Children are the assets of a state. Unfortunately in many developing countries children involved in various economic activities due to overall for mere survival. The nature and extent of child labor differ from region to region; depending on the socioeconomic condition of a particular society in which the children live. The number of street children has been rising day by day in the capital of Bangladesh. Therefore, the phenomenon of street children developed a preference for development workers and policy makers in the most of developing countries. Many studies showed that thousands of street children all over in Bangladesh, primarily in the urban areas, work and live in the streets. These street children not only deprived of the most basic rights that citizens are guaranteed by the country but also have stopped expecting it. However, in recent years, in spite of the growing social problems in these communities and although some progress were made, there is still a lack of adequate information on the extent of the problem, and knowledge of its root causes. In this paper, I will try to explore the processes of street migration with the interaction of both 'push' and 'pull' factors not only based on their economic necessities but also their livelihood strategies in street life. This paper will also addresses that high population density, poor quality of education, the conflicting relationships of the family such as polygamy and remarriage, patriarchy (male-headed household), natural calamities, lack of economic opportunities and violation of child rights are the determinant forces that 'pushing' children to carry on street life from their rural place to street life in Bangladesh. Most of the children of developing nations have deprived of their basic needs. Their deteriorating socioeconomic circumstances being push and pull in the nature of works that are actually dangerous for their physical and intellectual development. Subsequently, it also examines the difference between the push and pull factors of migration that impinge new challenges for street children.


Asia's middle powers face a trilateral dilemma stemming from their relationships with the U.S. and China. This paper uses the Australian example to examine the dilemma. It shows that Australia has bound itself to the U.S. because of domestic political factors, cost considerations, a belief that it can keep its interests separate, and its perception of regional threats. The paper then argues that others are likely to resolve their trilateral dilemmas in ways that make the regional strategic dynamic more competitive.


Introduction According to the 2010 Almanac of Higher Education (published by the Chronicle of Higher Education), in Fall 2007 there were 703,463 faculty members of all ranks, both tenured/tenure-earning and non-tenure-earning. Of that number only 119,906 (17%) were minority faculty; among the minority faculty, 53,661 (7.6%) were Asian, 37,930 (5.4%) were black, 24,975 (3.55%) were Hispanic and 3340 (.47%) were Native American. Among senior tenured faculty (Associate Professor and Professor) the numbers are even bleaker; of the 317,087 faculty at those ranks, 23,321 (7.35%) were Asian, 13,694 (4.3%) were black, 8842 (2.8%) were Hispanic and a mere 1132 (.35%) were Native American. Collectively, tenured, senior minority faculty (not including foreign nationals) comprise a paltry 6.68% (46,989) of the professoriate. Without exception, men outnumber women in every racial category in the senior ranks; minority women account for only 15,347 senior, tenured faculty, which equals only 4.8% of the senior faculty and an abysmal 2.18% of the professoriate (Almanac 2010). For minority women who are tenure-earning (Assistant Professors), these numbers are daunting, and the numbers at their own rank are not encouraging either. In Fall 2007 there were 168,508 assistant professors, 79,767 (47.3%) of them women. Of those 79,767 women, 7253 (9.1%) were Asian, 6035 (7.6%) were black, 3064 (3.8%) were Hispanic and only 381 (.48%) were Native American (Almanac 2010). Not only do minority women who are tenure-earning have few contemporaries with whom to form friendships and support networks, there are even fewer senior minority women faculty to serve as professional exemplars, mentors or advisors. This lack of senior faculty who are minority females has been well documented in recent years through national surveys such as the National Survey of Post-Secondary Faculty (NSOPF) in 1988, 1993, 1999 and 2004 and the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Surveys. Trends over the last 20 years show that women persistently: earn less than men; hold more part-time and non-tenure-earning jobs; are less likely to be tenured and less clear about tenure and promotion criteria; spend more time on teaching and service, and less time on research; are less satisfied with their departments and their institutions; and are more likely to be employed at teaching institutions, particularly community colleges (Nettles, et. al. 2000; Bradburn, Sikora and Zimbler 2002; Cataldi, et. al. 2005; Trower and Gallagher 2008; COACHE 2008; Lee 2001; Chait 2002; Aguirre 2000; Glazer-Raymo 1999). Similar discrepancies also persist for minority faculty, including: lower salaries than white faculty; being less likely to be senior faculty and less likely to be tenured; less clarity about tenure and promotion criteria; spending more time on service activities (except Asian faculty); being less satisfied with the climate in their department and the collegiality of their fellow faculty members; and being more likely to work at a community college (Nettles, et. al. 2000; Bradburn, Sikora and Zimbler 2002; Cataldi, et. al. 2005; Trower and Gallagher 2008; COACHE 2008; Lee 2001; Aguirre 2000). In 1992, only 15% of women in the professoriate held the rank of full professor compared to 39% of male faculty (Nettles, et. al. 2000); in 2007 the percentage of women in academe who had achieved the rank of full professor was only 15.6%, while the percentage of men who held that rank was 31.2% (Almanac 2010)--still double the percentage of women. For black faculty, 21% held the rank of full professor in 1992 (Nettles, et. al. 2000); by 2007 that percentage had slipped to 15.4% (Almanac 2010). It would seem we still lack either the information or the will--or both--to remediate the problem of poor minority female faculty retention effectively. The information presented above, while meticulously researched and excruciatingly descriptive, tell us what the current faculty situation is, without telling us why or how it came to be that way. …


Metallo-beta-Lactamases (MBLs) are class B β-lactamases that hydrolyze almost all clinicallyavailable β-lactam antibiotics. MBLs feature the distinctive αβ/βα sandwich fold of the metallohydrolase / oxidoreductase superfamily and possess a shallow active-site groove containing one or two divalent zinc ions, flanked by flexible loops. According to sequence identity and zinc ion dependence, MBLs are classified into three subclasses (B1, B2 and B3), of which the B1 subclass enzymes have emerged as the most clinically significant. Differences among the active site architectures, the nature of zinc ligands, and the catalytic mechanisms have limited the development of a common inhibitor. In this review, we will describe the molecular epidemiology and structural studies of the most prominent representatives of class B1 MBLs (NDM-1, IMP-1 and VIM-2) and describe the implications for inhibitor design to counter this growing clinical threat.


The effects of location (mid and high ground) and harvest period (beginning, peak and end) on coffee were analyzed in terms of the fruit's physiological state at harvest at the commercial coffee mills in Puerto Rico during 2009 and 2010. The effects on yield of the fruit's physiological stage and the damages caused by the coffee berry borer ( Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari 1867) after the coffee was shelled, were also analyzed. Results indicate that between harvests there is a high fluctuation in terms of the proportion of ripe, partially ripe, green and over-ripe coffee that constitute the classification of ripe coffee bought by the coffee mill. The percentage of ripe coffee varied from 50% to 70% from year to year; these are very low percentages of ripe fruits for obtaining good quality and yield. The presence of green coffee at levels of 4.34% and 13.73% means a lower yield and deterioration of the coffee's quality. Thus additional effort and expense are required in order to separate the green beans that were bought as ripe. The yield of pulped and washed coffee fluctuated between 40% and 43%. From 2% to 3.5% of the coffee grains floated because of physiological causes not related to damages made by the coffee berry borer. Up to 3% of " caracolillo " coffee floats after being pulped and can be lost during the washing process. Average number of beans collected in the #14 sieve (smallest) and the #17 sieve were greater than the amount collected in the #19 sieve (largest). Results indicate that the percentage of " pergamino " coffee at 12% humidity fluctuates between 20% and 21% of the weight. These results show that coffee quality and yield are closely defined at harvest time. High amounts of ripe coffee berries and low quantities of green coffee beans are required in order to enter the coffee exportation market. The commercial coffee classified as ripe received at commercial coffee mills in Puerto Rico does not fulfill this requirement. Additional efforts must be made to improve the collection and selection of coffee at the processing level, especially if the goal is to obtain coffee with optimum exportation quality.


Can the welfare system in the United States accord people dignity? That question is often left out of the current debates over welfare and workfare. In this provocative book, Nancy Rose argues that the United States has been successful in the past--notably during the New Deal and in the 1970s--at shaping programs that gave people "fair work." However, as Rose documents, those innovative job creation programs were voluntary and were mainly directed at putting men back to work. Women on welfare, and especially women of color, continue to be forced into a very different kind of program: mandatory, punitive, and demeaning. Such workfare programs are set up for failure. They rarely train women for jobs with futures, they ignore the needs of the women's families, and they do not pay an honest wage. They perpetuate poverty rather than prevent it. Rose uses the history of U.S. job creation programs to show alternatives to mandatory workfare. Any effort to redesign welfare in America needs to pay close attention to the lessons drawn from this perceptive analysis of the history of women, welfare, and work. This is an indispensable book for students, scholars, policymakers, politicians, and activists--for everyone who knows the system is broken and wants to fix it.


