Science and technology for society program (IbM) on Ngargorejo Village. The usage of  Water Hyacinth (Euchornia crassipes) and Straw as an Cattle Feed and Fertilizer Alternative in cooperation with two partners , namely : Mina Sejahtera Breeders Group and Ngudi Makmur Farmers Group Association subdistrict Ngargorejo Ngemplak Boyolali with the distance of about 20 km from UNS . Problems experienced by Mina Sejahtera Breeders Group can be identified as follows : the presence of water hyacinth disrupt fish farms as waters cover , water hyacinth removed only inside of reservoir and allowed to sit there . Problems experienced Gapoktan Ngudi Makmur is the availability of fertilizer is still highly dependent on chemical fertilizers manufactured, so greatly disrupt the smooth process of agricultural production and the price of chemical fertilizers manufactured, so unstable / erratic even tend to be expensive , which is ultimately detrimental to the farmers . The solutions offered to solve the problems that arise is to identify problems than continued training and practice composting of water hyacinth and straw as fertilizer and cattle feed . Outcomes that would result from the IbM action plan that will include a scientific article published by the journal in the University of Sebelas March and models / tools appropriate technology ( TTG ) in the form of trash thrasher, that partners used to make compost . As a result of this activities, training making cattle feed and fertilizer from water hyacinth and straw have been carried out. The delivery of aid water hyacinth and straw thrasher , and continued to the practice of making fertilizer and cattle feed from water hyacinth and straw.


Abstract. For many environmental variables, measurements cannot deliver exact observation values as their concentration is below the sensitivity of the measuring device (detection limit). These observations provide useful information but cannot be treated in the same manner as the other measurements. In this paper a methodology for the spatial interpolation of these values is described. The method is based on spatial copulas. Here two copula models – the Gaussian and a non-Gaussian v-copula are used. First a mixed maximum likelihood approach is used to estimate the marginal distributions of the parameters. After removal of the marginal distributions the next step is the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the spatial dependence including taking those values below the detection limit into account. Interpolation using copulas yields full conditional distributions for the unobserved sites and can be used to estimate confidence intervals, and provides a good basis for spatial simulation. The methodology is demonstrated on three different groundwater quality parameters, i.e. arsenic, chloride and deethylatrazin, measured at more than 2000 locations in South-West Germany. The chloride values are artificially censored at different levels in order to evaluate the procedures on a complete dataset by progressive decimation. Interpolation results are evaluated using a cross validation approach. The method is compared with ordinary kriging and indicator kriging. The uncertainty measures of the different approaches are also compared.


The purpose of this study was to explore challenges facing newly qualified nurses in the first year of practice, a cultural perspective on Norway and Zambia. This was a qualitative type of study with a purposeful convenience sampling of newly qualified nurses in their first year of practice. However, the inclusion criteria extended to nurses who had more years in service and their responses proved to be relevant to the study. Data were gathered using a semi-structured interview guide, which was electronically sent for data collection and analyzed with a colour coding process through which four categories of intra-personal, inter-personal, organizational and structural levels emerged. The intra-personal level mainly presented similarities for the two countries, showing that the newly qualified nurses had the will and drive to work as nurses in the first year of practice, while the interpersonal level showed differences in caring for patients and/or their relatives between Norway and Zambia and this was linked to differences in the type of culture. The organizational level showed differences between the two set-ups associated with hierarchy and finally the structural level brought out more challenges from the Zambian respondents because of the country's Lower Middle Income status. Ethical considerations were ensured by means of privacy, anonymity and confidentiality. The authors recommend that more research should be done on how potential gender differences may have an impact on the challenges facing newly qualified nurses in their first year of practice.


Background: Although the association between Helicobacter pylori infection and gastric autoimmunity is now well established, to date little is known about the significance of anticanalicular autoantibodies in patients with duodenal ulcer (DU). We therefore investigated the prevalence of serum antiparietal cell autoreactivity in DU patients as well as the relationship between these autoantibodies, gastric histopathology and gastric secretory function in this setting. Methods: Forty-one consecutive patients with H. pylori-positive DU were initially recruited. In all patients, basal (BAO) and pentagastrin stimulated acid output (PAO), fasting and meal-induced serum gastrin levels, as well as serum pepsinogen I concentrations, were measured. Antral and body gastritis was evaluated according to the Sydney system. Serum anticanalicular autoreactivity was determined by the indirect immunoperoxidase technique. Results: Serum anticanalicular autoantibodies were found in 7 out of 34 patients (20%). The presence of these antibodies was associated with a significantly higher grade of body gastritis (activity: 1.9 versus 0.9) as well as with significantly higher fasting and meal stimulated gastrin levels (mean fasting gastrin, 76.4 (15.2) pg/ml versus 59.3 (20.5) pg/ml). In addition, PAO values were significantly lower in patients with gastric autoantibodies than in those without this autoreactivity (mean 0.35 (0.16) mmol kg-1 h-1 versus 0.49 (0.16) mmol kg-1 h-1). In contrast, no significant differences were found between patients with and without anticanalicular autoantibodies as regards fasting serum pepsinogen I concentrations. Conclusions: Serum anticanalicular autoantibodies can be detected in 20% of patients with DU and are associated with a more severe pattern of body gastritis, higher gastrin levels and decreased peak acid secretion values. Their presence could account for the normal or reduced acid output which can be seen in a subset of DU patients.


Aims: To improve assessment by encouraging student involvement, increase the efficiency of returns and investigate students' professionalism.
Summary of work: Previously on completion of each 10 clinical attachments in year 4/5, supervisors complete a written record of the students' assessment (~5000/year) consisting of 10 parameters and an overall mark. An electronic system was generated to facilitate transfer of data from supervisors to the Medical School, which was also made available to students to log their own record. This program identified discrepancies between staff and student returns, which are reviewed by faculty staff.
Summary of results: Previously, 73% of returns arrived within two weeks, which improved to 92% & 99% from supervisors and students respectively, by using electronic transfer. In twelve months nine students failed to reach the required overall assessment standard. In each, rapid identification was facilitated by returns from student, staff or both. Some parameters and descriptors were
inappropriate leading to form redesign, and some discrepancies (
Conclusion: Efficiency of assessment can be improved by involving students and the increase in awareness leads to a further improvement. Students are honest in returning agreed overall marks and a modified assessment process has been developed following the study.


Execution of workflow management systems in pervasive computing environments, especially the multiple modalities of interaction between users and systems, has become an increasing requirement in many enterprises. Group activity is another salient feature of the business processes. Traditional workflow management systems have difficulties in supporting such features. Through extending traditional workflow model in modeling method and executing mechanism, we designed and implemented a group-supported workflow management system with the ability of interacting with users in multiple modalities. Compared with traditional workflow modeling method, this method has more capabilities in describing group activities and makes modeling simpler. This paper introduces the modeling method for group activity and the mechanism supporting interaction between users and systems with multiple modalities. The applications of the system in some enterprises are also introduced.


In under to reduce the Public Service Obligation (PSO) on oil fuel, the goverment of Indonesia initianted a program of conversion of oil fuel into gas fuel (BBG) for passenger cars. In supporting this program, it is required to develop the component of combustion system. One of the components is strorage tank for BBG that must be carefully designed to avoid burst type failure. Based on previous research, a toroidal tank can withstand higher limit pressure than the PERTAMINA LPG 3kg storage tank used nowadays in Indonesia household. The present study was exstended to toroidal tank of elliptic cross-section. The strength in term of limit pressure was evaluated numerically using the ANSYS 13 finite element software. The ANSYS SHELL 181 element type was used. Limit pressure were obtained via nonlinier analysis using the well-known Newton-Raphson algorithm, and corresponding stress and strain were evaluated. The results show that toroidal tank having elliptic ratio (a/b) of 1.0 (circular) can withstand highest limit pressure, both for in-plane and out-of-plane elliptic, i.e.,1.16 times the pressure to yield (py). Attachment of a nozzle on intrados position results in reducing the limit pressure by 5.21%, becomes 1.1 py. The result of corresponding volume expansion when the limit pressure was reached is 0.337 % of the initial volume. It is interesting to note that limit pressure become lower than the pressure to yield when the ratio of major to minor axis of the ellip higher than 1.4. In conclusion. the value of ellipticity a/b must not be higher than 1.4 for further development of a toroidal tank.
keywords: toroidal, in-plane elliptic, out-of-plane elliptic, limit pressure, volume expansion


Polyethylene wear increasingly has been blamed for osteolysis and granuloma formation after total joint arthroplasty. The authors evaluated the wear difference between bearing surfaces of stainless steel, cobalt chrome, and titanium alloy. They also compared cemented all-polyethylene molded cups with cemented metal-backed molded acetabular cups. These were compared with molded and machined polyethylene cups. Two patient groups were matched individually for gender, age, weight, and length of followup. Analyses were done using the technique of Livermore et al. The bearing surface evaluation consisted of 3 groups after matching, leaving 77 patients per group. Results showed linear wear rates of 0.06 mm per year, 0.05 mm per year, and 0.08 mm per year for stainless steel, cobalt chrome, and titanium alloy, respectively. The comparison between cemented molded metal-backed and nonmetal-backed acetabular components was not matched, with 134 metal-backed and 99 nonmetal-backed components. Results showed linear wear rates of 0.011 mm per year in the metal-backed group and 0.08 mm per year in the nonmetal-backed group. Results were statistically significant. These results indicate that the metal composition of the femoral bearing surface has minimal, if any, effect on the linear polyethylene wear rate. The method of polyethylene fabrication and the use of metal backing had a significant effect on the polyethylene wear rate in these patient groups. These results suggest that the compression-molded all-polyethylene acetabular component may be optimal for reducing polyethylene wear in total hip arthroplasty.


