The golden era of television, which is marked by high television stations increasingly restrict competition in presenting the program more attractive. Ironically, the shows presented are still full of elements of violence. Violence, which appears on the television screen, is not only the scenes of sadistic, but also through the symbolic (verbal and non-verbal). It is not only the impressions of the action movie or criminal, but also in a comedy program. The comedy is entertaining; it contains many elements of symbolic violence. Therefore, this is a phenomenon that researcher is interested to examine more about the violence in the symbolic "Ngelenong Nyok?. Problem formulation of this research is to know about the frequency of violence in a symbolic event "Ngelenong Nyok" with the scope of the entire scenes (acting and dialogue) that indicates symbolic violence in the episode five weeks to four months in February 2008, is running from Monday to Friday hours 08.00-08.30 in the Trans TV. With the goal to find the frequency of occurrence, as well as forms of symbolic indicator of violence. The type of this research is descriptive quantitative. The research method used is content analysis. The draft of this content analysis deliberately made to calculate objectively and measurably of the real message of the (manifest content of messages). The results of this research shows that the appearance of symbolic violence with the frequency and the highest percentage that appear through the harassment category ranks first with 40 times the number of sexual emergence / porno, as many as 32 times the frequency of occurrence (27.82%, while the symbolic violence with stigmatisms have 22 times the appearance ( 19.13%) in the third position, fourth place with dysphemism symbolic violence, 19 times the appearance (16.52%), and the last is symbolic of violence with the association of animals with 2 times the frequency of occurrence (1.75%). From the appearance of a total of 115, the forms of symbolic violence by harassment appeared to dominate in the comedy program "Ngelenong Nyok." The author hopes that comedy programs produced by TV stations can be improved, and for the community to be more awake to the danger of the insensitive attitude to forms of violence. Comedy, which should be entertaining, was full of symbolic violence in it. Moreover, to see if the comedy is appointed from one of the cultural traditions of the region, where a cultural tradition that should be used as a building monument for generations in the future, but it can become even a destructive monument on the future generation that will come. Keyword : Kekerasan Simbolik; Komedi; Analisis Isi Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/291/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2008-muhammadih-14544-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


Abstract. Forests have complex vertical structure and spatial mosaic pattern. Subtropical forest ecosystem consists of vast vegetation species and these species are always in a dynamic succession stages. It is very challenging to characterize the complexity of subtropical forest ecosystem. In this paper, CAF's (The Chinese Academy of Forestry) LiCHy (LiDAR, CCD and Hyperspectral) Airborne Observation System was used to collect waveform Lidar and hyperspectral data in Puer forest region, Yunnan province in the Southwest of China. The study site contains typical subtropical species of coniferous forest, evergreen broadleaf forest, and some other mixed forests. The hypersectral images were orthorectified and corrected into surface reflectance with support of Lidar DTM product. The fusion of Lidar and hyperspectral can classify dominate forest types. The lidar metrics improved the classification accuracy. Then forest biomass estimation was carried out for each dominate forest types using waveform Lidar data, which get improved than single Lidar data source.


This paper considers the problem of the classification of objects observed by vehicle embedded sensors. We propose a general architecture and an algorithm to perform multisensor fusion for the classification purpose. The proposed solution has to be robust and flexible. The robustness is essential because this system is for safety applications. The flexibility is ensured by a modular architecture alongside with a feature-level data fusion algorithm. This algorithm is based on the Bayesian formalism. Therefore, the classification of a detected object becomes the computation of a recognition probability given a set of features. This formalism allows an asynchronous data fusion, that is to say each sensor information is taken into account as soon as it is available. The proposed approach is applied to combine information from a laser scanner and video camera in order to detect pedestrians moving in the equipped vehicle path. The experimental results present pedestrians detected in urban areas. These results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


This report presents architectures, designs and chemistries for novel static soluble lead acid batteries, with the objective of producing a lightweight lead acid battery for improved specific energy. The demands for lightweight lead-acid batteries come from an expanding hybrid electric vehicle market demanding improved battery specific energy. There are several avenues for improving battery specific energy; the main two are improved active material utilisation efficiency and grid weight reduction. Both of these have been focuses of this project. Two approaches have been taken in this project, the first is focussed on the electrode design. Design modifications have been achieved by using novel grid materials to reduce weight and novel electrode designs to improve active material utilisation. Battery electrodes were built from titanium and the active material was applied as a thin film of lead. Characterisation of lead coatings on several material geometries under different plating regimes was conducted. A novel thin-film active material battery was designed, built and tested satisfactorily to industrial standards. The second battery system being investigated has the active materials solvated in the methanesulphonic acid electrolyte during the discharged state. Due to the high solubility of lead in this Pb-CH3SO3H electrolyte, lead-acid batteries with this chemistry have a theoretical specific energy of 35.7 Ah l-1. This compares favourably with the specific energy for a conventional spiral wound VRLA battery at 44.4 Ah l-1. These soluble lead acid batteries operate by a mechanism whereby cycling is stripping and plating lead and lead dioxide onto the electrodes. Active material utilisation in this type of lead-acid battery is not limited in the same way as conventional lead-acid batteries, as the discharge product is not electrically insulating, as is lead sulphate. The operation mechanism was improved by using additives in the electrolyte to maintain a quality deposit and preserve charge efficiency, voltage efficiency and active mass utilisation. In addition, the use of a separator membrane and novel carbon-polymer electrodes improved battery performance further. The behaviour of a static soluble lead acid battery during cycling with and without additives and a cell membrane is characterised and the results are used to develop a 6 V battery. The results of the 6 V battery cycling under HEV simulated cycling are presented and discussed.


Abstract Hymn singing is an early example of cross-cultural pollination – what had been taken away from the natives by the missionaries, was reclaimed in the adaptation of old European hymns and the composition of new traditional hymn tunes to old texts. The performance practised was also reclaimed. The historical background of the Sesotho hymnal, Lifela tsa Sione, also sung by the Batswana in some churches, is discussed. The singing style encountered in four different churches in North-West Province illustrates the evolving style of hymn singing found in mainstream traditional churches in South Africa today. This style shows a new identity, which is again influencing European hymn singing. Compared with the popular Music from Taizé, the so-called traditional African 'choruses' have similarities and have been incorporated in ecumenical worship.


SYNOPSIS Objective. We evaluated eight recruitment methods (Craigslist, Facebook ads, Google AdWords, in-person, newspaper, parenting magazines, ResearchMatch, and direct mailing) in terms of their ability to accrue fathers of 3- to 7-year-old children into a laboratory-based behavioral trial for parents. The trial was related to child obesity risk and parental health behaviors. Design. Each recruitment method was implemented such that half its occurrences advertised for fathers only, and half advertised for mothers and fathers. Methods were evaluated in terms of number of fathers recruited, cost- and time-efficiency, response rates, and demographic characteristics of individuals recruited. We also assessed fathers' and mothers' motivations for participating in the study. 101 fathers and 260 mothers were recruited. Results. Father-targeted ads were essential for father recruitment; 79% of accruals from father-targeted ads were male, whereas only 14% of accruals from parent-targeted ads were male. Craigslist, ResearchMatch, and Facebook ads were the most cost-efficient for accruing fathers. A greater proportion of fathers was motivated by increasing fathers' representation in research (16%) compared to mothers who wished to increase mothers' representation in research (5.4%). Similar proportions of fathers and mothers were motivated by improving their parenting knowledge and improving their child's health. Conclusions. Future researchers should employ father-targeted recruitment materials (rather than parent-targeted) that capitalize on fathers' unique motivations for participating in research.


In The Labor Question in America: Economic Democracy in the Gilded Age, Rosanne Currarino traces the struggle to define the nature of democratic life in an era of industrial strife. As Americans confronted the glaring disparity between democracy's promises of independence and prosperity and the grim realities of economic want and wage labor, they asked, "What should constitute full participation in American society? What standard of living should citizens expect and demand?" Currarino traces the diverse efforts to answer to these questions, from the fledgling trade union movement to contests over immigration, from economic theory to popular literature, from legal debates to social reform. The contradictory answers that emerged--one stressing economic participation in a consumer society, the other emphasizing property ownership and self-reliance--remain pressing today as contemporary scholars, journalists, and social critics grapple with the meaning of democracy in post-industrial America.


Aims The association between urinary tract infection (UTI) and the development of renal complications has been challenged in recent years. This has prompted the development of new guidelines in August 2007 which suggest a reduction in radiological investigation following UTI; targeting the highest risk groups only. The authors' aims were to audit the conduct of radiological investigations and patient follow-up in children presenting with UTI within our department. Methods A retrospective case note analysis of infants and children with confirmed UTI (>10 5 cfu/ml) presenting between January 2008 and March 2008 was reviewed. Results 49 (90% female) infants and children (ranging from 7 weeks to 16 years with a mean age of 5.76 years) were included. The cohort had presented with first presentation (51%), recurrent (33%), atypical (14%) or atypical and recurrent (2%) UTI. 92% of children had an ultrasound in accordance with the guidelines. 7% of these children were found to have abnormalities within the upper urinary tract. 8% had an ultrasound when it was not indicated. No abnormalities were detected in this group. 38% had a DMSA in line with the guidelines and 25% of these children had a pathological discrepancy in renal function. 27% did not have a DMSA when it was indicated. Two children in the cohort qualified for MCUG. Only one child had the investigation which revealed a normal result. 84% of patients were followed up in agreement with the guidelines. Conclusion The majority of ultrasound scans and patient follow-up within our department are compliant with the new guidelines. However, there is some discrepancy in terms of performing DMSA scans; with the number falling even below the new recommendations. A recent study from Australia confirms a similar change in clinical practice. This suggests that the translation between scientific evidence into clinical practice can occur fairly dramatically. While is it is reassuring to know that there has been no increase in the rates of end stage renal failure among Australians under 25 years over the last decade; it is prudent to remain vigilant about the outcomes in this group of patients over the coming years, subsequent to this change in practice.


