Based on co-viewing and connected viewing literature (Authors, year), this article analyses connected co-viewing practices within and with the use of media platforms around a live television event, using the Eurovision Song Contest as a case study. This popular event has a long-running tradition which has fostered extensive use of different kinds of connected platforms, including an official app. Using a case study approach and focusing on the Spanish context, we have analysed connected co-viewing in three main platforms: Facebook (through unofficial groups), Twitter (through live conversation and hashtagging practices around the event) and by exploring the Eurovision official second screen app. The study indicates that: (1) co-viewing is mutually shaped by the affordances and interface features of the platforms, the viewers' practices and uses given to these platforms; (2) co-viewing can be expanded by platforms when designed for collective use; (3) user-generated content and data production are central elements to enhance co-viewing when using connected platforms; (4) platform affordances can create digital spaces, which might channel the way co-viewers perform and enjoy this activity.


The mechanism of cellular swelling induced by extracellular lactic acidosis and the effect of diuretics were studied using neuroblastoma-glioma hybrid (NG108-15) cells. The cells were incubated in one of three lactate concentrations (0, 15, or 30 mM), each of which was randomized to one of three pH groups (7.4, 6.2, or 5.0). Analysis of the swelling was measured using a Coulter counter technique. Cellular swelling was most prominent at pH 6.2 at all lactate levels. Cellular swelling was noted to be pH dependent but not lactate dependent. The addition of 1 mM amiloride completely blocked cellular swelling, suggesting that the main mechanism of neuronal cellular swelling induced by extracellular lactic acidosis was the activation of Na+/H+ exchange. Second, three dissimilar diuretic drugs were used for cellular swelling: amiloride (Na+/H+ exchange inhibitor), mannitol (osmotic diuretic), and bumetanide (loop diuretic). Amiloride and mannitol were found effective in reducing the lactic acidosis-induced cellular swelling. Furthermore, the combination of these drugs had additive effects. However, bumetanide was not effective. The results indicate that the direct inhibition of Na+/H+ exchange and/or removal of water from the cell by mannitol was effective against cellular swelling induced by the activation of Na+/H+ exchange in NG108-15 cells. (Anesth Analg 1996;83:1002-8)


We report a 14 year-old peripubertal girl who presented at our clinic with the primary complaint of delayed puberty. She was asymptomatic except for vague complaints of fatigue. Physical examination was significant for mucosal hyperpigmentation and lack of secondary sexual characteristics. Laboratory evaluation revealed a morning cortisol concentration of <0.1 microg/dl (normal range [n.r.]: 4.3-22.4 microg/dl) and a simultaneous ACTH concentration of 2 pg/ml (n.r. 25-62 pg/ml); FSH 66.8 IU/l (n.r. for age: 1-12.8 IU/l); LH 41.1 IU/l (n.r. for age: 1-12 IU/l); E2 38 pg/ml (n.r. for age: 7-60 pg/ml). She had a flat cortisol response to an ACTH stimulation test. MRI of the pituitary gland failed to reveal a lesion. Plasma renin activity, thyroid function tests, parathyroid hormone, prolactin, IGF-I, IGFBP-3 concentrations and serum electrolytes were normal. However, her urinary sodium concentration was high. She was diagnosed with autoimmune polyglandular endocrinopathy including ovarian failure, adrenal failure and autoimmune anterior hypophysitis presenting as isolated ACTH deficiency. We emphasize that autoimmune etiology should be considered in the differential diagnosis of delayed puberty and ovarian failure and that the presence of other endocrinopathies should be searched for even in asymptomatic patients.


The patient was waiting in the consulting room; everything was nearly ready. The occasion was the examination in general practice for fifth year medical students. We run an objective structured clinical examination. For this part, the student had to measure the patient's blood pressure (the "patient" was actually someone recruited from our general practice), test his urine using a dipstick, and report to the examiner within the five minutes between bells. Just one thing was missing—the midstream sample of normal urine for testing. Because I did not want to disturb the volunteer patient, I collected it from myself. I measured the patient's blood pressure again (this had to be done after every 10th student)—it was stable. And I tested the urine to check it was normal—it was not.

For the next two hours, students either told me (or, in the case of those less skilled at this technique, did not tell me) that there was a trace of blood in the urine. This was not a problem as far as the examination was concerned because the marking was not affected by the test result. But it was a problem for me. What should I do? I tested my urine again a week later, and when I found it was still positive I sent a specimen to the laboratory. The report stated that urine culture was negative but confirmed the presence of normal red cells (30/ml).

Conventional medical teaching had taught me that bleeding must come from somewhere. The model that sprang to mind first is summarised in the table. I then checked with a textbook of surgery.1 I had forgotten tuberculosis and schistosomiasis as causes of haematuria. A textbook of medicine2 suggested further …


Abstract Nigeria pipelines, especially the petroleum and petroleum product pipelines are always vandalized by the sabotage. Huge amount of money is expended to put the damaged pipeline in good shape; and petroleum and petroleum product transfer is sometimes hampered due to leakages and damages caused by the oil thieves. Also huge money is being budgeted yearly to secure the pipelines. To combat this problem, horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is being proposed. HDD is a method of installing underground pipes and conduits along a prescribed bore path from the surface, with minimal impact to the surrounding area. Installation lengths up to 6500 ft and depth of 200 ft have been completed and diameters up to 48 in have been installed in shorter runs. The process begins when a directional bore machine pushes a bore head connected to hollow pipe into the ground at an angle. As each joint of drill pipe is pushed into the ground, a new one is added behind. In rock, a mud motor, which converts the hydraulic pressure of the drilling fluid into mechanical rotation, is used to rotate the bit and the drill pipe is not continuously rotated. Steerage is accomplished by aligning the angle of the mud motor to the desired direction. This paper investigates the challenges and prospects of using the HDD technique to lay pipeline to a greater depth/distance that will be inaccessible to the oil thieves. The construction process (pilot hole, reaming and pullback) along with the major components (drill rig, drill pipe, slurry, slurry recycling, survey equipment, drill bits, and reamers) is discussed. The advantages of cost reduction, and environmental, social and time benefits were examined in this study. The challenges of proper soils information, subsurface conditions, training and knowledge, drilling fluids and binding of the drill pipe and reamer/bit are highlighted. Keywords: Horizontal directional drilling, petroleum, petroleum products, pipeline, vandals Cite this Article Stanley Ugochukwu Ibeh, Boniface Obah. Challenges and Prospects of the Use of Horizontal Directional Drilling Techniques for Laying Oil and Gas Pipelines in Nigeria. Journal of Petroleum Engineering and Technology. 2017; 7(2):


The coastal area of Bordj El Kiffane has experienced an artificialisation of its shoreline since 1980. This caused a remarkable decline of the shoreline. To remedy this, the solution recommended was the combination of several protection methods. In order to determine the consequence of the protective structures, a study of the historical evolution of the coastline was performed with ArcGIS and DSAS. The results allowed determining its evolutionary rates and comparing the evolutions on different periods in absence and presence of the protection structures.


Rotor-flux-oriented control of multiphase induction machines with sinusoidal magnetomotive force (MMF) distribution can be realized theoretically by using only two current controllers in the synchronous reference frame. In practice, however, this is inadequate, as shown in this paper using experimental results collected from five-phase induction motor drive laboratory prototypes. Various asymmetries of the machine and nonideal nature of the inverter necessitate an appropriate modification of the current control scheme in the rotating reference frame. Such a modified current control scheme is developed in this paper, and its ability to provide operation of the machine with a practically perfectly sinusoidal and balanced system of five-phase currents is demonstrated experimentally.


Delamination fracture of a two-dimensional functionally graded multilayered four-point bending beam that exhibits non-linear behaviour of the material is analyzed. The fracture is studied analytically in terms of the strain energy release rate. The beam under consideration has an arbitrary number of layers. Each layer has individual thickness and material properties. A delamination crack is located arbitrary between layers. The material is two-dimensional functionally graded in the cross-section of each layer. The beam mechanical behaviour is described by a power-law stress-strain relation. The fracture is analyzed also by applying the J-integral approach in order to verify the solution derived for the strain energy release rate. The effects of crack location, material gradient and non-linear behaviour of material on the delamination fracture are evaluated. It is found that the material non-linearity leads to increase of the strain energy release rate. Therefore, the material non-linearity should be taken into account in fracture mechanics based safety design of two-dimensional functionally graded multilayered structural members. It is found also that the delamination behaviour can be effectively regulated by using appropriate material gradients in the design stage of functionally graded multilayered structural members and components.


Multilevel converters are very interesting alternatives for medium and high-power applications. The main reason is the increase in the number of output voltage levels and its apparent frequency. This paper presents a new configuration of flying capacitor multicell (FCM) converter. The main advantages of the proposed converter, in comparison with FCM and stacked multicell converters, are doubling the rms and the number of output voltage levels, improving the output voltage frequency spectrum, and canceling the midpoint of dc source. This progress is achieved by adding only two low-frequency switches to the conventional configuration of FCM converter while the number of high-frequency switches and capacitors, voltage ratings of capacitors and switches, and the number of high-frequency switchings during a full cycle are kept constant. This converter is controlled by a modified phase-shifted pulsewidth modulation, therefore, the self-balancing property of the flying capacitor converter is maintained in the proposed converter. The circuit is simulated using power systems computer-aided design/electromagnetic transients in DC systems (EMTDC) software and simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed configuration as well as its control strategy. Additionally, measurements taken from an experimental setup are presented in order to study the practical configuration.