The man Lucille Ball called "the brains" of "I Love Lucy" gives us an inside view of television history as it was being made. Jess Oppenheimer's famous sitcom was the most popular and influential television phenomenon in the history of the medium. Forty-five years after its debut, it remains a favourite the world over. Oppenheimer's book, written with his son, Gregg, is not only a record of how this groundbreaking comedy was conceived and executed, but an insider's account of the broadcasting industry's development from the early days of radio and television's golden age. Hollywood aficionados should enjoy his entertaining stories of stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Edgar Bergen, Fred Astaire, and, of course, Lucille Ball. It contains two previously unpublished scripts, dozens of previously unreleased photos and a compact disc full of rare "Lucy" performances.


It is known that many factors affect rate of respiration in organisms, but this experiment was focused on discovering how gender can affect the rate of respiration. To test this, the respiration rates of a male and a female cockroach were tested in both room temperature and cold temperature. The results of the experiments indicated that while females respire at a faster rate, males eventually level out at a higher level of respiration. Because of these results, it can be inferred that females can generally withstand the colder temperatures for a longer period of time.


There is proliferation of strategic researches on increasing partial or total replacement of wheat flour in bread-making due to the spiking prices of wheat, globally. Bread samples A (control), B, C, D, E, F, G and H, made from flour blends of wheat flour and arrowroot starch in the percentage ratios of 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60 and 0:100 respectively were evaluated for their baking potentials to replace the conventional 100% wheat flour bread. Further studies were done on bread sample D (bread sample of comparable baking properties with 100% wheat flour bread), to determine its mineral composition, anti-nutrient composition, and storage stability. Samples B-H, had higher weights (625 – 745 g) and densities (0.222 – 0.6183 g/cm 3 ) than control sample; Samples B-D did not significantly (P<0.05) differ in height with control sample and the same was with samples C and D in terms of bread volume. Samples B-E and H were significantly (P<0.05) better in appearance, taste, flavor; while samples B-D and H had better texture and overall acceptability. Sample D was significantly (P<0.05) higher in Zn, Na, K, Ca, Mg, P and oxalates; but lower in Cu, Fe, HCN and tannins. Sample D exhibited good storage stability and even better keeping quality than control (sample A) within 6 days.The results of this investigative study revealed that bread sample D was as good as bread sample A, or even better, and thus could serve as an alternative to 100% wheat flour bread.


In 1944, in Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court made a major error in judgment. It ruled that the executive may forcibly remove over 110,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and relocate them in American detention camps. In two recent Supreme Court cases, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the court made similar errors in judgment by accepting the administration's term "enemy combatant." The Supreme Court's errors were compounded when Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 in October, 2006, statutorily defining the term enemy combatant for the first time. By acknowledging the term enemy combatant, the court and the Congress gave this and future administrations permission to deprive people of their recognized rights and protections. Enemy combatant did not and does not exist under international law. Enemy combatant was nothing more than a generic term until February 2002, when the administration imbued it with a new and particular meaning that was designed to circumvent the Geneva Conventions and international human rights laws. In using the term, officials in the administration cited to a 1942 Supreme Court case, Ex Parte Quirin, although the administration's reliance on Quirin is flawed. This article focuses on the specific evolution and chronology of the term enemy combatant and the administration's inconsistent definitions, beginning with the introduction of the term in 2002. It reviews letters and memoranda issued by Pentagon Counsel William Haynes Jr., documents and publications issued by the Department of Defense and reports, orders and statements released by the administration. It argues that the Supreme Court had the opportunity to make a significant constitutional impact on the legitimacy and application of the term enemy combatant in both Hamdi and Hamdan, but failed to do so. The article also analyzes the new definition in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The creation of the term enemy combatant was not an accident. What could be more convenient for the administration than to create a term that circumvents international law, shields the administration's treatment of detainees and deliberately confuses issues? In addition, the term enemy combatant was intended, in part, to shelter individual members of the administration from being charged with war crimes. How could this happen in our American system of government? How did the administration succeed in patently ignoring international and American constitutional law, norms and standards? This article is a cautionary tale. Even if everything was righted today, we still must look back at how an executive deliberately disregarded existing law and treated enemy combatants with cruelty and, at times, with inhumanity.


OBJECTIVE
To find out frequency of isolation of carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae and the predominantly responsible metallo-beta-lactamasegene in a hospital setting.

METHODS
The descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2009 to June 2012 at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised non-duplicate clinical carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae isolates obtained from different collection units across Pakistan. Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion screening of carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae was confirmed by minimum inhibitory concentration using E-test. Polymerase chain reaction assay was performed to detect blaKPC, blaNDM-1, blaIMP, and blaVIM genes. In addition variable number tandem repeat typing was performed on selected cluster of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae.

RESULTS
Of the 114 carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae isolates, 104(94%) tested positive for blaNDM-1 gene. At 68(66%), Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most frequent species isolated, followed by E.coli 33(31%). Moreover, 89(78%) of the blaNDM-1 gene positive Klebsiella pneumonia isolates were from the clinical samples of patients admitted to the critical care units and 75(66%) were from neonates and the elderly. Of the 65(67%) patients suffering from bacteraemia and sepsis, 32(57%) had expired, of which 22(60%) were aged <1 month. Variable number tandem repeat analysis of hospital-acquired New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae showed similarities between the isolates.

CONCLUSIONS
New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1-positive enterobacteriaceae was found widely disseminated in major hospitals across Pakistan. Patients at extreme ages and those in critical care units were found to be the most affected with fatal outcomes.


An interpretation of the archaeological record, in particular that of a prehistoric cave site, is complicated by the diversity of depositional and post-depositional processes that affect the material deposited. Here we propose to use the authigenic minerals that form in situ within the cave sediments to reconstruct the ancient chemical environments in the sediments. This can be done by experimentally determining the conditions under which each of the authigenic minerals are stable. Although this information is not available to date for minerals formed in a prehistoric cave, we present calculated stability field data for the relevant minerals. The results clearly demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. This information, particularly if based on measurements of real authigenic cave minerals, will facilitate an assessment of the completeness of the cave archaeological record. This is particularly important for determining whether or not the distributions of archaeologically important materials, such as bones, teeth, plant phytoliths, charcoal and ash, reflect their original burial distributions or were altered as a result of secondary diagenetic processes.


The biosynthesis of estrogens is catalyzed by aromatase P450 (P450arom), the product of the CYP19 gene. The tissue-specific expression of the CYP19 gene is regulated by means of tissue-specific promoters through the use of alternative splicing mechanisms. Thus, transcripts containing various 5'-untranslated termini are present in ovary, brain, adipose stromal cells, and placenta. Sequence corresponding to untranslated exon I.1 is present uniquely in 5'-termini of transcripts expressed in human placenta and choriocarcinoma cells, as a consequence of expression driven by a distal promoter, I.1. The goal of the present study was the identification of regulatory elements in this promoter region. Various deletion mutations of the upstream flanking region of exon I.1 were constructed using the PCR or restriction enzyme digestion. The genomic fragments were fused upstream of the luciferase reporter gene. These constructs were transfected into human choriocarcinoma (JEG3) cells. The longest construct employed, -924/+10 bp, expressed the highest luciferase reporter gene activity. The -64/+10 bp and -125/+10 bp constructs showed no reporter gene expression. Transfection of the -201/+10 bp construct resulted in reporter gene expression, but at a lower level than that of the -924/+10 bp construct, and this expression was induced by serum as well as by LG69 and TTNPB, ligands specific for RXR and RAR respectively, as well as by vitamin D. These results parallel the actions of the ligands on aromatase activity. Mutation or deletion of an imperfect palindromic sequence (AGGTCATGCCCC) located at -183 to -172 bp upstream of the transcriptional start site of exon I.1 resulted in loss of basal- and retinoid-induced reporter gene expression. Gel retardation analysis using nuclear extracts of JEG3 cells treated with retinoids and the imperfect palindromic sequence as probe, showed that proteins present in the nuclear extracts bound to this sequence in a specific fashion. The binding activities were elevated by incubation of the cells with LG69 and TTNPB, ligands specific for RXR and RAR respectively. Binding of nuclear proteins to the palindromic sequence was displaced either by anti-RXR alpha serum or by anti-VDR serum, suggesting the formation of a heterodimer of RXR alpha and VDR. These results suggest that the imperfect palindromic sequence upstream of exon I.1 plays an important but novel role in the regulated expression of the CYP19 gene in choriocarcinoma cells.


Antimicrobial peptides (AMP's) protect epithelial surfaces including epididymis against pathogens and play a key role in orchestrating various defensive responses. Recently, we have identified one such AMP, rabbit epididymal hemoglobin-β subuit (REHbβP) from the epididymal fluid of rabbit, Oryctologus cuniculus. The demonstration of a protective role of REHbβP in epididymal epithelial cells (EPEC's) led us to investigate: (1) the identification of LPS interactive domain in REHbβP, and (2) whether the REHbβP of rabbit origin mediates vaginal cellular immune responses of another species (human). HeLa-S3, human vaginal epithelial cells (hVECs) were exposed to LPS or the LPS-stimulated cells treated with REHbβP or neutral peptide, nREHbβP. Effect of LPS and cytokines (IL-6 and IL-1α) and chemokines (IL-8, MCP-1) levels was determined in the culture supernatants. In response to the LPS, hVECs synthesized these mediators and the levels were significantly higher than controls. This enhancing effect was ameliorated when the LPS-induced hVECs were treated with REHbβP. Similar results were obtained on NF-κB protein and hBD-1 mRNA expression. Confocal microscopy studies revealed that REHbβP attenuated the LPS-induced internalization of E. coli by macrophages. The chemotaxis studies performed using Boyden chamber Transwell assay, which showed elevated migration of U937 cells when the supernatants of LPS-induced hVECs were used, and the effect was inhibited by REHbβP. REHbβP was found to be localized on the acrosome of rabbit spermatozoa, suggesting its role in sperm protection beside sperm function. In conclusion, REHbβP may have the potential to develop as a therapeutic agent for reproductive tract infections (RTI's).


