For centuries Czechs produced more musicians than the land could accommodate, which meant that many sought employment abroad. Czech musical emigration has accordingly been a favoured topic in Czech musical historiography, for instance in Jan Racek's C› eska¤ hudba [Czech music] (1958), which contains a long list of Czech musicians working abroad. Vienna was geographically the easiest and thus most favoured destination: as a whole the German-speaking world drew in the most Czech musicians, although many also found themselves working in Russia, Paris, London, and several Italian cities. But for Slovenia Racek offers just one musician, Frantis› ek Josef Benedikt Dus|¤k (1765^1816), based in Ljubl jana. Racek's account of Czech music history, however, goes up only to the early nineteenth century. Jernej Weiss's new book deals with Czech musicians working in Slovenia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and rustles up a tally of eighty Czech musicians from this later period 'who contributed significantly to the development of music culture [and] were active in Slovenia for an extended period of several years' and in addition Weiss found 'more than 300 Czech musicians active in Slovenia for a shorter period of time' (p. 532). These are astonishing numbers for a tiny country (smaller thanWales) even if historical 'Slovenia' was rather larger than the presentday independent country, taking in both Trieste (today in Italy) and Graz (today in Austria). There are several reasons for this. For the period covered, i.e. up to 1918, the land of the Slovenes and the land of the Czechs were all part of the same countryçthe Habsburg Empire. So no passports were needed nor were there any political constraints in moving from one to the other. Furthermore the education system was much the same, with qualifications from the Czech lands valid in Slovenia. Linguistically there were also advantages. German was the lingua franca of both areas, and Slovene, although not immediately comprehensible to Czechs, was nevertheless a related Slavonic language with a shared grammatical structure and much vocabulary in common so that it would not have been difficult for a Czech musician to pick up a working knowledge of Slovene in a short space of time. Czech periodicals such as Dalibor printed regular (and usually upbeat) accounts of Czech musicians working in Slovenia and so encouraged even more to try their hand there. During the period concerned, the Czech lands were well ahead of Slovenia culturally and musically: in their national 'awakening' the Slovenes were more half a century behind the Czechs, nor were there, unlike in Prague, any universitylevel institutions in the area to educate a cultural elite (in comparison, Charles University in Prague had been founded in 1348). Help was needed and Czechs flooded in and became the chief foreign musicians working in the area while the earlier German and Italian influences waned. It was only after the First World War that the inflow of Czech musicians subsided and Slovenian music institutions gradually began to be run by Slovenians, many of whom, however, had studied at the Prague Conservatory (p. 520 n. 1222). JernejWeiss has devoted much of his research to this topic, including a doctoral dissertation (2009) and two books on individual musicians from the Czech lands who spent most of their working lives in Slovenia. His study of Jana¤ c› ek's pupil Emerik Beran (2008) was reviewed in Music & Letters (90 (2009), 709^11); a more recent book, Hans Gerstner (1851^1939): Živl jenje za glasbo [A life for music], containing reminiscences of Gerstner's friend Gustav Mahler during his time in Ljubl jana, was published in 2010. The present study, which brings together all of this and a huge amount of cognate research, could easily have become just a minidictionary but instead takes a broader and more interesting view in an attempt to show the ways in which Czech musicians contributed to the musical development of the region. After sketching the historical and political background, Weiss describes the lives of the chief Czech musicians working in Slovenia in the first half of the nineteenth century, concentrating particularly on six musicians, including Racek's Dus|¤k. The rest of the book takes the story further into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with an account of the chief institutions of the period: the c› italnice ('reading halls') in Ljubl jana, Trieste, and


We have previously demonstrated that ovarian function and fertility can be preserved in sheep after castration by autotransplantation of cryopreserved strips of ovarian cortex. In the current experiments we have investigated the long term survival of such grafts by detailed measurements of ovarian function for a period of nearly 2 yr after autotransplantation. After ovariectomy and transplantation of frozen/thawed grafts, the concentrations of FSH and LH rose to castrate levels for about 14 weeks before falling gradually to reach near-normal levels at about 60 weeks. In the breeding season from October 1994 to March 1995, all ewes had 5-10 estrous cycles that were similar in length to those in the 4 control ewes. Luteal function as indicated by the progesterone concentration was identical before and 11 months after transplantation. In contrast, the basal concentrations of FSH and LH were persistently raised throughout the luteal phase, but showed a normal decline during the follicular phase. The concentration of inhibin A in ovarian venous plasma measured at the end of the experiment 22 months after transplantation was significantly lower than that in control ewes (mean +/- SE, 409 +/- 118 vs. 1914 +/- 555 pg/ml; P < 0.004). Transplantation of frozen/thawed ovarian tissue to SCID mice demonstrated that about 28% of primordial follicles survived the procedure. All of the ovaries transplanted into sheep contained large antral follicles and/or cysts, but very few primordial oocytes when recovered at autopsy after 22 months. These results demonstrate that despite a drastic reduction in the total number of primordial follicles, cyclical ovarian function is preserved in sheep after autotransplantation of frozen/thawed ovarian tissue and provide experimental confirmation that such a technique could provide a means of preserving fertility in women undergoing chemo- or radiotherapy for malignant disease.


Serious case reviews (SCRs) are local enquiries into the death or serious injury of a child where abuse or neglect are known or suspected. They are carried out under the auspices of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) so that lessons can be learnt locally. Every two years an overview analysis of these reviews throughout England has been commissioned to draw out themes and trends so that lessons learnt from these cases can inform both policy and practice. This is the 5th such biennial analysis of serious case reviews, and relates to incidents which occurred during the period April 2007 - March 2009 This report aims to collate and describe data from the child protection database reports on all notifications which progressed to a SCR during this two-year period, adapting the coding framework used in the 3rd and 4th biennial analyses. It also compares those notifications (of serious injuries or harm) which do and do not become a serious case review and analyses the data to produce descriptive statistics and findings in relation to initial themes and trends emerging from the database reports.


Three new complexes [Mo(η3-C3H5)Br(CO)2{iPrN=C(R)C5H4N}], where R = H (IMP = N-isopropyl 2-iminomethylpyridine), Me, and Ph, were synthesized and characterized, and were fluxional in solution. The most interesting feature was the presence, in the crystal structure of the IMP derivative, of the two main isomers (allyl and carbonyls exo), namely the equatorial isomer with the Br trans to the allyl and the equatorial with the Br trans to one carbonyl, the position trans to the allyl being occupied by the imine nitrogen atom. For the R = Me complex, the less common axial isomer was observed in the crystal. These complexes were immobilized in MCM-41 (MCM), following functionalization of the diimine ligands with Si(OEt)3, in order to study the catalytic activity in olefin epoxidation of similar complexes as homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. FTIR, 13C- and 29Si-NMR, elemental analysis, and adsorption isotherms showed that the complexes were covalently bound to the MCM walls. The epoxidation activity was very good in both catalysts for the cis-cyclooctene and cis-hex-3-en-1-ol, but modest for the other substrates tested, and no relevant differences were found between the complexes and the Mo-containing materials as catalysts.