Poggio Shelter is located on the Italian coast of the Tyrrhenian sea, some 80 km South-east of Naples. The Shelter was part of a complex underground karst system, which was partially dismantled by sea erosion during the high-stand of MIS 7, originating a large niche with a thick deposit at the foot of a falaise, and small cave. Archaeological excavations were carried out in the deposit and in the cave during the 1970s, putting into light a 23 m-thick sequence, including 17 m of archaeological levels. The sequence is mainly made up of cave breakdown deposits mixed with colluvium originated by the reworking of red soils (Alfisols); soils or moderately reworked soils also occur, interfingered within the sequence. These sediments reflect environmental processes related respectively to the damping of the glacial effects by the mediterranean environment, and to warm interstadial phases. The bottom of the sequence is covered by the present-day sea-level; the basal deposit can probably be attributed to MIS 7 because of the characteristics of the lithics occurring in the overlying levels, which include a level dated to 111.8 ky BP. The overlying sequence can be divided into three main parts, most of which contains archaeological records of culturally different human presences, starting from ancient Middle Palaeolithic cultures to Upper Palaeolithic. - Levels 20-18, made up of breakdown deposits with evidence of colluvium and some aeolian processes. The faunal assemblage can be divided into two stages, and includes mainly red deer, with roe deer, wild boar, ibex, chamois, bovines, and with Elephas and Stephanorhinus occurring only in the lower part. Since layer 18 appears evidence of human presence. Lower part of layer 18 contains an archaic and un-standardized lithic assemblage, characterised by denticulates and thick tools. The upper part contains a more specialised industry, basically focused on production of Quina-type side-scrapers with stepped retouch. This whole part of the sequence may correspond to the cold stage MIS 6, characterised by a patchy forested environment of fresh climate. - Levels 17-9, reddish soils and soil sediments, interfingered with tephra, and dated to 43800±3500 BP in level 9. Among the faunas, which are statistically relevant only in levels 10-9, the fallow deer is the dominant ungulate, corresponding to an interstadial with temperate and moderately wet mediterranean-like climate. From the bottom to the top, we highlighted at least four main cultural phases. In layer 17 appears the first assemblage with Levallois technology containing mainly slightly-retouched flat tools. Layer 16 contains a typical Mousterian assemblage which shows further development of Levallois technique. A scarce amount of findings comes from layers 15-13 (tephra), while the top of Middle Palaeolithic series (layers 12-9) contains an abundant, technologically and typologically advanced mousterian industry. - Levels 8-1, colluvium of Alfisols and breakdown deposits with evidence of strong soil erosion, including very few faunal remains; these levels can be ascribed to a somewhat cold climate with continental traits of environmental instability. Following the erosion, from layer 7 to the top, findings showed out the presence of Epigravettian culture. For what concerns human behaviour, it is noteworthy that the most frequent ungulates (red and fallow deer) were killed mostly when adult. The identified skeletal parts are represented mostly by isolated teeth and limb bones. In levels 18a (bottom) and 10, most of the sediment skeleton is made up of strongly comminuted bone fragments, unsorted and with grain-size down to some tens of micrometres. Lithic raw materials procurement area (close-distance from site) appears more or less the same in all periods, however we highlight a lack of selection strategies in MIS 6 assemblages, while more recent industries show evidence of growing accuracy in selecting quality for tools production.


In recent years, the question of what it means to "decolonize" digital humanities has been broached by scholars engaged in both postcolonial digital humanities and #TransformDH, strands of the field that have pushed for greater attention to digital humanities projects and methods that foreground intersectional engagement with race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, disability, and other axes of identity that shape knowledge production. Such approaches to digital humanities have asked how to decolonize the archive (Povinelli 2011; Lothian & Phillips 2013; Cushman 2013; cárdenas et al. 2015; Risam 2015), address gaps in knowledge produced online (Lor and Britz 2005; Sheppard 2005; Koh & Risam 2013), make legible narratives and histories that have gone untold (Rawson 2014; Thorat 2015; Verhoeven 2015), understand the specificities of digital Dalit experience (Nayar 2011), locate the subaltern in cyberspace (Gajjala 2013), or use technologies to push back against existing forms of repre sentation that may be troubling (Sanders 2014; Priego & Gil 2013; Olsen 2014). Taking a look at the theoretical basis of such work in both postcolonial and science and technology studies (STS), this chapter situates the stakes for decolonization within digital humanities, locating a historical scholarly genealogy for this work and outlining what work toward decolonization looks like in practice within digital humanities.


In industrial sites, the running state of rolling bearings is often judged by hearing the sound with human ears. This method relies on long-term accumulation of human experience and is prone to cause occupational noise hazards. To solve this problem, this paper proposed an intelligent diagnosis method for the running state of bearings based on machine hearing. Firstly, bearing vibration signal was decomposed using an improved Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) algorithm, by which the best mode component containing the fault characteristic was determined according to a time-frequency weighted kurtosis maximization criterion. Then, the time-domain feature indexes and psychoacoustic indexes of the best mode component were calculated to define a feature vector. Finally, the feature vectors were input into a fault classification model based on Support Vector Machine optimized by Grid Search Method (GSM-SVM) for training. The trained model was used to diagnose unknown faults of bearings. The proposed method was applied to the traction motors of EMU train for automatic bearing fault diagnose. Field test in the manufacturing factory showed that it could quickly diagnose bearing faults with a high accuracy rate.


We assessed the evidence for a conceptual "hierarchy of effects" of marketing, to guide understanding of the relationship between children's exposure to unhealthy food marketing and poor diets and overweight, and drive the research agenda. We reviewed studies assessing the impact of food promotions on children from MEDLINE, Web of Science, ABI Inform, World Health Organization library database, and The Gray Literature Report. We included articles published in English from 2009 to 2013, with earlier articles from a 2009 systematic review. We grouped articles by outcome of exposure and assessed outcomes within a framework depicting a hierarchy of effects of marketing exposures. Evidence supports a logical sequence of effects linking food promotions to individual-level weight outcomes. Future studies should demonstrate the sustained effects of marketing exposure, and exploit variations in exposures to assess differences in outcomes longitudinally.


This guide focus on resources for the grip strength assignment. It also contains the purposes and parts of scholarly scientific articles.


Balancing the needs of data privacy and predictive utility is a central challenge for machine learning in healthcare. In particular, privacy concerns have led to a dearth of public datasets, complicated the construction of multi-hospital cohorts and limited the utilization of external machine learning resources. To remedy this, new methods are required to enable data owners, such as hospitals, to share their datasets publicly, while preserving both patient privacy and modeling utility. We propose NeuraCrypt, a private encoding scheme based on random deep neural networks. NeuraCrypt encodes raw patient data using a randomly constructed neural network known only to the data-owner, and publishes both the encoded data and associated labels publicly. From a theoretical perspective, we demonstrate that sampling from a sufficiently rich family of encoding functions offers a well-defined and meaningful notion of privacy against a computationally unbounded adversary with full knowledge of the underlying data-distribution. We propose to approximate this family of encoding functions through random deep neural networks. Empirically, we demonstrate the robustness of our encoding to a suite of adversarial attacks and show that NeuraCrypt achieves competitive accuracy to non-private baselines on a variety of x-ray tasks. Moreover, we demonstrate that multiple hospitals, using independent private encoders, can collaborate to train improved x-ray models. Finally, we release a challenge dataset to encourage the development of new attacks on NeuraCrypt.


Although total body perfusion with extracorporeal life support (ECLS) can be maintained for weeks, individual organ perfusion beyond 12 hours has yet to be achieved clinically. Normothermic ex situ heart perfusion (ESHP) offers the potential for prolonged cardiac preservation. We developed an ESHP system to study the effect of perfusate variables on organ preservation, with the ultimate goal of extending organ perfusion for ≥24 hours. Forty porcine hearts were perfused for a target of 12 hours. Hearts that maintained electromechanical activity and had a <3× increase in vascular resistance were considered successful preservations. Perfusion variables, metabolic byproducts, and histopathology were monitored and sampled to identify factors associated with preservation failure. Twenty-two of 40 hearts were successfully preserved at 12 hours. Successful 12 hour experiments demonstrated lower potassium (4.3 ± 0.8 vs. 5.0 ± 1.2 mmol/L; p = 0.018) and lactate (3.5 ± 2.8 vs. 4.5 ± 2.9 mmol/L; p = 0.139) levels, and histopathology revealed less tissue damage (p = 0.003) and less weight gain (p = 0.072). Results of these early experiments suggest prolonged ESHP is feasible, and that elevated lactate and potassium levels are associated with organ failure. Further studies are necessary to identify the ideal perfusate for normothermic ESHP.


Abstract
This chapter examines the practical and conceptual limitations and possibilities of using ethnographic methods in the college writing classroom for the purpose of instructors' professional development. The study is based on ethnographic research with a second-year course in Stanford University's Program in Writing and Rhetoric. The study's dual foci included the teacher–researcher's pedagogical practices and students' learning, and entailed participant-observation and the recording of ethnographic fieldnotes. It builds on the anthropology of literacy, a tradition of action research among educational ethnographers, and scholarship on composition pedagogy. Participant-observation could be helpful to other college instructors interested in improving their teaching. However, combining participant-observation with direct student feedback through interviews or surveys will be most effective in shaping educators' professional development. Using participant-observation for professional development in the college writing classroom did not only situate me, the ethnographer, as both subject and object of research. Unexpectedly, my research also placed ethnographic methods as objects of research. By examining student learning and teaching practices ethnographically, researchers create opportunities to illuminate assumptions related to research as well as broader lessons about the study of teaching and learning.