Due to increasing regulation on
emissions and shifting consumer preferences, the wide adoption of battery
electric vehicles (BEV) hinges on research and development of technologies that
can extend system range. This can be accomplished either by increasing the
battery size or via more efficient operation of the electrical and thermal
systems. This thesis endeavours to accomplish the latter through comparative
investigation of BEV integrated thermal management system (ITMS) performance
across a range of ambient conditions (-20 °C to 40 °C), cabin
setpoints (18 °C to 24 °C), and six different ITMS architectures. A
dynamic ITMS modelling framework for a long-range electric vehicle is
established with comprehensive sub models for the operation of the drive train,
power electronics, battery, vapor compression cycle components, and cabin
conditioning. This modelling framework is used to construct a baseline thermal
management system, as well as for adaptation to four common systems.
Additionally, a novel low-temperature waste heat recovery (LT WHR) system is
proposed and shown to have potential benefits at low ambient temperatures
through the reduction of the necessary cabin ventilation loading. While this
system shows performance improvements, the regular WHR system offers the
greatest benefit for long-range BEV drive cycles in terms of system range and
transient response. With an optimal thermal management system found for long
range BEV's this system is then used as a boundary condition for a study on
cooling of the battery. Battery conditioning, health, and as a result their
along cell and system lifetime remains an additional concern of consumers as
well as thermal systems engineers seeking to ensure safety and ensure longevity
of EV battery cells. Three typical coolant flow orientations are studied to compare
them under different flow conditions and thermal interface material
performance. The battery cooling model is then coupled to the previously
established dynamic modelling environment to demonstrate the added modelling capability
(and necessity) for incorporating module-level cooling performance in both
battery cooling studies and transient ITMS environments.


Abstract. A collection of scientific analyses, metrics, and visualizations for robust validation of ice sheet models is presented using the Land Ice Verification and Validation toolkit (LIVVkit), version 2.1, and the LIVVkit Extensions repository (LEX), version 0.1. This software collection targets stand-alone ice sheet or coupled Earth system models, and handles datasets and analyses that require high-performance computing and storage. LIVVkit aims to enable efficient and fully reproducible workflows for postprocessing, analysis, and visualization of observational and model-derived datasets in a shareable format, whereby all data, methodologies, and output are distributed to users for evaluation. Extending from the initial LIVVkit software framework, we demonstrate Greenland ice sheet simulation validation metrics using the coupled Community Earth System Model (CESM) as well as an idealized stand-alone high-resolution Community Ice Sheet Model, version 2 (CISM2), coupled to the Albany/FELIX velocity solver (CISM-Albany or CISM-A). As one example of the capability, LIVVkit analyzes the degree to which models capture the surface mass balance (SMB) and identifies potential sources of bias, using recently available in situ and remotely sensed data as comparison. Related fields within atmosphere and land surface models, e.g., surface temperature, radiation, and cloud cover, are also diagnosed. Applied to the CESM1.0, LIVVkit identifies a positive SMB bias that is focused largely around Greenland's southwest region that is due to insufficient ablation.


This thesis deals with a specific type of crime, which is, today called a millennium crime. This crime is identity theft. It is not a new crime, but technological development makes it a difficult crime to combat, as nowadays it can be committed by both traditional, so-called non-sophisticated methods, and by more sophisticated, technological means, since the advent of the internet.
Identity theft is a crime committed against a person's means of identification or their financial information. The criminal, legally or illegally obtains another person's means of identification for the purpose of either himself (or others) using it to commit other illegal activities. Iraq, currently, has no dedicated law to deal with identity theft. Therefore, the Iraq courts will find it difficult when they seek to apply existing legal texts, to deal with it effectively. Through an examination of Iraqi criminal laws, this thesis will assess whether existing Iraq criminal law is adequate to combat identity theft, and it will assess whether Iraq courts can effectively judge an accused who obtains another person's means of identification, and then uses to commit other crimes. It seems that, first sight that identity theft shares common elements with theft offence in Iraq law, and thus, the Iraqi courts may use the current theft offence laws to fight identity theft, but this study will show that this has limitations and drawbacks. Comparative analysis with the relevant UK and US laws used to combat identity theft will form part of this analysis, in an effort to assess the effectiveness of this approach, and illustrate its weaknesses.
While this thesis preparation was being undertaken, the Iraqi Government proposed a project called the Information Crimes Project 2011. This project inter alia proposed to govern identity theft with new model laws. This thesis demonstrates that this project will not succeed in realising this objective, and the thesis shows, in conclusion, existing laws, as well as proposed laws, are inadequate to govern identity theft in Iraq, and their inadequacy requires either a judicial or legislative solution. The thesis demonstrates the limitations of judicial solution because the application of the principle of legality, and concludes that the most effectively way for Iraq to combat identity theft would be to enact a new, dedicated law to fight identity theft. To assist the Iraqi legislature to enact an appropriate piece of legislation, this thesis analyses relevant UK and US laws, and assesses
elements of those laws, and their utility for the Iraqi legislature, should it seek to borrow or adopt provisions from them for a new Iraqi identity theft law. One of the key findings of this thesis is that the actual identity theft must be criminalised, and this is something that is not a feature in laws of other jurisdictions, although there are several elements of other jurisdictions' laws which, if suitable adapted, could be useful incorporated into an Iraqi identity theft law.
This thesis concludes by proposing recommendation that will be guide the Iraqi legislature if it intends to enact a dedicated identity theft law at some point in the near future.


Purpose
The evolution of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) within the operations management theory has enjoyed significant success in both manufacturing and services. Though the applicability of LSS is evident in the services sector through various publications, academic research on the use of LSS in the Banking and Financial Services (BFS) is limited, and hence deserves greater attention. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the application of LSS in consumer banking in real-time setting.

Design/methodology/approach
A case study method is used to study the application of LSS in two consumer banks with stage 1 featuring identification of appropriate consumer banks where LSS projects could be undertaken, and suitable LSS readiness assessment was performed. In stage 2, LSS project opportunities were identified in the select banks through stakeholder engagement. Finally, in stage 3, LSS projects were executed for process improvements in a real-time setting.

Findings
The case studies provide evidence of the successful application of LSS in consumer banking and the associated multiple benefits. The extent of applicability and appropriate managerial implications in project management context are elaborated. An LSS project selection criterion is recommended as a part of the study. Further, the study explains five important managerial implications in BFS context, with an outlook for future research.

Research limitations/implications
Practitioner research shows that BFS organizations have changed their ways of working by adapting LSS over the last decade. However, the academic research concerning the applicability of LSS in BFS is apparently limited, and none of these are specific to "consumer banking." This study serves as a strong foundation for future research in this area, which is at its nascence and upcoming in the researchers' community. However, strong generalizations should not be made as this study is limited to two cases.

Practical implications
Since the cases are executed in the real-time setup of consumer banks, the paper has several practical implications. First, the paper confirms the applicability of LSS in consumer banking and concludes that LSS project management is merely a sub-set of LSS deployment. Second, LSS needs to be understood using a "systems thinking" perspective in order to move away from a narrow project-only approach. An LSS project selection criterion is recommended as a part of the study, which could serve as a managerial resource. Other managerial implications include effective management of stakeholders and change leadership as essential elements of LSS project management in banks.

Originality/value
LSS has been successful in the past few decades in the manufacturing and service sectors. However, its application in BFS is limited. This study illustrates the applicability of LSS in consumer banks, which deals with high volumes of data, customer bases and associated financial transactions.


Contemporary foraminiferal sediment samples were collected from the intertidal sabkha of Al-Kharrar Lagoon, Saudi Arabia, to study the vertical distribution of foraminifers and, based on a modern training set, their potential to develop a predictor of former sea-level changes in the area. Based on hierarchical cluster analysis, the intertidal sabkha is divided into three vertical zones (A, B, and C) represented by three foraminiferal assemblages, where agglutinated species occupied Zone A and calcareous species occupied the other two zones. In Zone A (high intertidal), Agglutinella compressa, Clavulina angularis and C. multicamerata are dominant species with a minor presence of Peneroplis planatus, Coscinospira hemprichii, Sorites orbiculus, Quinqueloculina lamarckiana, Q. seminula, Ammonia convexa and A. tepida. In contrast, in Zone B (middle intertidal) the most abundant species are P. planatus, C. hemprichii, S. orbiculus, Q. lamarckiana, Q. seminula and Q. laevigata, while Zone C (low intertidal) is characterized by C. hemprichii, Q. costata, S. orbiculus, P. planatus, A. convexa, A. tepida, Spiroloculina communis, and S. costigera. A transfer function for sea-level reconstruction was developed using a modern dataset of 75 contemporary sediment samples and 99 species collected from several transects across the sabkha. The model provided an error of 0.12 m, suggesting that intertidal foraminifers can be used to assess past sea-level changes with high precision in Al-Kharrar Lagoon, and adjacent regions.