Asplenic patients have a lifelong risk of overwhelming post-splenectomy infection and have been reported to have low numbers of peripheral blood IgM memory B cells. The clinical value of quantitation of memory B cells as an indicator of splenic abnormality or risk of infection has been unclear. To assess changes in B cell sub-populations after splenectomy we studied patients recruited to a spleen registry (n = 591). A subset of 209 adult asplenic or hyposplenic subjects, and normal controls (n = 140) were tested for IgM memory B cells. We also determined a) changes in IgM memory B cells with time after splenectomy using the cross-sectional data from patients on the registry and b) the kinetics of changes in haematological markers associated with splenectomy(n = 45). Total B cells in splenectomy patients did not differ from controls, but memory B cells, IgM memory B cells and switched B cells were significantly (p<0.001) reduced. The reduction was similar for different indications for splenectomy. Changes of asplenia in routine blood films including presence of Howell-Jolly bodies (HJB), occurred early (median 25 days) and splenectomy associated thrombocytosis and lymphocytosis peaked by 50 days. There was a more gradual decrease in IgM memory B cells reaching a stable level within 6 months after splenectomy. IgM memory B cells as proportion of B cells was the best discriminator between splenectomized patients and normal controls and at the optimal cut-off of 4.53, showed a true positive rate of 95% and false positive rate of 20%. In a survey of 152 registry patients stratified by IgM memory B cells around this cut-off there was no association with minor infections and no registry patients experienced OPSI during the study. Despite significant changes after splenectomy, conventional measures of IgM memory cells have limited clinical utility in this population.


This paper proposes a set of guidelines for using Building Information Modelling (BIM) to manage client requirements in the context of social housing projects. A process model representing main activities involved in requirements management has been devised, as well as nine constructs that can be used for assessing the effectiveness of using BIM for client requirements management. The process of managing and modelling clients' requirements is important to improve value generation, considering the limited resources usually available for social housing projects, as well as the need to deal with the diversity of user profiles. The use of BIM-based tools to support this process can potentially improve the performance of those projects in terms of environmental and social sustainability. Design Science Research was the methodological approach adopted in this investigation. The main outcome of this study, the set of guidelines, emerged from an empirical study carried out in a social housing project from Brazil. This study explores the managerial perspective of client requirements modelling, proposing practical contributions, such as understanding the challenges of managing requirements in social housing projects, and theoretical contributions, such as descriptions of the activities involved in client requirements management and their interactions, and constructs for assessing BIM-based solutions for that problem.


"Stereotactic" is an exact radiotherapy treatment modality which implements invasive and non-invasive facilities for improving precise dose delivery. Stereotactic refers to three-dimensi onal localization of a specific point in space by a unique set of coordinates that relate to a fixed external reference frame. An accurate delivery of radiation is attainable using these techniques with high precision (1-2 mm) which leads to dose reduction in critical organs and adjacent normal tissues while delivering the highest dose to tumoral tissue. Stereotactic irradiation consists of two techniques of delivery: Stereotactic RadioSurgery (SRS) which is an accurate single fractionated delivery of radiation to intracranial lesions and is attained by converging series of radiation beams on a target from various angles. Stereotactic Radiotherapy (SRT) which is a fractionated irradiation of intra and extra cranial lesions. This review article intends to highlight the radiobiological and physical aspects of these techniques and also introduces three commercially available stereotactic machines systematically and functionally.


In this paper theories of network governance are applied to the area of immigrant integration in Sweden, and the coordination of introduction programmes for newly arrived immigrants, to be more precise. With a pronounced goal of getting people employed, introduction programmes and similar efforts aim to enhance social inclusion through employment. These efforts are characterized by major interdependencies between public actors, governmental levels, and between state, civil society and market actors. Recently, central agencies have responded to the coordination problems plaguing this area for decades with initiating voluntary cooperation at different administrative levels. These arrangements were to include both state and municipal actors as well as NGO:s, unions and market organizations. Although successful in the sense that the strategy has been adopted in many regions and municipalities, coordination problems remain, participation from external actors is low and cooperation is hampered. The aim of the paper is to analyze some of the institutional conditions for managing through networks in this type of context. Network governance, here, is analyzed from a sociological institutional perspective.


The history of travel writing dates back to the Bible, Caesar, the Vikings and the Crusaders, and its many themes include war, trade, science and recreation. Explorers from Columbus to Cook charted lands not previously visited by Western travellers, and were followed by merchants, missionaries, and colonists, who wrote accounts of their experiences. The development of steam power in the nineteenth century provided opportunities for increasing numbers of 'ordinary' people to travel further, more economically, and more safely, and resulted in great enthusiasm for travel writing among the reading public. Works included in this series range from first-hand descriptions of previously unrecorded places, to literary accounts of the strange habits of foreigners, to examples of the burgeoning numbers of guidebooks produced to satisfy the needs of a new kind of traveller the tourist.


This paper examines the changing landscape of the professionalisation of sports coaching and is presented in response to the dearth of empirical research and peer-reviewed literature existing within the field. This absence or 'lack' has, in turn, created a political context in which the discourses that inhabit transitions towards professionalism are becoming increasingly rigid and inflexible. Policies too, have exacerbated this situation, creating imposed reforms that have sought to homogenise coaching practice and further gloss over cultural difference and diversity. While volunteerism is often regarded as a socially embedded activity, and one that is part of the UK's long-established coaching tradition, still there remains an ambition to transform coaching into a form of certified, professionalised activity. That is, a notion of professionalism with clearly benchmarked standards, novel forms of commercial engagement and ever-present systems of formal accreditation. Out of which has evolved a series of treatments prescribing somewhat standardised solutions to otherwise unique and individualised professional challenges. Against this backdrop, this paper adopts a more critical orientation towards the debate on the professionalisation of sports coaching. It examines the tensions, power and resistance that are manifested in practice across different areas of sport, and moves to understand some of the key differences emerging between contemporary reforms, situated practice and socially embedded coaching traditions. Drawing extensively on Bourdieurian and Foucauldian philosophy, the analysis reflects upon the experiences of coaches and stakeholders operating at the levels of voluntary and community-based practice in the north-west of England. It examines notions of resistance and compliance in situ, external factors and policies that have impacted the field, and analyses the complexities that inhabit the profession of sports coaching as a whole.


Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and lymph nodes from patients with newly diagnosed and untreated Hodgkin's disease were studied to determine the distribution of T lymphocytes. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting of PBL was performed on 11 out of 12 patients using monoclonal antibodies to lymphocyte differentiation antigens. A reduction in T lymphocytes (anti-T3) was found in 5 patients, a reduction of T4 lymphocytes was found in 3 patients, and an increase in the PBL Tg cells occurred in 1 patient. In three cases, the T4:Tg PBL ratio was decreased. Complete staging was performed on all 12 patients. No correlation between clinical stage and T-cell subpopulations was apparent. Evidence of sustained immune depletion was found in 1 patient at relapse. Efforts to monitor immune function in Hodgkin's disease should continue and may provide a data base from which immunopathologic staging can be developed.


Introduction: Red cell fragmentation may result in erroneously high platelet counts by automated blood counters. Therefore, any abnormal platelet counts in a full blood count analysis should be re-evaluated either using blood film manual counting or with more accurate automated analysis options. Case Report: We report a case of Haemoglobin-H disease that was noted to have a very high platelet count, by newly installed automated blood analyser, during regular follow up. Manual platelet counts and the automated analysis using flowcytometric counting of the same analyser showed a normal platelet count. Conclusion: A wide spectrum of blood disorders can cause pseudothrombocytosis. Whenever an unexpected high platelet count is encountered, alternative modalities should be used to confirm the actual platelet count such as manual count on a blood film. Furthermore, machines using the impedance principle need to be calibrated to reduce the chances of getting abnormal results with actual normal platelet counts.


This study was carried out to select isolates of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana with pathogenic potential to control the Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus tick. The effectiveness of thirty isolates was first tested at a concentration of 5 × 10 8 conidia.mL –1 . Of these, eight were evaluated (IBCB01, IBCB02, IBCB07, IBCB17, IBCB21, IBCB74, IBCB149, IBCB165) and showed an effectiveness between 90 and 99%; thirteen (IBCB03, IBCB14, IBCB16, IBCB24, IBCB95, IBCB97, IBCB102, IBCB141, IBCB146, IBCB147, IBCB150, IBCB154, IBCB157) between 80 and 89,5%; six (IBCB47, IBCB75, IBCB84, IBCB145, IBCB161, IBCB164) between 70 and 79%, and only two (IBCB13 and IBCB143) had lower pathogenicity (70% or below). In the second step of the study, the five more effective strains in the first phase of the experiment (IBCB01, IBCB07, IBCB21, IBCB66, IBCB165) were analyzed comparatively. Based on in vitro results, it can be concluded that IBCB66 and IBCB21 are the isolates with higher potential for field control of R. (B.) microplus. IBCB01, IBCB07, IBCB21, IBCB66 e IBCB165 isolates were submitted to a conidial production test using a rice-based substrate. The best mass production of the entomopathogenic fungus was obtained with the IBCB66 strain.