By drawing on the writings of Soren Kierkegaard, I address the question of what it is to live in relationship with God. In answering this question, it is important to recognise that God, as he is described in the Christian tradition, is a personal God. For this reason, the account of the Christian spiritual life I outline is described as a life of coming to know God personally, rather than as a life of coming to know about God by learning about him. As I argue, a minimal condition for knowing God personally in this way is that an individual has a second-person experience of God. However, one of the barriers which prevents relationship with God from occurring in this life is that the human will is defective in such a way that human beings cannot will to be in union with God. Because of this problem, human beings cannot live in union with God in this life. And so, in order to allow for the possibility of union with God in the life to come, the human will must be repaired; consequently, one of the key tasks of the spiritual life is this task of repairing a person's will by re-orienting it so that union with God is possible. Since a person cannot be in union with God in this life, it is important to give an account of what it is to be in relationship with God in the spiritual life. I present this relationship in terms of being in union with Christ which I describe, drawing from Kierkegaard, in terms of 'being contemporary with Christ'. To be contemporary with Christ, as I explain it, is to experience what psychologists call 'shared-attention' with Christ; one way of experiencing Christ in this way, I argue, is by a person's engagement in spiritual practices. It is by stressing the importance of this concept of contemporaneity with Christ that we can see how an individual engages in the task of re-orientating their will. The reason for this, is that the experience of Christ's presence allows a human being to imitate Christ and thereby heal the damage caused by sin. Finally, I argue, even in experiences of God's absence, a person can develop a deeper relationship with God. In withdrawing his presence from individuals, God allows for a kind of weaning process to occur in which persons develop a more independent, and eventually deeper God-relationship. �


Several studies have been made of the return to the fishermen per unit of effort expended in fishing along the Pacific coast for the sardine, Sardinops caerulea. The first, by Hart (1933), was based on the British Columbia fishery for the years 1925–32. Hart calculated the average season catch per boat and the average daily catch per boat. Appropriate corrections were made to eliminate the influence of differences between boats in the total number of days fished within the season. The data indicated an increase in the return to the fishermen in the last three seasons included in the study. In California until about 1930 the daily tonnage delivered by fishing boats was determined by the capacity of the processing plants and not by the availability* of sardines on the fishing grounds. Gradually increasing plant capacities and corresponding increases in size of boats and adoption of more efficient fishing methods resulted in a continuing increase in the fishermen's catches. When plant capacities were large enough to absorb the tonnages delivered on most days, limitations were no longer placed on the boat's catch or were infrequent enough to have little effect on the average catch. This condition was reached in the early thirties, and by 1932–33 it was possible to use the fisherman's catch as a rough measure of the availability of the sardine population on the fishing grounds. Clark (1939) then calculated the average lunar month catch for the Monterey and the San Pedro sardine fisheries for 1932–33 through 1937–38. Although some limitations were at times placed on the daily catch of the fishermen these were disregarded as negligible. Boat sizes were increasing throughout the time interval and to meet this problem the catch of each boat was compared to the catch of the same boat for the corresponding lunar month of the previous season. This study showed an increase in the average lunar month catch from 1932–33 through 1934–35 and then a decline through 1937–38. The above study assumed that the influence of many items which determine fishing success would average out in calculations covering several years. Such factors are the limitations placed on the fisherman's daily catch, the number of hours of darkness, and changes in weather conditions. To determine their importance, Silliman and Clark (1945) calculated the average weekly catch adjusted as far as possible to eliminate the influence of these factors. The calculations were carried through 1941–42 and applied to the fisheries out of the ports of San Francisco, Monterey and San Pedro. They indicated an increase in average weekly catch from 1932–33 through 1934–35, a decline to 1937–38 and an upward trend to 1941–42. The adjustments made to eliminate extraneous factors which might affect fishing success, however, did not change the seasonal averages sufficiently to justify continuance of such elaborate and time consuming calculations. The adjustments either failed to accomplish the end desired or the extraneous influences were unimportant in a study covering a period of years. The present report covers the results of a study using the same boat catches as in the two former investigations for the seasons of 1932–33 through 1941–42, and extending the calculations through 1948–49. The method of treatment has been simplified by use of the average lunar month instead of the average lunar week catch, by making no adjustments for the influence of hours of darkness or unfavorable weather, or for the effect of limits except in the 1948–49 season. The fisherman's success has been measured both in tons per lunar month and in number of fish per month.


The growth of the information technology sector (IT) in the 1980s was an important development for the economy, but it spurred relatively little policy or media interest. True, IT was recognized as a driver of comparative advantage for the US and there were a few initiatives involving industrial policy and military preparedness, IT was of interest primarily to specialists. In the 1990's, however, things changed dramatically when the Internet became a topic of intense public discussion. Suddenly computers were not only a way to manipulate information, but also a way to communicate information. This led to a dramatic rise in the public and political awareness of the importance of information policy issues such as intellectual property, privacy, and security


We report on recent results on the two-mass corrections for massive operator
matrix elements at 2- and 3-loop orders in QCD. These corrections form the building blocks
of the variable flavor number scheme. Due to the similar values of the charm and bottom
quark masses the two-mass corrections form an important contribution.


Objective: To analyze the physical fitness level of 31 133 French citizens aged between 8 and 60 years old and represent the performances through a bi-exponential model.
Methods: We collected data from 231 events that took place in French regions between 2006 and 2010 and analyzed participation and physical fitness using a simple series of tests. We assessed outcome measures in relation to age and BMI using Spearman Rho, a one way ANOVA and a bi-exponential model.
Results: Our major results showed higher performances for men and for subjects with normal BMI at all age groups except for the flexibility test. Body mass index is strongly correlated across all ages with physical fitness p < 0.0001. Those results are in accordance with the literature. Furthermore, through a biexponential model, a mean peak performance was identified at 26.32 years old for men and 22.18 years old for women.
Conclusion: Physical fitness assessment using simple tests is applicable on the general population and is correlated to age, BMI and health status. The application of a bi-exponential model offers a global approach to monitor public health.


Piezoelectric and dielectric properties of (LixNa1-x)NbO3 (LNN100x; x≤0.14) ceramics were investigated according to phase transition The highest electromechanical coupling factor, kp, of 0.247 was obtained for LNN12 which has a composition with a morphotropic phase boundary at room temperature. On the other hand, the coupling factor of k33 with longitudinal mode was almost constant for all compositions of x. The dielectric constant, ε r, before poling treatment exhibited a thermal hysteresis near the Curie temperature, TC, for all compositions. The depolarization temperature of LNN6 was higher than the TC before poling treatment. In addition, the peak of free permittivity, ε33 T, was shifted to higher temperature. It was considered that the phase transition was induced by the electric field during poling treatment.


Organic products tend to retail at a higher price than their conventional counterparts, which makes them susceptible to fraud. In this study we evaluate the application of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a rapid, cost-effective method to verify the organic identity of feed for laying hens. For this purpose a total of 36 organic and 60 conventional feed samples from The Netherlands were measured by NIRS. A binary classification model (organic vs conventional feed) was developed using partial least squares discriminant analysis. Models were developed using five different data preprocessing techniques, which were externally validated by a stratified random resampling strategy using 1000 realizations. Spectral regions related to the protein and fat content were among the most important ones for the classification model. The models based on data preprocessed using direct orthogonal signal correction (DOSC), standard normal variate (SNV), and first and second derivatives provided the most successful results in terms of median sensitivity (0.91 in external validation) and median specificity (1.00 for external validation of SNV models and 0.94 for DOSC and first and second derivative models). A previously developed model, which was based on fatty acid fingerprinting of the same set of feed samples, provided a higher sensitivity (1.00). This shows that the NIRS-based approach provides a rapid and low-cost screening tool, whereas the fatty acid fingerprinting model can be used for further confirmation of the organic identity of feed samples for laying hens. These methods provide additional assurance to the administrative controls currently conducted in the organic feed sector.


Repackaged for a new audience with art by prominent illustrator Christie, AfricanAmerican actress Beah Richards' poem from 1951 involves a daring young girl, her concerned guardian, Miss Nettie, and a tree that the girl knows must be climbed, whatever the consequences. Miss Nettie's threats and demands only spur on the brave heroine, who simply climbs higher and revels in her bigger-than-life moments in the sky. The illustrations expand the point by highlighting the simple thrill of conquering a challenge, spending time alone, and appreciating the view. The rich tans and browns and lush greens of Christie's gouache paintings are applied with heavy brushstrokes; blocks of color create a background of rural landscape while the dramatically posed fi gures and strong vertical of the tree dominate the foreground. There's a heavy dose of message in the poem, and the defensiveness of its championing of female athleticism gives the text a dated feel. There's appeal in the poem's casual musicality, however, with polysyllabic rhyme playfully laced throughout, and the encouragement of striving and achieving is always welcome. As a readaloud or read-alone, this is a free-spirited poem about a plucky heroine who chooses independence instead of compliance, and it could fi nd a responsive audience among similarly independent-minded girls. AS


The present paper is based on several field investigations (monitoring soil and rill erosion by aerial photography, rainfall simulations with portable rainfall simulators, and manmade rill flooding) in southern Spain. Experiments lead now to a closer understanding of the dynamics and power of different soil erosion processes in a gully catchment area. The test site Freila (Andalusia, Spain) covers an area of 10.01 ha with a rill density of 169 m ha−1, corresponding to a total rill length of 1694 m. Assuming an average rill width of 0.15 m, the total rill surface can be calculated at 250 m2 (0.025 ha). Given that, the surface covered by rills makes up only 0.25% of the total test site. Since the rill network drains 1.98 ha, 20% of the total runoff comes from rills. The rills' sediment erosion was measured and the total soil loss was then calculated for detachment rates between 1685 g m−2 and 3018 g m−2. The interrill areas (99.75% of the test site) show values between 29 and 143 g m−2. This suggests an important role of rill erosion concerning runoff and soil detachment.