3N nickel has been deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at 400°C up to 3 passes using route A. The texture with respect to position in the deformed billet, i.e. from top to bottom, has been measured with high-energy synchrotron radiation. It is characterized by texture components typical for simple shear in the intersection plane of the square-shaped 90° bent channel. Besides, an oblique cube component is observed. Orientation imaging microscopy clearly shows that this component is due to partial recrystallization. Intensities of the texture components as well as deviations from their ideal shear positions vary from the top to the bottom of the billet and with the number of passes. The change of the intensity of texture components and the texture gradient investigated is discussed. Special emphasis is put on the influence of dynamic recrystallization on texture and microstructure formation during ECAP of fcc metals.


Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among females. However, mammographic diagnosis is sometimes non-conclusive with a Breast imaging Reporting and Data System (Bi-RaDS) result of 0. Cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3) is the most widely used serum tumor marker for breast cancer screening. Platelet distribution width (PDW) is an early indicator of platelet activation. Fibrinogen contributed to angiogenesis and distant metastasis. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of CA15-3, PDW, and fibrinogen individually or in combination, to distinguish breast cancer from benign breast disease. 200 consecutive patients with breast cancer and 187 patients with benign breast disease were included in this retrospective study. Patients' characteristics and hematologic tests data at initial diagnosis were collected. The benefit of adding PDW and fibrinogen to a model with only CA15-3 was evaluated as an increased in the area under the curve (AUC) obtained by receiver operating curve (ROC). CA15-3, PDW and fibrinogen are higher in breast cancer patients than in patients with benign breast disease. Single biomarkers had AUC values ranging from 0.687 for fibrinogen to 0.810 for CA15-3. In addition, the combination of PDW, CA15-3, and fibrinogen increased the AUC to 0.900 (0.866-0.928) (p<0.0001), significantly higher than those of any single marker. In conclusion, the combined use of CA15-3, PDW and fibrinogen may be clinically useful in discriminating between breast cancer and benign breast disease in non-conclusive mammography patients.


Preference Shifts, Structural Breaks and the Domestic Demand for Chilean Wine CristiAin Troncoso-Valverde1 Abstract – This paper investigates possible changes in Chilean domestic consumer preferences for wine through the estimation of a demand function that allows for structural breaks and regime shifts in the cointegrating relationship. Our findings support both higher own–price elasticity and higher substitutability between wine and beer after 1982, when a shift in regime in the demand function is found. We believe our findings might be due to the introduction of an increasing number of wine varieties in Chile during the last two decades. We argue that more wine varieties affect domestic consumer preferences by altering the product diversity available in the domestic market.


Following its election in 1997, the UK Labour Government embarked upon a 10 year program of reform of the National Health Service (NHS). By 2005, Labour had doubled the NHS budget and dramatically transformed the shape of the Service. In England, a basic characteristic of the NHS is the organizational split between provider and commissioning agencies. In this article I argue that Labour's re-regulation of NHS provision is a coherent representation of the influence of the "regulatory state" in restructuring arrangements between government, market, and society. The article offers an account of the regulatory state based on a discussion of five key theses: The Audit Society, Regulation Inside Government, The New Regulatory State, The British Regulatory State, and Regulatory Capitalism. The article unfolds Labour's program of reform across themes common to these accounts: the division of labor between state and society, the division of labor within the state, the formalization of previously informal controls, and the development of meta-regulatory techniques of enforced self-regulation. It concludes that the key themes of the regulatory state are at work in Labour's transformation of NHS provision and it offers a discussion of the implications for both scholars of regulation and the UK and European health policy literature.


This article addresses the question of whether the defence of necessity could be utilised in cases of euthanasia in the medical context. It challenges the application of the doctrine of double effect as a means of ascertaining the physician's primary intent and argues instead that the law should recognise that the physician faces a situation of necessity. It asserts that given the potential availability of the defence of diminished responsibility to a relative or spouse who carries out a mercy killing, not allowing the physician to utilise the defence of necessity may place him at greater risk of conviction for murder than the layperson.


Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has often been an umbrella term for a wide range of competencies, including emotional processes, social and interpersonal skills, and cognitive regulation (Jones, Bouffard, & Weissbourd, 2013). We used the Borich (1980) needs assessment model to assess the professional development needs of Texas agricultural education teachers in core SEL skill areas. Data were collected with three forms of a paper questionnaire to determine teachers' self-perceived levels of competence in core SEL skill areas. Twenty SEL indicators were assessed in four ways (Importance, Ability to Perform, Knowledge, and Ability to Teach), and then used to create three latent variables (Performance Competence, Knowledge Competence, and Consequence Competence), which served as dimensions of professional development needs. Agriculture teachers perceived the importance of all core SEL skill areas as having average or greater importance, their ability to model core SEL skill areas as average or greater, their knowledge of core SEL areas as average or greater, and possessing average or greater ability to teach core SEL skill areas. The findings of this study support the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2003) report and emphasize the importance of SEL in agricultural education.


Background: Poisoning cases occur universally and have plagued mankind since antiquity. Keeping this in view, this study was contemplated to find the comparative overview of poisoning in India and Saudi Arabia to knows how the racial and cultural factors influence the pattern of poisoning. Material and Methods: A systematic web based search was conducted and original studies on poisoning published in India and Saudi Arabia were analyzed with respect to age, gender, category of poison, and overall distribution of toxic agents. Results: The study concluded that the male to female ratio in India was 1.53:1 while in Saudi Arabia it was 1.2:1.In India, the highest frequency of poisoning occurred with agrichemicals while in Saudi Arabia it was mainly due to pharmaceutical drugs. In India the most common mode of poisoning is intentional (70.6%) and it is commoner in the age group 21-30 years (31.1%). This is in contrast with Saudi Arabia, which showed that most of the cases of poisoning is accidental (54.1%) and occurred in children <10 years. Conclusion: The study suggested various similarities and variations in the pattern of poisoning in the two countries with regards to distribution of poisoning among female and young adult victims based on contextual factors like circumstances of poisoning and differential access to the toxic agents. Careful and well planned strategies may reduce the incidence of poisoning in these countries


Large areas of Iraq consist of soils with high clay contents which have low strengths and bearing capacity.This problem has an influence on construction of road and highway, if adequate support does not exist, the road will rapidly deteriorate. The solution to these construction problems is by soil treatment with chemical additives. The main objective of this study is to investigate effectiveness of salts used as an additive in stabilization of silty clay soil. Three types of salts used which are sodium chloride (NaCl), magnisum chloride (MgCl2) and calcium chloride (CaCl2). Various amounts of salts (2%, 4%, and 8%) were added to the soil to study the effect of salts on the consistency limits, compaction characteristics and CBR value.The test results indicated that the liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index decreased as the salts content increased. The addition of salts to the soil increased the maximum dry density and reduced the optimum moisture content. The addition of (2 %) salt to the soil causes increases the CBR value between (8 to 28 %), while, in samples containing large amount of salt (4 and 8 %) the increase was between (55 to 80%).The CBR value increased as the salt content increases for different type of salt and the greatest value is found in the soil treated with (4%) calcium chloride which was equal to (80 %).


A facile and sustainable electrochemical approach towards the synthesis of  tris-(8-hydoxyquinoline)aluminium(III) (Alq3) using 8-Hydroxy quinoline  as a  ligand is presented. The synthesis has been done at three different conditions (a) 0.015M of 8-Hydroxy quinolin in 50% methanol, at   pH 7 for 24 hours (b) 0.0303M of 8-Hydroxy quinolin in 40% methanol at pH 1 for 48 hours (c) 0.0317M of 8-Hydroxy quinolin in 50% methanol at pH 2 for 24 hours. The potential was applied 1.5 V and 12 .0 V respectively. Simple room temperature electrolysis method has been employed, where Al wire as well as Al foil was used as a sacrificial anode for Al 3+ ion source and platinum wire as a cathode. Tris-(8-hydoxyquinoline) aluminum (III) (Alq3) was synthesized for the first time by direct dissolution of Al 3+ into the solution of 8-Hydroxy quinoline from Al electrode in the electrochemical cell. The structural characterizations have been done by using Single X-ray diffraction and Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and TGA techniques. Complexes of Aluminum with 8-Hydroxyquinoline have a wide applications to material science as organic light emitting diode (OLED).


In the decade following the Second World War, Central Europe was fast becoming an ideological battleground of the emerging Cold War, and Germany was the focal point. American officials at home and abroad wanted West Germany firmly situated in the American-led camp, and for West Germans to identify with the budding western transatlantic community. Long-standing anti-Americanism and lingering resentments from the war, however, made it unclear if West Germans would align their country with the emerging western world. It was during this moment of ambivalence that Catholic organizations in the United States and Germany began to build alliances with one another, providing crucial scaffolding for forging the postwar transatlantic community. A partnership between the United States and German Catholics in the 1940s and early 1950s, however, was far from a predetermined or obvious development. Many German Catholics tended to perceive the United States as a dangerous cultural influence and the epitome of materialism, a value system fundamentally at odds with church teachings.