ABSTRACT Smoking is known to be initiated during adolescence, making this age group a relevant target for intervention. Quantitative survey data from a sample of Romanian teenagers (N=1562) as well as qualitative data (30 interviews) were gathered as part of the Health Behavior in School Children Study. Psychosocial factors related to smoking onset, maintenance and reasons for quitting, as well as gender differences in tobacco use were explored. Results show that more teenagers experiment with smoking rather than actually being regular smokers. Gender differences emerge in smoking behavior, with boys smoking more and starting cigarette use earlier. Different reasons are provided by boys and girls for initiating and maintaining this habit, confirming the need for different approaches to intervention. Smoking, as well as smoking early initiation are is significantly associated with having more friends who smoke; having a bad communication with ones' mother, experiencing negative emotions, having a low social self esteem and being engaged in other risk behaviors. The number of friends who smoke, negative emotions and being engaged in other risk behaviors predict smoking frequency in the 15 year old sample, while cognitive factors like general self-efficacy and social self esteem do not. Negative "smoker prototypes" as well as gender differences in choosing strategies to withstand taking up smoking were identified. Therefore, interventions to prevent smoking initiation in teenagers should start early, integrate gender differences, focus on increasing the ability to resist peer pressure, develop negative smoker prototypes, promote control of negative emotions and aim at increasing frequency of alternative behaviors like physical exercise. KEYWORDS: adolescents, risk behavior, smoking, social-cognitive theory, smoker prototype, interviews, content analysis. INTRODUCTION Smoking is considered to be one of the most harmful risk behaviors due to its association with a wide range of health problems like cardiovascular disease, obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, as well as its addictive properties. Smoking was also found to represent a burden for the healthcare system, as the annual costs of healthcare for smokers are double in comparison to those of nonsmokers (World bank, 1999). Moreover, poverty and cigarette use also seem to be connected since research shows smoking to be the largest single cause of socioeconomical inequalities in morbidity and mortality (Kunst, Giskes, & Mackenbach, 2004). Regardless of all the known negative health and economical consequences of smoking, tobacco use continues to represent the leading cause of preventable death worldwide (WHO, 2007). Studies also predict that if smoking trends continue to rise at the present rate, tobacco-attributable deaths will reach 8.3 million by 2030 (Mathers & Loncar, 2006). Therefore, preventing the onset of smoking has been defined as a major public health priority that would contribute to the reduction of smoking prevalence (Pierce, Choi, Gilpin, Farkas, & Merritt, 1996) and tobacco caused deaths. Previous studies show that most adult smokers had their first cigarette or became regular smokers before they reached the age of 18 (Lamkin & Huston, 1998), highlighting the importance of intervention in the adolescent population in order to prevent future adult smoking behavior. Moreover, next to the association with long-term disease, smoking also has a series of negative short term consequences for teenagers, like shortness of breath, decreased lung function, coughing and wheezing and decreased overall physical fitness (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1994). However, apart from the negative consequences of smoking, this behavior also has a series of positive aspects that contribute to its maintenance among teenagers. For example, it is used as a relaxation method, a way to reduce stress and boredom; it helps increase concentration and control negative emotions like depression and anxiety. …


Enhancing nonlinear processes at the nanoscale is a crucial step toward the development of nanophotonics and new spectroscopy techniques. Here we demonstrate a novel plasmonic structure, called plasmonic nanocavity grating, which is shown to dramatically enhance surface nonlinear optical processes. It consists of resonant cavities that are periodically arranged to combine local and grating resonances. The four-wave mixing signal generated in our gold nanocavity grating is enhanced by a factor up to ≈2000, 2 orders of magnitude higher than that previously reported.


Introduction: Landscape Planning Versus Stewardship The landscape, here conceived as a social-ecological system resulting from the interaction between nature and humans, is a public and private domain at the same time. Many parts can be privately owned and used for earning an income, while other parts are public domain. Taken together public and private parts constitute a heterogeneous pattern of natural and human sites supporting natural and social processes. Where the community inhabiting the landscape area perceives its ecological functioning as beneficial, these benefits are called landscape services (Termorshuizen and Opdam 2009). These services may be of private interests e.g. farmers using the potential of the landscape to grow food, as well as of public interest e.g. people enjoying improved mental health by interacting with the natural assets of the landscape. People may have an explicit or hidden demand for these services, but their supply is not regulated by demand supply mechanisms only (Dietz et al. 2003). Therefore, to ascertain these values of public interest, governments have declared rules and legislation that limit the adaptation and use of landscapes, for example rules about the application of fertilisers. In case the central governments have the prime responsibility for common values such as biodiversity and water quality, public agencies initiate and organise the process of adapting landscapes in the face of new challenges, such as expanding cities or climate change impacts. In this process of what is called landscape or environmental planning (Linehan and Gross 1998, Steiner 2000, Hawkins and Selman 2002), conflicts of competing interests are solved in a formal procedure often embedded in legislation, in which stakeholders may be consulted. The government's responsibilities also include providing knowledge, organising consultation workshops and financing implementation measures. In contrast, in landscape stewardship the organiser role of the government is limited or even not existing. Landscape stewardship is driven by the actions of people, based on their appreciation of the multiple landscape values that they perceive as crucial for their wellbeing (Nassauer 2011). In general terms, landscape stewardship is defined as the active shaping of pathways of social and ecological change for the benefits of ecosystems and society (Chapin III and Knapp 2015), interpreted in the context of sustainability.


Defects on a reverse-side of a metallic plate such as a thick stainless steel plate caused by a fatigue or a stress are a very serious problem. We have measured residual magnetic field in order to estimate a reverse-side machined model defect existing on a 5 mm thick austenitic stainless steel plate. A differential type magnetoimpedance effect sensor (the gradio-MI sensor) is applied to measure it, because the gradio-MI sensor is suitable for detection of localized micromagnetic field. From results of experiments, a distribution of the residual differential magnetic field is clearly changed near a reverse-side machined model defect on an austenitic stainless steel plate. In this paper, we describe the residual differential magnetic field over a 5 mm thick austenitic stainless steel plate, and show experimental results of a defect detection utilizing the distribution of residual differential magnetic field.


Protein-protein interactions can be guided by contacts between surface loops within proteins. We therefore investigated the hypothesis that novel protein-protein interactions could be created using a strategy of "loop grafting" in which the amino acid sequence of a biologically active, flexible loop on one protein is used to replace a surface loop present on an unrelated protein. To test this hypothesis we replaced a surface loop within an epidermal growth factor module with the complementarity-determining region of a monoclonal antibody. Specifically, the HCDR3 from Fab-9, an antibody selected to bind the beta 3-integrins with nanomolar affinity (Smith, J. W., Hu, D., Satterthwait, A., Pinz-Sweeney, S., and Barbas, C. F., III (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 32788-32795), was grafted into the epidermal growth factor-like module of human tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA). The resulting variant of t-PA bound to the platelet integrin alpha IIb beta 3 with nanomolar affinity, retained full enzymatic activity, and was stimulated normally by the physiological co-factor fibrin. Binding of the novel variant of t-PA to integrin alpha IIb beta 3 was dependent on the presence of divalent cations and was inhibited by an RGD-containing peptide, demonstrating that, like the donor antibody, the novel t-PA binds specifically to the ligand-binding site of the integrin. These findings suggest that surface loops within protein modules can, at least in some cases, be interchangeable and that phage display can be combined with loop grafting to direct proteins, at high affinity, to selected targets. In principle, these targets could include not only other proteins but also peptides, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, or even uncharacterized markers of specific cell types, tissues, or viruses.


Bulk amorphous alloys are new class of materials with excellent mechanical and thermal properties. Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have wide range of application such as structural materials. Minor alloying additions play beneficial role in the production and properties of BMGs. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of Y and Nb addition on activation energy, crystallization behavior, thermal and mechanical properties of Zr64.5Ni15.5Al11.5Cu8.5. Bulk amorphous ingots and sheets of three [Zr0.645Ni0.155Al0.115Cu0.085]100-xM2 (M = Y and Nb and x = 0, 2 at. %) alloys were produced by Cu mold casting technique. The alloys were characterized by XRD, DSC, SEM, FESEM and EDS. Activation energies were calculated. The alloy containing Y shows single stage crystallization while Nb addition shows double stage crystallization. The maximum activation energy calculated is 300 kJ/mol. Parameters describing thermal stability in these systems were determined from DSC data which improved as a result of these additives. Reduced glass transition temperature Trg and thermal parameters like g, d and b were improved by Y addition. The supercooled liquid region varies between 87-100 K. Hardness and elastic moduli were also improved. It was concluded that Y and Nb addition has beneficial effect on mechanical properties. Three phases NiZr2 and CuZr2 and Cu10Zr7 were identified by XRD and confirmed by EDS in the samples annealed at 823 K while the AlNiY ternary phase was detected in the alloy containing Y.


The assembly of 1,4-bis(3-pyridyl)-2,3-diaza-1,3-butadiene (L) with cadmium iodide in different solvent systems was investigated. The results showed the important role played by solvent, as two different one-dimensional coordination polymers were obtained depending on the solvent used. The use of MeOH, EtOH or MeCN as solvent yielded a 1D zigzag chain structural motif of [CdLI2]n (1). Our results showed solvent type to have a dramatic effect on the morphology and crystal habit of the resulting crystalline material of 1. Using DMSO as solvent yielded a 1D sinusoidal wave of [CdLI2(DMSO)2]n (2). We also used dissolution–recrystallization structural transformation (DRST) with DMSO as the solvent to transform 1 directly into 2.


This paper presents the impacts that the poor performance of the Rivers State Water Board (RSWB) had on the residents of Port Harcourt city, Rivers State, –Nigeria. Using questionnaires administered to residents of the city, a study found that only 4.5% depended solely on the RSWB to meet their water needs. This very poor performance by the utility, residents resorted to self-service by drilling individual boreholes and using informal vending services. As a result of this, 78% of respondents depended solely on boreholes, 13% on informal vendors. 4.5% relied on the RSWB and still had boreholes. This paper discusses these access and quality of service issues, and highlights recent reforms in Rivers State.