With the full consideration of the heterogeneity, existing joints, and cracks in the rock, the coupled gas-rock model for investigating the failure process of coal-rock is established by introducing the related equations governing the evolution of stress, damage and gas permeability along with the deformation of coal and rock. A numerical approach of realistic failure process analysis (RFPA) to simulate the stratum movement, layer separation, the whole collapse progresses, and gas permeability changing of the protected coal seam is proposed. The numerical simulation results well displayed the whole processes of the cracks growth of gas seepage passage and the change of gas permeability for the closed distance protected coal seam. It can be seen from the distribution of acoustic emission in the space that the stratum failure is transferred from deeper to surface. By the analysis of the stress fields changing, the reasons of the gas permeability improvement of the protected coal seam are presented.


The decrease in feature sizes of micro-electronic devices has underlined the need for higher number of I/O's in order to increase its functionality. This has spurred a great interest in developing electronic packages with fine and ultra fine pitches (20-100 microns). Most of the compliant interconnects that are currently being developed have inductance and resistance higher than desirable. This work presents a novel low-temperature fabrication process that combines polymer structures with electroless copper plating to create low stress MEMS structures for extremely fine pitch wafer level packages. Finite element analysis of these structures shows tremendous reduction in the stresses at the interfaces and superior reliability as IC-package nano interconnects. Low CTE polyimide structures with ultra-low stress, high toughness and strength were fabricated using plasma etching. This dry etching process was tuned to yield a wall angle above 80 degrees. The etching process also leads to roughened sidewalls for selective electroless copper plating on the sidewalls of polymer structures. Metal-coated polymer structures from MEMS fabrication techniques can provide low-cost high-performance solutions for wafer-level-packaging. This work also describes a material solution synthesis route to develop reworkable nano-dimensional interfaces for IC-package bonding. Reworkability is addressed by a thin (200 nm) interface of lead-free high-strength solders using selective electroless plating. Lead-free alloy films were deposited from aqueous plating solutions consisting of suitable metal salts and reducing agents at 45/spl deg/C. The lead-free solder composition was controlled by altering the plating bath formulation and was characterized using SEM, XRD and XPS. Solder film formed from the above approach was demonstrated to bond the metal-coated polymer interconnects with the copper pads on the substrate.


We examined the economy-wide impact of a fertilizer-subsidy programme in Ghana with a focus on agricultural-sector productivity, overall economic growth, employment, and welfare. We adopted a modified version of the standard PEP-1-t model. Our results suggest that the fertilizer-subsidy programme improved GDP growth and sector-based productivity— notably, in the main agricultural subsectors and the food industry. Specifically, compared to the business-as-usual scenario, the implementation of the fertilizer-subsidy programme in 2017 improved the productivity of the maize, sorghum, and rice subsectors by about 8.3%, 4.5%, and 3.8%, respectively. These effects were, however, about four-times, three-times, and six-times higher in 2020 than their 2017 levels, respectively. We also observed important positive effects on the value-added of the food industry, indicating the presence of a backward linkage with agriculture. The unemployment rate among skilled labour (except urban skilled labour in agricultural) fell under the programme, and the decline in unemployment was relatively more pronounced for rural skilled labour in non-agricultural activities. In addition, we found evidence of positive effects on household consumption and, subsequently, on welfare. Based on these findings, we recommend that the fertilizer-subsidy programme be implemented and, if possible, extended beyond its planned implementation period.


Background: Secondary prophylaxis against repeated attacks of acute rheumatic fever is an important intervention in patients with rheumatic heart disease (RHD), and it aims to prevent throat infection by group A β-hemolytic streptococcus (GAS); however, its implementation faces many challenges. This study aimed to assess throat colonization, antibiotic susceptibility, and factors associated with GAS colonization among patients with RHD attending care at Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of RHD patients attending the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute was conducted from March to May 2018, where we consecutively enrolled all patients known to have RHD and coming for their regular clinic follow-up. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain patients' sociodemographic information, factors associated with GAS colonization, and status of secondary prophylaxis use and adherence. Throat swabs were taken and cultured to determine the presence of GAS, and isolates of GAS were tested for antibiotic susceptibility using Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion method according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute version 2015. Antibiotics of interest were chosen according to the Tanzanian Treatment Guidelines. Results: In total, 194 patients with RHD were enrolled, their mean age was 28.4 ± 16.5 years, and 58.2% were females. Only 58 (29.9%) patients were on regular prophylaxis, 39 (20.1%) had stopped taking prophylaxis, whereas 97 (50.0%) had never been on prophylaxis. Throat cultures were positive for GAS in 25 (12.9%) patients. Patients who stopped prophylaxis were 3.26 times more likely to be colonized by GAS when compared to patients on regular prophylaxis. Majority (96%) of GAS isolates were susceptible to penicillin, ceftriaxone, and ciprofloxacin, whereas the highest resistance (20%) was observed with vancomycin. No GAS resistance was observed against penicillin. Conclusion: The prevalence of GAS throat colonization is high among this population and is associated with stopping prophylaxis. The proportion of patients on regular secondary prophylaxis is unacceptably low, and interventions should target both patients' and physicians' barriers to effective secondary prophylaxis.


Identification of the factors affecting the adoption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is necessary in creating enabling environment for promoting LPG usage in Tanzania. This paper examines factors that affect the adoption of LPG in the jurisdiction of Kinondoni Municipal Council; one of the five municipalities in the city of Dar es Salaam. A cross-sectional research design, involving 466 households from three wards (Msasani, Kijitonyama and Tandale) was employed to capture qualitative and quantitative data. Content analysis was carried out using the Likert scale to observe perceived factors affecting the adoption of LPG. Chi square test and binary logistic regression were performed to examine the likelihood of the adoption of LPG to occur. The findings suggest that at the micro level, several factors do affect the adoption of LPG, but different individuals have different perceptions based on personal experiences. Uncovered factors include the quantity of sell, household income, household size, and the level of awareness. At the macro level, fuel availability is assumed to play an important role in determining the adoption and usage of LPG. Chi square test shows the association between different variables and LPG usage; while logistic regression reveals two variables—education and household expenditure (proxy for income)—as significant factors. The study recommends that the creation of enabling environment for LPG usage in the municipality should pay more attention to issues related to education and income.


Costa Rica comprises approximately 6% of the world's biodiversity. Among these lush ecosystems, wetlands are represented in mangrove forests near the sea, along river lowlands, sedimentary and volcanic mountains, and highland páramo landscapes. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), through the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) carried out the new National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) which identified 10,699 wetland polygons. This assessment collected key information such as location, characteristics of the wetland, land use in the vicinity, threats, and other generalities. Based on these valuable results, we propose a wetland Vulnerability Index composed of a Condition Index and a Hazard Index to determine the different vulnerability conditions of each wetland unit. Our findings provide a better comprehension of the status of wetlands in Costa Rica with an environmental geography perspective. Located in a climate change hotspot, Costa Rica's conservation policies and actions should consider how to manage the most vulnerable wetlands at different scales. This methodology can improve and generate regional and national wetlands inventories as a basis for evidence-based decision making in other latitudes.


The role of body posture is often underestimated in a sport performance. The sport training often focuses only on achieving the highest level of performance. On the other hand, this type of condition can be connected with serious health problems which can be one of the reasons of career-ending injury. The highest level of postural control and postural stability is required in sport when the athletes have to maintain the position in static or dynamic position during single-leg stance. The main aim of the study was the answer to question: whether is a significance difference between value of cervical lordosis and lumbar lordosis value during 2 years of study in Special Education of Security Sections (in pre-test and post-test)? Nineteen healthy students participated in this study (mean age = 20.2 ±1.32 years; mean height = 1.80 ±0.05 m; mean mass = 76.93 ±7.90 kg). The participants practiced combat sports in average 5.8 ±2.52 years. Before study, participants responded questions about personal information (age, sex, combat sport, length of sport practice and regeneration in their sport practise). DTP-3 diagnostic system was used for measuring body posture. The examination includes palpating and marking chosen points (the skin projection of the left and right lateral parts of the acromion, bilateral posterior superior iliac spine and 22 processus spinosi C3–L5). The chosen points were measured by touching the stylus of the sensor and then transmitted into the computer. The results showed that field of study Special Education of Security Sections had positive impact of value cervical and lumbar lordosis in a group of students (cervical lordosis: pre-test 3.57 ±0.99; post-test 2.84 ±0.89 and lumbar lordosis: pre-test 4.82 ±0.73; post-test 3.89 ±0.89). The paired samples t-test was used for cervical lordosis value and lumbar lordosis value (p = 0.000001; p = 0.000065; the significance level 95%). It was also observed a shift from asymmetry between shoulders position.


The gene for human beta-microseminoprotein (MSP, beta-inhibin, prostatic secretory protein94, or PSP94) was isolated. The nucleotide sequence of its upstream region (2,860 bp), exon 1 (35 bp), and a part of the following intron (218 bp) was determined. Transient transfection analysis on MSP-expressing (PC-3) and -nonexpressing (HepG2) cells using luciferase reporter plasmids suggested that the region from -2738 to -276 is not essential for the basal promoter activity, and that the regions from -275 to -207 and from -186 to -128 function in a cell-specific manner. The chromosome locus of the gene (MSMB) was determined through application of PCR to the DNAs of rodent-human somatic cell hybrids and also by the fluorescence in situ hybridization technique to be region q11.2 of chromosome 10.