My dissertation argues that Catholic institutions in the U.S. and West Germany played a key role in forging a transatlantic community during the transformative period from 1945 to 1955. Encouraged by the American occupation officials, American and German Catholic labor leaders, youth leaders, and publishers embarked on a mission – sometimes cooperating, sometimes acting independently – to foster transatlantic Catholic solidarity. Through conferences, workshops, and print media, they countered negative perceptions of excessive consumerism, exploitative capitalism, delinquent youth, and extreme secularism that Germans often projected onto the U.S. With their activities, they hoped to foster personal connections among Catholics from American and western European countries and to cultivate a Catholic front that could deter what they saw as the dangerous influence of atheistic communism from the East. This "West" was both created by and catered to the more religious and conservative segments of the German population, and served an important building block in what would become the West in the emerging Cold War.


Domain-adapted sentiment classification refers to training on a labeled source domain to well infer document-level sentiment on an unlabeled target domain. Most existing relevant models involve a feature extractor and a sentiment classifier, where the feature extractor works towards learning domain-invariant features from both domains, and the sentiment classifier is trained only on the source domain to guide the feature extractor. As such, they lack a mechanism to use sentiment polarity lying in the target domain. To improve domain-adapted sentiment classification by learning sentiment from the target domain as well, we devise a novel deep adversarial mutual learning approach involving two groups of feature extractors, domain discriminators, sentiment classifiers, and label probers. The domain discriminators enable the feature extractors to obtain domain-invariant features. Meanwhile, the label prober in each group explores document sentiment polarity of the target domain through the sentiment prediction generated by the classifier in the peer group, and guides the learning of the feature extractor in its own group. The proposed approach achieves the mutual learning of the two groups in an end-to-end manner. Experiments on multiple public datasets indicate our method obtains the state-of-the-art performance, validating the effectiveness of mutual learning through label probers.


Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency has received wide public interest. As a decentralized transaction system, Bitcoin relies on the mining process, which is a necessary process to validate transactions. The mining process involves solving complex crypto-puzzles which requires significantly high computing power. This resource-hungry process has a significant impact on the energy consumption of the system. Our study looks at the mining process and the resources required to process large volumes of transactions. Using data from September 2014 to November 2018, we investigate how the mining protocol impacts the computing capacity needs of miners. We demonstrate that the complexity of the crypto-puzzle and the transaction volume significantly increase computing resource needs which in turn raises the energy consumption. We estimate that the energy demand from mining activities will drain 17.96 Gigawatt if the system processes 100 million transactions per week. Our findings suggest that the mining protocol drains significant resource requirements both from a computing hardware and energy consumption needs that the future growth of the Bitcoin network and the use of Bitcoin as a currency could be questionable.


Metamorphic pendants within and west of the Coast Mountains between Bella Coola and Prince Rupert British Columbia belong to three northwest-trending belts of metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. These belts separate Mesozoic and older strata of the Stikine terrane on the northeast from Wrangellia terrane strata on the southwest. The northeastern belt, herein referred to as the Burke Channel assemblage, consists primarily of interlayered quartzite, marble, metapelite, and metavolcanic rocks that are interpreted to have accumulated along a continental margin with one or more phases of arc-type(?) volcanism. Similarities in protoliths and detrital zircon ages indicate that this assemblage correlates with components of the Yukon-Tanana, Nisling, and/or Stikine terranes of northern British Columbia, Yukon, and eastern Alaska. The southwestern belt, referred to as the Banks Island assemblage, consists mainly of quartzite, marble, and metapelite that may also have accumulated in a continental margin setting. The tectonic affinity of these rocks is uncertain. Separating these assemblages is a belt of metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Alexander terrane and possibly the Gravina belt. Structures bounding the three sets of pendants are not well known, but are interpreted to include: (1) an early Tertiary reverse fault (part of the Coast shear zone) that juxtaposes Stikine strata westward over the Burke Channel assemblage in the Bella Coola area; (2) a mid-Cretaceous thrust fault that juxtaposes the Burke Channel assemblage over Alexander and possibly Gravina strata; and (3) the sinistral Kitkatla fault, which separates the Banks Island assemblage from the Alexander terrane.


For the last several years, the price of listed real estate stocks has been unusually high relative to dividends. I explore whether low interest rates or low risk premia can account for the high valuation ratios and find that they cannot. Lower interest rates have been offset by rising risk premia to keep expected returns close to average. Instead, the market has priced in future income growth on commercial properties that is far above the growth rates seen in the data. High implied growth rates hold across traditional REIT sectors, but are less extreme for non-traditional REIT sectors. Income growth expectations are also less extreme for an index of international listed real estate. Investors who ignore the recent increase in interest rate risk that we document would need to hold lower, but still unusually large income growth expectations.


We report recent progress on fabrication of solid core microstructured fibers in chalcogenide glass. Several complex and regular holey fibers from Ga5Ge20Sb10S65 chalcogenide glass have been realized. We demonstrate that the "Stack & Draw" procedure is a powerful tool against crystallisation when used with a very stable chalcogenide glass. For a 3 ring multimode Holey Fiber, we measure the mode field diameter of the fundamental mode and compare it successfully with calculations using the multipole method. We also investigate, via numerical simulations, the behaviour of fundamental mode guiding losses of microstructured fibers as a function of the matrix refractive index, and quantify the advantage obtained by using a high refractive index glass such as chalcogenide instead of low index glass.


At a time when Moroccan researchers still undecided on the appropriate definition of Political Marketing, the debate around this subject is initiated already, whether on their side the opinion makers, the media and the politicians themselves. Among supporters and opponents of the adoption and the use of this discipline's strategies, each one according to his own definition of Political Marketing, few months before 2016's elections in Morocco, the debate around this emerging science, is growing increasingly. Through an exploratory survey, we tried to highlight the common perception in analytical comparison, with what was overdraft, until today by international research. The purpose is an essay of definition adapted to the needs of this particular Moroccan context. Considering that rare are the academic researches that has been initiated in Morocco, around the concept, this paper is an analysis of the gap, among common perception, and scientific conceptual framework of this discipline.


Directed primarily toward undergraduate business college/university majors, this text also provides practical content to current and aspiring industry professionals. Financial crises, catastrophic disasters, and business scandals are constantly making today s headlines. Annie McKee, author of the textbook "Management: A Focus on Leaders," believes that amidst these issues we are experiencing a unique opportunity to add new fervor to the way we prepare students for the future. Directly addressing the challenges and opportunities in our changing world, "Management: A Focus on Leaders" shows future managers how to lead in a complex, yet exciting, global environment. Visit WeNeedLeadershipNow.com to find out more about "Management: A Focus on Leaders." "


To evaluate the effects of passive smoking identified by urine cotinine on serum carotenoids and alpha-tocopherol, we categorized 124 residents in a rural city of Japan into 4 groups by their urine cotinine/creatinine (Cot/Cr) ratio (u.d. (undetectable); low (0-50 ng/mg); moderate (50-120 ng/mg); high (> 120 ng/mg)) and compared the serum carotenoids and alpha-tocopherol levels among these groups. We identified passive smoking by low Cot/Cr ratio level. After controlling on related factors, men with low Cot/Cr ratio showed significantly lower serum zeaxanthin/lutein levels than men with u.d. Cot/Cr ratio. The difference was still marginally significant after excluding self-reported current smokers from the low Cot/Cr group. It is suggested that low level exposure to tobacco smoke, which has been reported to be equivalent to that for passive smokers, could be associated with decreased serum zeaxanthin/lutein levels in men.


Studying Pilnjak, as a rule, is reduced to research him as the writer but however there is a huge share of his texts which primary sources become author's publicism. Pilnjak harmoniously synthesizes the literary text with publicistic, that at times it is difficult to define borders where the artly-literary text ends and publicistic begins. The form of sketch impregnations became optimum for the author. Documentation of publicism added sensation of truthfulness or presence to literary texts, descriptive properties of a sketch allowed to transfer feelings and idea necessary for the author.


Zanders et al. (1) provided a number of comments on our recently published article detailing the cancer outcomes of the Outcome Reduction With Initial Glargine Intervention (ORIGIN) trial (2). They question the reported methodology in more detail. More specifically, they feel that the cancer outcome is a post hoc end point, that total daily dose of glargine should be used as opposed to total daily dose of any insulin, and that the confidence interval for specific cancer subtype remains wide. A properly conducted randomized clinical trial remains the most robust study methodology to assess causality, whereas epidemiologic studies can only help generate hypotheses about potential causal link due to an inability to account for unmeasured or unanticipated confounders. The ORIGIN trial (a large, multicenter, international randomized clinical trial of titrated basal insulin glargine or standard care) is therefore well positioned to address the question of potential causality. It is important to note that the analyses of cancer outcomes were prespecified in the ORIGIN statistical analysis plan that was completed well before the study database was closed and analyzed. Moreover, all cancers requiring hospitalization were ascertained from the time of randomization until the end of the trial; starting January 2010, all participants were asked to report any cancer events (including those not requiring hospitalization) since the time of randomization and at each subsequent visit; and all cancer cases were sent for blinded adjudication. Strengths of the cancer analyses include the prospective randomized nature of the trial and the large number of cancer cases. As specified in our article, a limitation of the study is the low incidence of specific types of cancer, which translate into wide confidence intervals for each specific cancer. Nevertheless, there is no signal for increased cancer risk/mortality with the use of basal insulin glargine. Further study on specific cancer subtypes will be difficult to achieve in the context of a randomized clinical trial of sufficient sample size to provide tight confidence intervals. The total daily dose of any insulin was used in the time-varying analyses of the ORIGIN trial for the following reasons: 1) the risk of malignancy with insulin glargine versus other types of insulin does not appear to differ (3); 2) insulin glargine is partially degraded at the injection site, yielding products closely similar to human insulin with low mitogenic potential (4,5); and 3) the analysis by subtypes of insulin would significantly reduce the power to detect a relationship as only 5% of patients in the standard care arm received short-acting insulin.