Objectives: 1) To determine the association between maternal characteristics and the microbial flora of the vagina in pregnancies with high risk of prematurity; and, 2) To determine the association between the microbial flora of the vagina and the maternal and perinatal outcome in pregnancies with high risk of prematurity. DESIGN: Case-control study, between January 1994 and December 1995. Material and methods: Case group comprised 238 singleton-pregnant women who were admitted because of preterm premature contractions, preterm labor, increased vaginal fluid, acute pylonephritis and arterial hypertension. All cases underwent a wet preparation to establish the microbial flora. The control group included 3 850 singleton pregnant women who delivered a term neonate at the same institution. Case group was further divided into women with bacterial vaginitis (n=136), bacterial vaginosis (BV, n=57) and trichomonas vaginalis (TV, n=45). Results: Women with TV and BV had a single sexual partner. Case group had increased risk of maternal malnutrition, low maternal weight, a diabetic/ hypertensive direct relative, prediabetes, chronic anemia, threatened abortion, uterine scar, puerperal fever, and endometritis. Case-group neonates had increased risk of hyperbilirrubinemia, neonatal sepsis, prematurity, respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal morbidity, small and large-for-gestational age infant. Conclusions: Both inheritance and environment determine nutritional status, vaginal microbial flora and the inflammatory response of the maternal-fetal unit. The maternal-fetal response to various factors would establish the pathogenic pathway for preterm labor syndrome, prematurity and neonatal morbidity.


Efficient routing is essential in everyday life. Although various hierarchical algorithms exist for computing shortest paths, their heavy precomputation/storage costs and/or query costs hinder their application to large road networks. By detecting a hierarchical community structure in road networks, we develop a community-based hierarchical graph model that supports efficient route computation on large road networks. We then propose a new hierarchical routing algorithm that can significantly reduce the search space over the conventional algorithms with acceptable loss of accuracy. Experimental results on a New York road network demonstrate the performance of the algorithm.


10.22055/JRMBS.2021.16663 DOI:  Abstract Expansion of one-dimensional collisionless plasma into vacuum is studied in absence of magnetic field. In this paper, expansions of plasmas containing initial Maxwellian and modified Lorentzian (r,q) velocity distributions and the effect of q and r parameters on expansion are investigated and then compared by use of simulation of kinetic theory equations. In this simulation code, the electrons dynamic is determined by Vlasov equation and the ions dynamic obeys fluid equations. It is shown that the plasmas containing different initial velocity distributions for the electrons will be expand with different velocities. The results show that in the cases which initial electron distribution has more energy, then the ions will have more velocity.


This small scale study examined children's views about their education in one primary school in England. The research took place in a large primary school, situated in an area of relative social deprivation in a northern town. A focus group was used to elicit the views of children in Key Stage 2 (aged 7-11) about their teachers, the curriculum, assessment and school inspection. Although the findings cannot be generalised, pupils had mixed views about reading, writing and mathematics. However, they were unanimous in their dislike of science. The data also indicate that pupils felt that the processes of testing and school inspection both served important purposes and that external validation of the school's performance was necessary. This study provides a springboard for further research into pupils' perspectives of their primary education.


Coccolithoviruses are large dsDNA viruses infecting the cosmopolitan calcifying marine phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi. Therefore they are instrumental components of algal bloom demise and thus agents contributing significantly to biogeochemical cycling in the oceans. Several coccolithovirus strains exist in culture and have been used so far to study the co-evolutionary arms-race between them and their unicellular host in naturally occurring or induced blooms in the North Atlantic Ocean and the fjords of Norway. However, little is known of their distribution in non-bloom conditions, their natural diversity in times of reduced infectivity rates, and the role of functionally important genes found in natural coccolithovirus communities. Even less is known about their genetic differences and the phenotypic consequences of these differences on their infection dynamics. Hence here a three dimensional approach was undertaken, during which the genomes of several coccolithovirus strains were analysed, their diversity in the global ocean characterised, and their phenotypic properties as seen from their infection dynamics with their host established.
It was revealed that although coccolithoviruses share a common subset of core genes, they differ in a large proportion of their genomic material, as seen from the presence and/or absence of large sub-clusters of functionally unknown genes. Moreover, a gene that encodes for a phosphate scavenging mechanism (phosphate permease) was truncated from the genome of the Norwegian isolate EhV-99B1 but not from any other strain, while a gene encoding for the virulence factor sialidase was truncated only in the genomes of the English Channel strains isolated in 2001. The discovery of an additional gene that is potentially involved in the regulation of sphingosine and ceramide intermediates during the de novo virus encoded sphingolipid biosynthesis pathway was also intriguing, and the extent of gene homology to host genes (i.e. almost 13% of the analyzed genomes) highlighted the importance of horizontal gene transfer events in the co-evolution between algal hosts and their viruses. Secondly, it was established that virus competition over its resource, the host-cell, is fierce and that during host coinfection, some viruses (i.e. EhV-207) were superior to others (i.e. EhV-86) in their quicker utilisation of the host metabolic machinery and possibly shorter latency period within the infected cells. The biogeochemical and evolutionary implications of these distinct phenotypic properties are far reaching as in the environment there would be hundreds of different virus strains fighting over a few dominant hosts, with "losers" and "winners" coming and going from a particular niche, affecting the recirculation of nutrients and carbon at different rates.
Finally, by community fingerprinting cococlithoviruses in the global ocean with phylogenetic markers (major capsid protein) and functional markers (serine palmitoyltransferase) it was discovered that the diversity of these viruses increase with depth, and that the 3D structure of the SPT protein (involved in the propagation of host cell death) differs among strains, dictated by a variant amino acid linker region between the two domains of the protein, LCB1 and LCB2, potentially influencing the efficiency of the virus encoded sphingolipid biosynthesis pathway.
This study is an important first step in understanding the role of coccolithoviruses, their evolution, their functional characteristics, and the possible implications of the latter to biogeochemical cycling and global climate and primary production predictions.

Articles: Draft genome sequence of the coccolithovirus EhV-84 / Josef I. Nissimov ... [et al.]. Standards in Genomic Sciences, v. 5 (2011), p. 1-11 and Functional inferences of environmental coccolithovirus biodiversity / Josef I. Nissimov ... [et al.]. Virologica sinica (2013), doi: 10.1007/s12250-013-3362-1 have been removed from PDF for the copyright reasons.


Objective: Understanding nursing actions in the practice of inpatient advocacy in a burn unit. Method: A single and descriptive case study, carried out with nurses working in a referral burn center in southern Brazil. Data were collected through focus group technique, between February and March 2014, in three meetings. Data was analysed through discursive textual analysis. Results: Three emerging categories were identified, namely: (1) instructing the patient; (2) protecting the patient; and (3) ensuring the quality of care. Conclusions: This study identified that the nurses investigated exercised patient advocacy and that the recognition of their actions is an advance for the profession, contributing to the autonomy of nurses and the effectiveness of patients' rights and social justice. descriPtOrs


Computer-aided detection (CAD) of colonic polyps, as a second reader for computed tomographic colonography (CTC) screening, has earned extensive research interest over the past decades. False positive (FP) reduction in the CAD system plays a crucial role in detecting the polyps. To improve the performance of FP reduction and better assist the physician's diagnosis, we propose an adaptive kernel based multiple kernel learning (MKL) method for CAD of colonic polyps, called AK-MKL. This method builds a more adaptive synthesized classifier by incorporating an adaptive kernel into a set of predefined base kernels for better performance in differentiating true polyps from FPs, which is implemented by learning an optimal combination of a collection of those kernel-based classifiers. Performance evaluation for the presented AK-MKL method was performed on a CTC database, consisting of 25 patients with 50 CT scans. In terms of the AUC (area under the curve of receiver operating characteristic) and accuracy merits, the experimental results showed that our AK-MKL method achieves better performance, compared with two other different methods, i.e., one classifier based on support vector machine (SVM) with only one adaptive kernel (AK-SVM) and the other one based on multiple kernel learning only (MKL).


In order to investigate the origin of multiple stellar populations found in globular clusters (GCs) in the halo and bulge of the Milky Way, we have constructed chemical evolution models for their putative low-mass progenitors. In light of recent theoretical developments, we assume that supernova blast waves undergo blowout without expelling the pre-enriched ambient gas, while relatively slow winds of massive stars (WMSs), together with the winds and ejecta from low- to high-mass asymptotic giant branch stars, are all locally retained in these less massive systems. Interestingly, we find that the observed Na–O anti-correlations in metal-poor GCs can be reproduced when multiple episodes of starburst and enrichment are allowed to continue in these subsystems. A specific form of star formation history with decreasing time intervals between the successive stellar generations, however, is required to obtain this result, which is in good agreement with the parameters obtained from synthetic horizontal branch models. The "mass budget problem" is also much alleviated by our models without ad hoc assumptions on star formation efficiency, initial mass function, and the preferential loss of first-generation stars. We also apply these models to investigate the origin of super-He-rich red clump stars in the metal-rich bulge suggested by Lee et al. We find that chemical enrichment by the WMSs can naturally reproduce the required strong He enhancement in metal-rich subsystems. Our results further underscore that gas expulsion or retention is a key factor in understanding the multiple populations in GCs.


The effect of read disturb on partially programmed blocks of MLC NAND is evaluated using experimental data from 2y-, 1y- and 1x-nm Flash memory devices. We demonstrate that when a partially programmed block is exposed to a large number of reads before it is finalized in terms of page programming, the remaining pages will exhibit a significant bit error-rate (BER) increase. The page-BER is characterized in terms of program-erase cycles and read cycles and is further analyzed based on the programmed threshold voltage distributions. The impact of the page programming algorithm is also discussed.


The objective of the subscale test program were designed to provide sorbent and additive selection guidance, and, in so doing, supply answers to the questions posed in the preceding section. The objectives are: Identify the best commercial hydrate sorbent and the best enhanced hydrate sorbent from a list of nine types, based upon S0{sub 2} removal at Ca/S=2. Determine the relative effectiveness of sodium sesquicarbonate versus sodium bicarbonate for S0{sub 2} and NO{sub x} control over the temperature range of 200{degrees}F--400{degrees}F. Identify the best NO{sub 2} suppressing additive among the group of ammonia, urea, and activated carbon.