In this paper, we propose a quality-centric congestion control for multimedia streaming over wired IP networks, which we refer to as media-TCP-friendly congestion control (MTCC). Our solution adapts the sending rate to both the network condition and the application characteristics by explicitly considering the distortion impacts, delay deadlines, and interdependencies of different video packet classes. The media-aware solution is able to provide differential services for transmitting various packet classes and thereby, further improves the multimedia streaming quality compared to the conventional network-aware congestion control. We use finite-horizon Markov decision process (FHMDP) to determine the optimal congestion control policy that maximizes the long-term multimedia quality, while adhering to the horizon-K TCP-friendliness constraint, which ensures long-term fairness with existing TCP applications. Moreover, the proposed MTCC is able to achieve quality-based fairness among multimedia users. We derive sufficient conditions for multiple multimedia users to achieve quality-based fairness using MTCC congestion control. Note that the proposed solution only modifies the adaptation mechanism of the TCP congestion window size at the sender, without changing the design at the receiver side (i.e., each current TCP receiver can correctly receive and process MTCC streams). Our simulation results show that MTCC achieves more than 3 dB improvement in terms of PSNR over the conventional TCP congestion control approaches, with the largest improvements observed for real-time streaming applications requiring stringent playback delays.


The influence ofprecocene II, an antijuvenile agent, on the development of adult antennae in the apple surface eating tortricid A. podana Scop was demonstrated. Treatment of the fifth instar larvae and prepupae with different doses of precocene proved to cause different sensitivity of the specimens to the juvenile hormone deficit. Treatment with 450 and 600 microg precocene per specimen during the first days after ecdysis to the fifth instar caused the death of larvae. Treatment with 300, 450, and 600 microg per specimen on the third day of the fifth instar larvae and prepupae caused a delay in the development of adult antennae. The results are discussed with respect to the role of the juvenile hormone in the development of imaginal structures during metamorphosis.


: Modern views on diagnostic and medical algorithm using mini-invasive technologies for complicated cholelithic disease (CHLD) were summarized. Main indications and methods of the laparoscopic choledocholithotomy completion in 71 patients with choledocholithiasis were presented. Original, elaborated in the clinic methods were presented along with conventional diagnostic methods. Introduction of the proposed diagnostic-medical complex had permitted to improve the results of planned and urgent operations for complicated CHLD.


The hybrid cluster protein (HCP) from the sulfate-reducing bacteria Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 has been isolated and crystallized anaerobically. The protein sample used in the crystallization studies was several months old, having been stored at 193 K, and initial crystal structure studies were unable to fully resolve details of the hybrid cluster despite the use of high-resolution data to 1.25 A collected at the ESRF, Grenoble, France. Full elucidation of the structure has only become possible with the complete knowledge of the as-isolated and fully reduced crystal structures. The analysis clarifies the significant movements in the position of the Fe atom linked to the persulfide moiety in the oxidized as-isolated protein and the S atom of the persulfide itself as the protein is reduced. The structures of the as-isolated and reduced states are discussed in terms of the putative function of the HCP proteins.


SIR,-Your leading article on Australia antigen in papular acrodermatitis of childhood (9 March, p. 407), criticizing Gianotti's' hypothesis that serum hepatitis and papular acrodermatitis of childhood (P.A.C.) are the same disease or are closely related, prompts us to report our own experience in the matter. We have recently seen three children with the characteristic picture of P.A.C. as described by C&anotti. Their serum bilirubin was normal and transaminases were at the upper end of the normal range. Using radioimmunoassay as described by Ling and Overby2 we found that all three children were HBAg positive. None were living in any institution. Their parents were HBAg negative. We agree that the presence of HBAg in cases of P.A.C. needs further investigation, and the most sensitive method available for this is radioimmunoassay. If such studies confirm previous reports they will provide strong support for Gianotti's theory of a close relationship between serum hepatitis and P.A.C. P.A.C. would then be the only disease other than serum hepatitis to be consistently associated with HBAg. Considering the prevalence of anicteric hepatitis in children P.A.C. might be a peculiar formn of hepatitis in childhood due to a particular reactivity of the reticulohistiocytic system to the viral infection.-We are, etc.,


Background Timely delivery of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV-rt PA) is pivotal to eligible patients who had a stroke while achieving higher rates of IV-rt PA has been problematic. This paper focuses on investigating influential factors associated with the administration of IV-rt PA, primarily per capita gross regional product (GRP) and healthcare system factors. Methods The study included 980 hospitals in the Chinese Stroke Center Alliance where 158 003 patients who had an acute ischaemic stroke received IV-rt PA between August 2015 and August 2019. The adherence rate to IV-rt PA within 4.5 hours time window in each hospital was the primary outcome. Influential factors were grouped into two categories: macroeconomic status and hospital characteristics. The outcome was analysed using multivariable linear regression. Results GRP per capita (β=2.37, p<0.001), hospital stroke centre certification (β=3.77, p<0.001), number of neurologists (β=0.12, p<0.001), existence of emergency services for neurological treatment (β=7.43, p=0.014), presence of emergency department (β=10.03, p=0.019) and cooperating with emergency centre (β=4.65, p=0.029) were significantly positively associated with the adherence rate to IV-rt PA. Conclusions Higher GRP per capita, affluent neurological personnel, well-equipped emergency services for neurological treatment and routine cooperation with the emergency centre were important for enhancing the adherence rate to IV-rt PA among patients who had an acute ischaemic stroke in China.


The scope of this study is to compare John Philoponus and Cosmas Indicopleustes, two Christian individuals of different backgrounds and belonging to different fractions of the Church in the turbulent time for the Church in sixth century Alexandria. Any Christian is likely to feel the need to define how the tenets of his or her faith relate to contemporary science. As long as Christianity has existed, it has been active in societies where science has had a prominent position. There are obviously two extreme positions: either you declare that science is always right when it is in conflict with the Bible, or you regard the Bible as given by God and science as an inferior, man-made source of truth. Intermediate positions are those chosen by the two sixthcentury writers who are the focus of this study, John Philoponus and Cosmas Indicopleustes. We have no clear evidence to show that Cosmas and Philoponus, as individuals, polemized against each other, or even that they knew each other. However, not as individuals, but as representatives of the two opposing fractions, they certainly stand against each other. They were both Christians, and the books by them that we study here are attempts to reconcile their ideas on geography and cosmology with what Scripture teaches about these matters. Although both of them refer to Bible passages as support, they draw widely different conclusions. Although Cosmas distances himself from science and although Philoponus refuses to accept all doctrines taught by the philosophy that he knew so well, it is primarily a controversy between two Christian fractions. (Less)


The purpose of this paper is to present a brief analysis of cases of hernia treated by the injection method and to indicate the type of case in which this method of treatment is preferable. The consensus among surgeons is that operative measures are the best method of treating hernia. However, the management of older patients is always a problem, especially when another disease coexists. The high percentage of postoperative recurrence in such a group, due to a variety of causes, such as poor wound healing, infections and other complications, invites investigation of less hazardous procedures which promise relief. There is also a large group of younger patients who refuse operation because of fear, because of inability to meet the economic burden incurred or because they are unwilling to take "time off" for the operation. It is with these groups in mind, particularly the first, that study of the efficacy


About 10 % of the anthropogenic CO 2 emissions have been absorbed by northern terrestrial ecosystems during the past decades. It has been hypothesized that part of this increasing carbon (C) sink is caused by the alleviation of nitrogen (N) limitation by increasing anthropogenic N inputs. However, little is known about this N-dependent C sink. Here, we studied the effect of chronic seabird-derived N inputs (47–67 kg N ha −1 yr −1 ) on the net soil organic C (SOC) storage rate of unmanaged Icelandic grasslands on the volcanic Vestmannaeyjar archipelago by using a stock change approach in combination with soil dating. We studied both early developmental soils (50 years) and mature soils (1,600 years), and for the latter we separated between decadal (topsoil) and millennial (total soil profile) responses, where the SOC stocks in the topsoil accorded to 40–50 years of net SOC storage and those in the total soil to 1,600 years of net SOC storage. We found that enhanced N availability – either from accumulation over time, or seabird derived – increased the net SOC storage rate. Under low N inputs, the early developmental soils were weak decadal C sinks (0.018 ton SOC ha −1 yr −1 ), but this increased quickly under elevated N inputs to 0.29 ton SOC ha −1 yr −1 , thereby equaling the decadal SOC storage rate of the unfertilized mature site. Furthermore, at the mature site, chronic N inputs not only stimulated the decadal SOC storage rate, but also the millennial SOC storage was consistently higher at the high N input site. Hence, our study suggests that Icelandic grasslands, if not disturbed, can remain C sinks for many centuries under current climatic conditions and that chronically elevated N inputs can induce a permanent strengthening of this sink.


This paper studies the performance of two traditional schedulers, namely, proportional fair (PF) and round robin (RR), in the context of relay-enhanced Long-Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) networks. These two schedulers are natural candidates for implementation in relay nodes (RNs), and following the results obtained in single-hop networks, mobile operators could be tempted to adopt PF because of the good tradeoff it offers between cell capacity and fairness. Based on a statistical throughput evaluation model, we show that this is not necessarily the right option. The number of RNs, their locations in the cell, and backhaul link quality have a decisive influence on scheduler choice. In some scenarios, it is even not desirable to deploy relays as they degrade the network performance compared with the no-relay case. For the purpose of performance evaluation, we develop a realistic and computationally tractable statistical network model that takes into account fast fading, multiple interferers, cell range expansion bias, backhaul link quality, and traffic load. We also propose optimization of the radio frame structure and a suboptimal RN placement scheme to fairly compare RR and PF.