It is widely accepted that younger children can act as saviour siblings by donating cord blood or bone marrow to their gravely-ill brothers or sisters. However, it is under dispute whether these procedures are in the best interests of the child. This article suggests that parents may be relying on a thinly-veiled interfamilial approach, where the wider benefit to the whole family is used to justify the procedure to the Human Tissue Authority in the United Kingdom. This article suggests that the merging of familial interests to validate a non-therapeutic bone marrow harvest on a child forces altruism in a patient too young to understand, rendering the harvests unlawful under current law.


The term chronic cystic mastitis, not accurate in the strict sense, is applied to a benign lesion of the breast which is thought by many to be precancerous in nature. It is neither inflammatory nor strictly neoplastic. Recent studies would seem to indicate that the changes in the breast in this disease are associated with disturbances in some of the glands of internal secretion. Chronic cystic mastitis in its later clinical stages may be divided into two types: cystic disease characterized by the development of a number of cysts of appreciable size and adenosis 1 characterized by proliferative changes resulting in the formation of many nodules in both breasts—so-called shotty breast. Study of a large series of cases reveals an indifferent stage of chronic cystic mastitis common to the early phase of both cystic disease and adenosis. This indifferent stage, often referred to clinically as painful breasts or mastodynia, is


Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) have gained significant attention as catalysts for the selective oxidation of alcohols; however, the catalytic activity is highly dependent on the presence of a base. Alternatives to the use of strong bases, such as NaOH, are still needed. Here, we explored the basicity of magnesium ferrite/oxide supports to study the catalytic behaviour of supported Au NPs for the oxidation of benzyl alcohol. The presence of Mg ions in the ferrite structure improved the catalytic activity of supported Au NPs to ca. 35% conversion in the absence of an additional base. After modifying the support with MgO, the catalytic activity of supported Au NPs was further improved to ca. 50% conversion, but the catalyst deactivated in successive recycling tests. When the catalysts were tested in the presence of a sub-stoichiometric amount of K2CO3, they became more active and remained stable upon recycling with no loss of activity and selectivity for the preferential production of benzoic acid.


Women in the United States are underrepresented in science, mathematics, and engineering (SME) educational programs and careers. One cause is the dramatic and disproportionate loss of women who intended in high school to pursue science-related careers. This article uses the longitudinal survey responses of 320 male and female SME summer program students to assess the ways in which their social relationships and experiences affect their involvement in science and technology. The issues are framed in terms of identity theory. Structural equation models support the identity framework; emotionally satisfying relationships centered on SME activities and discussions positively shape students' likelihood of thinking of themselves in SME terms and of engaging in SME activities. Girls are more responsive to the programs' educational interventions, whereas boys are driven more by an "internal compass" that reflects past SME identities and behaviors. These findings add to our understanding about why typical SME educational settings may be especially hostile to female students and suggest ways of increasing the retention of talented SME students. They also suggest the need to reexamine the identity theory model. , , I ,


Abstract : A conceptual approach to describing and evaluating problem- solving by robotic systems is offered. One particular problem of importance to the field of robotics, disassembly is considered. A general description is provided of an effector system equipped with sensors that interacts with objects for purposes of disassembly and that learns as a result. The system's approach is bottom up, in that it has no a priori knowledge about object categories. It does, however, have pre-existing methods and strategies for exploration and manipulation. The sensors assumed to be present are vision, proximity, tactile, position, force and thermal. The system's capabilities are described with respect to two phases: object exploration and manipulation. Exploration takes the form of executing exploratory procedures, algorithms for determining the substance, structure and mechanical properties of objects. Manipulation involves manipulatory operators, defined by the type of motion nature of the end-effector configuration and precise parameterization. The relation of the hypothesized system to existing implementations is described, and a means of evaluating it is also proposed.


Pretrained code language models have enabled great progress towards program synthesis. However, common approaches only consider in-file local context and thus miss information and constraints imposed by other parts of the codebase and its external dependencies. Existing code completion benchmarks also lack such context. To resolve these restrictions we curate a new dataset of permissively licensed Python packages that includes full projects and their dependencies and provide tools to extract non-local information with the help of program analyzers. We then focus on the task of function call argument completion which requires predicting the arguments to function calls. We show that existing code completion models do not yield good results on our completion task. To better solve this task, we query a program analyzer for information relevant to a given function call, and consider ways to provide the analyzer results to different code completion models during inference and training. Our experiments show that providing access to the function implementation and function usages greatly improves the argument completion performance. Our ablation study provides further insights on how different types of information available from the program analyzer and different ways of incorporating the information affect the model performance.


This chapter examines the context of under-attainment in educational provision for children and young people in public care. It notes that despite the grim statistics, study after study has also identified cases of success, leading to the conclusion that serious though they may be, the disadvantages children face both before and after entering public care do not lead inevitably to failure. Almost all young people (97%) in public care realise that education is important to them and to their futures. The chapter goes on to examine contemporary national and local policy for the education of young people in public care, linking specific provision to developments in mainstream educational initiatives which should support it, and the ways in which policy is being put into practice in different regions. It argues that in all assessments of provision for children in care, the basic principle should be that mainstream structures and strategies have the responsibility to support the educational needs of all children, including looked after children, as part of their equal opportunities policies. However, within this context, there is a continuing need for additional attention, resources and support to ensure that young people in public care are able to access their full entitlement. The key principle for corporate parenting of children must be 'IWould this be good enough for my child?'


Policy and technological transformation have coalesced to usher in massive changes to educational systems over the past two decades. Teachers' roles, subjectivities and professional identities have been subject to sweeping changes enabled by sophisticated forms of governance. Simultaneously, students have been recast as 'learners'; like teachers, learners have become subject to new forms of governance, through technological surveillance and datafication. This paper focuses on the intersection of the metrics driven approach to education and the political as a way to re-think the future of schooling in more explicitly philosophical terms. This exploration starts with a critical examination of constructions of teachers, learners and the digital data-driven educational culture in order to explicate the futures being generated. The trajectory of this future is explored through reference to the techno-educational models currently being developed in Silicon Valley. Drawing on Deleuze's notion of control societies we contribute to the ongoing philosophical investigation of the datafication of education; a necessary discussion if we are to explore the future implications of schooling in a technologically saturated world. We present consideration of the past, present and future, as three ways of considering alternatives to a datafied education system. Alternative conceptualisations of the future of schooling are possible which offer ways of understanding and politicising what happens when we impose data-driven accountabilities into people's lives.


In the aftermath of a banking crisis, most attention is rightly focused on allocating losses, rebuilding properly managed institutions, and achieving debt recovery. But the authorities'decision to use budgetary funds to help restructure a large failed bank or banking system also has consequences for the incentive structure for the new bank management, for the government's budget, and for monetary stability. These issues tend to be lumped together, but each should be dealt with in a distinctive manner. The author points out, among other things, how apparent conflicts between the goals in each of these areas can be resolved by suitably designing financial instruments and appropriately allocating responsibility between different arms of government. First the government must have a coherent medium-term fiscal strategy that determines broadly how the costs of the crisis will be absorbed. Then the failed bank must be securely reestablished with enough capital and franchise value to move forward as a normal bank. This will typically entail new financial institutions involving the government on boththe asset and the liability sides of the bank's balance sheet. The bank should not be left with mismatches of maturity, currency, repricing. Assets that are injected should be bankable and preferably negotiable. The liability structure should give bank insiders the incentive to manage the bank prudently. Financial instruments can be complex and sophisticated but only if the government has the credibility to warrant market confidence that it will deliver on the contracts rather than trying to use its lawmaking powers to renege. Innovative use of segregating sinking funds and"Brady"-type bonds can help where government credibility is weak. Restructuring the bank will alter the size, maturity, and other characteristics of the government's debt. These characteristics should be optimized separately and with the market as a whole, not just the affected banks.


Abstract A framework for the computation of linear global modes, based on time stepping of a linearised Navier–Stokes solver with an Eulerian interface representation, is presented. The method is derived by linearising the nonlinear solver Basilisk, capable of computing immiscible two-phase flows, and offers several advantages over previous, matrix-based, multi-domain approaches to linear global stability analysis of interfacial flows. Using our linear solver, we revisit the study of Tammisola et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 713, 2012, pp. 632–658), who found a counter-intuitive, destabilising effect of surface tension in planar wakes. Since their original study does not provide any validation, we further compute nonlinear results for the studied flows. We show that a surface-tension-induced destabilisation of plane wakes is observable which leads to periodic, quasiperiodic or chaotic oscillations depending on the Weber number of the flow. The predicted frequencies of the linear global modes, computed in the present study, are in good agreement with the nonlinear results, and the growth rates are comparable to the disturbance growth in the nonlinear flow before saturation. The bifurcation points of the nonlinear flow are captured accurately by the linear solver and the present results are as well in correspondence with the study of Tammisola et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 713, 2012, pp. 632–658).