The advanced energy metering and control system RIS, which has been developed and prepared for serial manufacture by "AB Axis Industries" is presented. This system is perfect for optimisation of energy consumption (heat, electricity, gas, etc.) as well as for precision regulation, thus ensuring comfortable environment. The infrastructure of heat energy metering and control system and its components (ultrasonic heat energy meters, system controller, specializes user software for data analysis and control) are described. It is expected that such automated control of heating system could reduce energy consumption up to 30 %. The system has been already installed and is successfully used in Lithuania and Latvia. The components of this system are certified in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and EU countries. Ill. 6, bibl. 10 (in English; summaries in English, Russian and Lithuanian).


We present a quantum algorithm for simulating the wave equation under Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. The algorithm uses Hamiltonian simulation and quantum linear system algorithms as subroutines. It relies on factorizations of discretized Laplacian operators to allow for improved scaling in truncation errors and improved scaling for state preparation relative to general purpose linear differential equation algorithms. We also consider using Hamiltonian simulation for Klein-Gordon equations and Maxwell's equations.


Conventional compilers are designed for producing highly optimized code without paying much attention to compile time. The design goals of Java just-in-time compilers are different: produce fast code at the smallest possible compile time. In this article we present a very fast algorithm for translating JavaVM byte code to high quality machine code for RISC processors. This algorithm handles combines instructions, does copy elimination and coalescing and does register allocation. It comprises three passes: basic block determination, stack analysis and register preallocation, final register allocation and machine code generation. This algorithm replaces an older one in the CACAO JavaVM implementation reducing the compile time by a factor of seven and producing slightly faster machine code. The speedup comes mainly from following simplifications: fixed assignment of registers at basic block boundaries, simple register allocator better exception handling better memory management and fine tuning the implementation. The CACAO system is currently faster than every JavaVM implementation for the Alpha processor and generates machine code for all used methods of the javac compiler and its libraries in 60 milliseconds on an Alpha workstation.


One of the most vital societal challenges of the 21st century is sustainable development.The rapid development and application of information technology (IT) is a global trend with significant implications for sustainable development. According to the findings of global action plan, electronic devices such as computers, laptops, and mobile devices account for 2% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This figure cannot be reduced without effortsfromcompanies that support the "green IT" concept. Long-lasting products with low-energy consumption can save energy. However, green IT products have no international label. Even thoughseveral companies have developed certain labels, monitoring their quality remains difficult, and a guideline for quality checking is needed. Cloud storage is one of the methodsthat can reduce energy consumption. The main goal of the ASEAN community is to leverage on sustainable development in the ASEAN region through enhancing cooperation among member states in different aspects of life. In doing so, the ASEAN attempts to facilitate information exchange among member states which would be facilitatedby cloud storage. Therefore, creating a policy guideline is necessary to enable member states to mandate the use of large computing centers for companies to ensuresustainable energy savings. Companies typically use old servers that consume a significant amount of energy inefficiently. Thus, they need to set up fewer servers with highly efficient output.The purpose of this study is to consider the relationship between cloud computing and sustainability within the ASEAN region and to formulate a suitable legal framework for promoting cloud computing it amongmember states. This paper also aims to examine how ASEAN can encourage member states to utilize the cloud computing technology through legal frameworks thatare intended to reduce power consumption in the information and communication technology departments of various organizations.


This paper describes the Resource Analysis Program, an applied geographic information system. Several applications are presented which utilized soil, and other natural resource data, to develop integrated maps and data analyses. These applications demonstrate the methods of analysis and the philosophy of approach used in the mapping system. The applications are evaluated in reference to four major needs of a functional mapping system: data capture, data libraries, data analysis, and mapping and data display. These four criteria are then used to describe an effort to develop the next generation of applied mapping systems. This approach uses inexpensive microcomputers for field applications and should prove to be a viable entry point for users heretofore unable or unwilling to venture into applied computer mapping.


By replacing the transection and excision of the hiatal cardioesophageal branches of the vagus nerve including the nerve branches accompanying those arteries entering the proximal gastric fundus and the gastric branches of the nerves of Laterjet by a seromuscular incision along the lesser curvature from the incisura to the cardia continuing in an arch below the oesophagogastric junction downwards along the greater curvature to a level between the estimated entrance of the short gastric and left gastroepiploic vessels, a total transgastric highly selective vagotomy is achieved. The danger of free exposure of the mucosa is prevented by interposing a free omental graft sutured into the gap in the gastric musculature. The graft protects against complications due to regeneration of the divided vagal branches. This operation is much less extensive, less invasive and significantly more simple than HSV. Completeness of vagotomy is less invasive and significantly more simple than HSV. Completeness of vagotomy is controlled intra-operatively both a gastric pH meter and by measuring the oxygen tension of the gastric mucosa. Twelve to twenty months after applying TTrHSV the mortality was nil in only a restricted number of patients with duodenal ulcers and the morbidity was insignificant. Previous ulcer symptoms disappeared. Dumping syndrome, recurrence of ulceration and other significant complications were not observed. Data of basal and stimulated acid secretion during the 12 to 20 month period after the operation are given.


The electricity demand forecasting has gained remarkable concern in energy market operation and planning with the emergence of deregulation in the power industry. Power system operators benefit from accurate demand forecasts by supporting investment decisions more objectively. As a crucial requirement, this paper focuses on hourly demand forecasts of a high voltage feeder. Moving average (MA), weighted moving average (WMA), autoregressive moving average (ARMA) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models have been used for creating statistical demand scenarios at 1-h, 2-h, 3-h and 4-h intervals. Many constructive comparisons have been conducted among MA, WMA, ARMA and ARIMA models comprehensively. Besides, the best statistical model employed in each hourly demand scenario provides the robust improvement percentage with respect to the persistence model.


Internet applications are evolving from the Web server to the more powerful and dynamic application server in order to support the deployment of complex applications integrated with the organization's back end systems. A key element of the application server architecture is CORBA, the Common Object Request Broker that allows applications to communicate in a transparent and interoperable manner. For this new architecture to succeed, it must guarantee a secure processing environment to the organisations. This paper explains why a conventional firewall cannot be used to secure CORBA applications. It describes the architecture of CORBAgate, a gateway based on the concept of proxies and object key re-mapping. The paper compares the CORBAgate solution with the OMG specification for CORBA firewall security. Finally, the paper discusses how these elements combine to enable outsourced application services.


An experiment of 0-42 days in day old 150 Vencobb broiler chickens was conducted to determine comparative effects of synthetic choline and herbal sources of choline on hepatic lipid metabolism in broilers. Birds were randomly distributed into three groups (T0- T2), one untreated control and two treatments. Chicks in Group T0 were given feed without any additional source choline chloride. Chicks of
Group T1 were fed with feed mixed with herbal product (Repchol supplied by Ayurvet Ltd., Baddi, India) @ 500gm/tonne of feed and T2 was given combination of synthetic choline chloride@1kg/tonne (60%) and biotin @ 150 mg/ton of feed. To study the effect of inclusion of herbal sources of choline and synthetic choline on hepatic lipid metabolism, serum triglycerides and cholesterol were estimated on day 21st and 42nd of experimental study. Gross pathological changes in liver were recorded on representative birds per
group at the end of the study. It was recorded that inclusion of either synthetic choline or herbal source of choline exerted a hypocholesterolemic effect and also decreased the level of triglycerides as compared to untreated control thus minimizing the incidence of fatty liver, however the two treatment do not differ significantly. Gross pathological study also revealed no significant changes in the architecture of liver as compared to control. It can be concluded that the herbal supplements can successfully replace their
synthetic analogues from broiler ration.


This article assesses the links between non-professional employees' perceptions of reciprocity in their relationships with their supervisors and the positive and negative sides of employees' well-being at work: burnout and engagement. Two hypotheses were explored. First, the fairness hypothesis assumes a curvilinear relationship where balanced reciprocity (when the person perceives that there is equilibrium between his/her efforts and the benefits he/she receives) presents the highest level of well-being. Second, the self-interest hypothesis proposes a linear pattern where over-benefitted situations for employees (when the person perceives that he/she is receiving more than he/she deserves) increase well-being. One study with two independent samples was conducted. The participants were 349 employees in 59 hotels (sample 1) and 690 employees in 89 centres providing attention to people with mental disabilities (sample 2). Linear and curvilinear regression models supported the self-interest hypothesis for the links from reciprocity to burnout and engagement. We conclude with theoretical implications and opportunities for future research.


Influence of contraceptives advertising on consumer's purchasing decision was a study conducted in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, involving PSI Tanzania customers and employees. The study was conducted in order to examine the extent to which advertising contraceptives has been influencing consumer's purchasing. This study focused in finding the rationale of all efforts which have been directed by social marketers into advertising and mass media campaigns despite the fact that various studies had indicated that the outcomes of the effort is not as great. This study employed questionnaires as a method and tool of data collection. The tools were well constructed in order to attain all important details for an effective and informative study. This study find out that there advertising of contraception method influences a large part of the study sample (67%) into making their purchasing decision of the particular method or brand. The study shows that most well-known, most preferred hence most purchased contraceptive methods among respondents such as pills and male condoms were also the most advertised, comparing to less aknown, hence less purchased methods such as Spermicides and Vasectomy. Although 33%of population study reported that they always make purchasing decision of a particular method or brand through the influence of information obtained from health clinic workers and friends. This study recommended that, contraceptive methods marketing companies' needs to refocus their advertising strategies and work on designing contraceptive messages adverts and campaigns that will aim into reaching the audience through media as well as through health workers and peereducators as they both show a lot of influence in delivering the contraception message to the targeted consumer's in Tanzania.