Abstract—Assessment of geotechnical properties of the subsoil is necessary for generating relevant input for the design and construction of a foundation. It is significant for the future development in the area. The focus of this research is to investigate the preliminary geotechnical properties of the uncemented sandstone from Kati formation at Puncak Iskandar, Seri Iskandar. A series of basic soil tests, oedometer and direct shear box tests were carried out to obtain the soil parameters. The uncemented sandstone of Kati Formation was found to have well-graded and poorly graded sand distribution, depending on the location where the samples were obtained. The sand grains distribution was in a range of 82%-100% while, the specific gravity of the uncemented sandstone is in the range 2.65-2.86. The preconsolidation pressure for USB3 was 990 kPa indicating that the sandstone at USB3 sample had undergone 990 kPa of overburden pressure. The angle of friction for uncemented sandstone was ranging between 23.34°-32.92°.


Personal opinions on surgery of polyps of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, including from simple polypectomy to ethmoid microsurgery and nasal endoscopic surgery. The diagnostic importance of tomodensitometry and the essential postsurgical care are emphasized. The results of 29 patients with polyps of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses treated with intranasal microsurgery and endoscopic surgery are reported.


This study investigated if a period of auditory sensory deprivation followed by degraded auditory input and related language delays affects visual concept formation skills in long-term prelingually deaf cochlear implant (CI) users. We also examined if concept formation skills are mediated or moderated by other neurocognitive domains (i.e., language, working memory, and executive control). Relative to normally hearing (NH) peers, CI users displayed significantly poorer performance in several specific areas of concept formation, especially when multiple comparisons and relational concepts were components of the task. Differences in concept formation between CI users and NH peers were fully explained by differences in language and inhibition-concentration skills. Language skills were also found to be more strongly related to concept formation in CI users than in NH peers. The present findings suggest that complex relational concepts may be adversely affected by a period of early prelingual deafness followed by access to underspecified and degraded sound patterns and spoken language transmitted by a CI. Investigating a unique clinical population such as early-implanted prelingually deaf children with CIs can provide new insights into foundational brain-behavior relations and developmental processes.


Standards-based grading is an alternative grading method with many claimed benefits. This paper reports on quantitative studies investigating several of these oft-made anecdotal claims, such as reducing students' test anxiety and fostering a growth mindset. We found that standards-based grading did reduce students' test anxiety; moreover, the typically found difference in test anxiety between male and female students was eliminated in standards-based grading courses. We found no change in students' growth mindset, but that students' mastery avoidance goals were reduced.


Reactive oxygen intermediates exert signalling functions and modulate gene transcription, particularly for pro-inflammatory cytokines. Since exogenous as well as endogenous thiols could be potent inhibitors of the production of cytokines, the effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC), glutathione (GSH) and modulated GSH synthesis on the production of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 by human alveolar macrophages (AMs) was evaluated, as well as the potential role of intracellular GSH depletion on the effect of exogenous thiols. AMs were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and cytokine production was measured by evaluating messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression and protein secretion. Depletion of intracellular GSH by treatment with buthionine sulphoximine (BSO) reached 45.2% after 3 h and was nearly complete at 24 h. Whereas a 24-h preincubation of AMs with BSO significantly increased LPS-induced secretion of TNF-alpha and IL-8, a 3-h preincubation only enhanced LPS-stimulated production of IL-8 (p<0.05). Treatment with NAC and GSH did not significantly increase intracellular content of GSH even after a 48-h incubation. Addition of GSH and NAC significantly reduced the secretion of TNF-alpha (mean+/-SEM 21.2+/-5 and 44.7+/-4.4% inhibition, respectively) as well as LPS-induced IL-6 and IL-8 (p<0.05). Similarly, NAC inhibited the production of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-8 in GSH-depleted AMs obtained by BSO pretreatment. In conclusion, N-acetylcysteine and glutathione inhibit the production of tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-8 and interleukin-6 by alveolar macrophages by a mechanism independent of glutathione metabolism. However, total depletion of glutathione within alveolar macrophages significantly increases tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-8 synthesis whereas it does not modulate interleukin-6 secretion.


Pre Processing the abdominal ECG signal in order to extract the fetal ECG is becoming very crucial nowadays. The extracted Fetal ECG should not contain any of the noise interferences, since it will affect the diagnosis. Before extracting the Fetal ECG, the abdominal ECG must be pre processed so that the noises (such as power line interference, Base line wandering, electrode contact noise etc) can be reduced. In this paper, pre processing is done using a combination of FIR Filter and Principal component Analysis (PCA). The result shows that the proposed method (Combination of FIR and PCA) removes noise and other unwanted interferences more efficiently than existing methods. A comparison between Butterworth filter, FIR Filter, Principal Component Analysis and the current work is done and better results (PSNR and MSE) are obtained by the proposed method.


As compared with extraction of lipids using organic solvents or preparative ultracentrifugation a proposed procedure of ultrafiltration enabled to obtain rapidly an appropriate amounts of blood serum free of lipids and apoproteins, which, except for high molecular components impeded by membrane, is similar to the native blood serum. Blood serum free of both lipids and apoproteins permits of best interpretation of the data obtained in study of sterol synthesis in mononuclear leukocytes.


Abstract Diabetes in older adults has a high prevalence and is frequently associated with comorbidities of the cardiovascular system, dysfunction of cognition as well as depression and impaired mobility or increased frailty. Furthermore, impaired renal function, heart failure, risk for hypoglycemia and polypharmacy has to be considered in the decision about the diabetes treatment strategy. The goal of blood glucose management is driven by patient relevant issues and patient self-esteem, quality of life defined by the patient, preservation of physical and social mobility rather than potential long-term effects on reduction of cardio- and microvascular events in the future, which is limited by patient-inherent reduced life expectancy of the aged individual. Therefore, long-term diabetes medication should avoid hypoglycemia and prevent acute hyperglycemia or short-term complications on morbidity and clinical course of geriatric syndromes associated with regular blood glucose levels above 200 mg/dl (11.1 mmol/l). The therapy should be safe, easy to handle for the patient and possibly affect co-morbidities positively. However, there are limited data available about efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of drugs in patients over 75 years of age or older. Since more than 5 % of the population in Germany is older than 80 years means that more than 1 million of these individuals suffer from diabetes. It is time to ask for data in these elderly subpopulations by policy makers in health care.


Agricultural production systems that also provide opportunities to conserve biodiversity will be a crucial component of integrated and sustainable land use in mixed farming landscapes and should be considered and evaluated. Alley farming is an innovative farming system that aims to increase farm profitability while also enhancing environmental outcomes. Alley farming incorporates belts of woody perennial plants such as trees or shrubs, interspersed with alleys of conventionally rotated cropping and livestock grazing land. In the present study, we assessed the impacts on terrestrial biodiversity of alley farming with the native perennial chenopod shrub old man saltbush (Atriplex nummularia Lindl.) in central western New South Wales. Terrestrial biodiversity conservation status was assessed by site surveys conducted in spring 2005, 2006 and 2007 at 15 old man salt bush alley farming sites (OMSB), 15 conventionally managed sites and three native woodland remnants in and around the Condobolin Agricultural Research and Advisory Station in the central western plains of New South Wales. Biodiversity surveys included an assessment of 'site condition' – a metric of biodiversity conservation status at the site scale based on measurement of 10 habitat and vegetation condition attributes, compared against benchmark values for the appropriate native ecosystems with relatively little recent anthropogenic modification. Bird surveys were also conducted to assess the diversity and abundance of birds in OMSB, conventional and remnant woodland sites in four functional response groups. Site condition was significantly higher at remnant woodland sites than at conventional farming and OMSB alley farming sites. Remnant woodland sites had greater native overstorey cover and native ground cover of forbs, more trees with hollows, presence of at least some overstorey regeneration and the presence of fallen logs. Site condition was also significantly higher at OMSB sites than at conventional sites and increased significantly across 3 years. By the third year after establishment, OMSB sites had higher native plant species richness and native mid-storey cover than did conventionally farmed sites. These attributes increased markedly over time at the OMSB sites whereas they did not increase at conventional or remnant woodland sites. Native grasses and forbs established under and around the saltbush plants, indicating that OMSB alley plantings can provide habitat for a wide range of native plant species, enhancing biodiversity values of these areas through improved structure and composition. Improved habitat condition at the OMSB sites after 3 years did not lead to a significantly higher diversity or to a higher overall abundance of birds at the OMSB than at conventional sites. Furthermore, diversity and abundance of birds at both OMSB and conventional sites remained significantly below those of remnant woodland sites. Some decliner bird species were observed using OMSB sites, but not conventional sites. Old man saltbush alley farming can provide direct on-site benefits for native biodiversity by improving the structure, function and composition of vegetation at the site or paddock scale. If proposed as a replacement to conventional crop–pasture rotation, OMSB alley farming can enhance biodiversity conservation values, and where production benefits are likely, could play an important role in the integration of production and conservation as a synergistic 'win–win' system in mixed farming enterprises.


: The normal computer tomographic anatomy of the larynx and neighbouring structures is illustrated. Special attention is paid to the preepiglottic and para-glottic spaces, which cannot be adequately demonstrated by any other method. The technique is discussed with examinations done on a cadaver and on patients.


Three out of 18 psychotic children excreted N-methylmetanephrine, a metabolite of N-methylepinephrine. It is not clear whether this tertiary amine plays a part in causing some forms of psychosis or is merely a secondary result of mental dysfunction. Urinary excretion of bufotenin and of 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine, each of which has been reported elevated in some adult schizophrenics, was not unusual in these children.


