAISA status), (4) religious and cultural ethnicity, (5) relative power of the parish population to influence criminal court outcomes, and (6) community climate of repressiveness. These varibles' effects on parish commitment rates were analyzed using path analysis techniques, and results did indicate that the probability of incompetency and criminal insanity labels being applied were contingent on the parishes' social structural characteristics. Interestingly, the proximity of the parish to the hospital had the greatest direct effect on the commitment rate.


We fabricated and measured multi-terminal SINIS devices (where S, I, and N denote a superconductor, an insulator, and a normal metal, respectively) with the Nb/Al/AlO/sub x//Al/AlO/sub x//Al/Nb structure. The multilayered SINIS structure was fabricated in-situ using sputter deposition of Nb and Al, and thermal oxidation of the Al layers to grow the tunnel barriers. Devices with a characteristic size of about 10 /spl mu/m were formed via an optical-lithography process that included making an electrical contact to the middle Al layer (16-19 nm thick). Current-voltage characteristics of the devices were measured in different modes (i. e., by feeding the current across the whole device, through each of the junctions, and through the middle Al film) at low temperatures (1.4-4.2 K). Specifically, the devices were tested in a transistor-like configuration to explore the influence of current injection through a SIN junction and the N film on the Josephson critical current and quasiparticle characteristic of the SINIS junction as a whole, and on the characteristics of the second junction.


A high concentration nitric acid oxidation strategy has been presented for one-step fabrication of strongly red-emitting fluorescent graphene quantum dots (GQDs) using activated carbon as a carbon source. In optimal conditions, the emission quantum yield at 600 nm wavelength is as high as 18%. The concentration of the used nitric acid is critical to the optical properties of the GQDs: concentrated nitric acid (14.6 M) can more sufficiently oxidize GQDs' surface and more efficiently dope the N element, resulting in a longer emission band and higher emission efficiency. Preliminary cell image study indicates the obtained GQDs possess a high signal to background ratio, good stability and low cytotoxicity, which endow their promise as a new type of near-infrared fluorophores for biological applications.


The semantics of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), when viewed as transformers of probability distributions, can described as a labeled transition system over the probability distributions over the states of the MDP. The MDP can be seen as defining a set of executions, where each execution is a sequence of probability distributions. Reasoning about sequences of distributions allows one to express properties not expressible in logics like PCTL, examples include expressing bounds on transient rewards and expected values of random variables, as well as comparing the probability of being in one set of states at a given time with another set of states. With respect to such a semantics, the problem of checking that the MDP never reaches a bad distribution is undecidable~\cite{qest10}. In this paper, we identify a special class of MDPs called \emph{semi-regular} MDPs that have a unique non-empty, compact, invariant set of distributions, for which we show that checking any $\omega$-regular property is decidable. Our decidability result also implies that for semi-regular probabilistic finite automata with isolated cut-points, the emptiness problem is decidable.


This paper considers few-shot learning under the cross-domain scenario. The cross-domain setting imposes a critical challenge, i.e. , using very few (support) samples to generalize the already-learned model to a novel domain. We hold a hypothesis, i.e. , if a deep model is capable to fast generalize itself to different domains (using very few samples) during training, it will maintain such domain generalization capacity for testing. It motivates us to propose a novel Domain-Switch Learning (DSL) framework. DSL embeds the cross-domain scenario into the training stage in a "fast switching" manner. Specifically, DSL uses a single domain for a training iteration and switches into another domain for the following iteration. During the switching, DSL enforces two constraints: 1) the deep model should not over-fit the domain in the current iteration and 2) the deep model should not forget the already-learned knowledge of other domains. These two constraints jointly promote fast generalization across different domains. Experimental results confirm that the cross-domain generalization capacity can be inherited from the training stage to the testing stage, validating our key hypothesis. Consequentially, DSL significantly improves cross-domain few-shot classification and sets up new state of the art.


For the research on human higher brain functions, both neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies are useful, but each of these two methodologies has merits and demerits. In neuropsychological studies, damaged regions are necessary for the normal execution of cognitive functions underlying the symptoms that patients show. However, it is usually difficult to determine to what extent the lesion has affected a specific psychological subprocess amongst several subprocesses related to the symptoms. On the other hand, in neuroimaging studies, activated regions may not be necessary for but simply participate in a targeted higher brain function. However, if we can set up an adequate experimental design, it provides an opportunity to identify brain regions related to a specific psychological subprocess necessary for the targeted higher brain function. In this symposium, I talked about several neuroimaging studies using positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. We can take advantage of neuroimaging techniques for the research on human brain functions, but it should be kept in mind that neuroimaging techniques are not the purpose of the research but simply one of the useful means.


The article addresses EFL students' academic writing competence by fostering and evaluating their writing practices through conceptual metaphors. The research dataset comprised 102 Russian students majoring in economics. The students received the instruction based on the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory during their EAP, ESP and EMI courses in economics. Metaphor Identification Procedure VU University Amsterdam (MIPVU) and the method of metaphoric modeling were used to assess EFL writing competence in economic knowledge domains – knowledge of terms and specific concepts, represented as conceptual metaphors. The statistical analysis did not show significant changes in the writing competence level of students when their EAP and ESP writing was compared. However, statistical differences were revealed in the use of metaphors when the students progressed from their EAP to EMI course and from their ESP to EMI course. The qualitative analysis demonstrated main differences within the conceptual metaphor domains in ESP and EMI writing. On the whole, the results reported here suggest the dynamics of FL writing competence of the Russian students specializing in economics when attending an EAP course, an ESP course and an EMI course in economics at the university.