In this paper the homology stability for symplectic groups over a ring with finite stable rank is established. First we develop a `nerve theorem' on the homotopy type of a poset in terms of a cover by subposets, where the cover is itself indexed by a poset. We use the nerve theorem to show that a poset of sequences of isotropic vectors is highly connected, as conjectured by Charney in the eighties.


The famous Marconi's transatlantic experiment from Cornwall, England to St. John's, Newfoundland proved the possibility of long distance wireless communication. Although Marconi's experiment was analyzed from the circuit theory point of view the antenna and ionospheric propagation side analyses were not done. In this article we address the latter. During his experiment Marconi reported that he used signals of long wave length i.e. 1800 m. From his antenna design and the ionospheric conditions at that time, we prove that other frequencies of 9.375 MHz and 12.5 MHz had a much higher possibility of reception at the destination, St. John's, than his 0.166 MHz signal.


This study examined the inhibiting factors to tax revenue generation in Cross River State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to examine the effect of tax evasion and avoidance, lack of infrastructural facilities and experienced personnel on tax revenue generation in Cross River State. To achieve these objectives, a well structure questionnaire was development and administered on 169 sampled staff of Cross River State board of internal revenue. Out of these questionnaires 164 were duly completed and returned. These responses were coded and used for analyses with the help of the SPSS software The cross sectional survey design was adopted and the ordinary least squared multiple regression technique was used to analyze the data. From the analyses it was discovered that there is a negative correlation and insignificant relationship between lack of infrastructural facilities and government tax revenue in Cross River State; also, there is a negative and significant relationship between tax evasion and avoidance and government tax revenue in Cross River State, Nigeria and lastly, there is a positive and significant relationship between experienced personnel and government tax revenue in Cross River State, Nigeria. Based on these finding the study recommends that government should encourage tax payers' morale through the provision of quality infrastructural facilities and other incentives to enhance its revenue generation. Also, Strategies to reduce tax evasion and avoidance should be formulated by strengthening the policy framework and operational guidelines of the Cross River State internal revenue service and adopting an evidence base government spending. Lastly, Cross River State internal revenue service should embark on adequate staff training and development on new methods of enhancing tax compliance within the state. Keywords: Tax Revenue Compliance, Tax Evasion and Avoidance


The fundamental assets of the Church, anywhere and at any time, are but the faith and the charity of her children. Time and again, history has shown that political favor, social privileges, and financial resources are not substitutes for faith and charity. Here we meet our first and biggest analytical difficulty: these true assets of the Church, her children's faith and charity, escape not only measurement but also direct observation. We will, therefore, have to be satisfied with observing and measuring some of the effects and manifestations of faith and charity and then we shall have to use the strong assumption that the magnitudes of these manifestations give us some indication of the quality of their source.


We study a pencil of K3 surfaces that appeared in the $2$-loop diagrams in Bhabha scattering. By analysing in detail the Picard lattice of the general and special members of the pencil, we identify the pencil with the celebrated Apery--Fermi pencil, that was related to Apery's proof of the irrationality of $\zeta(3)$ through the work of F. Beukers, C. Peters and J. Stienstra. The same pencil appears miraculously in different and seemingly unrelated physical contexts.


ABSTRACT Although insight on the effect of vegetation pattern on Aeolian mass transport is essential for re-planting degraded land, only limited knowledge on this effect is available. The objective of this research was to understand the effect of vegetation design on the Aeolian mass flux inside a single land unit and at the borders among land units. A simulation of Atriplex halimus shrubs inside a wind tunnel was made, and sand redistribution was measured after the application of 200-230 seconds wind at a speed of 11 ms-1. The study showed that: 1) sediment maximum transport inside a single land unit is related to the neighboring land units and to the vegetation pattern within both the unit itself and the neighboring land units; 2) the effect of neighboring land units includes the protection effect and the ruling of sediment crossing from one land unit to the neighboring land units; 3) for the designing of re-planting of degraded land the 'streets' (zones of erosion areas similar to streets) effect need to be considered; and 4) in addition to the general knowledge needed on the effect of vegetation pattern on the erosion and deposition within an area, it is important to have insight on the redistribution of sediment at small scales upon the aim of the project. Key words: wind erosion; vegetation pattern; wind-blown mass transport; wind tunnel


predictor of post-term pregnancy (defined as a pregnancy that extended beyond 41 + 3 weeks of gestation) in nulliparous women. Methods: This prospective observational study enrolled 122 consecutive nulliparous women with singleton gestations at 37 weeks. Cervical length was measured by transvaginal ultrasonography at 20 to 24 weeks and 37 weeks. Analysis was conducted with Fisher's exact test, Mann-Whitney U test, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: 1) Post-term pregnancy occurred in 17% (21/122) of the women delivered at or beyond term. 2) The mean (± standard deviation) cervical lengths at 20 to 24 weeks and 37 weeks were 39 ± 5.6 mm and 28 ± 6.4 mm, respectively. 3) Cervical length at 37 weeks, but not at 20 to 24 weeks, was significantly longer in women delivered at > 41 + 3 weeks than in those delivered at ≤ 41 + 3 weeks (median 33 mm, range 18 to 44 mm vs median 28 mm, range 11 to 42 mm; p < 0.005). 4) There was a significant correlation between cervical length at 37 weeks and gestational age at delivery (Pearson correlation coefficient, r = 0.394, p < 0.0001). 5) In the receiver operating characteristic curves, the best cut-off value of cervical length at 37 weeks for the prediction of post-term pregnancy was 30 mm, with a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 59%. Conclusions: Cervical length assessed by transvaginal ultrasonography at 37 weeks can predict the likelihood of post-term pregnancy in low-risk nulliparous women. However, there is not an association between cervical length at 20 to 24 weeks and the occurrence of post-term pregnancy.


In this paper we attempt an intertemporal study of risk management decisions for wheat growers in the Pacific Northwest. We apply a generalized expected utility model (GEU) to examine the farmers' optimal choices of hedging ratios and crop insurance coverage levels in the presence of government payment programs in a multi-period production environment. A stochastic trend model is used to identify the long-term time series patterns of annual wheat yields, cash prices, and futures prices from two counties in Washington. The fitted models are then used as the base for yield and price simulation over the next five years. The stochastic dynamic optimization problem is solved numerically based on simulated data. The optimal solutions indicate that the GEU model is feasible in modeling farmers' intertemporal decisions regarding risk management. The comparison between GEU model and some commonly used expected utility models further implies the advantage of the GEU model in being flexible to specify farmers' intertemporal preferences separately and completely.


Fundamental aspects of a method for virtual navigation of a sound field within an array of ambisonics microphones, wherein the subset of microphones to be used for interpolation is determined parametrically, are presented. An existing, weighted-average–based navigational method serves as a benchmark due to its simplicity and its applicability to arbitrary sound fields but introduces comb-filtering and, for near-field sources, degrades localization. A critical review of existing methods is presented, through which a number of issues are identified. In the proposed method, those microphones that are nearer to the desired listening position than to any source are determined based on the known or inferred positions of sources. The signals from only those microphones are then interpolated using a regularized least-squares matrix of filters. Spectral distortions and source localization errors are characterized for the benchmark and proposed methods via numerical simulations of a two-microphone array, and an experimental validation of these simulations is presented. Results show that, for near-field sources, the proposed method significantly outperforms the benchmark in both spectral and localization accuracy due to the exclusion of the second microphone. For far-field sources, the proposed method achieves slightly decreased spectral distortions due to the flattened response of the interpolation filters.


Digital documentation of cultural heritage structures is increasingly more common through the application of different imaging techniques. Many works have focused on the application of laser scanning and photogrammetry techniques for the acquisition of threedimensional (3D) geometry detailing cultural heritage sites and structures. With an abundance of these 3D data assets, there must be a digital environment where these data can be visualized and analyzed. Presented here is a feedback driven visualization framework that seamlessly enables interactive exploration and manipulation of massive point cloud data. The focus of this work is on the classification of different building materials with the goal of building more accurate as-built information models of historical structures. User defined functions have been tested within the interactive point cloud visualization framework to evaluate automated and semi-automated classification of 3D point data. These functions include decisions based on observed color, laser intensity, normal vector or local surface geometry. Multiple case studies are presented here to demonstrate the flexibility and utility of the presented point cloud visualization framework to achieve classification objectives.


Format compliance, a desirable feature of multimedia security systems, means that the secured bitstream resembles the unprotected compressed bitstream. It is called full format compliance, if the scrambled stream can be decoded by a typical decoder. In this paper, we address the issues that are to be carefully taken into account to develop efficient fully format compliant scrambling methods for compressed video. We also propose new selective scrambling methods for securing compressed video streams. The security issues, in different parts of these scrambling methods, are analyzed and their impact on bit-rate and complexity is discussed. We show that our scrambling methods provide significantly higher security and full format compliance, while having less impact on bit-rate and encoding/decoding complexity, as compared to existing semi-format compliant scrambling methods. The proposed techniques are integrated into the baseline mode of H.263 low bit-rate video coding standard.


Open distributed multi-agent systems featuring autonomous components demand coordination mechanisms for both functional and non-functional properties. Heterogeneity of requirements regarding interaction means and paradigms, stemming from the diverse nature of components, should not affect the effectiveness of coordination. Along this line, in this paper we share our pragmatical experience in the integration of objective and subjective, synchronous and asynchronous, reactive and proactive coordination approaches within two widely-adopted agentoriented technologies (JADE and Jason), enabling coordinating components to dynamically adapt their interaction means based on static preference or run-time contingencies.