ABSTRACT Online communities have suffered from their members' intermittent, dormant, or nonexistent participation. We propose that prominence, which refers to the salience of community members' psychological proximity to their community, differs from the engagement construct, which denotes a psychological dedication to behave prosaically toward other community members. Whereas engagement has been increasingly examined as a driver of online community behavior, the role of prominence has received a minimal amount of attention in the literature. Drawing on self-determination theory, we developed a framework that proposes the prominence construct as a phenomenon distinctive from engagement in its nature, formation, and behavioral outcomes. Our findings based on two studies indicate that the proposed model with prominence performs considerably better than the existing model with only engagement. Our conceptual model contributes to Information Systems research by laying a strong theoretical foundation to differentiate between the behavioral paths of the autonomous prominence construct and its controlled engagement counterpart.


: It was shown in experiments on a model of fatal staphylococcal sepsis in 200 mice and 15 dogs that the perfusate of a pig's spleen obtained by perfusion of the isolated organ with a dextran solution (rheopolyglucin, polyglucin) is capable of preventing the animals' death. Intravenous infusion of 400-500 ml of a xenospleen perfusate at an interval of 1-3 days, which was included in the complex of postoperative treatment of 45 patients with destructive diseases of the abdominal organs complicated by peritonitis and sepsis, contributed to reduction of lethality and the terms of recovery. It is shown that the main effect, besides detoxification, is based on immunomodulation at the cost of biologically active substances produced by the cells of a xenospleen and contained in the perfusate. The best results were produced with the use of the perfusate of a xenospleen in the early periods after radical operation and thorough cleansing of the source of the infection.


A switched resonator concept, which can be used to reduce the size of multiple-band RF systems and which allows better tradeoff between phase noise and power consumption, is demonstrated using a dual-band voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. To maximize Q of the switched resonator when the switch is on, the mutual inductance between the inductors should be kept low and the switch transistor size should be optimized. The Q factor of switched resonators is /spl sim/30% lower than that of a standalone inductor. The dual-band VCO operates near 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz with phase noise of -125 and -123dBc/Hz at a 600-kHz offset and 16-mW power consumption. Compared to a single-band 1.8-GHz VCO, the dual-band VCO has almost the same phase noise and power consumption, while occupying /spl sim/37% smaller area.


An experiment in the Similkameen Valley near Cawston, B.C. examined the impact of three shoot densities (20, 30, and 40 shoots/m of row) in combination with three cordon ages (year of establishment: 1983, 1986, and 1987) on Riesling vine performance, fruit composition, and wine sensory attributes. No effect of either factor was observed on weight of cane prunings. Periderm formation was inhibited by increased shoot density. Yield, clusters per vine, and crop load increased with increasing shoot density, but cluster weight, berries per cluster, and berry weight displayed concomitant decreases. Old cordons (1983) were associated with higher yields and high cluster weights. Effects on fruit composition were minor, and tended to be associated with cordon age more than shoot density; for example, highest titratable acidity, free volatile terpenes, and potentially volatile terpenes were found in berries and juices from 1983 cordons. Canopy density, leaf layer number, and shaded clusters and leaves increased linearly with increasing shoot density, but cordon age appeared to have no effect. Tasters found most fruity aroma and flavor, as well as the least grassy aroma and flavor, in treatments from lowest shoot densities and oldest cordons. Principal components analysis showed that wines from old cordons were best explained by fruity and candy (aroma and flavor) as well as sweetness descriptors, while wines from 1986 cordons and the 1987 cordon x 40 shoots/m combination were best explained by grassy aroma and flavor. Existing shoot density recommendations were confirmed by these data.


A marked increase in sympathoadrenal activity at birth has been described in animals and humans. Studies to determine whether the magnitude and duration of the catecholamine surge at birth in preterm lambs is similar to full-term lambs were undertaken using an acutely exteriorized fetal lamb. To maintain a physiologically stable preparation, all preterm lambs were given natural sheep surfactant intratracheally before the first breath. Base-line catecholamine values were similar in the full-term and preterm lambs. After umbilical cord cutting there was a marked increase in circulating norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (E) in both full-term and preterm animals. The preterm animals exhibited a delayed but exaggerated elevation of both NE and E relative to term animals. The peak preterm value for NE (3.8 +/- 1.2 ng/ml) occurred at 60 min and exceeded the peak NE value 1.2 ng/ml observed at 15 min in full-term animals. The peak E concentration in preterm animals was over 9 ng/ml between 2 and 3 h of age, whereas full-term animals reached a peak value of 1.1 ng/ml at 5 min. Heart rate and blood pressure rose abruptly to peak values by 5-15 min in full-term animals. Changes in heart rate and mean arterial pressure were less profound and more gradual in preterm animals. Full-term animals also demonstrated a five-to sevenfold increase in plasma free fatty acids, whereas concentrations in preterm animals increased only two- to threefold. There was a similarly blunted response in blood glucose in preterm animals. The catecholamine surge at birth may be an important adaptive phenomenon with physiological implications.


Generally, we could efficiently analyze the inexact information and investigate the fuzzy relation by applying the fuzzy graph theory[1]. We would extend the fuzzy graph theory, and propose a fuzzy node fuzzy graph. Since a fuzzy node fuzzy graph is complicated to analyze, we would transform it to a simple fuzzy graph by using T-norm family. In addition, to investigate the relations between nodes, we would define the fuzzy contingency table. In this paper, we would discuss about five subjects, (1) new T-norm "Uesu product", (2) fuzzy node fuzzy graph, (3) fuzzy contingency table, (4) decision analysis of the optimal fuzzy graph Gλ0 in the fuzzy graph sequence {Gλ} and (5) its application to sociometry analysis. By using the fuzzy node fuzzy graph theory, the new T-norm and the fuzzy contingency table, we could clarify the relational structure of fuzzy information. According to the decision method in section 2, we could find the optimal fuzzy graph Gλ0 in the fuzzy graph sequence {Gλ}, and clarify the structural feature of the fuzzy node fuzzy graph. Moreover, we would illustrate its practical effectiveness with the case study concerning sociometry analysis.


We consider the problem of determining the maximum size of a ternary code with constant composition and Hamming weight three. We give several constructions of codes having maximum size and we also present an improvement of the Johnson (1962) bound. The results presented solve the problem for all lengths when d=3, as well as for lengths 7, 11, and all even lengths when d=4.


Following the completion of the human genome, relating protein molecular structure to its physiological function remains a challenge for the next decade and beyond. Protein malfunction underlies many debilitating and life-threatening diseases. A framework relating protein structure-to-function is necessary for elucidating disease molecular mechanisms. Current techniques have limited ability to explore this relationship in atomic detail at physiological timescales. We formulate a modeling schema that overcomes this limitation through applications of Machine Learning. Using this approach, we study molecular processes of ion-channel gating using IKs as a paradigm. The simulations reproduce experimentally recorded saturation of gating charge displacement at positive membrane voltages, two-step voltage sensor movement shown by fluorescence, ion-channel statistics, and current-voltage relationships. Additionally, ligand modulation (by PIP2) of IKs and its role in cardiac action potential duration shortening during β-adrenergic stimulation was also studied. Channel subconductances are shown to depend on the pore energy profile and entire protein structure. The Machine Learning approach is applicable to atomistic-scale studies of any protein structure-to-function relationship on timescales of physiological function.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and clinical usefulness of a new computer-driven, hand-held device (Chromatics Colormate III) to estimate serum bilirubin from skin-reflectance (skin color) of neonates.

STUDY DESIGN
A total of 2441 infants (both term and premature) at two hospitals had repeated measurements of transcutaneous bilirubin. Of these infants, 900 had one or more laboratory determinations of serum bilirubin. Many of the infants had early measurements of skin color before the onset of jaundice. A visual estimate of the degree of jaundice was made by a health care worker when the laboratory study was drawn. A subgroup of 61 infants was also studied while undergoing phototherapy with a total of 284 comparisons obtained. The reproducibility of the instrument was assessed separately using standardized color tiles and repeated measurements by multiple operators.

RESULTS
The range of serum bilirubin measurements that had concurrent skin color measurements was 3.22 to 338.1 micromol/L (0.2 to 21 mg/dL). The linear regression indicated an r = 0.956, and 95% of the skin color measurements were within 32.2 micromol/L (2.0 mg/dL). There was no interference with the accuracy of the device because of infant race or weight, or because of the use of phototherapy. The device provided reproducible information when infants were tested repeatedly over 30 minutes; the coefficient of variation for the transcutaneous bilirubin measurement was 3.1% around a mean estimate of 135.32 micromol/L (8.4 mg/dL).

CONCLUSION
The Chromatics Colormate III allows for a clinically useful estimate of serum bilirubin in a wide variety of infants. By using a color discrimination algorithm and obtaining a skin measurement before the onset of icterus, this instrument can provide valuable clinical information that obviates the need for serum bilirubin determinations. Its use in newborn nurseries may allow physicians to shorten length of stay more safely and decrease the use of invasive blood tests.


The Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm (Dempster, Laird and Rubin, 1977) is a popular method for computing maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) in problems with missing data. Each iteration of the al- gorithm formally consists of an E-step: evaluate the expected complete-data log-likelihood given the observed data, with expectation taken at current pa- rameter estimate; and an M-step: maximize the resulting expression to find the updated estimate. Conditions that guarantee convergence of the EM se- quence to a unique MLE were found by Boyles (1983) and Wu (1983). In complicated models for high-dimensional data, it is common to encounter an intractable integral in the E-step. The Monte Carlo EM algorithm of Wei and Tanner (1990) works around this difficulty by maximizing instead a Monte Carlo approximation to the appropriate conditional expectation. Convergence properties of Monte Carlo EM have been studied, most notably, by Chan and Ledolter (1995) and Fort and Moulines (2003). The goal of this review paper is to provide an accessible but rigorous in- troduction to the convergence properties of EM and Monte Carlo EM. No previous knowledge of the EM algorithm is assumed. We demonstrate the im- plementation of EM and Monte Carlo EM in two simple but realistic examples. We show that if the EM algorithm converges it converges to a stationary point of the likelihood, and that the rate of convergence is linear at best. For Monte Carlo EM we present a readable proof of the main result of Chan and Ledolter (1995), and state without proof the conclusions of Fort and Moulines (2003). An important practical implication of Fort and Moulines's (2003) result relates to the determination of Monte Carlo sample sizes in MCEM; we provide a brief review of the literature (Booth and Hobert, 1999; Caffo, Jank and Jones, 2005) on that problem.


This study addresses the need for more research to help resolve the issues of the nationwide debate between advocates of state sponsored alternative certification programs, and advocates of collegiate sponsored, teacher education programs. The State of New Hampshire has both alternative certification and teacher education programs that are representative of those in other states. A random sample of four hundred ninety-two teachers was selected. Two hundred ninety-five responded to the teachers' questionnaire, a 60% rate. Two hundred thirty of the respondents gave permission for their principals to rate their performance on a second questionnaire. One hundred sixty-one principals responded, a 70% response rate. Data analysis results indicated that teachers from collegiate sponsored, teacher education programs were rated significantly higher by their principals on instruction and planning. The fact that Alternative 4 candidates had significantly more years of teaching experience at the time the judgments were made makes these two results remarkable. Teachers from collegiate sponsored, teacher education programs rated their programs significantly higher with regard to coursework, practicum supervision, and overall preparation. They rated their preparation significantly higher than Alternative 4 teachers on ten of the fourteen competencies used by the New Hampshire Department of Education to certify all Alternative candidates. All of the significant differences relating to these competencies favored teacher education programs. Six of these competencies are the same as those rated highly by the principals when they rated the teacher education candidates more favorably on both the Instructional Skills and the Planning and Preparation subscales. This means that there is considerable agreement between teachers and principals with regard to preparation on these New Hampshire Department of Education competencies. The principals who rated teachers from teacher education programs were in agreement with them that they were prepared in these six competencies. The principals' ratings were also consistent with those of the Alternative 4 candidates that they were prepared to a significantly less degree. Teachers from teacher education programs also had more child-oriented reasons for entering teaching.


Tourism plays an important role to the economy of the country; it increases gross domestic products, income per capita, providing employment to the local people and has multiple effects to the economy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of tourism sector on the livelihoods of local communities in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, in Tanzania. The study design adopted in this study was cross-sectional research design. The sample size was 100 local people, 4 local community leaders, 10 hotel staff and 3 tourism officials. Simple randomly and purposive sampling methods were used in identifying sample. Data collection instruments were questionnaires, interview, and observation. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 and presented in descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that tourism sector contributed in development of tourism infrastructure, support social projects, market of hand-made crafts, increase income per capita and helps to get basic needs. Also findings discover that challenges facing local people to participate in tourism activities include lack of government support, value of wildlife, low professionalism, cultural fee which used as entrance fee in Maasai bomas is not stable, shortage of land and lack of capital. This study recommends that, governments, NGOs and other tourism stake holders should provide education and training to local communities in order to empower them with knowledge of tourism activities. Government should review tourism polices and other policies contributing to tourism in order to ensure local communities participate in tourism activities. Government should also support local communities by providing funds, which could support tourism activities. The relationship between NCA and local people should be improved in order to ensure participation of local communities in tourism activities to improve their livelihood.


The public information disclosure policy has entered its 7th year of implementation since it was enacted in 2008 and began to be implemented in 2010. As with other procedures, monitoring and evaluation are required in the application so that the policy implementation does not deviate from the expected. In this Jokowi administration era, the ideas to realise open government are getting closer to the support of the development of information technology. But how is it implemented in the area? This research wants to photograph the implementation of public information disclosure policy in East Java, consisting of 38 districts/municipalities and 56 units of regional apparatus. The results of this study indicate that for the district or city government, the implementation of this information disclosure policy has been an encouraging development, but not so with the Regional Device Work Unit. Likewise, the Information Management and Documentation Officer also experienced progress although there are still shortcomings in the implementation of its duties.


Low voltage photovoltaic systems require highly efficient converters to deliver as much as possible energy to the load with high gain DC voltage conversion. This concept presents two efficient step-up DC/DC converters one composed of five identical phases driven interchangeably and latter partial parallel isolated converter with voltage doubler. Experimental validation of theoretical assumption and discussion on power losses has been carried out. The use of silicon carbide components and current sharing technique assures high efficiency within wide power range.


The Gd2O3 (gadolinia) modified CuO/AC catalysts for NO reduction by activated carbon were prepared and characterized by XRD, TPD-MS, EPR, XPS techniques. The results show that adding a small amount of Gd2O3 in the CuO catalyst can improve effectively its catalytic performance for NO reduction by activated carbon, and the appropriate molar ratio of Gd2O3/CuO is 0.03:1. The promotional effect of Gd2O3 stems from the cooperative effects between CuO and Gd2O3. The presence of Gd2O3 in the catalyst can alter the chemical state and environment of the CuO active sites and improve the catalytic activation of carbon by CuO to form more carbon reactive sites, resulting in the quicker transfer and release of oxygen decomposed from NO. The carboxylic groups on the surface of activated carbon play an important role in the catalytic reduction of NO by carbon at temperature below 300 °C.


The research was carried out to determine the effects of soil pH (or liming) and nitrogen (N) fertilization on the common mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris L.) and cup plant (Silphium perfoliatium L.) dry mass (DM) yield, calorific value and mechanical properties. Field experiments were set up in 2008 in Western Lithuania on a naturally acid (pH 4.2–4.4) moraine loam. According to the averaged data of four experimental years, the highest DM yield 4100 kg ha-1 of common mugwort was established in 2009, which significantly decreased in the subsequent years. And, conversely, the highest cup plant DM yield 17980 kg ha-1 was obtained in 2011. An increase in soil pH from 4.2–4.4 up to 5.6–5.7, resulting from 6.0 t ha-1 CaCO3 application, increased cup plant DM yield by 27.4%. Fertilization with 120 kg ha -1 N significantly increased common mugwort and cup plant DM yield by 34.5% and 26.7% respectively, compared with the treatment without N fertilization. We also studied the chopping quality of common mugwort and cup plant and chaff fractional composition using sieves with different mesh sizes. The chaff of cup plant was finer and more even, and thus more suitable for use for energy purposes. Plant milling quality showed cup plant particles to be smaller and more even too, and thus better suited for pressing and combustion. The highest calorific value of common mugwort (17.97 MJ kg-1) was obtained in 2010 and that of cup plant (17.48 MJ kg-1) in 2012. The calorific values of common mugwort and cup plant were influenced most by the year of cultivation and 120 kg ha-1 N application.


A dissertation in the Department of Accounting Studies Education, Faculty of Business
Education, Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of the degree of
Master of Business Administration
(Accounting)
in the University of Education, Winneba


This chapter examines transformations in China's health system and analyzes those changes alongside health litigation to conclude that health litigation is not equity-promoting in China and has mixed prospects for becoming so in the future. After market liberalization in 1978, decentralization of financial responsibility to the local government led to fee-charging and the crumbling of Mao's barefoot doctor system. Unaffordable care produced stark inequality inciting protest and violence. The Chinese government has responded in recent years with comprehensive health reform that promises universal coverage by 2020. But curiously, the plans are ambivalent regarding the main policy debate leading up to reform, i.e. whether to pursue a market or government approach in the health system. The health reform plans do however signal an intention to separate and disaggregate certain functions among different public and quasi-public actors. The sources of law undergirding health entitlements in China were scant until the recent health reform-related laws and regulations. Yet even with the new reforms, there are reasons to believe that health-related claims will not be easily justiciable. A tool wielded by a privileged few to negotiate one-off benefits, litigation often serves as an outlet ultimately deflecting pressure from the core problems of the health system because courts are hard-pressed to hold government actors accountable. Instead, they defer to other government organs or privately negotiated rights. There is a strong Chinese norm favoring equity in health care, but the norm is expressed politically rather than judicially. Major efforts to achieve health equity have been pursued as collective policies rather than as individual rights. Litigation and equity do not correlate in recent Chinese history and may even bear an inverse relationship: greater government involvement in the health system reduces the likelihood that health actors can be sued. This might change with health reform, but the prospects are mixed. On the one hand health reform embraces "separation" of health functions, so not all health actors will be associated with one monolithic government entity. This increases the need for the pluralism in accountability that courts could provide, and may also create space for actors to be sued without directly threatening government. Moreover, health reform will better define duties and rights politically so that courts will have the easier job of preserving, rather than spearheading rights, though the laws and policies of health reform are deliberately vague and deferential to local government in the definition of benefits.On the other hand, courts are still flawed and cannot take on established interests. Also I caution that without institution building to make political-administrative decision-making processes more participatory in China, active health litigation in China's courts could reinforce a "vulgar" conception of health rights. Such a conception would exacerbate China's affinity for defined contribution health coverage, its overemphasis on pharmaceuticals, and an impersonal "cookie-cutter" approach to medicine which assumes fungible individuals while neglecting the care ethic and other norms important to health care.