ABSTRACT In the Mohr-Coulomb criterion, the shear strength of sands is typically characterized by the internal friction angle, which depends on many factors such as grain size and distribution, the mineralogical origin of the particles, particle shape, unit weight, geological history, cementation, saturation, and overburden pressure. In this study, the empirical relationships among three particle shape indices, different fractal dimension definitions, and internal friction angles were investigated. Within this context, direct shear tests were conducted on 38 different types of sands from different origins and with various grain sizes. For each type of sand, image analyses were performed to find out the roundness, sphericity, regularity parameters belonging to individual grains. Additionally, several statistics of these parameters for different types of sands were determined. The results revealed that particle shape has a limited effect on the friction angle of sands in comparison to grain size distribution. Furthermore, it was found that decreasing regularity in particle shape caused an increase in the internal friction angle of uniform sands. These findings agree with the empirical relationship between the internal friction angle and particle shape suggested in the literature.


Absence epilepsy characterized by sudden and brief unconsciousness is a form of idiopathic generalized epilepsy that occurs in childhood. In this study, 104 Wag/Rij male rats were used. Animals were divided into 13 groups, oxytocine 80 nmol/kg, valproic acid 300 mg/kg, ethosuximide 200 mg/kg, magnesium sulfate 600 mg/kg, methylprednisolone 20 mg/kg and double-triple combination of these chemicals were intraperitoneally given to the groups. In all one drug administered groups, we recorded significant decrease in mean SWD. In addition to this, we observed a stronger reduction in mean SWD when the drugs were combined with oxytocine in double combination groups. For triple combination groups, when methylprednisolone was added to the groups, larger changes were seen in mean SWD (p<0.05). We conclude that oxytocine decrease the number of absence seizures, and the combination of oxytocin with other drugs increase anti-epileptic effects of the drugs.


This study aimed at adapting and validating the Staats Hope Index for Brazilian adolescents. Participants were 450 high school students aged from 14 to 18 years old being 56% females. They responded to the Staats Hope Index, Adult Dispositional Hope Scale, Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. A factor analysis extracted two factors, replicating the structure of the original scale. Coefficients alphas were .83 and .81, for each factor, respectively. The correlations of the Hope Index factors with dispositional hope, optimism and self-esteem were similar to the findings reported in the literature and indicated convergent validity. The results indicate that the Hope Index is valid to be used in Brazil and that hope is perceived similarly by Brazilians and Americans despite of some cultural differences.


We present a unified method, termed Unicorn, that can simultaneously solve four tracking problems (SOT, MOT, VOS, MOTS) with a single network using the same model parameters. Due to the fragmented definitions of the object tracking problem itself, most existing trackers are developed to address a single or part of tasks and overspecialize on the characteristics of specific tasks. By contrast, Unicorn provides a unified solution, adopting the same input, backbone, embedding, and head across all tracking tasks. For the first time, we accomplish the great unification of the tracking network architecture and learning paradigm. Unicorn performs on-par or better than its task-specific counterparts in 8 tracking datasets, including LaSOT, TrackingNet, MOT17, BDD100K, DAVIS16-17, MOTS20, and BDD100K MOTS. We believe that Unicorn will serve as a solid step towards the general vision model. Code is available at https://github.com/MasterBin-IIAU/Unicorn.


The time dependence of the changes in the emission spectra of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 after Deep Impact is derived and discussed. This was a unique event because for the first time it gave astronomers the opportunity to follow the time history of the formation and decay of O(1S), OH, CN, C2, C3, NH, and NH2. Least-squares fits of a modified Haser model with constraints using known rate constants were fit to the observed data. In the case of OH, a simple two-step Haser model provides a reasonable fit to the observations. Fitting the emissions from O(1S), CN, C2, C3, NH, and NH2 requires the addition of a delayed component to a regular two- or three-step Haser model. From this information, a picture of the Deep Impact encounter emerges where there is an initial formation of gas and dust, which is responsible for the prompt emission that occurs right after impact. A secondary source of gas starts later after impact when the initial dust has dissipated enough so that solar radiation can reach the surface of freshly exposed material. The implications of this and other results are discussed in terms of the structure and composition of the comet's nucleus.


The purpose of this descriptive and analytic study is to investigate the effect on anxiety levels of nurses' empathic tendency after experiencing death of patients in the paediatric intensive care unit. No sampling method was used in this study, and all 58 nurses working in the paediatric intensive care unit that agreed to participate in the study were included. The score mean of Empathic Tendency Scale for nurses was 77.43 ± 4.55, their score mean of trait anxiety inventory was 39.82 ± 5.53 and their score mean of state anxiety inventory was 48.03 ± 6.80. This study concluded that nurses had a mild trait anxiety level under normal conditions and experienced moderate anxiety levels when faced with death. This study concluded that the empathic tendency of nurses working in the paediatric intensive care unit had no effect on their anxiety levels when faced with death; however, the anxiety level of nurses decreased as their empathic trends increased.


It has been reported that non-articulatory visual cues to prosody tend to align with auditory cues, emphasizing auditory events that are in close alignment (visual alignment hypothesis). We investigated the temporal relationship between visual and auditory prosodic cues in a large corpus of utterances to determine the extent to which non-articulatory visual prosodic cues align with auditory ones. Six speakers saying 30 sentences in three prosodic conditions (x2 repetitions) were recorded in a dialogue exchange task, to measure how often eyebrow movements and rigid head tilts aligned with auditory prosodic cues, the temporal distribution of such movements, and the variation across prosodic conditions. The timing of brow raises and head tilts were not aligned with auditory cues, and the occurrence of visual cues was inconsistent, lending little support for the visual alignment hypothesis. Different types of visual cues may combine with auditory cues in different ways to signal prosody.


It is strange, Stevan Davies points out, that while virtually all those engaged in research into the historical Jesus presuppose that Jesus was a teacher and that all his actions were part of a teaching ministry, they are also largely agreed that it is almost impossible to discover precisely what he taught. Moreover,many of these scholars are also themselves teachers. So might there not be a good deal of the 'Jesus in our image', which Albert Schweitzer brilliantly criticized, in their approach? Fully aware of the problems associated with the quest, he therefore sets out to see Jesus rather as primarily a spirit-possessed healer and an exorcist of demon-possessed people. This new approach, made in the light of contemporary anthropological and psychological studies, sheds fascinating new light on the tradition of the Synoptic Gospels, and can also be extended fruitfully into the writings of Paul and John, with striking results. Even those who feel that there are already an excessive number of books about Jesus will not find this new study one too many. 'Stevan Davies offers a fascinating reading of the Gospels that takes serious account of their descriptions of Jesus as a spirit-filled exorcist and healer. This is a provocative work which I certainly intend to assign for my course in the New Testament' (Elaine Pagels). 'The Jesus-quest has spawned a number of seminal studies,but none more brilliant, surprising, and engaging than this one. Davies is able to reclaim as authentic large swathes of Jesus tradition previously regarded by scholars as late additions. The work is a tour de force that opens a whole new vista on Jesus and his followers' (Walter Wink). Stevan L. Davies is a Professor of Religious Studies