Parallel studies of different microcirculatory channel parts were performed in 700 patients with diabetes mellitus. Clinical manifestations of disturbed microhemodynamics of the eye fundus, conjunctiva, kidneys, lower limbs were investigated by means of bulbar conjunctival biomicroscopy, ophthalmoscopy, fluorescent retinal angiography, nail-bed capillaroscopy and polarography, and radioisotopic renography. Ultrastructure of the leg muscular capillaries was studied by electron microscopy. The injury of the conjunctival vessels was seen in 81.9% of cases, of the eye fundus in 49.7%, of the kidneys in 45.6%, of the lower limbs in 84.3% and of the capillary muscular ultrastructure in 100%. Phasic character of the microcirculatory channel disorders was revealed. The data obtained are indicative of the possibility of early preclinical diagnosis of diabetic microangiopathies, determination of the degree of vascular lesions, whose prophylaxis and treatment should be carried out systematically and purposefully, beginning from the time of their revealing.


*These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) among ophthalmic healthcare workers. Setting: A tertiary ophthalmic center. Design: Prospective, observational study. Methods: Forty-four volunteer ophthalmologists and ophthalmic nurses were recruited. Information including demographics, contact lens wear, history of refractive surgery and symptom score based on Standardized Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED) II Questionnaire for Dry Eye Disease/Ocular Surface Disease were recorded. Lipid layer thickness (LLT), meibomian glands dropout and dilation grades, and proportion of partial blinking were evaluated using an ocular surface interferometer with dynamic meibomian imaging (LipiView, Johnson & Johnson). Based on the chance of MGD, meibomian gland dropout and dilation, selected subjects also underwent treatment with a thermal pulsation system (LipiFlow, Johnson & Johnson) in one or both eyes. Results: Eighty-eight eyes of 44 volunteers were evaluated during the study period. The mean LLT was 60.0nm. Twenty-seven (61.4%) subjects had a 90% or high chance of MGD and their mean lower lid meibomian gland dropout and dilation grades were 1.2 and 1.7, respectively. Twenty-eight eyes of 16 volunteers received treatment with the thermal pulsation system. Following treatment, the mean LLT improved from 50.3nm to 61.0nm (Wilcoxon's signed rank test, p=0.001). Conclusion: Despite being more knowledgeable to MGD and more accessible to treatment, MGD is a highly prevalent condition among ophthalmic healthcare workers, with a 61.4% prevalence among the recruited subjects. This is similar to reported prevalence in Asian populations of up to 74.5%. Targeted therapy based on dynamic meibomian imaging is effective in improving both objective and subjective measures of MGD.


There is a need to ensure that healthcare organisations enable their workforces to use digital methods in service delivery. This study aimed to evaluate the current level of digital understanding and ability in nursing, midwifery, and allied health workforces and identify some of the training requirements to improve digital literacy in these health professionals. Representatives from eight healthcare organizations in Victoria, Australia participated in focus groups. Three digital frameworks informed the focus group topic guide that sought to examine the barriers and enablers to adopting digital healthcare along with training requirements to improve digital literacy. Twenty-three participants self-rated digital knowledge and skills using Likert scales and attended the focus groups. Mid-range scores were given for digital ability in nursing, midwifery, and allied health professionals. Focus group participants expressed concern over the gap between their organizations' adoption of digital methods relative to their digital ability, and there were concerns about cyber security. Participants also saw a need for the inclusion of consumers in digital design. Given the widening gap between digital innovation and health workforce digital capability, there is a need to accelerate digital literacy by rapidly deploying education and training and policies and procedures for digital service delivery.


: Early growth, yolk and oil globule absorption, early morphological development and initial feeding were studied in the Black Sea turbot Psetta maxima. Based on energy transition and morphological development, the nutritional transition process from endogenous to exogenous sources was divided into six phases: (i) primordial phase (from hatching to ≈ 30 h after hatching, HAH); (ii) organogenesis phase (to ≈ 90 HAH); (iii) onset of feeding (to ≈ 110 HAH); (iv) early feeding (to ≈ 190 HAH); (v) intensified feeding (to ≈ 230 HAH); and (vi) completion of oil globule absorption (to beyond 345 HAH). Based on comparisons with early life stage features of other marine species, the turbot larvae were shown to possess the following characteristics: (i) oil globule remaining for a long period, resulting in an extended mixed feeding period; and (ii) feeding rate extremely high in larvae immediately following final absorption of the oil globule. These features in early turbot larvae were regarded as advantageous for survival in a rearing condition, although the coincidence of initial feeding with completion of yolk absorption signaled a period of leveled-off growth rate.


Aims We conducted a meta-analysis of serious adverse events (dementia, macro- and micro-vascular events, falls and fractures, and death) associated with hypoglycemia in older patients treated with glucose lowering drugs. Materials and Methods Meta-analysis of studies reporting on hypoglycemia and adverse events. The search included studies from two previously published systematic reviews, and an updated search of MEDLINE and EMBASE from April 2014 to November 2019. We assessed study validity based on ascertainment of hypoglycemia, adverse events and adjustment for confounders, and conducted a random effects meta-analyses, assessing heterogeneity using the I2 statistic. Results We included 44 studies involving 2,507,434 participants. Most of the studies used adjusted analysis for confounders and hypoglycaemic events were typically identified based on healthcare databases (severe events). Hypoglycemia was associated with increased likelihood of death in a meta-analysis of eighteen studies, pooled OR 2.02 (95% Confidence Interval 1.75–2.32). Studies assessing mortality signal a time-response relationship with a higher risk of adverse events occurring within the first 90 days after hypoglycemia. Our meta-analysis of nine studies demonstrated that hypoglycaemic episodes were associated with dementia – pooled OR 1.50 (95% CI 1.29–1.74). Our meta-analysis of nineteen studies demonstrated associations between hypoglycaemia and macrovascular complications, pooled OR 1.81 (95% CI 1.70–1.94), and microvascular complications (two studies) pooled OR 1.77 (95% CI 1.49–2.10). There is also an association between hypoglycemia and cardiovascular death (six studies) – pooled OR 2.11 (95% CI 1.55 to 2.87). Similarly, our meta-analysis of six studies demonstrated an association between hypoglycemia and falls and fractures, pooled OR 1.78 (95% CI 1.44–2.21) and 1.68 (95% CI 1.37–2.07) respectively. Conclusion This meta-analysis confirms previously reported concerns of serious harm following hypoglycemia, especially in the immediate time period after a hypoglycaemic event. Avoidance of hypoglycaemic episodes should be a priority in this vulnerable population.


The preoccupation for the field of social security / identity security (a particular form of security of human communities in the absence of which it would not be possible to survive in history, protecting the memory and collective identity, maintaining social and cultural-symbolic cohesion in a society identity security has been steadily increasing over the last decades as a result of the European Union's enlargement and the interest shown by the European institutions for the protection of ethnic and religious specificities, the ethno-cultural identity of the communities and the prevention of democracy, exclusion and discrimination.The concept of social security belongs to the constructivist current (the current trend in which ethnicity is a phenomenon of continuous development built in everyday life that is manifested throughout life) and was developed in the early 1980s, starting with redefining security by certain such as COPRI - Copenhagen.Social security refers to the survival of a community as a cohesive unity; his referent object is large scale collective identities that can function independently of the state. Societal security is concerned with the ability to sustain, within acceptable acceptability conditions, the traditional elements of language, culture, identity, cultural and religious customs.Ole Waever's identity security (social security) refers to preserving, in acceptable conditions of evolution, the traditional patterns of language, culture, association, and national, religious and customary identity. Thus, we can say that social security refers to situations where companies perceive a threat to identity.Regarding the situation of Romania, though, during the two decades of transition to a democrathic regime, the responsibility of the Romanian citizen has come to be pursued with minority integration (wishing to ensure the identity security for them), adopting 200 dectrets by setting up institutions to deal in the areas of minority inclusion and allocating funding to support an organization that considers the role of the intrusional civil society to be more effective is still deficient in this area.The purpuse of this article is to explore the concepts of mionority, ethnicity, social integration, public minority integration policies, citizenship, integration and identity security, starting from the idea that identity should be understood both as a social process and as a power instrument.It will also review the impact of minority integration policies focusing on the Roma minority on identity security and outline the possible threats / opportunities for understanding and implementing the concept of identity security in public policies for minorities / Roma.