BACKGROUND
 The escalating prevalence of mental health disorders necessitates a greater focus on web- and mobile app–based mental health promotion initiatives for nonclinical groups. However, knowledge is scant regarding the influence of human support on attrition and adherence and participant preferences for support in nonclinical settings.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aimed to compare the influence of 3 modes of human support on attrition and adherence to a digital mental health intervention for a nonclinical cohort. It evaluated user preferences for support and assessed whether adherence and outcomes were enhanced when participants received their preferred support mode.

 METHODS
 Subjects participated in a 10-week digital mental health promotion intervention and were randomized into 3 comparative groups: standard group with automated emails (S), standard plus personalized SMS (S+pSMS), and standard plus weekly videoconferencing support (S+VCS). Adherence was measured by the number of video lessons viewed, points achieved for weekly experiential challenge activities, and the total number of weeks that participants recorded a score for challenges. In the postquestionnaire, participants ranked their preferred human support mode from 1 to 4 (S, S+pSMS, S+VCS, S+pSMS & VCS combined). Stratified analysis was conducted for those who received their first preference. Preintervention and postintervention questionnaires assessed well-being measures (ie, mental health, vitality, depression, anxiety, stress, life satisfaction, and flourishing).

 RESULTS
 Interested individuals (N=605) enrolled on a website and were randomized into 3 groups (S, n=201; S+pSMS, n=202; S+VCS, n=201). Prior to completing the prequestionnaire, a total of 24.3% (147/605) dropped out. Dropout attrition between groups was significantly different (P=.009): 21.9% (44/201) withdrew from the S group, 19.3% (39/202) from the S+pSMS
group, and 31.6% (64/202) from the S+VCS group. The remaining 75.7% (458/605) registered and completed the prequestionnaire (S, n=157; S+pSMS, n=163; S+VCS, n=138). Of the registered participants, 30.1% (138/458) failed to complete the postquestionnaire (S, n=54; S+pSMS, n=49; S+VCS, n=35), but there were no between-group differences (P=.24). For the 69.9% (320/458; S, n=103; S+pSMS, n=114; S+VCS, n=103) who completed the postquestionnaire, no between-group differences in adherence were observed for mean number of videos watched (P=.42); mean challenge scores recorded (P=.71); or the number of weeks that challenge scores were logged (P=.66). A total of 56 participants (17.5%, 56/320) received their first preference in human support (S, n=22; S+pSMS, n=26; S+VCS, n=8). No differences were observed between those who received their first preference and those who did not with regard to video adherence (P=.91); challenge score adherence (P=.27); or any of the well-being measures including, mental health (P=.86), vitality (P=.98), depression (P=.09), anxiety (P=.64), stress (P=.55), life satisfaction (P=.50), and flourishing (P=.47).

 CONCLUSIONS
 Early dropout attrition may have been influenced by dissatisfaction with the allocated support mode. Human support mode did not impact adherence to the intervention, and receiving the preferred support style did not result in greater adherence or better outcomes.

 CLINICALTRIAL
 Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): 12619001009101; http://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12619001009101.aspx


Abstract: Short cut fusion improves the efficiency of modularly constructed programs by eliminating intermediate data structures produced by one program component and immediately consumed by another. We define a combinator which expresses uniform production of data structures in monadic contexts, and is the natural counterpart to the well-known monadic fold which consumes them. Like the monadic fold, our new combinator quantifies over monadic algebras rather than standard ones. Together with the monadic fold, it gives rise to a new short cut fusion rule for eliminating intermediate data structures in monadic contexts. This new rule differs significantly from previous short cut fusion rules, all of which are based on combinators which quantify over standard, rather than monadic, algebras. We give examples illustrating the benefits of quantifying over monadic algebras, prove our new fusion rule correct, and show how it can improve programs. We also consider its coalgebraic dual.


The pathophysiology of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-associated haemophagocytosis remains poorly understood.1 In EBV-related haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, EBV-infected CD8 T cells and natural killer cells are thought to trigger haemophagocytosis and the associated 'cytokine-storm'/systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) directly.2,–,4

By contrast, in the context of uncontrolled proliferation of EBV-infected B cells, hyperactively responding EBV-specific T cells are assumed to mediate haemophagocytosis/SIRS.5 Both the quantity and quality of such deregulated EBV-specific T-cell reactivity remain undefined. Unique insight into basic aspects of the postulated T-cell requirements necessary to trigger haemophagocytosis was provided by the case of a 37-year-old woman with mixed connective tissue disease (ribonucleoprotein-Ab positive, severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, polyarthritis, pericarditis and oesophageal sclerosis). Immunosuppression with azathioprine and ciclosporin, as well as a 3-month trial of oral cyclophosphamide due to progressing pulmonary arterial hypertension was ineffective, yet worsened pre-existing lymphopenia. Based on the severe and cyclophosphamide-resistant course of the disease the indication for haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) was established. …


Nitric oxide (NO) is an endogenous vasoactive compound that contributes to pulmonary vascular homeostasis and is produced by three nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms—neuronal NOS (nNOS); inducible NOS (iNOS); and endothelial NOS (eNOS)—all three of which are present in the lung. Studies using pharmacological inhibitors or knockout mice have shown that eNOS-derived NO plays an important role in modulating pulmonary vascular tone and attenuating pulmonary hypertension. However, studies focusing on the role of iNOS have shown that this isoform contributes to the pathophysiology of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome. This review aimed at outlining the role played by NO in the control of the pulmonary circulation, both under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. In addition, we review the evidence that the L-arginine-NO-cyclic guanosine monophosphate pathway is a major pharmacological target in the treatment of pulmonary vascular diseases.


States are finding it increasingly difficult to provide good governance in response to today's problems in a globalised world, as they are often either too small or too big to cope with current crises. One of the strategies of states to remedy this situation is to construct regional levels of governance at the supranational or national level. This has led to the creation of diverse forms of regional governance worldwide, thereby ushering in a neo-Westphalian world of states and regions. In order to advance the research agenda of comparative regionalism, scholars need to 'unpack' regions along several conceptual dimensions. This includes seeing regions as economic areas, public goods spaces as well as actors in the international arena. In addition, a distinction needs to be made in studying the projects, processes and products of region building. Moreover, studying regions needs to take into account the discursive context of 'regionalism speak'. Finally, more attention needs to be dedicated to the internal complexity of regionalisms. In sum, comparing regions is not a straightforward exercise, and in some case regions should not be compared with other regions, but with states.


: Peculiarities of clinical signs, diagnosis and results of surgical treatment for the occlusion-stenotic affection of truncus coeliacus (TC) and upper mesenterial artery in 46 patients were analyzed. Algorithm of diagnosis of abdominal ischemia syndrome was elaborated. Angiography or multispiral computeric tomography constitute a definite method for the TC stenosis diagnosis. The presence of the TC stenosis more than 50% of its lumen and the hemodynamics disorder, in accordance to the ultrasound duplex scanning data, constitute the indication for surgical treatment of patients. Good results of treatment were achieved in 86.4% of the patients.


Is Indian agriculture resilient to external shocks? This question has assumed considerable importance ever since macroeconomic reforms were implemented from the early nineties. As a result, the agricultural sector was exposed to sudden disturbances caused not just by the demand and supply conditions within the country, but also by volatility in world market price, exchange rate and surge in imports. This paper aims to evaluate the magnitude of sensitivity of agriculture to these factors and other changes, and explores policy options that may neutralize their adverse effects, maintain price incentives and stability. The analysis is based on three important tradable commodities. A structural econometric model is applied to each, separately under the exportable and importable scenarios from 1980-81 to 2002-03. Broad findings reveal agriculture to be increasingly driven by an incentive structure based on its linkages with world market price, exchange rate and other factors. Counterfactual simulation experiments indicate that due to trade and price policies, commodity prices and output tend to be much more resilient to various shocks compared to the exports and imports. This paper is an abridged version of Chapter 7 in author's forthcoming book: "Trade Liberalization and Indian Agriculture". Thanks are due to two anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions in improving the draft.


The processing of light by the retina and brain provides the basis for visual perception. Photons are captured and converted to electrical signals by rod and cone photoreceptor cells in the retina. These electrical signals are converted to chemical signals for transmission to downstream neurons. This article provides an overview of the mechanisms involved in transmitting light responses from rods and cones. Chemical signalling occurs at synapses between neurons. In keeping with many other neurons, the chemical messenger released by photoreceptors is the amino acid glutamate, which is packaged into small spherical vesicles. Each photoreceptor synaptic terminal has thousands of synaptic vesicles. Some of these vesicles are attached to the face of planar structures known as ribbons. Ribbons capture and deliver vesicles to release sites at the bottom of the ribbon. Upon stimulation, vesicles fuse with the cell membrane and release their contents. Glutamate molecules diffuse through the extracellular space to reach specialized receptors that regulate the activity of downstream neurons. We discuss how rates of vesicle attachment to ribbons, delivery of vesicles down the ribbon and the release of glutamate shape the information provided to downstream neurons in the visual system.


Based on qualitative methodology, this study investigated ten contemporary novels written especially for adolescents having incestuous sexual abuse as their major themes. Data were obtained through clinical‐format case history reports prepared on each novel. Findings showed that incest usually involved daughter‐father and niece‐uncle pairs, and for father‐daughter relationships the incest always included intercourse. In all cases the incestuous affairs ended with consequences for the adult offenders. In most cases authors pictured incest as an assault against the innocent, but they often saw the incest abuser, especially fathers, as victims of themselves and rarely was the father punished with prison. Although authors presented incestuous families as psychologically dysfunctional, the adolescent victims were given intelligence and determination enough to escape from the incest and to rebuild their lives.