Evolutionary and developmental processes are used to evolve the configurations of 3-D structures in silico to achieve desired performances. Natural systems utilize the combination of both evolution and development processes to produce remarkable performance and diversity. However, this approach has not yet been applied extensively to the design of continuous 3-D load-supporting structures. Beginning with a single artificial cell containing information analogous to a DNA sequence, a structure is grown according to the rules encoded in the sequence. Each artificial cell in the structure contains the same sequence of growth and development rules, and each artificial cell is an element in a finite element mesh representing the structure of the mature individual. Rule sequences are evolved over many generations through selection and survival of individuals in a population. Modularity and symmetry are visible in nearly every natural and engineered structure. An understanding of the evolution and expression of symmetry and modularity is emerging from recent biological research. Initial evidence of these attributes is present in the phenotypes that are developed from the artificial evolution, although neither characteristic is imposed nor selected-for directly. The computational evolutionary development approach presented here shows promise for synthesizing novel configurations of high-performance systems. The approach may advance the system design to a new paradigm, where current design strategies have difficulty producing useful solutions.


Background Dermal backflow (DBF), which refers to lymphatic reflux due to lymphatic valve insufficiency, is a diagnostic finding in lymphedema. However, the three-dimensional structure of DBF remains unknown. Photoacoustic lymphangiography (PAL) is a new technique that enables the visualization of the distribution of light-absorbing molecules, such as hemoglobin or indocyanine green (ICG), and can provide three-dimensional images of superficial lymphatic vessels and the venous system. This study reports the use of PAL to visualize DBF structures in the extremities of patients with lymphedema after cancer surgery. Methods Patients with a clinical or lymphographic diagnosis of lymphedema who previously underwent surgery for cancer at one of two participating hospitals were included in this study. PAL was performed using the PAI-05 system. ICG was administered subcutaneously in the affected hand or foot, and ICG fluorescence lymphography was performed using a nearinfrared camera system prior to PAL. Results Between April 2018 and January 2019, 21 patients were enrolled and examined using PAL. The DBF was composed of dense, interconnecting, three-dimensional lymphatic vessels. It was classified into three patterns according to the composition of the lymphatic vessels: a linear structure of lymphatic collectors (pattern 1), a network of lymphatic capillaries and lymphatic collectors in an underlying layer (pattern 2), and lymphatic capillaries and precollectors with no lymphatic collectors (pattern 3). Conclusions PAL showed the structure of DBF more precisely than ICG fluorescence lymphography. The use of PAL to visualize DBF assists in understanding the pathophysiology and assessing the severity of cancer-related lymphedema.


The rotational dynamics of a disc-shaped permanent magnet rotor levitated over a high temperature superconductor was studied experimentally and theoretically. The interaction between the rotor magnet and the superconductor was modelled by assuming the magnet to be a magnetic dipole and the superconductor a diamagnet. In the magnetomechanical analysis of the superconductor part, the frozen image concept was combined with the diamagnetic image, and the damping in the system was neglected. The interaction potential of the system is the combination of magnetic and gravitational potentials. From the dynamical analysis the equations of motion of the permanent magnet were stated as a function of lateral, vertical, tilt, precision and rotating angles. The vibration behaviour and correlation of the vibration of one direction with that of another were determined with a numerical calculation based on the Runge–Kutta method. The various vibrational frequencies identified were vertical, radial, tilt, precession and rotation. The tests performed for experimental verifications were translational and rotational. The permanent magnet was 'spun up' under vacuum conditions to analyse the dynamics of the free 'spin down' behaviour of the permanent magnet.


Handwritten Word Recognition and Spotting is a challenging field dealing with handwritten text possessing irregular and complex shapes. The design of deep neural network models makes it necessary to extend training datasets in order to introduce variations and increase the number of samples; word-retrieval is therefore very difficult in low-resource scripts. Much of the existing literature comprises preprocessing strategies which are seldom sufficient to cover all possible variations. We propose an Adversarial Feature Deformation Module (AFDM) that learns ways to elastically warp extracted features in a scalable manner. The AFDM is inserted between intermediate layers and trained alternatively with the original framework, boosting its capability to better learn highly informative features rather than trivial ones. We test our meta-framework, which is built on top of popular word-spotting and word-recognition frameworks and enhanced by AFDM, not only on extensive Latin word datasets but also on sparser Indic scripts. We record results for varying sizes of training data, and observe that our enhanced network generalizes much better in the low-data regime; the overall word-error rates and mAP scores are observed to improve as well.


High-quality GaN films were grown on AlN/c-sapphire templates by MOVPE with Hall mobility of 802 cm2/V.s and carrier concentration of 8.1x1016/cm3 at 300K have achieved. The film low dislocation density of 5x107 cm-2 and X-ray rocking curve FWHM of 101 and 250 arcsec for the (0004) and (20-24) reflections were also obtained, respectively.


We offer a barrier model of growth with a broader understanding of the sources of productivity growth. Organizational change is suggested as an alternative to innovation and technology adoption. Domestic and international barriers (related to the level of human capital and the trade share) determine the timing and pace of technological catch-up, and as opposed to the catchingup hypothesis backward economies may get stuck in a poverty trap. Growth in lagging economies is not driven by adoption of foreign technology due to inappropriateness. The large technological distance forces the economy to rely more on own productivity improvements through organizational change. Trade liberalization in backward economies does not give the expected boost to productivity growth, because of low capability to take advantage of the frontier technology. Economies can escape the poverty trap by reducing trade barriers, but the benefits from an open economy is highest in middle-income economies, which have both the potential and capability to adopt foreign technology.


Doubts about the reliability of the AASHTO model for predicting rigid pavement joint openings have arisen from a number of researchers on the basis of the observation of significant differences in average in situ measurements from AASHTO predictions. Considerable variation of the magnitude of the joint movements in a given pavement section has also been noted. Previous attempts to determine a linear relationship between joint movement and temperature change could not provide a statistically sound linear relationship because of considerable unexplained scattering. Understanding the patterns of in situ joint movement for various pavement conditions provides valuable information for understanding the cause of the persistent controversy over the effectiveness of joint sealing and its effects on pavement performance and provides many of the necessary inputs for development of a reliable probabilistic joint movement prediction method. A systematic procedure to analyze joint movement data is suggested. Based on the suggested method, the effective ratios of joint movement to change in temperature for 16 pavement sections included in the long-term performance pavement seasonal monitoring program are presented. The causes of scattering and erratic movements are identified and isolated, and a strong linear relationship has been obtained.