While aerial photography is associated with vertical objectivity and spatial abstractions, street-level imagery appears less political in its orientation to the particularities of place. I contest this assumption, showing how the aggregation of street-level imagery into "big datasets" allows for the algorithmic sorting of places by their street-level visual qualities. This occurs through an abstraction by "datafication," inscribing new power geometries onto urban places through algorithmic linkages between visual environmental qualities, geographic information, and valuations of social worth and risk. Though largely missing from media studies of Google Street View, similar issues have been raised in critiques of criminological theories that use place as a proxy for risk. Comparing the Broken Windows theory of criminogenesis with big data applications of street-level imagery informs a critical media studies approach to Google Street View. The final section of this article suggests alternative theoretical orientations for algorithm design that avoid the pitfalls of essentialist equations of place with social character.


BACKGROUND
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies have suggested above-normal turnover of membrane phospholipids in brains of patients with schizophrenia. One possible explanation for these findings is increased activity of the phospholipid-catabolizing enzyme phospholipase A2 (PLA2). However, attempts to demonstrate higher PLA2 activity in the serum of subjects with schizophrenia have led to conflicting results. We hypothesized that this was due to serum PLA2 activity consisting of a family of different enzymes, with each group of investigators measuring activity of different PLA2 forms.

DESIGN
Activity of PLA2 in serum samples obtained from 24 individuals with schizophrenia was compared with serum obtained from 33 age- and sex-matched control subjects, using both fluorometric and radiometric assays with different substrates. Each method had previously yielded conflicting results concerning the status of the enzyme in schizophrenia.

RESULTS
With the fluorometric assay, serum PLA2 activity in individuals with schizophrenia was markedly increased by 49% compared with control subjects (P < .001). In contrast, radiometric assay of the same serum samples resulted in PLA2 activity not significantly different between patients and control subjects. Further investigations demonstrated that, whereas the radiometric assay measured activity of a calcium-dependent enzyme, the fluorometric assay detected a calcium-insensitive enzyme possessing an acid-neutral pH optimum.

CONCLUSIONS
Increased calcium-independent PLA2 activity was seen in the serum of patients with schizophrenia. This change, if present also in the brain, may well explain the increased levels of phosphodiesters observed using magnetic resonance spectroscopy and therefore may contribute to the pathophysiological features of the disorder.


Background Fall injuries pose a global public health problem. Whilst all elderly are at risk of fall injuries, the risk of injury is 10 times as high amongst elderly living in nursing homes. An injury occurs when body tissue is subjected to external kinetic energy exceeding the tissue's tolerance. Reducing this energy in order to prevent injuries has been successfully applied in many fields. A impact absorbing floor as an energy reducing measure to prevent fall injuries has been evaluated. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential fall injury reducing effects of impact absorbing flooring in a nursing home, as well as the staff's experience of working in premises with impact absorbing flooring. Methods The intervention site is a nursing home in Sweden where impact absorbing flooring was installed. To investigate the fall injury reducing effect falls on impact absorbing flooring were compared to falls on regular flooring. To describe how the staff presided working in premises with special flooring a qualitative focus group interview study were conducted. Results The results show that for women the risk of injury following a fall on the impact absorbing flooring was 59% less compared to falls on ordinary floors, after adjustment for age, BMI, vision impairments, and cognitive impairment. With regards to the staff's experience of the impact absorbing flooring, the nurses felt that the floor defused the falls and in that way reduced the risk of injury. They were also positively surprised by the change in acoustics. There were also some challenges associated with the floor, for example, adapting to walking on the floor and manoeuvring equipment (eg hoists). Conclusions The results suggest that for an elderly and frail population, impact absorbing flooring seems to be an effective injury prevention measure. The intervention was generally perceived as positive by the staff, even though some negative aspects were observed. These aspects need to be studied further.


Modern data center networks are usually constructed in multi-rooted tree topologies, which require the highly efficient multi-path load balancing to achieve high link utilization. Recent packet-level load balancer obtains high throughput by spraying packets to all paths, but it easily leads to the packet reordering under network asymmetry. The flow-level or flowlet-level load balancer avoids the packet reordering, while reducing the link utilization due to their inflexibility. To solve these problems, we design a Queueing Delay Aware Packet Spraying (QDAPS), that effectively mitigates the packet reordering for packet-level load balancer. QDAPS selects paths for packets according to the queueing delay of output buffer, and lets the packet arriving earlier be forwarded before the later packets to avoid packet reordering. We compare QDAPS with ECMP, LetFlow and RPS through NS2 simulation and Mininet implementation. The test results show that QDAPS reduces flow completion time (FCT) by ~30%-50% over the state-of-the-art load balancing mechanism.


English syllabus states that by the end of elementary school, the students have to master about 500 vocabulary items: 150 words for fourth grade, 150 words for fifth grade, and 200 words for sixth grade. The fourth grade is the first level that is expected to master 150 vocabulary items. It needs attention more in order to make the students ready in the next level. As a matter of fact,
based on the preliminary study, the fourth grade students of SDN Kesatrian II Malang showed that the students faced difficulty in vocabulary learning. It indicated that they felt bored in vocabulary learning or memorizing new vocabulary items, and it made them passive in English
learning and brought effect to their score.
Next, to solve this problem, the alternative way that is used to increase the vocabulary learning of fourth grade students at SDN Kesatrian II Malang is board game. This study is to know whether the implementation of board game can improve the vocabulary learning of fourth grade
students of SDN Kesatrian II Malang or not.
This study used action research design. The subject of this study is all of bfourth grade students at SDN Kesatrian II Malang. There are twenty seven students in class. This study used participant observation in the process of implementing board game that is conducted for three times. Then, interviews with the teacher to get information about the students' performances before implementing of board game and to the students to know the effectiveness, content of board game, and their general opinion toward this board game. The last, this study used test to know the improvement of the students' achievement after the implementing of board game.
The research finding in implementing of board game shown that board game succeeded in improving the students' vocabulary. This can be seen that the students showed the positive responses toward the board game: they were more interested in studying English than before because they memorized easily new vocabulary using board game, their vocabulary learning atmosphere was really lively. It has effect in their English score. The score mean of the whole
students increased from cycle I to cycle II. The last result has reached the curriculum goal of the school. In conclusion, the use of board game as the alternative way to teach vocabulary for the fourth grade students at SDN Kesatrian II Malang can improve the students' vocabulary learning.


Background: An understanding of financial trends is important to advance agreeable reimbursement models in plastic surgery. This study aimed to evaluate trends in Medicare reimbursement rates for the 20 most commonly billed reconstructive plastic surgery procedures from 2000 to 2019. Methods: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Physician and Other Supplier Public Use File was used to identify the 20 reconstructive procedures most commonly billed to Medicare by plastic surgeons in 2016. Reimbursement data were extracted from The Physician Fee Schedule Look-Up Tool from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for each CPT code. Monetary data were adjusted for inflation to 2019 U.S. dollars. Average annual and total percentage changes in reimbursement were calculated based on these adjusted trends. Results: The average adjusted reimbursement for all procedures decreased by 14.0 percent from 2000 to 2019. The greatest mean decrease was observed in complex wound repair of the scalp, arms, or legs (−33.2 percent). The only procedure with an increased adjusted reimbursement rate was layer-closure of the scalp, axillae, trunk, and/or extremities (6.5 percent). From 2000 to 2019, the adjusted reimbursement rate for all procedures decreased by an average of 0.8 percent annually. Conclusions: This is the first comprehensive study evaluating trends in Medicare reimbursement in plastic surgery. When adjusted for inflation, Medicare reimbursement for the included procedures has steadily decreased from 2000 to 2019. Increased consideration of these trends will be important for U.S. policymakers, hospitals, and surgeons to ensure continued access to meaningful reconstructive plastic surgery care.


Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition, by Erich S. Gruen. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. Pp. xx + 335. $38.00. In this book, Gruen, professor of ancient history at Berkeley, deals with the Jewish reactions to Hellenistic culture in the centuries around the turn of the era ("How did Jews accommodate themselves to the larger cultural world of the Mediterranean while at the same time reasserting the character of their own heritage within it" [p. xiv]). Philo and Josephus are left out of account; the main emphasis lies on the other (most often fragmentary) Jewish-Greek authors of the third through first centuries BCE. The study begins, however, with an examination of Hasmonean politics. Gruen highlights the seeming paradox that, after the Maccabean revolt, the Hasmoneans "engaged regularly in diplomatic dealings with Greek kings, adopted Greek names, donned garb and paraded emblems redolent with Hellenic significance, erected monuments, displayed stelai, and minted coinage inspired by Greek models" (p. 2). It is significant, therefore, that the campaigns of the Hasmoneans were most often directed against other neighboring Gentile peoples rather than the Greeks. Sometimes they even campaigned against others with forces containing substantial numbers of Greek mercenaries, They destroyed pagan temples that long predated the coming of the Greeks, and they never stated as their objective the eradication of Greek power or Hellenistic culture in Palestine. Scrutiny of the sources (without being taken in by the propaganda of 1 and 2 Maccabees) makes the construct of a clash between Greek and Jew during the Hasmonean period untenable. "The Hasmonaeans operated on the premise that Judaism and Hellenism march hand in hand" (p. 33). They advertised their regime as "one that absorbed the ways of the Greeks but worked within the tradition of the Jews" (p. 37). In this light the subsequent chapters deal with Judeo-Greek literature, under the following headings: "The Use and Abuse of the Exodus Story," "The Hellenistic Images of Joseph," "Scriptural Stories in New Guise," "Embellishments and Inventions," "Kings and Jews," and "Pride and Precedence.- The leitmotif in these chapters is that the documents display "a talent not so much for adaptation as for expropriation" (p. 293), and Gruen follows Tcherikover's lead in saying that these products "do not present a struggle for identity in an alien world, an apologia for strange customs and beliefs, or propaganda meant to persuade the Gentile." On the contrary, they display "a positive quality, bold and inventive, sometimes startling, often light-hearted and engaging, and throughout directed internally to Jews conversant with or altogether inseparable from the culture of the Greeks" (pp. 292-93). This insight leads to the bold conclusion that several of the so-called anti-Semitic versions of the exodus story "do not derive from Egyptian distortion of the Jewish legend, but exactly the reverse: Jewish inventiveness expropriated Egyptian myth in order to insert into it their own heroes, their religious superiority, and even their military triumphs" (p. …