In multiple plan adaptive radiotherapy (ART) strategies of bladder cancer, a library of plans corresponding to different bladder volumes is created based on images acquired in early treatment sessions. Subsequently, the plan for the smallest PTV safely covering the bladder on cone-beam CT (CBCT) is selected as the plan of the day. The aim of this study is to develop an automatic bladder segmentation approach suitable for CBCT scans and test its ability to select the appropriate plan from the library of plans for such an ART procedure. Twenty-three bladder cancer patients with a planning CT and on average 11.6 CBCT scans were included in our study. For each patient, all CBCT scans were matched to the planning CT on bony anatomy. Bladder contours were manually delineated for each planning CT (for model building) and CBCT (for model building and validation). The automatic segmentation method consisted of two steps. A patient-specific bladder deformation model was built from the training data set of each patient (the planning CT and the first five CBCT scans). Then, the model was applied to automatically segment bladders in the validation data of the same patient (the remaining CBCT scans). Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the training data to model patient-specific bladder deformation patterns. The number of PCA modes for each patient was chosen such that the bladder shapes in the training set could be represented by such number of PCA modes with less than 0.1 cm mean residual error. The automatic segmentation started from the bladder shape of a reference CBCT, which was adjusted by changing the weight of each PCA mode. As a result, the segmentation contour was deformed consistently with the training set to fit the bladder in the validation image. A cost function was defined by the absolute difference between the directional gradient field of reference CBCT sampled on the corresponding bladder contour and the directional gradient field of validation CBCT sampled on the segmentation contour candidate. The cost function measured the goodness of fit of the segmentation on the validation image and was minimized using a simplex optimizer. For each validation CBCT image, the segmentations were done five times using a different reference CBCT. The one with the lowest cost function was selected as the final bladder segmentation. Volume- and distance-based metrics and the accuracy of plan selection were evaluated to quantify the performance. Two to four PCA modes were needed to represent the bladder shape variation with less than 0.1 cm average residual error for the training data of each patient. The automatically segmented bladders had a 78.5% mean conformity index with the manual delineations. The mean SD of the local residual error over all patients was 0.24 cm. The agreement of plan selection between automatic and manual bladder segmentations was 77.5%. PCA is an efficient method to describe patient-specific bladder deformation. The statistical-shape-based segmentation approach is robust to handle the relatively poor CBCT image quality and allows for fast and reliable automatic segmentation of the bladder on CBCT for selecting the appropriate plan from a library of plans.


As an important application of mobile ad hoc networks, VANETs play an important role in intelligent transportation. However, with the development of mobile communication technology, as well as the needs of intelligent transportation, both security and efficiency are required for realtime authentication and communication. Traditional authentication and key distribution schemes suffer from network failure and high response latency. To solve the above problems, this article proposes a BAGKD protocol to achieve robust and efficient networking for the security and efficiency of VANETs. In our protocol, bilinear mapping is used to realize batch authentication, which can improve authentication efficiency and reduce message errors caused by factors such as high speed of vehicles. The group key distribution mechanism can update the group key dynamically, which reduces the risk of group key leakage effectively. For the sake of privacy protection, vehicles utilize pseudonyms issued by a trusted authority to communicate with RSUs. The security of BAGKD protocol is verified by simulation in our experiments on AVISPA. In addition, when compared to three existing protocols based on bilinear mapping, our proposed BAGKD outperforms them in terms of efficiency and communication overhead while maintaining security. The simulation results further confirm that BAGKD is suitable for short-range communication scenarios such as VANETs.


This Article discusses how the requirement of justifiable reliance in the law of deceit came to be turned into a requirement of reasonable reliance. Courts can and do use the reasonable reliance requirement to dismiss on the pleadings deceit claims involving what the court considers to be unreasonable reliance by a plaintiff. This was the fate of most of the claims against lower-tier law schools for publishing misleading employment statistics. I argue that the equation of justifiable reliance with reasonable reliance was an unintended consequence of a loosening of the tort's scienter rule in the middle of the twentieth century to eliminate a requirement of intended reliance. The goal of the change was to make the law tougher on fraudsters by making a fraudster liable to a predictable but unintended victim of a fraud. The proponents of the change did not realize that the rules of justifiable reliance flowed from the old intended reliance rule. A later generation of judges and legal scholars made sense of the rules of justifiable reliance by equating justifiable reliance with reasonable reliance, creating a worse injustice than that which was created by the old intended reliance rule. The reasonable reliance rule allows a fraudster to escape liability if he can persuade a court that a reasonable person would not have fallen for his fraud. Under the old rule, a claim involving unreasonable reliance ordinarily could not be dismissed on the pleadings, affording the plaintiff an opportunity to establish culpable intent by proving that the defendant purposefully exploited the plaintiff's unreasonable disposition and beliefs. I identify the functions served by the rules of justifiable reliance and argue that the intended reliance rule serves these functions as well as the reasonable reliance rule, while allowing fewer frauds to escape punishment. I conclude that courts should restore the intended reliance rule and eliminate the reasonable reliance rule in the law of deceit. The rules of justifiable reliance can be kept as they are, but they will return to being presumptions that a plaintiff can overcome by showing that a defendant had culpable intent.


The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the factors and events associated with the derailment of presidents at public, Master's level institutions. The research study was guided by three questions: 1) What factors are perceived to be associated with the derailment of public, Master's level college presidents? 2) What events are perceived to be associated with the derailment of the president? 3) What relationship, if any, may be found between derailment factors emerging from previous Center for Creative Leadership research and factors emerging from this study? Data were collected from 19 in-depth interviews of current presidents, board members, faculty members, and vice presidents who were familiar with the derailed president. Field notes, media accounts of the derailment, and board minutes also served as sources of data. Findings of this study supported three of the enduring themes of derailment stemming from the Center for Creative Leadership's research. Those include: failure to build and lead a team, problems with interpersonal relationships, and failure to understand and value the institutional culture (inability to change or adapt during a transition). Three unique factors emerged: failure to communicate effectively, the inability to work with key constituencies, and ethical failures. These findings suggest that college presidents must take time to understand and value the mission of the institution that they serve, as well as work hard to maintain effective communication with key vi constituency groups so if problems arise he or she will have social capital to draw on and help them avoid derailment. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.


By mimicking the polymer backbone assisted 'hop and lock' lithium ion transport in lithium solid polymer (SP) electrolytes, a new type of proton (H+) transport membrane cum separator is designed which is found to work even in pure water electrolysis. An inexpensive H+ transporting SP membrane (HPEOP) is formulated using perchloric acid (HClO4) as the proton source with a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and polydimethylsiloxane blend as the host structure. The H+ coordinated PEO backbone via the solvation of HClO4 allows easy transport of H+ through PEO segmental motion and inter-segmental hopping. Humidity dependent ionic conductivity measurements on the optimized HPEOP membrane show higher values in comparison to those of Nafion 117, and a considerable ionic conductivity was shown by HPEOP even in an anhydrous environment (3.165 ± 0.007 mS cm−1) unlike Nafion 117 (∼10−7 mS cm−1). Lowering the melting temperature of PEO through HClO4 'salting in' is found to have a considerable effect in enhancing the conductivity of this SP membrane, while addition of HClO4 also modifies the microstructure and mechanical strength of the membrane. Water electrolysis 'H' cells are constructed with both pure and protonated water using both HPEOP and Nafion separators (membranes), and studies show the possibilities of highly efficient low cost water electrolysis and fuel cells devoid of expensive Nafion membranes.


For a long time, planners get used to apply qualitative analysis and subjective knowledge to define urban green space system. Lacking support of quantitative analysis, the incomplete inventory will result in subjective evaluation, low pertinence. And the required depth and level for planning will not be strong enough. This study strives for introduce ecological suitability evaluation to urban green space system, derives the supporting theory, framework, and evaluation model. By using GIS, Luancheng green space system is generated based on the ecological suitability analysis. Also, this study shows that green space system planning is more operational and reliable based on ecological suitability evaluation.


We describe a 34‐year‐old male patient with Jacobsen syndrome associated with a broad spectrum of anomalies and an increased susceptibility to infections. Features commonly seen in Jacobsen syndrome were short stature, mental retardation, congenital heart disease, cryptorchidism, strabismus, distal hypospadia glandis, and mild thrombocytopenia. Chromosome analysis disclosed a mosaic 46,XY,del(11)(q24.1)/46,XY karyotype with a very low percentage of normal cells. In addition, transverse upper limb defect, imperforate anus, and hearing impairment were noted. Cellular anomalies include functional impairment and deficiency of T‐helper cells, and a low serum immunoglobulin M (IgM)‐level. The presence of a transverse limb defect and primary immunodeficiency has not been reported previously in Jacobsen syndrome. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract: The issue of sustainability has been discussed in various social spheres like governments, public and private organizations, and universities; to a large extent the debate gets space in conversations in the everyday life of ordinary people. It is noticeable that in the last century the concern with nature across the borders of countries and won global relevance, being widely debated at international conferences. In this theoretical research, sought to examine the interface between nature and social relations lived in urban space. For this purpose, sought to develop conceptually the notion of "affective sustainability", showing that the concern with nature involves, necessarily, the affective relationships that build towards the environment, but also in relation to people, knowledge and ways of life. As a result, it can be said that the cities are faced with a great challenge: look at the ways of living that are updated. Keywords: sustainability; affect; urban space; nature; psychology