Lithology estimation is an important application of converted-wave data, especially is applied to sand-shale system. Husky Energy Inc.'s Ross Lake oilfield, located in south-western Saskatchewan, Canada, is a channel sand reservoir. Multi-component 3D seismic data, walkaway VSP, and well logs are used to further refine assessment of the reservoir. The far-offset VSP is used to identify the events on PS seismic section and provide a bridge to correlate PP and PS seismic data. From vertical-source and horizontal-source zero-offset VSP, the interval Vp/Vs in well 11-25 is calculated. This in turn allowed us to estimate an S-velocity log by dividing the P-velocity log by the derived Vp/Vs curve. A resultant PS synthetic seismogram increased the confidence of PS seismic event identification gave a guide to picking PS horizons which correspond to same geological formation as PP horizons. Combining PP and PS time thickness maps, a Vp/Vs map between horizons surrounding the reservoir suggests a shale-cut or shaly part within the target sand body. This interpretation is supported by horizontal well results. Other anomalies from the Vp/Vs map suggest further drilling targets.


A comparative-embryological study (223 fetuses of man, cat, dog, albino rat and mole) has established a similarity in the development and structure of the intermediate nerve in mammalia. The nerve under study represents a complex structural-functional system. Its afferent component includes a geniculate ganglion, a nucleus of the solitary tract, root, peripheral branches. A superior salivary nucleus, a root, pterygopalatine, submandibular, sublingual and auricular (in man) parasympathetic ganglia of the head, peripheral branches. The intermediate nerve fibers are included as additional sources in branches of other cranial nerves, vegetative ganglia and plexuses being spread on a considerable territory of the head. The intermediate nerve is an isolated anatomical structure and deserves being detached into a separate pair of cranial nerves.


This commentary on mediating multiculturally in a chapter of Mediation Ethics (edited by Ellen Waldman) suggests there are times when mediators should not mediate, because of their own ethical commitments. Commenting on a hypothetical divorce scenario (of Ziba, a 17 year old from her 44 year old husband, with two children aged 3 and 2, where the parties claim to want Shari'a principles to apply), the author (Carrie Menkel-Meadow) suggests that she would not mediate a case which might violate formal laws (American marriage and divorce laws) or infringe on rights that one of the parties might not be fully aware of. A variety of sources of ethics, including formal law, legal and mediation ethical rules, and personal ethical commitments may structure how mediators choose whether to take a case, educate the parties about their rights, make a referral, or how to mediate if complex (and different for each of the parties and/or the mediator) legal, moral, religious and cultural values are at stake. The chapter contains contrasting views expressed by two different mediators, with summary and commentary by the book's editor.


Social movements have long since been a staple in civic life with each new generation presenting new tactics and means for engagement. The introduction of Black Lives Matter in 2014 brought racial disparities at the hands of law enforcement in the US to the attention of thousands of people around the world through their use of social media and their protests which were heavily followed around the world. Whilst studies have looked into how the movement's usage of social media has been pivotal to their growth,and how it has encouraged political participation in a new generation, researchers are yet to delve into the mechanics of the movement and how this is received on a larger scale. Furthermore, how those who have different lived experiences contextualise their support or disagreement of the movement given their difference in cultural context and history of racial tension.This study looks to explore the perception of a globally recognised movement outside of its home, the USA, by taking into consideration where the advocacy is happening and how/why people participate on different levels. This perspective is key in beginning to understand how individuals arrive at various conclusions,and how that journey towards arriving at their conclusions have been influenced along the way. The results of this research project were gathered through the use of a quantative and qualitative survey of 383 people from countries outside of the US, mainly Europe and the UK. The results found that the majority of respondents questioned whether Black Lives Matter as it stands,was relevant in their country, with many calling for a more inclusive movement and therefore, messaging, that extends to other minorities that are thought to receive the same level of injustice (if not more so) than black people with an emphasis on minorities such as Arabs, Gypsies, Jews, Muslims and Turks. The findings from this research create opportunities for future researchers to explore how movements embed their cause and messaging in countries that have different cultural and historical context in order to gain allies/sympathisers, how different information sources influence how people add context to their beliefs and how the decentralised nature of the movement has had an impact on the way they are received.


ABSTRACT The Windyfield chert site is located 700 m NE of the original Rhynie chert locality at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Originally identified by concentrations of surface float material, a drilling and trenching programme of the area in 1997 revealed a chert 'pod' in situ interbedded with fluvial/lacustrine sandstones and hydrothermally altered shales. Chert morphologies identified from float blocks and trench material range from tabular beds to lenticular pods displaying massive, nodular, laminated and brecciated fabrics, and geyserite splash textures. A suite of floral and faunal associations, when combined with distinctive macro- and microscopic chert textures, has been used to interpret depositional conditions. Palaeoenvironments ranged from terrestrial laminated, brecciated and vegetated sinter sheets to low-temperature pools and marginal aquatic settings. The flora comprises six higher land plant species, nematophytes, charophytes, various fungi and probable cyanobacteria. Arthropods include branchiopod crustaceans, a euthycarcinoid, trigonotarbid arachnids, centipedes, eoarthropleurids and a possible hexapod. The biota of the Windyfield chert is closely comparable to that found in the Rhynie chert. Together, the Windyfield and Rhynie cherts contain the most diverse associated fossil arthropod fauna of terrestrial and freshwater origin from rocks of comparable age anywhere in the world.


According to the 'doing well by doing good' proposition, firms have a corporate social responsibility to achieve some larger social goals, and can do so without a financial sacrifice. This research note empirically examines this proposition by studying in depth the case of 'Fair & Lovely,' a skin whitening cream marketed by Unilever in many countries in Asia and Africa, and, in particular, India. Fair & Lovely is indeed doing well; it is a profitable and fast-growing brand. It is, however, not doing good, and I demonstrate its negative implications for public welfare. I conclude with thoughts on how to reconcile this divergence between private profits and public welfare. Copyright  2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Executive summary For developed countries, environmental focus has shifted from pollution prevention to sustainable development. It has been realized in the paving industry that preventive maintenance of existing roadways is the most financially effecthe use of available resources. Surface treatments applied to an existing pavement or preventive maintenance are the most signification of polymer-modified asphalt emulsions. They are economical, easy to place, resist traffic abrasion and provide a long-lasting waterproof cover over the underlying structure. Chip seal, slurry seal and microsurfacing are examples of asphalt emulsion-based surface treatment techniques. Researchers at the University of Florida have observed changes in pavement distress mechanisms, wich maybe related to changes in historical tire type and structure. Newer radial tires, as opposed to bias-ply tires, induce high transverse contact stresses on pavements, resulting in high near-surface lateral stresses, which cause longitudinal surface cracking and near-surface rutting and shoving. These transverse contact stresses generated by radial tires could be confined within a preventive maintenance surface treatment layer. To prevent aggregate loss from the surface treatment, the asphalt binder holding the aggregate in place has to withstand excess transverse stresses generated by radial truck tires and snowplow operations. A new Dynamic Shear Rheometry procedure was developed to evaluate potential reduction in the strength of the asphalt emulsion residue under repeated high-strain deformation. Results obtained with this procedure demonstrate advantages of the SBR latex polymer-modified asphalt emulsion fen improved aggregate retention and early strength development.