In year 2000 a 336 m 2 solar domestic hot water system was built in Sundparken, Elsinore, Denmark. The solar heating system is a low flow system with a 10000 1 hot-water tank. Due to the orientation of the buildings half of the solar collectors are facing east. half of the solar collectors are facing west. The collector tilt is 15° from horizontal for all collectors. Both the east-facing and the west-facing collectors have their own solar collector loop, circulation pump, external heat exchanger and control system. The external heat exchangers are used to transfer the heat from the solar collector fluid to the domestic water The domestic water is pumped from the bottom of the hot-water tank to the heat exchanger and back to the hot-water tank through stratification inlet pipes. The return flow from the DHW circulation pipe also enters the tank through stratification inlet pipes. The tank design ensures an excellent thermal stratification in the tank. The solar heating system was installed in May 2000. The thermal performance of the solar heating system has been measured in the first two years of operation. Compared to other large Danish solar domestic hot water systems the system is performing well in spite of the fact that the solar collectors are far from being orientated optimally. The utilization of the solar radiation on the collectors is higher, 46% in the second year of operation, than for any other system earlier investigated in Denmark, 16%-34%. The reason for the good thermal performance and for the excellent utilization of the solar radiation is the high hot-water consumption and the good system design making use of external heat exchangers and stratification inlet pipes.


Ultraviolet radiation causes damage to the skin, which may result in both precancerous and cancerous skinlesions and acceleration of skin ageing. Topical administration of enzymatic and non‐enzymatic antioxidants is an effective strategy for protecting the skin against UV‐mediated oxidative damage. Hence, a systematic study to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant activity and in vivo photoprotective effect of a standardized red orange extract (ROE) has been undertaken, where the main active ingredients are anthocyanins, hydroxycinnamic acids, flavanones and ascorbic acid. For the in vitro experiments, the ROE was tested in three models: (1) bleaching of the stable 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH test); (2) peroxidation, induced by the water‐soluble radical initiator 2,2′‐azobis(2‐amidinopropane) hydrochloride, of mixed dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine/linoleic acid unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) (LP‐LUV test); and (3) UV‐induced peroxidation of phospatidylcholine multilamellar vesicles (UV‐IP test). The in vivo antioxidant/radical scavenger activity was assessed by determining the ability of topically applied ROE to reduce UVB‐induced skin erythema in healthy human volunteers. The results obtained in the DPPH, LP‐LUV and UV‐IP tests demonstrated the strong antioxidant properties of ROE, with a clear relationship between ROE scavenger efficiency and its content in antioxidant compounds. In particular, the findings obtained in the UV‐IP test provide a strong rationale for using this extract as a photoprotective agent. During in vivo experiments, ROE provided to efficiently protect against photooxidative skin damage when topically applied immediately after skin exposure to UVB radiations. Interestingly, the protective effect of ROE appears higher than that elicited by another natural antioxidant (tocopherol) commonly employed in cosmetic formulations. In conclusion, the present findings demonstrate that ROE affords excellent skin photoprotection, which is very likely a result of the antioxidant/radical scavenger activity of its active ingredients. Thus, ROE might have interesting applications in both anti‐photoageing and after‐sun cosmetic products.


Viruses have a high ability to resist drugs and adapt to all conditions. This has encouraged the scientific community to develop new therapeutic agents by using antioxidant compounds that are naturally present in foods and medicinal plants. Cellular harm caused by free radicals (Reactive Oxygen Spescies ROS) leads to many From the diseases such as diabetes, virus inflammation, impregnability diseases, and digestive diseases. ROS are created during Metabolism of complex chemical compounds. Some plants are characterized by their antioxidant and antiviral activity which increases their ability to fight viruses, therefore plants with antioxidant capacity protect cells by stopping the oxidation chain reaction, and also can contribute significantly to offsetting oxidative stress caused by viral disease. Essential oils extracted from plants may serve as potential alternative sources for treating diseases caused by certain viruses. This study aims to show the potential effect of natural antioxidants found in some foods, herbs and their essential oils in treating some viral diseases, as well as how they work in boosting immunity and inhibition of free radicals


Among the first-degree relatives of 77 patients with delusional functional psychoses the authors found 13 schizophrenics (3.10%), 8 manic-depressives (1.91 %) and 14 cases with atypical psychoses (3.34%), following ICD-9 criteria. These figures were compared with the figures in the literature on the genetics of paranoid schizophrenics and nonschizophrenic paranoids, regarding the different composition of the samples. Subdivision of the original 77 patients, using the concept of the axial syndromes, was able to form two homogeneous subgroups of first-degree relatives: one with a schizophrenia prevalence of 6.52% (uncorrected) and without any manic-depressive secondary cases (endogeno-morphic-schizophrenic axial syndrome) and another with a manic-depressive illness (MDI) prevalence of 6.58% (uncorrected) without any secondary cases with schizophrenia or atypical psychosis. The first-degree relatives of the patients with an 'organomorphic' axial syndrome (usually excluded in other studies) had an increased rate of manic-depressive secondary cases (3.57%, uncorrected) and the highest rate of atypical psychosis (7.14%) without any schizophrenics, according to the etiopathogenetic heterogeneity of this group. 37 of the 77 patients were not assignable to any of the axial syndromes. In the first-degree relatives of these patients – best comparable to Kendler's criteria for 'delusional disorder' – an increased rate of schizophrenics and atypical psychoses was found (3.59 and 3.08%, uncorrected); the figures for MDI were within normal limits. Our results suggest that the axial syndromes are a useful diagnostic instrument in identifying – from the genetic standpoint – in part very homogeneous subgroups. This allows the conclusion that they are indicators for hypothetical basic disturbances.


: The aim of this study was to verify if the harvest index (HI) of common bean is higher in modern lines, to verify if its estimate varies with the cycle of the plant and environmental conditions, and to obtain information concerning its genetic control (through diallel crossing). For this purpose, six lines were crossed in a diallel. Evaluations were carried out in three crop seasons/generations - F 2 , F 3 , and F 4 . A receptacle was used to collect leaves, pods, and other plant parts that fell before harvest. Diallel analysis was performed using Griffing's method II. It found that the HI was higher in modern lines and was not affected by the cycle; the estimated HI heterosis was negative, indicating the occurrence of dominance in order to reduce trait expression.


Message authentication is considered as a serious bottleneck to multicast security, particular for stream-type of traffic. The technique of hash chaining/signature amortization has been proposed in many schemes for stream authentication, with or without multicast settings. However, none of them is optimal. They either have a large packet overhead or are not robust to packet loss. Some even have a large receiver delay or require a large receiver buffer size. These schemes are constructed by trial-and-error methods. There lack tools to evaluate and compare their performances. There is no systematic way to construct these schemes either In this paper, we introduce the notion of dependence-graphs which links these hash-chained authentication schemes to the well-known graph theory, and provides an effective analytical tool. Many important metrics of a hash-chained authentication scheme can be readily and easily determined from its dependence-graph. As well, a dependence-graph demonstrates design tradeoff and provides insights into optimizing hash-chained schemes.


WILLIAM House was the first to suggest inserting polyethylene film into the endolymphatic sac to protrude out over the exposed dura of the posterior fossa to enlarge the area available for the absorption of excess endolymph in Meniere's disease. He reported "complete relief for more than two years from severe weekly attacks of vertigo in one patient, with no change in the hearing. In another patient there was a considerable improvement for three months, ear pressure and tinnitus ceased, hearing increased (with development of an air-bone gap), and he had no more attacks of vertigo, although for the previous nine years he had experienced two attacks per week. In two patients recruitment and ear pressure were markedly reduced, but tinnitus and vertigo disappeared for less than a week only. The fifth patient showed no improvement. In no case was any symptom worsened." 1 Despite these good results, and the lack


Optimization of tool life is required to tune the machining parameters and achieve the desired surface roughness of the machined components in a wide range of engineering applications. There are many machining input variables which can influence surface roughness and tool life during any machining process, such as cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. These parameters can be optimized to reduce surface roughness and increase tool life. The present study investigates the optimization of five different sensorial criteria, additional to tool wear (VB) and surface roughness (Ra), via the Tool Condition Monitoring System (TCMS) for the first time in the open literature. Based on the Taguchi L9 orthogonal design principle, the basic machining parameters cutting speed (vc), feed rate (f) and depth of cut (ap) were adopted for the turning of AISI 5140 steel. For this purpose, an optimization approach was used implementing five different sensors, namely dynamometer, vibration, AE (Acoustic Emission), temperature and motor current sensors, to a lathe. In this context, VB, Ra and sensorial data were evaluated to observe the effects of machining parameters. After that, an RSM (Response Surface Methodology)-based optimization approach was applied to the measured variables. Cutting force (97.8%) represented the most reliable sensor data, followed by the AE (95.7%), temperature (92.9%), vibration (81.3%) and current (74.6%) sensors, respectively. RSM provided the optimum cutting conditions (at vc = 150 m/min, f = 0.09 mm/rev, ap = 1 mm) to obtain the best results for VB, Ra and the sensorial data, with a high success rate (82.5%).


This article describes in detail the rationale behind the evolution of the mediation process used in the Criminal Court Mediation Program in Brooklyn, New York. The process developed as a response to high emotion contentious conflicts in misdemeanour cases that came through the programme, in which defendants unexpectedly insisted on countering complainants' moral assertions about fault and harm. Through the story of one case, characteristic of many that come through the programme, we describe stages of the process from intake through mediation, and highlight key components: separate, pre-mediation sessions; regular opportunities of choice for all parties; and no promises about what will be discussed in mediation, in order to support agency and bilateral moral discourse. The programme's success is evinced by highly positive feedback from both defendants and complainants, including increased feelings of safety. We hope our experience will serve as a reference for programmes receiving similar types of cases.