The adult female, adult male and all immature stages (except the male prepupa and pupa) of a new species of Fiorinia (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Diaspididae), F. yongxingensis Liu, Cai Feng sp. n., collected from Hainan Province, China, are described and illustrated. A key is provided to identify the Fiorinia species known to occur in Hainan Province, China. The new species may become a significant pest on coconut palms.


Wapienie gornodewonsko-turnejskie, tzw. dewonu okolic Klodzka, nie tworzą odrebnej formacji. Wystepują one jedynie jako detrytus wapienny w utworach zroznicowanych genetycznie, powstalych od schylku wizenu gornego po najnizszą cześc namuru A. W artykule przedstawiono charakterystyke wapieni obszaru alimentacyjnego. Na podstawie nastepstwa stratygraficznego warstw w odslonieciach miedzy Dzikowcem. Nową Wsią i Srebrną Gorą opracowano schemat sedymentacji. Stwierdzono, ze z serią fliszową, szarowakowo-ilowcową wiązą sie tufity ryolitowe. CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONES AND CONGLOMERATES IN WESTERN PART OF THE BARDO STRUCTURE The paper presents results of studies on rock complexes hitherto treated as Upper Devonian limestone formation with limestones of the Gattendorfia stage at the top, i.e. "Devonian of the vicinities of Klodzko", and gneiss conglomerates and Lower Coal Limestone. The studies on composition and development of these rocks, analyses of microfacies, including identifications of organic structures in thin sections, and studies on conodonts made it possible to state that: 1 – Upper Devonian and Tournaisian limestones, i.e. "Devonian of-the vicinities of "Klodzko", do not represent a separate formation but detritus of limestones (limestone fragments varying in size up to blocks and olistolites) in strata formed not before the end of Late Visean; 2 – in the Bardo structure, thick and genetically differentiated rock series originated in time interval from the end of Visean to the beginning of Namurian A: limestone-gabbro conglomerates (hitherto treated as basal limestone of Upper Devonian formation) and gneiss-limestone conglomerates which represent alluvial cone deposits with laminites typical of the wadi zone; limestone conglomerates (a part of Lower Coal Limestone) – fine- to coarse-clastic rocks, the origin of which has been partly related to reworking of material from alluvial cones (including gneiss-limestone conglomerates) and its redeposition in deeper parts of sea by storm waves; knobby limestones (a part of Lower Coal Limestone), thin-bedded and representing deposits of turbidites, subjected to submarine slides as partly semiplastic but already knobby material; limestone breccias with detritus and large olistolites of Upper Devonian limestones (Main Litnestone and Clymenia Limestone) and Tournaisian and Visean ones, i.e. olistostrome deposits formed in result of gravity slides; graywacke-claystone and flysch rocks and related rhyolite tuffs. Figure 6 shows scheme of sedimentation of the above mentioned rocks, reconstructed on the basis of succession of strata in outcrops between Dzikowiec, Nowa Wieś and Srebrna Gora (Fig. I). Contact of sandy series with gneiss-limestone conglomerates at the top and olistostrome breccia in the quarry D-5 at Dzikowiec is found to be tectonic in character (Fig. 3). The available data appear insufficient to precise the upper time limit of sedimentation of the above discussed strata. It may be only assumed that sedimentation of the flysch series and, therefore, also underlaying conglomerates and limestones was not continuing after the beginning of the Namurian A as this was the time of onset of sedimentation of coal-bearing Walbrzych Beds. Origin of thick and genetically differentiated rock series in so narrow time interval (end of Late Visean – beginning of Namurian A) was possible under conditions of accelerated sedimentation, related to rapid erosion of uplifting areas, and high rate of subsidence of basin floor. The erosion was also accelerated in the early Early Carboniferous, which is shown by the nature of detrital rocks from the turn of Devonian and Carboniferous and Early Visean, corresponding in composition and possibly origin to gneiss-limestone conglomerates from the end of Late Visean. The older conglomerates are here represented by boulders varying in size and usually rounded, embedded in gneiss-limestone conglomerates cropping out in the vicinities of Srebrna Gora. Source areas of detrital material of the above conglomerates remain unknown. On the basis of differences in its petrographic composition it may be assumed that individual deltaic cones were supplied with material from various directions. That is why some of them mainly yield detritus of gneisses and others – gabbros. Limestorie material, very common in these cones and the remaining conglomerate-limestone deposits, was presumably coming from vast neighbouring area. This conclusion is supported, for example, by generally normal position of large olistolites of limestones of Upper Devonian and Gattendorfia stage in olistostrome displayed in the quarry D-5 at Dzikowiec. The alimentary area was characterized by intense development of limestones of the Waulsortian type as well as those originating in deeper part of sublittoral and hemipelagic zones (from Famennian to Late Visean, inclusively). The studies showed that limestone-gabbro conglomerates and olistostrome breccia from the quarry D-5 at Dzikowiec correspond in origin and age to conglomerates and limestone breccias from Gologlowy and outcrops near Polwiejska and Podgrodzie Streets in Klodzko. This made it possible to state that clay and clay-siliceous shales from the Gologlowy section do not represent sedimentary cover of Upper Devonian limestones as the latter occur in the form of various-sized blocks and fragments in flow deposits, presumably deposited not before the end of Late Visean. The finding that Upper Devonian and Gattendorfia stage limestones of the so-called Devonian of the vicinities of Klodzko merely form fragments and blocks in strata of the uppermost Upper Visean age makes it necessary to revise age of metamorphism in the Klodzko structure, previously assumed as pre-Late Devonian. It is also stated that the section of eastern wall in the quarry D-5 at Dzikowiec cannot be treated as example of tectonic disturbances of the Nassau phase. The fauna found in detrital rocks of the latest Late Visean or younger age appears to have been inappropriately interpreted in the past as it is partly mixed.