Teacher effectiveness has a positive influence on student achievement and learning (Heck, 2009). Consequently, there is considerable value in better understanding the potential skills that can help make teachers more effective. For physical educators, it has been suggested that strategic use of mental imagery could be associated with teacher effectiveness (Hall, 2012) but minimal research has examined this with the general PE teacher population. This study investigated PE teacher's perceptions and use of imagery as part of teaching. Furthermore, this study sought to establish possible associations between PE teacher characteristics (e.g., grade level taught; years experience; gender; teacher education) and teacher's use of imagery. A total of 150 Canadian PE teachers (76 male, 70 female, 4 undeclared; M years-experience = 12.9) completed the Imagery Use by PE Teachers Survey. The survey focused on PE teacher's perceived frequency of imagery use based around common teaching behaviours (e.g., planning; assessment; skill development). Results demonstrated that the majority of teachers (68.5%) believed imagery was extremely important as an aid for performing various teaching behaviours, with the largest number of teachers (n=125) indicating they use imagery to help teach specific physical skills, and also for personal reflection (n=108). Yet, 78.5% of teachers reported most commonly using imagery prior to delivering a lesson. Teaching experience and education were both found to be significantly associated with imagery use perceptions of PE teachers. These findings suggest that imagery is a skill PE teachers are employing, however not all PE teachers use it equally or for the same purposes.Acknowledgments: University of Winnipeg Major Research Grant


In this groundbreaking book, James Cahill expands the field of Chinese pictorial art history, opening both scholarly studies and popular appreciation to vernacular paintings, 'pictures for use and pleasure'. These were works commissioned and appreciated during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the non-elites of Chinese society, including women. Traditional Chinese collectors, like present-day scholars of Chinese painting, have favored the 'literati' paintings of the Chinese male elite, disparaging vernacular works, often intended as decorations or produced to mark a special occasion. Cahill challenges the dominant dogma and doctrine of the literati, showing how the vernacular images, both beautiful and appealing, strengthen our understanding of High Qing culture. They bring to light the Qing or Manchu emperors' fascination with erotic culture in the thriving cities of the Yangtze Delta and demonstrate the growth of figure painting in and around Beijing's imperial court. They also revise our understanding of gender roles and show how Chinese artists made use of European styles. By introducing a large, rich body of works, "Pictures for Use and Pleasure" opens new windows on later Chinese life and society.


To improve the optimization performance of multi-objective particle swarm optimization, a new sub-swarm method, where the particles are divided into several sub-swarms, is proposed. To enhance the quality of the Pareto front set, a new adaptive sharing scheme, which depends on the distances from nearest neighbouring individuals, is proposed and applied. In this method, the first sub-swarms particles dynamically search their corresponding areas which are around some points of the Pareto front set in the objective space, and the chosen points of the Pareto front set are determined based on the adaptive sharing scheme. The second sub-swarm particles search the rest objective space, and they are away from the Pareto front set, which can promote the global search ability of the method. Moreover, the core points of the first sub-swarms are dynamically determined by this new adaptive sharing scheme. Some Simulations are used to test the proposed method, and the results show that the proposed method can achieve better optimization performance comparing with some existing methods.


The creation of interactive virtual reality (VR) applications from 3D scanned content usually includes a lot of manual and repetitive work. Our research aim is to develop agents that recognize objects to enhance the creation of interactive VR applications. We trained partition agents in our superpoint growing environment that we extended with an expert function. This expert function solves the sparse reward signal problem of the previous approaches and enables to use a variant of imitation learning and deep reinforcement learning with dense feedback. Additionally, the function allows to calculate a performance metric for the degree of imitation for different partitions. Furthermore, we introduce an environment to optimize the superpoint generation. We trained our agents with 1182 scenes of the ScanNet data set. More specifically, we trained different neural network architectures with 1170 scenes and tested their performance with 12 scenes. Our intermediate results are promising such that our partition system might be able to assist the VR application development from 3D scanned content in near future.


This report clarifies the interaction of surface charge-modified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with phospholipid membranes, which is helpful to understand the antibacterial mechanism of positive charge-modified AuNPs to Gram-negative bacteria. Although the simulated bacterial cell membranes as a whole are negatively charged, the local electrostatic repulsive interaction between the positive charge-coated AuNPs and the small-sized flexible cationic head group of dioleyl phosphatidylethanolamine molecules induces the phase transformation of the simulated bacterial cell membranes from a lamellar to an inverted hexagonal phase. Transmembrane pores with a diameter of about 3.0 nm in the inverted hexagonal structure would result in the destruction of cell membrane function. Such an interaction of positive charge-modified AuNPs with the membrane mimics provides a promising route to develop new antibacterial agents by modifying positive charges on the surface of nanoparticles.


The article presents a doctor–patient relationship model based on the assumptions of a holistic approach to the patient. The author draws attention to selected patients' needs, ones taken into account in this model. These are the right to autonomy and an individualised approach to the patient. These issues, considered in relation to philosophy, show a conflict between patients' values and aspirations and doctors' values and their experience. Nowadays, patients' needs are protected by consumer rights as well as being strengthened by postmodern philosophy, which shapes society's awareness of various definitions of health and underlines the right of the indi‐ vidual to self ‐determination. This situation creates an incredible challenge for doctors because attempts to assist is, according to medical knowledge, associated with an inevitable collision with the subjective perception of a patient's health. Because of this issue, the author consid‐ ers it necessary to enquire about the needs and aspirations of not so much patients as doctors themselves. It is assumed that the definition of what is currently important for this group determines the scope of any possible admission or intentional ignorance of patients' needs.


This thesis aimed to investigate the role of dissociation on the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis in an early psychosis cohort. We found that a substantial minority of those diagnosed with first episode psychosis also had a co-occurring dissociative disorder or clinically significant dissociative symptoms and these were more frequent in those with a history of trauma. Furthermore, we found that dissociation mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and delusional ideation. Our findings have significant implications for how complex psychological constructs are measured in future research and for the assessment and management of dissociative symptoms in early psychosis treatment settings.