—Self-adaptation mechanisms modify target systems dynamically to address adaptation goals, which may evolve continuously due to changes in system requirements. These changes affect values and thresholds of observed context variables and monitoring logic, or imply the addition and/or deletion of context variables, thus compromising self-adaptivity effectiveness under static monitoring infrastructures. Nevertheless, self-adaptation approaches often focus on adapting target systems only rather than monitoring infrastructures. Previously, we proposed DY-NAMICO, a reference model for self-adaptive systems where adaptation goals and monitoring requirements change dynamically. This paper presents an implementation of DYNAMICO comprising our SMARTERCONTEXT monitoring infrastructure and QOS-CARE adaptation framework in a self-adaptation solution that maintains its context-awareness relevance. To evaluate our reference model we use self-adaptive system properties and the Znn.com exemplar to compare the Rainbow system with our DYNAMICO implementation. The results of the evaluation demonstrate the applicability, feasibility, and effectiveness of DYNAMICO, especially for self-adaptive systems with context-awareness requirements.


A novel amino-cyclodextrin was synthesized, and it was covalently attached to multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The functionalized MWNTs (f-MWNTs) have very good aqueous dispersibility. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was adsorbed onto f-MWNTs through noncovalent interactions, including the hydrophobic interaction of the residues of BSA with the wall of MWNT and the guest–host interaction of the residues with the cyclodextrin (CD) moieties of f-MWNTs. The ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) absorption of the f-MWNT-BSA hybrid was measured with UV–vis spectrometer, and the absorbance can be described well with the Beer–Lambert law. The X-ray diffraction patterns have indicated that the crystalline form of BSA has been changed after the adsorption of BSA on f-MWNTs. The circular dichroism spectra have shown that a high percentage of a-helical content can be retained for BSA adsorbed on f-MWNTs. The results also indicate that the change of secondary structure of BSA is mainly due to the hydrophobic interaction of the residues of BSA with the wall of f-MWNT, whereas the secondary structure is much less affected by the interaction of the CD moieties with BSA. V C 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 57: 3507–3513, 2011


With the professionalisation of sport in South Africa, the pressure to perform in sport amongst tertiary institutions has increased the competition to recruit the best athletes with the highest potential to perform. Tertiary education student-athlete recruitment has become a fiercely competitive market and being able to identify the factors which indirectly or directly influence a potential recruit's decision of whether or not to attend a tertiary institution is of great value to any institution. A sustainable and effective recruitment strategy is needed to ensure the recruitment of the highest calibre athletes. This study aims to determine which factors influence sport recruitment of student-athletes at tertiary level and the importance thereof. Questionnaires were distributed to potential University of Johannesburg recruits for 2013 (n=6); current UJ student-athletes (n=46); and unsuccessful 2012 recruits from various sporting codes consisting of athletics (n=4); cricket (n=1); football (n=18); hockey (n=5); netball (n=1); rowing (n=8); rugby (n=13) and other (n=2). Results were interpreted through the use of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The role of academic recruitment factors for student-athletes proved to be inconsequential overall with just the quality of the course presented measuring any significance, however sporting factors such as the quality of the High performance programme, sporting facilities and sporting participation opportunities of different levels were identified as strong recruitment factors on which student-athletes based their decisions on with regards to attending an institution. Higher education sport practitioners and/or coaches working with constrained student development programming and/or recruiting budgets are better able to streamline these processes with a better understanding of student athlete choice factors. Knowing which factors to emphasise during the choice stage of choosing a university will better assist urban-serving universities during program development or recruiting.


The acute intoxication of Cypermethrin in Silver Catfish (Rhamdia quelen) was evaluated. Animals weighing 56.67±4.43g and measuring 18.92±1.16cm were exposed to sublethal concentrations of Cypermethrin for the species in hydrological conditions during 96 hours. A total of 52 fish divided into three groups were used and received the following concentrations of Cypermethrin: 0 (n=12); 1.5 (n=20) and 2.5 (n=20)mg/L. The intoxicated animals suffered behavioral changes such as loss of balance, swimming alteration, dyspnea, upright swimming and sudden spiral swimming movements. As soon as the 96-hour period was over, a blood collection for hematological and biochemical analyses was performed. A complete haemogram test, plasmatic protein test, albumin, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma glutamyltransferase and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were studied. The values of erythrocytes, hematocrits, haemoglobin, total number of leukocytes, thrombocyte, ALT, AST and ALP changed according to the groups. The results have shown that the environmental contamination by Cypermethrin is toxic to the species.


Forensic entomology is the application of the study of insects and other arthropods which are associated with legal issues and certain suspected criminal events. Successional studies have been successfully applied in criminal cases to determine the postmortem interval (PMI). This research was done to establish the influence of burning on a body's decomposition, insect succession and calculation of the PMI. Field trials were conducted during different seasons of successive years on the campus of the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. The experimental site where the field experiments were conducted, consists of 24 hectares of open grassveld with a few scattered trees. Four pig (Sus scrofa) carcasses were used during each trial, one carcass as control and three carcasses burnt with different volumes of LRP petrol to a CGS level 2 or 3 burn injury with varying degrees of charring. The carcasses were sampled daily for arthropod activity, carcass mass, decompositional stage and microclimate. The control and SB (slightly burnt) carcasses decomposed at a similar rate during the warmer seasons. During the colder seasons, the SB carcass decomposed faster than the control carcass. The slowest decomposition occurred at the MB (medium burnt) and HB (heavily burnt) carcasses. Burning had an effect on the colonisation of Chrysomya chloropyga, Chrysomya marginalis and Chrysomya albiceps. Oviposition occurred simultaneously at all carcasses (autumn, spring & during heavy rainfall in summer ), at the burnt carcasses one day prior to the control carcass (spring & summer) and at the burnt carcasses three to five days prior to the control carcass (autumn & winter). An exception occurred during a single trial when oviposition occurred at the burnt carcasses five days after oviposition at the control carcass (winter). During the warmer seasons oviposition time was shorter, resulting in maggots of similar age at all of the carcasses. During the colder seasons oviposition time was iv extended, resulting in maggots of different ages and instars on the same carcass and between carcasses. During all trials, except for the summer trail with heavy prolonged rainfall, only the control carcasses reached the Dry/Remains Stage. The burnt carcasses only reached the Advanced Decomposition Stage during the same timeframe. Calliphoridae were the dominant Diptera during all trials. Dominant Diptera species, in numerical order, were Chrysomya marginalis, Chrysomya albiceps and Chrysomya chloropyga. Muscidae adults were recorded during all trials, but no maggots were observed or collected. Coleoptera were dominated by Dermestes maculatus (adults and larvae) and Necrobia rufipes (adults). Coleoptera dominance increased with the level of burning. Differences in arthropod succession between the carcasses occurred due to the effect of burning on the time of oviposition. The PMI calculated for a burnt body would be one to five days shorter than the PMI for an unburnt body, depending on the extent of bloating of the burnt body, the season and ambient temperature. During warmer months the PMI of a burnt body and an unburnt body would essentially be the same due to simultaneous oviposition. Laboratory trials revealed that feeding on burnt media caused C. chloropyga maggots to reach pupation one day faster than the control. No significant difference was found between the treatments for the development time from pupation until adult eclosion. No significant difference was found between the treatments for the mean total development time for C. chloropyga. A 10.6% higher survival until adulthood was found on the burnt media than the control. Morphometrics revealed a higher pupal mass for the control than the burnt media. No signifant difference was found for the adult dry mass and wing length for the control and the burnt media.


In this paper, a novel concept called a uniquely factorable constellation (UFC) is proposed for the systematic design of noncoherent full-diversity constellations for a wireless communication system that is equipped with a single transmitter antenna and multiple receiver antennas [single input-multiple output (SIMO)], where neither the transmitter nor the receiver knows channel-state information. It is proved that such a UFC design guarantees the unique blind identification of channel coefficients and transmitted signals in a noise-free case by processing only two received signals, as well as full diversity for the noncoherent maximum-likelihood (ML) receiver in a noise case. By using the Lagrange four-square theorem, an algorithm is developed to efficiently and effectively design various sizes of energy-efficient unitary UFCs to optimize the coding gain. In addition, a closed-form optimal energy scale is found to maximize the coding gain for the unitary training scheme based on the commonly used quadratic-amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations. Comprehensive computer simulations show that, using the same generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) receiver, the error performance of the unitary UFC designed in this paper outperforms the differential scheme, the optimal unitary training scheme presented in this paper, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) efficient training scheme using the QAM constellation, which, so far, yields the best error performance in the current literature. However, with the same training ML receiver, the error performance of the UFCs is worse than the training scheme based on the QAM constellations.


Community Based Tourism (CBT) is among several types of tourism that have been considered sustainable and beneficial to the host populations in conservation areas. The local community participation in tourism in conservation areas is supposed to be high and its members should benefit from the tourism process. However, having been presented with opportunity to improve their livelihoods, communities are constrained in various ways and generally fail to benefit from tourism development. This study was set to investigate constraints to community participation in conservation areas. It was carried out in Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary (MES) in Kwale County, Kenya, using a descriptive survey design. Data was collected using researcher administered questionnaires and oral interviews. The results indicated that lack of coordination among stakeholders; inadequate financial resources, lack of conducive environment for tourism growth, and lack of skills/knowledge were major constraints to participation. The study concludes that to address both operational and structural constraints to community participation, the national and county governments should develop policies that compel investors to honour agreements with communities, assist communities to enter into fair collaborations with investors, and provide incentives to investors in tourism.