Consider an investment system with a nonnegative expected return in a one period economy. We show that, for an option with a given strike price, there exists a pricing interval $[p^C, p^W]$ such that replacing the original investment with the option will benefit judging by the Kelly criterion only when the price of the option lies outside of the interval. More specifically, buying call options with a price less than $p^C$ or writing covered call options with a price greater than $p^W$ will improve the investment system. Bounds for these thresholds are established using tools related to vector majorization. This investment system specific option pricing interval is compatible with option valuation methods of using a replicating portfolio or a risk neutrality argument.


The present study examined how interest and importance values towards mathematics and literacy develop from grade 7 to grade 9 in comprehensive school, and to what extent does gender, as well as mothers' and fathers' child-specific ability beliefs predict the level and changes in these values. A total of 206 Finnish students (100 girls, 106 boys) were followed from grade 7 to grade 9, right before an important transition from compulsory comprehensive school to secondary education occurs in Finnish context. Students' parents participated in the study when the students were at grade 7. The results of multivariate latent change models showed that the interest and importance values and the development of those in one particular subject were associated with each other. The role of mothers' and fathers' beliefs was different from each other and, in addition, the role was different in different subjects: mothers' ability beliefs predicted students' level of interest in mathematics and level of importance in literacy . However, fathers' ability beliefs were found to predict the changes related interest and importance values in mathematics. The role of gender in students' values was more evident in the case of literacy than in mathematics. Normal 0 21 false false false FI X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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The size of the membership set is analyzed probabilistically in the presence of not only bounded disturbance but also l2bounded parameter uncertainty. Especially, the diameter of the membership set is estimated with a probabilistic confidence for a finite number of samples, where the regressor is assumed to be persistently exciting and the disturbance and the parameter uncertainty are assumed to be random variables. It is also shown that, under the same assumptions, the diameter converges to zero as the number of samples tends to infinity.


This study was conducted at Sudan University of Science and Technology Collage of Animal Production Science and Technology Department of fisheries science and wildlife to determine haematological characteristics of Clarias garipienius collected from White Nile and Blue Nile River. Values of some haematological parameters of twenty C. gariepinus were in the range 4149 cm in length and 709 – 806 gm in weight were analyzed to determine the mean values obtained for White Blood cells Count (WBC) and Erythrocytes Count (RBC), Hemoglobin Concentration Rates (Hb), Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV/cl) and Leukocytes Differential Counts and chemical analysis of total protein and Blood Glucose. The result of this study show that there are no significant different in all parameters between samples collected from White Nile and Blue Nile at p (<0.05), expect in hemoglobin concentration there is highly significant different at p (<0.01). The main target of this study is to investigate the hematological parameters and some blood chemistry of Clarias garpieninus collected from White Nile River and Blue Nile River in Khartoum State.


This thesis describes the interdependence of visual and material cultures in the home
and seeks to understand of the place of structures of mass consumption and mass
visual communication in the making of personhood. It brings together the study of the
photograph with that of the memento and the collection. Through an eighteen-month
ethnography of eighty households in South London, material culture categories and
consumer genres are dissolved in favour of exploring the precise relationships between
images and objects in the representational, memorial and ancestral practices that
establish kinship and friendship, and shape experiences of migration and belonging,
death and memory.
Cross-cultural comparison sheds light on the themes of inalienability, memory,
materiality, reproduction and ancestralisation. In particular, works on photography in
non-Western settings have established its 'other histories', embedding photography in
everyday social and ritual lives. Turning to the Euro-American cultural region, this
thesis abandons the search to define the essence of 'the photograph', offering instead a
guide to the range of practices in which specific types of photographic images and
mementos establish the sociality, time and memory of households in Britain.
The thesis transforms the photograph as an object of analysis, shifting the gaze from
the image-in-itself to its place among the sensuous materials and values of the interior.
Secondly, it explores the consequences of the labour that householders invest in the
material transformation of memory and experience. This is summarised in the three
parts of the thesis as the work of display, collection and dispersal. This perspective
develops the theorisation of the mutual implication of images, objects and persons in
establishing different forms of knowledge and community, illuminates relations between
domestic, museum and consumer landscapes, and allows for the productive
convergence of new and established anthropological literatures.


This paper considers institutional aspects of counter-terrorist strategies in Africa in the second decade after the 9/11 attacks in 2001: countering threats while building respect for the rule of law and human rights. It considers how recent events - especially North Africa's so-called Arab Spring, the Mali crisis, militant Islamism in Nigeria, the gains against al-Shabaab in Somalia and the potentially restless East African coast - may shape counter-terrorism approaches. More than a decade after 2001, African authorities generally accept the argument that blunt state responses can worsen the longer-term security outlook. However, this recognition will not necessarily translate into principled criminal justice approaches.
The paper argues that terrorism has largely been treated as an exceptional issue distinct from broader rule of law and development programming. There is scope to focus on generic rule of law issues even if the overall aim is countering radicalisation and terrorism. Better quality laws and their enforcement are key to ensuring such efforts protect civilians without becoming counter-productive in the process.


This study was conducted to examine in vitro antibacterial potential from seed methanol extract of Peganum harmala (L) against some fish pathogenic bacteria including Lactococcus garvieae, Aeromonas hydrophila, Yersinia ruckeri and Pseuodomonas putida isolated from diseased rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The antibacterial activity of extracts was evaluated using disc diffusion assay, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). MICS were measured by serial dilution and the microplate assays. Results showed that the methanol extract of P. harmala was bactericidal for all test bacteria. The MICs of extract using serial dilution and microplate method were 0.6 mg mL -1 and 0.312 to 0.625 mg mL -1 against P. putida and 0.8 mg mL -1 and 0.625 to 1.25 mg mL -1 against L. garvieae, A. hydrophila, Y. ruckeri, respectively which was confirmed by MBC determination. Thus, the antibacterial activity of seed extract of P. harmala can be comparable as an alternative in the control of infectious by these microorganisms.


Thirteen patients aged 20-60 years (9 men and 4 women) with keratocysts of the jaws were observed. Clinical, x-ray, and microscopic picture of the disease is described. Keratocysts were removed and the resultant cavity scraped in 10 patients; in 3 the mandible was resected because of the process dissemination and vegetation of the periosteum and muscles. The diagnosis was confirmed morphologically. Enucleation with scraping is recommended in keratocysts; in extensive lesions with vegetation of tissues adjacent to the bone, the jaw is to be resected.


The development of neural crest-derived pigment cells has been studied extensively as a model for cellular differentiation, disease and environmental adaptation. Neural crest-derived chromatophores in the zebrafish (Danio rerio) consist of three types: melanophores, xanthophores and iridiphores. We have identified the zebrafish mutant endzone (enz), that was isolated in a screen for mutants with neural crest development phenotypes, based on an abnormal melanophore pattern. We have found that although wild-type numbers of chromatophore precursors are generated in the first day of development and migrate normally in enz mutants, the numbers of all three chromatophore cell types that ultimately develop are reduced. Further, differentiated melanophores and xanthophores subsequently lose dendricity, and iridiphores are reduced in size. We demonstrate that enz function is required cell autonomously by melanophores and that the enz locus is located on chromosome 7. In addition, zebrafish enz appears to selectively regulate chromatophore development within the neural crest lineage since all other major derivatives develop normally. Our results suggest that enz is required relatively late in the development of all three embryonic chromatophore types and is normally necessary for terminal differentiation and the maintenance of cell size and morphology. Thus, although developmental regulation of different chromatophore sublineages in zebrafish is in part genetically distinct, enz provides an example of a common regulator of neural crest-derived chromatophore differentiation and morphology.


Sets are central to mathematics and its foundations, but what are they? In this book Luca Incurvati provides a detailed examination of all the major conceptions of set and discusses their virtues and shortcomings, as well as introducing the fundamentals of the alternative set theories with which these conceptions are associated. He shows that the conceptual landscape includes not only the naive and iterative conceptions but also the limitation of size conception, the definite conception, the stratified conception and the graph conception. In addition, he presents a novel, minimalist account of the iterative conception which does not require the existence of a relation of metaphysical dependence between a set and its members. His book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in logic and the philosophy of mathematics.