Stream-flow and storm-flow in four small catchments were analysed by the paired catchment method for a response to fire . Two of the catchments were vegetated with over-mature fynbos (the indigenous scrub vegetation of the south-western Cape Province, South Africa) , one was afforested to Pinus radiata and the fourth to Eucalyptus fastigata . One of the fynbos catchments was burned in a prescribed fire in the late dry season. The other catchments burned in wildfires. Neither of the fynbos catchments showed a change in storm-flows. Annual total flow increases of around 16% were in line with predictions, being related to the reductions in transpiration and interception. The manner of stream-flow and storm-flow generation appeared to have remained unaltered despite the fire . The two timber plantation catchments experienced large and significant increases in stormflow and sediment yields , while total flow increased by 12% in the pine catchment and decreased marginally in the eucalypt catchment. After fire , storm hydrographs were higher and steeper though their duration was little changed . These fire effects are considered to be due to changes in storm-flow generation consistent with an increased delivery of overland flow to the stream channel. This was caused , in part, by reduced infiltration resulting from water repellency in the soils of the burned catchments. The inherent wettability of a wide range of soil types and textures from beneath timber plantations and other vegetation types over a broad geographic distribution in South Africa was measured by fou r methods. Soils with high repellency ratings, unrelated to fire , are common and are most likely to occur beneath plantations of Eucalyptus and Acacia spp. and indigenous forest. Water repellent soils played a ro le, at two of the three locations, in the generation of overland flow from small plots exposed to simulated rainfall. However, the inherent repellency of the dry soils was extreme, such that fire-induced water repellency was not a factor in the response of the plots. The important role of fire in this experiment was in burning-off of repellency in the surface layer of the soil and in removing ground cover.


Overlap-blur is caused by the relative movement of high speed between the camera and the object during the exposure process, which is one of the most common phenomenons of image degradation during the criminal detection forensics work. Based on the analysis of the overlap-blurred image's characteristic, a coded-shutter model is proposed to approximate the nature of overlap-blur. As the first attempt, using the coded-shutter model, an image deblurring algorithm is designed for the restoration of the overlap-blurred images. The experiment results show the validity and rationality of the coded-shutter model for deblurring the overlap-blurred images. When tested on the real overlap-blurred photographs, the proposed algorithm can restore the information of interest in the blurred images better, which demonstrates the higher practical value of the algorithm.


The development of active hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts for use in anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs), which are free from platinum group metals (PGMs), is expected to bring this technology one step closer to commercial applications. This paper reports our recent progress developing HOR Pt-free and PGM-free catalysts (Pd/CeO2 and NiCo/C, respectively), and ORR PGM-free Co3O4 for AEMFCs. The catalysts were prepared by different synthesis techniques and characterized by both physical-chemical and electrochemical methods. A hydrothermally synthesized Co3O4 + C composite ORR catalyst used in combination with Pt/C as HOR catalyst shows good H2/O2 AEMFC performance (peak power density of ~388 mW cm−2), while the same catalyst coupled with our flame spray pyrolysis synthesised Pd/CeO2 anode catalysts reaches peak power densities of ~309 mW cm−2. Changing the anode to nanostructured NiCo/C catalyst, the performance is significantly reduced. This study confirms previous conclusions, that is indeed possible to develop high performing AEMFCs free from Pt; however, the challenge to achieve completely PGM-free AEMFCs still remains.


In this paper, we consider using actors to maintain the quality of sensing in the wireless sensor networks. Due to factors such as battery drainage or physical malfunctions, the number of available sensors normally decreases over time after initial deployment, resulting in performance degradation. To maintain the quality of sensing in the network, actors can be used to allocate spare sensors to sensor-deficient regions (sensor allocation) or to relocate sensors from sensor-abundant regions to sensor-deficient regions (sensor relocation). We first focus on the sensor allocation problem. We introduce a baseline centralized greedy algorithm (GA) for sensor allocation, where global sensor information is communicated to obtain the optimal solution. As GA is only efficient for small networks, we proceed to design a distributed patrolling algorithm for achieving global optimization (DPAG) by using only local information. We then extend our work to the application scenario of sensor relocation by proposing a modified GA and DPAG (M-GA and M-DPAG), respectively. Extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithms.


Genetic Algorithm is one of famous algorithm and often used in many sector. Usually genetic algoritm is used in solution searching about complex problems. Pencak silat macth scheduling is a complex scheduling and needs a lot of time to made it. Objective this research implements a genetic algorithm as an algorithm which can solve the problem of pencak silat  macth scheduling and can satisfy all of hard constraint and minimize soft constraint. In this research genetic algorithm roles as algorithm which solves pencak silat mach scheduling problems in Pimda 02 Tak Suci Bantul. Population which produced by genetic algorithm represents solution alternatives which offered. Best chromosome in a population represents macth scheduling solution. This solution is sequence of match partai based on rules of pencak silat match scheduling. This research produces best fitness value ever in each generation is 1. More and more chromosom number and more and more generation number will make batter solution and batter fitness value. This research is expected helping pencak silat match committes make a pencak silat schedule in pencak silat championship.


No study of religious practice, ancient or modern, is complete without reference to the work of sociologists on religious practice. This set explores the social, economic and behavioural contexts of religious activity. It includes volumes by key anthropologist Werner Stark and economist Frank Knight.


Venlafaxine (VEN) and its metabolite O‐desmethylvenlafaxine (ODV) inhibit reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine. This study examines whether VEN is differentially distributed in postmortem brain and examines relationships between brain and femoral blood concentrations from donors prescribed VEN for treatment of depression. Using high‐pressure liquid chromatography‐ultraviolet detection, VEN and ODV concentrations were measured in temporal, occipital, and cerebellar cortex of six postmortem brains. The ODV/VEN ratio was calculated as a relative measure of drug metabolism within each region where higher ratios indicated a greater conversion of VEN to ODV. Compared to the other regions examined, the cerebellum showed decreased VEN (p = 0.056), ODV (p = 0.006), and ODV/VEN (p = 0.027) ratios. In parts per million, VEN was higher in temporal and occipital cortex, but not cerebellum, as compared to femoral blood concentration. These observations suggest that VEN and ODV are differentially distributed in the brain, and metabolism of VEN to ODV may vary across brain regions.


Purpose: The introduced article aims at elaborating effective solutions in terms of designing and constructing buildings and objects of a regional logistics center serviced by a 3-4 PL-level provider taking into account practical experience in the design, construction and maintenance of logistics storage and products processing terminals that have been built. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research of the principles of designing logistics centers substantiates the necessity of revealing and working on technological trends in the development of internal logistics along with research and development, infrastructural, planning restrictions, capacity, reserve options. Findings: The best available equipment with the unlimited wide set of features is insufficient; each of these features needs to be applied in the working process as a single supply chain of consecutive actions. Practical implications: The findings of this paper can be used in the practical activities of regional and federal logistics enterprises, by public and commercial entities, in the administrative activities of enterprises and organizations. Originality/value: This research bears its determining significance in its effectiveness of practical functioning of logistics centers.