At least two-thirds of the phosphorus ingested by pigs is in the form of phytates. Two intestinal vitamin D-sensitive enzymes, alkaline phosphatase and phytase, might be involved in phytate-P digestion. The effects of dietary vitamin D upon the two intestinal phosphatases and P utilization in pigs fed a high phytate-P diet are reported here. Fourteen vit. D-depleted pigs (25-hydroxy vit. D: about 2 ng/ml plasma) were divided into two groups fed the same basal diet containing 0.6% P (of which 80% was phytic) and 0.6% Ca. One group (+D) was supplemented for 5 weeks with vit. D (1 000 IU D3/kg diet) and the other (-D) received none. P absorption and retention was two times higher in +D pigs than in -D animals (balance technique), and tibia X-ray pictures showed a lower bone density with the -D diet than with the +D diet. Surprisingly, vit. D supplementation had no effect on either of the mucosal enzymes (phytase and alkaline phosphatase). It may be concluded that vit. D improves phytate-P absorption via a mechanism which does not involve an increase in the activity of the intestinal phosphatases.


BACKGROUND
Research comparing the alcohol-preferring (P) and -nonpreferring (NP) rat lines has detected an apparent association between ethanol preference and lower responsivity to ethanol, as well as the capacity to develop and maintain tolerance to ethanol's effects. However, past studies of tolerance to ethanol's effects generally involved relatively high doses. The present study examined recovery from functional impairment induced by moderate doses of ethanol after a single dose (responsivity) and after multiple doses (development of tolerance) in the P and NP rat lines.

METHOD
Adult female P and NP rats were trained, for 5 consecutive days, to stay on an oscillating bar for 120 sec. Rats were then assigned to one of three groups to receive 1.0, 1.25, or 1.5 g/kg ethanol for 5 consecutive test days. Rats were tested each day at 15-min intervals, following intraperitoneal injection, until recovery to the 120 sec criterion.

RESULTS
On the first test day, NP rats took longer to recover to criterion than the P rats following the 1.0 and 1.25 g/kg doses, whereas at the 1.5 g/kg dose no line difference was evident. Trunk blood alcohol concentrations (BACs), associated with time to recovery, indicated higher values for the P than NP rat on day 1 following injection of the two lower doses. Compared to day 1, NP rats demonstrated significantly shorter times to recovery beginning on day 2 following injections of the 1.0 and 1.25 g/kg doses. However, NP rats did not show significantly different recovery times on days 2-5 compared to day 1 following injection of the 1.5 g/kg dose. The shorter recovery times at the 1.0 and 1.25 g/kg doses were associated with BACs at recovery on day 3 being equal to or greater than values obtained on day 1. In contrast, compared to day 1, P rats did not show shorter recovery times until days 3 and 5 following the 1.0 and 1.25 g/kg doses, respectively. However, P rats did demonstrate shorter recovery times on day 2 and higher BACs on day 3 compared to day 1 following the 1.5 g/kg dose.

CONCLUSION
With regard to motor impairment, lower responsivity to moderate doses of ethanol may be a factor associated with high alcohol-seeking behavior. The present results confirm past research supporting an association between ethanol preference and low ethanol responsivity but at doses that are more reflective of those self-administered by P rats.


An insulated metal substrate (IMS) is a circuit board comprising an insulating layer on a metal base plate. The insulating layer is made from epoxy resin incorporating dense ceramic fillers. The substrates are used in applications where electric parts generate intense heat. It is expected that the insulating layer has higher thermal conductivity as the use of an IMS is expanded. Therefore, the influence of percolation on the equivalent thermal conductivity (ETC) of an insulating layer is considered. The Effect of the volume fraction of ceramic filler on the ETC of insulating layer in IMS is investigated. The ETC as a function of volume fraction of filler is estimated. Based on these experimental and numerical results, an ETC of a filler is evaluated. The ETC of an irregular filler is presumed smaller than that of a spherical filler. It is thought that the control of filler size and shape is important for the formation of high thermal conductivity of an insulating layer. In addition, an improved equation for the ETC of IMS is proposed. The predictive values from the equation for an improved IMS agree with experimental results.


The problem of tracking for second-order dynamical systems subject to disturbance input is considered by using a complete parametric design approach. The goal of this problem is to design a controller such that the output of the controlled system robustly asymptotically tracks the output of the reference model, and the transfer function from the exogenous disturbance to the tracking error meets a prescribed norm upper bound constraint. Based on the complete parametric solution to a class of generalized second-order Sylvester matrix equations, complete parameterizations for all the controller gain matrices are established in terms of two set of freedom parameters. Also, based on these parametric gain matrices, the prescribed norm upper bound constraint is transformed into an equivalent constraint condition which restricts the choice of the freedom parameters. An example is utilized to show the effect of the proposed approach.


Pronounced non-uniformities in combustor exit flow temperature (hot-streaks), which arise because of discrete injection of fuel and dilution air jets within the combustor and because of end-wall cooling flows, affect both component life and aerodynamics. Because it is very difficult to quantitatively predict the affects of these temperature non-uniformities on the heat transfer rates, designers are forced to budget for hot-streaks in the cooling system design process. Consequently, components are designed for higher working temperatures than the mass-mean gas temperature, and this imposes a significant overall performance penalty. An inadequate cooling budget can lead to reduced component life. An improved understanding of hot-streak migration physics, or robust correlations based on reliable experimental data, would help designers minimise the overhead on cooling flow that is currently a necessity. A number of recent research projects sponsored by a range of industrial gas turbine and aero-engine manufacturers attest to the growing interest in hot-streak physics. This paper presents measurements of surface and end-wall heat transfer rate for an HP nozzle guide vane (NGV) operating as part of a full HP turbine stage in an annular transonic rotating turbine facility. Measurements were conducted with both uniform stage inlet temperature and with two non-uniform temperature profiles. The temperature profiles were non-dimensionally similar to profiles measured in an engine. A difference of one half of an NGV pitch in the circumferential (clocking) position of the hot-streak with respect to the NGV was used to investigate the affect of clocking on the vane surface and end-wall heat transfer rate. The vane surface pressure distributions, and the results of a flow-visualisation study, which are also given, are used to aid interpretation of the results. The results are compared to two-dimensional predictions conducted using two different boundary layer methods. Experiments were conducted in the Isentropic Light Piston Facility (ILPF) at QinetiQ Farnborough, a short duration engine-size turbine facility. Mach number, Reynolds number and gas-to-wall temperature ratios were correctly modelled. It is believed that the heat transfer measurements presented in this paper are the first of their kind.© 2005 ASME


This research investigated the implementation of inter-language pragmatics instruction which is less explored in the research literature of instructional pragmatics in EFL contexts. Specifically, it examined the extent to which instructors of private EFL institutes implement interlanguage pragmatic instruction in their classrooms in Iran. A mixed-method research design was employed in this study. Two hundred and thirty eight instructors participated in this study to collect the questionnaire data and 67 classes were involved in the observation. Questionnaire and observation checklists made up the quantitative instruments for data collection while observation field notes provided the qualitative data.  The quantitative data was subjected to descriptive statistics through the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21 software and the qualitative data was analyzed based on Martinez-Flor and Uso-Juan's 6Rs instructional model. Findings from both the quantitative and qualitative data showed that Iranian EFL instructors rarely implemented and practiced the features of inter-language pragmatics in their classes in comparison with other language areas.  The study suggests the inclusion of adequate pragmatic information not only in the instructors' guidebooks but also in learners' EFL textbooks and teacher training courses. The quality of EFL teaching can then be further enhanced at the higher learning institutions in EFL contexts. Keywords: Praxis; Interlanguage pragmatic instruction; private EFL institutes; mixed-methods approach, EFL context


Purified rat liver ATP citrate-lyase is phosphorylated on serine residues by an insulin-stimulated cytosolic kinase activity partially purified from rat adipocytes [Yu, Khalaf & Czech (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 16677-16685]. The Km for lyase phosphorylation by this hormone-sensitive kinase activity is approx. 3 microM. Two-dimensional tryptic-peptide mapping of the 32P-labelled lyase reveals that the kinase-catalysed phosphorylation occurs primarily on a specific peptide. In intact 32P-labelled adipocytes, insulin enhances the serine phosphorylation of ATP citrate-lyase by 2-3-fold. Tryptic digestion of the 32P-labelled lyase immunopurified from insulin-treated adipocytes also yields one major phosphopeptide. 32P-labelled lyase tryptic peptides derived from labelling experiments in vitro and in vivo exhibit identical electrophoretic and chromatographic migration profiles. Furthermore, radio-sequencing of the phosphopeptide from lyase 32P-labelled in vitro indicates that serine-3 from the N-terminus is phosphorylated by the insulin-stimulated cytosolic kinase, in agreement with previous studies on the position of the phosphoserine residue in ATP citrate-lyase isolated from insulin-treated cells. Taken together, the similarity in site-specific phosphorylation of ATP citrate-lyase from insulin-treated adipocytes to that catalysed by the hormone-activated cytosolic kinase in vitro strongly suggests that this kinase mediates insulin action on lyase phosphorylation in intact cells.


Analysis of the Production Data from Marcellus Shale Wells Amanda Parrish The increasingly prevalent practice of unconventional technologies has called for the need for the critical analysis of production decline rates to meet economic targets. The high early time production returns and transient flow make matching a production curve to known methods of decline curve analysis problematic. This research focuses on finding a technique that best fits a known production curve and then applying that technique to another well to check its accuracy. The goal is to find the earliest time of production data necessary to predict an accurate production curve over the lifespan of the well. This is essential to the industry as early prediction is crucial to cost analysis. The data used in this research is from research wells 4H and 6H. First, the data is simulated using generic simulation software. The data is then exported to excel and analyzed. The data that has been analyzed comes from production data of the lifespan of the well with actual completion practices and then looked at for each fracture. This research has determined that the hyperbolic decline curve best predicts future returns for production in the Marcellus shale. Testing the methods on the MIP-4H and then applying to the MIP-6H, it is clear that the approach was successful in matching. The research also shows that in order to predict using the hyperbolic decline curve 6 to 8 months of data gives the best fit.