Total knee replacement (TKR) may be associated with chronic limb ischemia (CLI) due to arterial injury intraoperatively. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of CLI after TKR surgery. Patients who received a unilateral TKR in 2003–2004 were identified from our database. Patients with diabetes mellitus and preexisting peripheral arterial disease were excluded. Patient assessment was by collection of demographic details, completion of the Oxford Knee Score, Short Form-12 Health Survey, and King's College Hospital's Vascular Quality of Life Questionnaire, and measurement of the ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI). Of the 209 eligible patients, 86 (41%) participated (median age, 73 years; 50% male). Five (5.8%) patients had a reduced ABPI compared with population norms of 4.6 to 7%. Patients with reduced ABPI measurements had higher Oxford Knee Scores, but no relationships between other variables were demonstrated. TKR surgery does not appear to increase the risk of CLI.


In the present work PID control and the fuzzy logic based intelligent control is used to control the rectilinear plant vibrations. PID controller in real time mode is implemented on FPGA. For implementation of fuzzy logic based intelligent controller the FPGA is used as real time data acquisition (DAQ) platform and the fuzzy controller is implemented on the host PC. The sole reason for using FPGA as data acquisition platform was that the LabVIEW FPGA software module is not supporting the complex mathematics required for the fuzzy logic control and also the rectilinear plant interface with the traditional DAQ was not available. The comparative study of performance of intelligent controllers like fuzzy PD and fuzzy PI+ fuzzy PD is done with the conventional controllers on the basis of above mentioned performance indices. The result of the fuzzy PI + fuzzy PD controller is found to be the best among all.


The goal of this study is to improve the retrieval method of identification of major Phytoplankton Functional Types (PFTs) using ocean-color data provided by a high spectrally-resolved satellite sensor, SCIAMACHY(Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography) on board ENVISAT. The method under improvement, so-called Phyto-DOAS, is an extended exploitation of DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy), originally developed to retrieve atmospheric trace gases, into remote identification of oceanic phytoplankton.The main challenge for retrieving a specific Phytoplankton target by Phyto-DOAS is to overcome the overlapping effects of different PFTs absorption spectra which are living -in different ratios- together with that target in ocean waters. Phytoplankton absorption spectra are specified by the types and concentrations of pigment assemblages they are composed of and the mentioned correlation effect is due to common pigments among different PFTs, e.g., Chl-a. So far Phyto-DOAS has been successfully exploited to identify Cyanobacteria and Diatom over global ocean (Bracher et al. 2009).In this study two ideas have been implemented for the purpose of PFTs retrieval improvement: firstly using the method of fourth-derivative spectroscopy (Aguirre-Gomez et al. 1995) some spectral analysis are done to reach the peak positions of main pigment components in each absorption spectrum. Then comparing the results of major PFTs the optimized fit-window for DOAS-retrieval of each PFT is determined. Secondly the simultaneous fitting of different PFTs have been implemented (over the year 2008) to include the real oceanic situation more into the retrieval. In this step the provided optimized fit-windows have been tested for better results. Validation of the global ocean results have been followed using several in-situ data sets obtained through several cruises of Polarstern research vessel in the year 2008.


OBJECTIVES: To compare the age specific rate of passenger injury and associated restraint use for children 2 years and younger in the state of Western Australia (WA), with the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia for the period 1982-92. SETTING: The states of WA and NSW, Australia. METHODS: A descriptive retrospective study of child passenger injuries in WA and NSW was conducted for the period 1 January 1982 to the 31 December 1992. The data provided information about the injured child, such as sex and restraint use, the driver, vehicle, and collision factors, such as time and posted speed limit. RESULTS: A total of 2280 children aged 0 to 2 years were injured in motor vehicle collisions during the study period. Of these children, 653 were from WA and 1627 from NSW. Both the injury and mortality rates were higher in WA compared with NSW over the study period. However 80% and 79% of child passengers injured in WA and NSW, respectively, were restrained at the time of injury. Thus both the sex of the driver and the year the motor vehicle was manufactured best predicted the likelihood of a child being restrained. CONCLUSIONS: As at 1992, WA's population age specific passenger injury rate for children 0-2 years was more than twice the rate in NSW. The comparable rate of reported restraint use by injured children 0-2 years in WA and NSW suggests that non-use of restraints cannot be singled out as the most likely cause of WA's comparatively high rate of injury. It is difficult to determine whether the disparity in rates could be explained by the child passenger's exposure to crash risk factors, as little is known about child passenger levels of exposure to these factors. Further research is needed to address this issue.


Al-Mg alloy foams were synthesized via conventional melt foaming method. Ca and TiH2 were introduced into molten Al-Mg alloys with different magnesium contents. The macrostructures of resultant alloy foams were analyzed and correlated with compressive properties estimated by compression test. It is shown that the pore structures observed in alloy foams degraded with increasing Mg contents. This tendency was shown to be consistent with compressive characteristics of corresponding alloy foams. In detail, plateau strength was high for Al-1wt%Mg alloy foams, exhibiting a gradual decrease in plateau strength with increasing magnesium content.


As the third largest river of Myanmar, the Chindwin River has great importance as a water resource and transport artery. At 113,800 km the basin is comparable in size to the Elbe basin in Europe, although with higher rainfall and runoff. During the southwest monsoon high rainfall intensities with spatial and temporal variation causing severe floods are threatening the region. The study aims to analyze the hydrologic aspects of monsoon floods using statistical and frequency analysis. Flood responses vary due to the complex topography and rainfall distribution over the catchment. Time series of annual maximum floods shows no trend of the mean value. The deviation of annual maxima from the respective mean values, however, has increased significantly in recent decades. Flood quantiles are determined for return periods of 2 to 1,000 years using the data covering the period 1966 to 2011. Flood probability analysis shows that the upper and middle parts of the basin have particularly high flood risks. To analyze the change in flood values, the relative differences of flood quantiles in two time phases, 1966–1990 and 1991–2011, with respect to the entire observation period are compared. The expected floods of the latter period are the highest. doi: 10.2166/wcc.2014.075 Zaw Zaw Latt (corresponding author) Hartmut Wittenberg Faculty of Sustainability, Institute of Ecology, Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, C13.112, Lueneburg 21335, Germany E-mail: email@example.com


Description:
This dataset is a collection of boundary annotations of a cappella singing performed by Beijing Opera (Jingju, 京剧) professional and amateur singers.

The boundaries have been annotated in Praat TextGrid format and in a hierarchical way:

 Line (phrase),
 syllable,
 phoneme

singing units have been annotated to a jingju a cappella singing audio dataset.

The corresponding audio files are the a-cappella singing arias recordings, which are stereo or mono, sampled at 44.1 kHz, and stored as wav files. The wav files are recorded by two institutes: those file names ending with 'qm' are recorded by C4DM Queen Mary University of London; others file names ending with 'upf' or 'lon' are recorded by MTG-UPF. Additionally, another collection of 15 clean singing recordings is included in this dataset. They are extracted from the commercial recordings which originally contains karaoke accompaniment and mixed versions. Please contact the authors to obtain these 15 recordings.

If you use this audio dataset in your work, please cite as well the following publication:

D. A. A. Black, M. Li, and M. Tian, "Automatic Identification of Emotional Cues in Chinese Opera Singing," in 13th Int. Conf. on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC-2014), 2014, pp. 250–255.

 Details:
Annotation format, units, parsing code and other details please refer to https://github.com/MTG/jingjuPhonemeAnnotation

 License:
Textgrid annotations are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Wav audio ending with 'upf' or 'lon' are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

For the license of .wav audio ending with 'qm' from C4DM Queen Mary University of London, please refer to this page http://isophonics.org/SingingVoiceDataset

 Contact information:

Rong Gong: rong gong upf edu

Rafael Caro Repetto: rafael caro upf edu


In this work, we present several strategies of making robust carbon nanotube (CNT) n-type field-effect transistors (NFETs). One approach uses low-work function metal contacts to enable electron injection into CNT for NFET operation while using pre-defined oxide trenches to protect the sidewalls of such easily oxidized contacts. The sidewall-protected NFETs are shown to be stable over several months. The contact length scaling study reveals a large contact resistance that increases rapidly as the contact size shrinks, probably due to the poor interface wetting. A thin Ti layer is shown to significantly enhance contact wetting on CNT and improve device performance. Another approach involves charge-transfer doping from layers deposited on top of CNT channel. Results from different doping layers and deposition conditions are presented and compared. For applications like CNT thin film transistors (TFTs, where transport is not limited by contacts), such channel doping techniques will be required to form NFETs.


Marketization, which is gradually expanding the empire of commodities and imposing the financial world's modes of evaluation on more and more sectors of activity, acutely raises the question of the role of markets in contemporary societies. The debates surrounding marketization have generated a set of contrasting arguments corresponding to different attitudes towards marketization: markets being synonymous with efficiency and democratic standards, markets as machines which destroy the social fabric, or markets perceived as fragile institutions threatened by conservative forces. The objective of this chapter is to contribute to changing the terms of the debate, in particular through reconsidering the way in which market and competition are closely associated. A thorough examination of the notion of market competition leads to a distinction of two ways of describing markets, depending on the role played by product innovations. In interface-markets, innovation strategies aim to reduce competitive pressure, while in market-agencements they are the expression of competition itself. In the former, the definition of market goods is secondary, whereas in the latter it is at the heart of the confrontation between economic agents. Empirical research on the innovation process confirms the greater realism of the market-agencement conception and leads to a new view of marketization and its implications. The competitive dynamics of market-agencements, which makes the establishment of new bilateral transactions and of product innovation the dominant rule, results in the constant expansion of the market sphere. The marketization process is thus at the core of markets' functioning.