Grafting is used as a common tool to increase tolerance of vegetables against biotic and abiotic stresses. However, grafted organic seedling production is not present in Turkey. This study was conducted to determine the crop performance of organically grown grafted tomato and watermelon seedlings. Rootstock and scion seeds of both species were sown in vermicompost:local peat (1:1.5 v/v) mixture. After germination in growth chamber (24/24°C, 80% relative humidity (RH) for 3 days), plants were moved to a greenhouse. When seedlings had 3-4 fully opened leaves, tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) scion 'Melis' were grafted with tube grafting method on two interspesific (L. esculentum × L. hirsutum) rootstocks, 'Beaufort' and 'Sarafin'; watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) scion 'Asbal' was grafted with slide cut grafting method on three rootstocks, 'Argenterio' (Lageneria siceraria), 'Jumbo' (Cucurbita maxima) and 'Flexifort' (C. maxima × C. moschata). Self-grafted seedlings were used as control. Grafted seedlings were left in a healing unit at 24-26°C, 80-90% RH, 16 h LED lighting/8 h dark for 10 days. Seedlings were placed again into greenhouse after healing for adaptation and watermelon and tomato grafted seedlings stayed there 14 and 21 day, respectively. Ten seedlings from each replicates were harvested from for seedling performance (root, rootstock and scion length, root and shoot diameter, shoot and root fresh and dry weight). It was concluded that among the tested rootstocks, 'Beaufort' for tomato and 'Flexifort' for watermelon were found more appropriate as rootstock compared to the others due to the higher performance in root and stem length and diameter of rootstocks and scions and shoot and root fresh and dry weights.


An investigation about the robust estimation of a class of systems with noise coupling input saturation is presented in this study. In general, the existed estimation algorithm is based on the exactly known of the input saturation, but in fact, this is not always true in some practical cases because of the coupling of input saturations and input noises. For treating these kinds of coupling problems in the state estimations of systems, in this study, one fuzzy-based robust estimation algorithm is proposed. The proposed robust estimator includes two parts: firstly, a regression form fuzzy system that is adopted to approximate the unknown input saturation, and then, a robust estimator that combines the above fuzzy system by robust filter design concept for eliminating the effects of noises and modeling uncertainties is proposed. This combination of fuzzy approach and robust filtering technologies successfully offers one a more simple and practical method for treating the estimation problem of a class of systems that input saturations and input noises couple together.


Feral cats devastate the Australian landscape and have been linked to a number of species extinctions through either predation or spread of diseases. Soft-catch leg-hold traps are routinely used to capture feral cats for research purposes or control, however by-catch is likely. Examination of by-catch data provided for six sites in Western Australia during the period 1997-2014 identified variability in by-catch across sites. This was attributed to differences in climate and landscape, the likely abundance of introduced predators prior to trapping and the experience of the trappers affecting when, where and how traps were set. Olfactory lures affected the taxonomy (with the exception of birds) of by-catch; reptiles were attracted to the PONGO lure (mix containing predator urine and faeces) used, but mammals were repelled. Reptiles may associate strong odours with food, while the mammals were cautious of the predatory species' scent. Non-native by-catch were injured in traps less than the native by-catch most likely because they were generally better able to withstand the pressure from closing jaws. Amongst the native fauna; birds were more likely to be severely injured due to their morphology, behaviour and weight; amongst non-avian fauna species, the larger the captured individuals, the less likely they were to be injured due to their ability to better withstand the trap pressure. Injury to by-catch species poses animal ethics concerns, as approval to trap may be denied based on frequency and severity of injury to native and target species alike. It also raises concern for species of conservation significance that already have dwindling populations, such as the woylie, and can least afford the added threat from trapping. Future trapping exercises should proceed cautiously, with care taken in the timing of trapping, the placement of traps and the setting of traps (especially the treadle pressure needed to close the trap) to minimise the chance of by-catch and potential mortality. Additionally, by-catch welfare reports should be routinely prepared and examined to ensure best practice and on-going improvement.


Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is frequently used in the characterization of thin films, coatings, diffusion processes, materials composition and in the analysis of implants. The SIMS technique has been continuously developed for more than 30 years. One of the main drivers was semiconductor technology. Standard implants in Si like B, As and P, implanted with a few keV to MeV energy are routinely measured with high precision. But nowadays with implant energies of 500 eV and below, when ultra shallow structures are examined, the desired information is in the first few nm to some tens of nm. This has a great impact on the analytical requirements and quantification procedures. Some of these aspects will be examined in this contribution.


Recently a requirements analyst told me that be was far too busy to read anything except technical books and articles; after all, isn't that how we improve our skill? But requirements are concerned with much more than technical solutions, and building successful products depends on being able to broadly view the world and the people in it. You can improve your ability to communicate by reading as much as you can about diverse subjects. The author explains how this exogenous attitude enhances our systems requirements skills.


The human learning and rewards system is comprised of a number of cortical and subcortical neural regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, and anterior cingulate. While modern neural imaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional positron emission tomography (PET) can successfully detect the activity of these regions, they cannot discern temporal activation patterns, due to the slow onset of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) effect. Magnetoencephalographic imaging (MEG) is able to capture these temporal patterns but traditionally has been unable to detect activity originating from the deeper regions of the brain due to signal attenuation and high noise levels. The recently published exSSS method has shown significant promise extracting deep signals from MEG data. To elicit appropriate subcortical activity we utilized a previously published gambling task. This paradigm has been shown to differentially activate a number of subcortical regions within the rewards system, including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), striatum, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), based on reward-related feedback. MEG analysis using source localization methods in conjunction with source signal reconstruction techniques yielded neural activation time courses for each of the regions of interest. Granger causality was used to identify the temporal relationships between each of these regions, and a possible functional connectivity map is presented. The behavioral paradigm was replicated using functional magnetic resonance imaging. fMRI activity patterns were similar to those previously reported in the literature using this paradigm. Additionally, the fMRI activation patterns were similar to those obtained via MEG source reconstruction of the exSSS-processed data. Our results support the literature finding that the rewards network is differentially activated based on feedback. Additionally, these results demonstrate the efficacy of the exSSS signal processing method for extracting deep activity, and suggest a possible use for MEG in the imaging of deep activity using other behavioral paradigms.


This work introduces FINkNN, a k-nearest-neighbor classifier operating over the metric lattice of conventional interval-supported convex fuzzy sets. We show that for problems involving populations of measurements, data can be represented by fuzzy interval numbers (FINs) and we present an algorithm for constructing FINs from such populations. We then present a lattice-theoretic metric distance between FINs with arbitrary-shaped membership functions, which forms the basis for FINkNN's similarity measurements. We apply FINkNN to the task of predicting annual sugar production based on populations of measurements supplied by Hellenic Sugar Industry. We show that FINkNN improves prediction accuracy on this task, and discuss the broader scope and potential utility of these techniques.


ABSTRACT Wang, H. and Wei, A.-M., 2020. Talent demand and training strategy of oceangoing cruise company based on customized talent development model. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 233–236. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. With the rapid development of China's national economy and foreign trade, the oceangoing cruise industry has had huge development potential in China, with a corresponding requirement for cruise talent. However, the gap in talent from international cruise companies has seriously affected the development needs of domestic companies. Based on a customized talent development model, this paper studies the talent demand of ocean cruise companies and seeks high-quality talent training strategies for ocean cruise companies. The research results show that there exist many problems in China's cruise talent training in terms of different levels, categories, and contents; the training of customized talent in China includes internal training, intermediary training, and college education training; the strategies of training marine talent need to be carried out from the system level, the process level, and the environmental level. The research findings provide a theoretical basis for talent training in the marine system.