Background Young female sex workers pose a challenge in accessing continuous services in prevention program. Being young, relatively active and new to sex work increases their vulnerability drastically but also attract more clients. As young sex workers they often do not access services provided in the drop in centre due to several factors including self stigma, lack of Peer interaction, and less awareness about services in the DIC. Method Community consultations were done initially to know the barriers to accessing services in the DIC. As physical appearance goes a long way in determining how an individual is perceived by oneself and others around, introducing sessions on beauty and healthcare by a trained beautician, was felt suitable in attracting sex workers to the Drop in Centre. A beautician was hired and oriented towards the program. The primary focus of the sessions was to showcase and teach the sex workers basic skills in dressing well and looking good using quick and cost-effective ways. Apart from this the beautician also provided few beauty services which was accessed by the sex workers. These services were charged nominally so that the amount was used to replenish the cosmetics and makeup materials. Other crucial aspects of health, such as cleanliness, hygiene and prevention of STI, female condom demonstration and distribution were covered during counselling session and one to one interactions. This innovative approach aimed towards increasing uptake and access of services proved cost effective and was received well by the most vulnerable, young sex workers, attracting them to the DIC. Results As a result of introducing these sessions in the DIC 25 young sex workers were accessing services from the drop in centre every week. There was a steady increase in testing for STI in the introductory months itself. A peer network among the young sex workers was initiated and this helped the project to ensure that access to STI services were regular by this community. This innovative approach acted as a catalyst to improve the self-esteem of sex workers and ensured access to services there by reducing their vulnerability. Conclusion It is imperative for prevention programs to evolve and find newer and innovative methods to address the changing needs of vulnerable communities like the female sex workers. This strategy has proved to attract young sex workers there by effectively providing them STI and other services within the program.


Bandar Aceh Darussalam as tamaddun city in the tip of Sumatera Island and capital city of 17th century Islamic Aceh Sultanate, was a strategic coastal city. It had sloping beach and bays and was surrounded by mountains with rivers flowing through the city. Its wetlands-based urban development was reflected in the design of urban space structure and key elements of the city. It becomes inspiration for developing modern ecological city since 17th century Islamic cities in archipelago of the East is rarely studied. This research aimed to study the spatial concept of Bandar Aceh Darussalam. Data was collected by using the method of tracking physical information through ancient maps and field observation of the environment characteristic. It was found that the ecological character of the city seemed to be affected by the existence of integrated natural features, function and the role of the city that included Islamic concepts. The main elements of the city reflected the character of civilization in three aspects: the drainage system i.e. cut and fill, the scattered and wide empty space, and natural defense system. The concept of harmony between urban development and city's ecological character was shown in the design of urban landscape .


We calibrate the magnitude and phase response of equivalent-time sampling oscilloscopes to 110 GHz. We use a photodiode that has been calibrated with our electrooptic sampling system as a reference input pulse source to the sampling oscilloscope. We account for the impedance of the oscilloscope and the reference photodiode and correct for electrical reflections and distortions due to impedance mismatch. We also correct for time-base imperfections such as drift, time-base distortion, and jitter. We have performed a rigorous uncertainty analysis, which includes a Monte Carlo simulation of time-domain error sources combined with error sources from the deconvolution of the photodiode pulse, from the mismatch correction, and from the jitter correction


Background Contact sports place athletes at risk for cervical spine injury. Protective helmets and shoulder pads worn by football and ice hockey athletes alter cervical spine alignment. The effect of helmet and shoulder pads on neck alignment in lacrosse athletes is not known. Hypothesis Helmets and shoulder pads worn by lacrosse athletes alter cervical spine alignment. Study Design Controlled laboratory study. Methods Sagittal plane cervical spine alignment was evaluated in 16 uninjured male collegiate lacrosse players using computed tomography. Patients were immobilized in the supine position on a standard spine board. Testing was performed without equipment, with both helmet and shoulder pads in place, and with the helmet removed. Angular measurements of the cervical spine were made and analyzed. Results The presence of both the helmet and shoulder pads caused an increase in overall cervical extension (mean, 6°) compared with the absence of both pieces of equipment (P =. 002). Helmet removal alone resulted in a mean increase in cervical flexion of 4.7° in the upper cervical spine compared with the presence of both pieces of equipment (P =. 011). Compared with the absence of equipment, shoulder pads caused increased cervical flexion in the lower cervical spine (mean, 4.4°; P =. 036). Conclusion Protective equipment worn by lacrosse athletes causes statistically significant increases in cervical extension, and its removal causes statistically significant increases in cervical flexion. This alteration is different from that previously reported for protective equipment in football and ice hockey. Clinical Relevance The authors' recommendation is that both lacrosse helmets and shoulder pads be left in place until they can be completely removed in a controlled fashion. The effect of external equipment on neck position is different for lacrosse compared with football and ice hockey.


This article aims to discuss the origins, the meaning and the educational uses of Holocaust Memorial Day and the function of memorial politics in social and political consciousness in Europe, and above all in Italy. Holocaust Memorial Day is connected with how the lessons of the past can inform our lives today and ensure that everyone works together to create a safer, better future. Visits dealing with the Holocaust - to memorial sites and museums, or to Nazi concentration camps (Auschwitz-Birkenau) - can provide students with a concrete picture of the possible consequences of failing to respect human rights. On the other hand, the growth after 1989 of such activities as memorial trips and Memory Trains, are similar to different forms of political pilgrimages in the twentieth century (above all, political journeys to different places of political utopias, etc.): during the twentieth century, the political travel experience was devoted to meeting and learning about different forms of a possible future, while the memory train is devoted to learning how to avoid repeating a terrible past.


The paper decoposes the Theil index and ANOVA to understand interregional, urban and rural contributions to the overall variation in average personal incomes (API) in the Yugoslav municipalities. The paper finds that inter-regional variation contributes significantly - about 25 percent - to the overall variation in API across communities. Statistical tests of significance constructed from one-way ANOVA and two-way ANOVA confirm statistical significance. The results are consistent with the observed phenomenon of increasingly autarchic functioning of the regional economies in Yugoslavia.


BACKGROUND
Concerns have arisen over recent years about the absence of empirically derived evidence on which to base policy and practice in the public health system, in general, and to meet the challenge of public health emergency preparedness, in particular. Related issues include the challenge of disaster-caused, behavioral health surge, and the frequent exclusion of populations from studies that the research is meant to aid.

OBJECTIVE
To characterize the contributions of nonacademic collaborators to a series of projects validating a set of interventions to enhance capacity and competency of public mental health preparedness planning and response.

METHODS

SETTING(S)
Urban, suburban, and rural communities of the state of Maryland and rural communities of the state of Iowa.

PARTICIPANTS
Study partners and participants (both of this project and the studies examined) were representatives of academic health centers (AHCs), local health departments (LHDs), and faith-based organizations (FBOs) and their communities.

PROCEDURES
A multiple-project, case study analysis was conducted, that is, four research projects implemented by the authors from 2005 through 2011 to determine the types and impact of contributions made by nonacademic collaborators to those projects. The analysis involved reviewing research records, conceptualizing contributions (and providing examples) for government, faith, and (nonacademic) institutional collaborators.

RESULTS
Ten areas were identified where partners made valuable contributions to the study series; these "value-areas" were as follows: 1) leadership and management of the projects; 2) formulation and refinement of research topics, aims, etc; 3) recruitment and retention of participants; 4) design and enhancement of interventions; 5) delivery of interventions; 6) collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; 7) dissemination of findings; 8) ensuring sustainability of faith/government preparedness planning relationships; 9) optimizing scalability and portability of the model; and 10) facilitating translational impact of study findings.

CONCLUSIONS
Systems-based partnerships among academic, faith, and government entities offer an especially promising infrastructure for conducting participatory public health systems research in domestic emergency preparedness and response.


A methodology for robust design analysis of microelectromechanical systems is presented by considering the example of comb microresonators and uncertainty in parameters governing the resonant frequency and the transconductance values. Analytical models for the variability in the resonant frequency and transconductance are developed as function of the parameter uncertainty, and used as objective functions sought to be minimized in a robust design endeavor. An enumeration search over the design space is utilized to determine the optimal design of microresonators that minimize the variability subject to constraints on performance requirements. The results are presented over a wide interval of operating resonant frequency, and can be used in the robust design of microresonators.


This thesis presents the results of a character study of the soils of Upper Weardale, Co; Durham. Part 1 presents relevant material on the soil environment of the area, emphasising the important characteristics of parent materials, relief, climate and ecology. The results of the field and laboratory investigations are summarised in the form of assoil map of the area on a scale of 2(^1)/(_2)" to one mile and in the Appendix, which presents the results of detailed field and laboratory analyses of specific profiles. The bulk of Part 2 is concerned, with discussions on the origin and properties of the different types of soil. Field and analytical characteristics are use' to assess as far as is possible with existing information, the dynamics of past and present pedogenic processes in the soil profiles. Throughout the discussions, problems of classification and interpretation are highlighted, and avenues for future research emphasised.


Problems with the placer model for genesis of the Witwatersrand gold include the lack of Fe oxides but abundance of pyrite, unusual sulfides in the reefs, detrital transport of uraninite grains, the inference of hydraulic equivalence of reef minerals, and the source of the gold itself. Other features not predicted by the current placer model are mineralization in the immediate footwall of the reefs, apparent structural control of payshoot orientations, and the basinwide chemical associations that include Au-S-Fe-As-C and U-C-Ti.

The supposed total predictive capacity of the placer model is questioned here, and an alternative viewpoint is presented that emphasizes the possible importance of postburial fluids during diagenesis, deformation, and metamorphism. Chloritoid and pyrophyllite independently suggest that greenschist facies conditions ( T = 350 ±50 °C) were reached in all the Witwatersrand gold mines. A fluid in equilibrium with pyrite and having potential to move gold is inferred from the mineral assemblages, but the effect of this fluid on the reefs has not yet been quantified.


ABSTRACT In this paper, the problem of optimal rehabilitation of water distribution networks (WDNs) for both steady and transient state is investigated. Two objectives are considered in this study: minimizing rehabilitation cost by considering pipe size diameters as decision variables and minimizing the transient impacts by minimizing a surge damage potential factor (SDPF). A multi-objective ant colony optimization (MOACO) model is developed to solve this problem. The developed model is verified using the well-known New York City tunnel network. The application is carried out to modify an existing real WDN in New Cairo district designed in steady-state conditions to cope with the transient condition. The advantage of this study is to produce a set of solutions that help decision makers to identify the suitable approach, while evaluating and aggregating the preferences over multiple objective functions.


A trait is robust to a genetic or environmental variable if its variation is weakly correlated with variation in that variable. The source of robustness lies in the fact that the developmental processes that give rise to complex traits are nonlinear. A consequence of this nonlinearity is that not all genes are equally correlated with the trait whose ontogeny they control. Here we explore how developmental mechanisms determine and alter the correlation structure between genes and the traits that they control. A formula is developed by which the correlation of a gene or environmental variable with a trait can be calculated if the mechanism that gives rise to the trait is known. The nature of robustness and the ways in which robustness can evolve are discussed in the context of the problems that arise in the analysis of inherently nonlinear systems.


Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are known as the most potent bacterial toxins, which can cause potentially deadly disease botulism. BoNT Serotype A (BoNT/A) is the most studied serotype as it is responsible for most human botulism cases, and its formulations are extensively utilized in clinics for therapeutic and cosmetic applications. BoNT/A has the longest-lasting effect in neurons compared to other serotypes, and there has been high interest in understanding how BoNT/A manages to escape protein degradation machinery in neurons for months. Recent work demonstrated that an E3 ligase, HECTD2, leads to efficient ubiquitination of the BoNT/A Light Chain (A/LC); however, the dominant activity of a deubiquitinase (DUB), VCIP135, inhibits the degradation of the enzymatic component. Another DUB, USP9X, was also identified as a potential indirect contributor to A/LC degradation. In this study, we screened a focused ubiquitin-proteasome pathway inhibitor library, including VCIP135 and USP9X inhibitors, and identified ten potential lead compounds affecting BoNT/A mediated SNAP-25 cleavage in neurons in pre-intoxication conditions. We then tested the dose-dependent effects of the compounds and their potential toxic effects in cells. A subset of the lead compounds demonstrated efficacy on the stability and ubiquitination of A/LC in cells. Three of the compounds, WP1130 (degrasyn), PR-619, and Celastrol, further demonstrated efficacy against BoNT/A holotoxin in an in vitro post-intoxication model. Excitingly, PR-619 and WP1130 are known inhibitors of VCIP135 and USP9X, respectively. Modulation of BoNT turnover in cells by small molecules can potentially lead to the development of effective countermeasures against botulism.


Yet another beginners' guide to evidence-based medicine (EBM) entering an overcrowded market ought to have something exceptional to offer. This book does. I liked Dr Meyer's approach to explaining the concepts and skills that frighten beginners. He uses plain language effectively (most of the time) and backs up the written explanations with helpful pictorial ones, which should appeal to doctors worried by mathematics. This approach marks the book out from many others. However, the style is at times too glib. 'How should guidelines be developed? The process of guideline development should be evidence based' (page 278). Those sentences, giving no surprises and even less insight to the reader, occur too frequently to be overlooked.

The content is fairly comprehensive, including as it does some basic epidemiological tools as well as appraisal. However, the balance could be improved. Few teachers of EBM would consider the lengthy explanation of odds ratios was justified. It was disappointing to find that qualitative research — which is important — had been left out while space was devoted to decision analysis — which is unimportant in real practice, a fact indicated by the author himself. Apart from the last example, a good feature of this book is the amalgamation of EBM principles with recommendations for their use in clinical practice. The rational discussion on prescribing antibiotics for sore throat is a good example of such an amalgamation. In case you are wondering, yes, Dr Meyer does prescribe in some circumstances but more importantly he explains how he reached the decision to do so.

The accompanying CD-ROM has a partially interactive programme containing worked examples of critical appraisal, calculations, and MCQs enabling the reader to practice and learn through correction. The book and CD-ROM combination provides an excellent instructional manual that marks this book out from several books whose accompanying electronic medium adds little value to the text.

However, I feel that the package could be greatly improved by better editing. Apart from the style problem already mentioned, there are lapses where words are used sloppily. For example, the CD-ROM refers in one instance to the point estimate as the 'actual difference'. It defines event rates as 'the number of desired outcomes divided by the total number of all outcomes.' Not if the outcome is death. What is more, the definitions for event rates in the book and CD-ROM are different. Beginners will find this package useful but hopefully the second edition will improve on the style.


This paper highlights a systematic investigation (related to percentage addition of solvents) of finding the appropriate solvent to reduce the viscosity of the structural grade of resin (AV138M) within castable range to effectively disperse the nano-fillers (Carbon Nano Powder - CNP and Multi Walled Carbon Nano Tubes - MWCNT). AV138M + HY998/CNP and AV138 + HY998/MWCNT were cast within-process degassing using a vacuum pump of capacity 4 torr. High energy sonic waves (27000 kHz) were used for dispersion. Morphological studies were undertaken to analyze the uniformity in dispersion of nano-fillers. The cured specimens were subjected to: Resistivity measurements using a Resistivity Meter, Glass Transition Temperature (Tg) using a Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Tensile properties using UTM. The properties have been determined for the nanocomposites with different wt % of the fillers. It has been found that for 0.6 wt % of filler (CNP / MWCNT), there is an increase in UTS of 10 times for MWCNT compared to CNP; for 1.0 wt % of the fillers, the Tg improved by 10 ºC for MWCNT and by 4 ºC for CNP when compared with neat resin. Both CNP and MWCNT showed drop in electrical resistivity of the neat resin; a drop to the extent of 103 has been achieved with 1 wt % MWCNT and the same was 2 wt % in case of CNP.


This is the first monograph on the female painters, photographers, architects, sculptors, and designers of the vanguard Bauhaus School, who helped shape the cultural history of the twentieth century. This monograph celebrates the work of twenty women artists who created in the teaching, workshop, and production branches of the Bauhaus women whose names, masterpieces, and extraordinary lives have only gradually become known to us. Recognized figures such as Anni Albers the first textile artist to be exhibited at the MoMA, and Marianne Brandt whose elegant geometric tableware have become classic Alessi designs are showcased alongside previously unknown artists such as Gertrud Grunow, who taught Harmonizing Science; Helene Borner, who led the textile workshop; and Ilse Fehling, a sculptor and the most sought-after set and costume designer of her generation. Founded in 1919, the Bauhaus and most of its students were poor and lacking in just about everything. What it did have, however, was an abundance of enthusiasm, talent, and innovative creativity. Furthermore, over half of those seeking to enroll at the school were women. This tornado of the fairer sex was initially seen as a threat, and the weaving mill was quickly turned into a separate womens facility. Nevertheless, the mill became a hotbed of groundbreaking production, whose impact far surpassed national borders, as demonstrated by the international acclaim of photographers Lucia Moholy, Florence Henri, and Grete Stern.


The Bundesbank failed to achieve her monetary targets in numerous years. Against this background the present paper discusses the implications of these deviations for the exchange rate and the price level. The model by DORNBUSCH (1976) is augmented by an equation which captures the correction of the deviations in subsequent periods. In the case of single period deviations with immediately beginning correction the volatility of the exchange rate and the price level will be the smaller, the more decisively the money stock is driven back to the equilibrium level. In contrast, in the case of multi-period deviations the volatility of the exchange rate will be the higher the faster the correction of the money stock.


Polar codes are an exciting new class of error correcting codes that achieve the symmetric capacity of memoryless channels. Many decoding algorithms were developed and implemented, addressing various application requirements: from error-correction performance rivaling that of LDPC codes to very high throughput or low-complexity decoders. In this work, we review the state of the art in polar decoders implementing the successive-cancellation, belief propagation, and list decoding algorithms, illustrating their advantages.


Asthma is a heterogeneous disease, usually characterized by chronic airway inflammation together with increased oxidative stress that lead to clinical symptoms of asthma.
 Obesity is a known risk factor of asthma

as the obesity is correlated with systemic inflammation and airway restriction. Curcumin, a natural product derived from the rhizomes of Curcuma longa (Turmeric), has a wide range of beneficial properties including anti-inflammatory and weight reducing agent. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of curcumin as supplement therapy on the pulmonary function, total and differential white blood cell count and metabolic status of chronic bronchial asthmatic patients. It is a prospective randomized controlled interventional study carried out on 40 patients visiting Al-Yarmouk teaching hospital and conducted from October 2017 to April 2018. The patients were allocated into group1; include 17 asthmatic patients assigned to receive conventional therapy for asthma alone, and group 2; include 23 asthmatic patients assigned to receive conventional therapy for asthma plus 750 mg curcumin capsule twice daily for two months. Results revealed significant improvement in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in one second to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) in group 2 patients after two months(P<0.01). The total white blood cell count didn't show any difference after treatment except decrease in neutrophil count after curcumin supplement (p< 0.05). The leptin level and body mass index present with no significant difference in both groups after two months (p >0.05).


This paper presents the conformance and interoperability testing of tunnel protocols, which are widely used in the IPv4 to IPv6 transition. In the conformance testing, we use the traverse test method to test the tunnel implementation in the router and generate its test suite with good test coverage. An effective solution is proposed to realize the automatic configuration of the SUT (system under test) during the test process. And it also improves the readability of test cases. Besides, we report the test result of Linux. In the interoperability test, based on operational semantics of concurrent TTCN, we propose a test architecture to apply concurrent test process to test multiple implementations.