PurposeNeurokinin 1 (NK1) receptors have been implicated in depression, anxiety, and pain perception. Recently, it was shown that, in the human brain, a specific NK1 receptor-related signal was obtained with the novel radioligand, [11C]R116301, using positron emission tomography. The purpose of this study was to evaluate various methods for quantifying specific [11C]R116301 binding. MethodsTwo dynamic 90-min [11C]R116301 scans, separated by 5 h, were performed in 11 healthy volunteers. In three patients, the second scan was performed after an oral blocking dose of 125 mg of aprepitant, whereas in the other eight, no intervention was performed (test–retest). Whole striatum was used as the tissue of interest, as it has the highest density of NK1 receptors. Cerebellum was used as the reference tissue. ResultsReference tissue models were stable with the simplified reference tissue model (SRTM) performing best. Average (±standard deviation) SRTM-derived mean nondisplaceable binding potential (BPND) of all (first) baseline scans was 0.64±0.31 (n=11), which reduced to −0.01±0.03 (n=3) after aprepitant administration. Test–retest results showed low variability (14.0±10.7%) and excellent reliability, as indicated by the intraclass correlation coefficient (0.93). The ratio of standardized uptake values of striatum and cerebellum minus 1, an approximation of BPND, showed very low variability (6.2±3.1%) with excellent reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.98), and correlated well with SRTM-derived BPND (R2=0.96). ConclusionSRTM is the model of choice for quantifying [11C]R116301 binding. Semiquantitative tissue ratios hold promise for routine clinical applications.


Aedes albopictus is a native mosquito to Southeast Asia with a high potential for disease transmission. Understanding how Ae. albopictus populations that develop in the species' native range is useful for planning future control strategies and for identifying the sources of invasive ranges. The present study aims to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of Ae. albopictus across various climatic regions of Vietnam. We analyzed mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene sequences from specimens collected from 16 localities, and we used distance-based redundancy analysis to evaluate the amount of variation in the genetic distance that could be explained by both geographic distance and climatic factors. High levels of genetic polymorphism were detected, and the haplotypes were similar to those sequences from both temperate and tropical regions worldwide. Of note, these haplotype groups were geographically distributed, resulting in a distinct population structure in which northeastern populations and the remaining populations were genetically differentiated. Notably, genetic variation among the Ae. albopictus populations was driven primarily by climatic factors (64.55%) and to a lesser extent was also influenced by geographic distance (33.73%). These findings fill important gaps in the current understanding of the population genetics of Ae. albopictus in Vietnam, especially with respect to providing data to track the origin of the invaded regions worldwide.


Real-world examples of periods of periodical organisms range from cicadas whose life-cycles are larger prime numbers, like 13 or 17, to bamboos whose periods are large multiples of small primes, like 40 or even 120. The periodicity is caused by interaction of species, be it a predator-prey relationship, symbiosis, commensialism, or competition exclusion principle. We propose a simple mathematical model which explains and models all those principles, including listed extremel cases. This, rather universal, qualitative model is based on the concept of a local fitness function, where a randomly chosen new period is selected if the value of the global fitness function of the species increases. Arithmetically speaking, the different observed interactions are related to only four principles: given a couple of integer periods either (1) their greatest common divisor is one, (2) one of the periods is prime, (3) both periods are equal, or (4) one period is an integer multiple of the other.


Backcalculation is an important method for reconstructing past rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and for estimating current prevalence of HIV infection and future incidence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This paper reviews the backcalculation technique, focusing on the key assumptions of the method, including the necessary information regarding incubation, reporting delay, and models for the infection curve. A summary is given of the extent to which the appropriate external information is available and whether checks of the relevant assumptions are possible through use of data on AIDS incidence from surveillance systems. A likelihood approach to backcalculation is described and implemented on AIDS incidence data in the United States. New features of the approach include incorporation of seasonal variation in diagnosis rates, smooth nonparametric estimation of both the HIV infection curve and nonstationary aspects of the incubation period and reporting delay distributions, and an analysis of residuals from backcalculation fits. Unexplained lack of fit is examined and discussed. A fundamental concern is the appropriate acknowledgment of uncertainty associated with backcalculation estimates caused by misspecified assumptions and inaccurate external estimates of key components of the technique. Such uncertainty limits the usefulness of backcalculation and highlights the need for complementary approaches.


Public and private expenditure in health recovery programmes for mothers and their children is stagnating. A focal point to turn around this trend is to convince the responsible statury bodies by proving both effectiveness and efficiency of these programmes. The paper suggests the application of the break-even analysis on a time-based principle. A primary calculation with the data of a major German evaluation shows significant savings if the success of the health recovery programmes holds for at least 1.19 years. Available data does not cover such a long period.


In focus groups, parents of both academically successful seventh-grade students and at-risk students (i.e., failing one or more classes, numerous behavioral referrals, and/or suspensions) in a rural middle school identified perceived barriers to student success as well as school and community resources for overcoming those barriers. Qualitative analysis of the data revealed six common barrier themes for the two groups and two additional themes for parents of academically at-risk students. The results are discussed with respect to the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model of parental involvement and the school counselor's role in school-family-community collaboration.


1. Medial tibiotalar torsion is the most common disorder peculiar to mankind. 2. The pathogonomic findings are (a) an axial medially rotated and adducted distal third of the shaft of the tibia, (b) the plafond of the tibia with its mortise containing the "track-bound" talus, which is deflected strongly toward the tibial side, (c) an exaggerated midtarsal equinus, (d) ostensible restriction of dorsiflexion of the hindfoot against the tibia, (e) mild separation of the distal tibiofibular articulation, and (f) forward displacement of the gravitational axis to the naviculocunei-form joint. 3. Faulty leg crossing in utero resulting in an abnormal pelvofemoral-tibial design is discussed and its important consequences in the vulnerable 40 per cent of the population are emphasized. 4. The kinesiomechanics of the leg, ankle and foot is reviewed. 5. The radiographic parameters of medial tibiotalar torsion are presented, as well as the multiple facets of the clinical examination. 6. Methods of treatment depending on age and severity of the disorder are recommended. Surgery, detortional casts, and corrective footwear are discussed. Shoes presently available are inadequate for tibiotalar torsion and therefore engineering principles must be applied in the design and construction of all footwear, including sneakers and sportswear. This can be done only if the pathological biomechanics of this group of disorders is recognized. Biplane proximal tibial osteotomy is recommended in refractory cases, especially when tibiotalar torsion is demonstrated. 7. After 30 years of experience, the author finds that results with these patients have been uniformly good to excellent, depending on age and mode of treatment. 8. In medial tibiotalar torsion, the consequent adaptive changes are readily observed, but rarely are they recognized as the inevitable sequelae of medial tibiotalar torsion. 9. Adaptive compensating disorders are identified and their mechanism described. 10. The management of torsional and static disorders and adaptations of the leg, foot, and knee should not continue on an empirical basis. Recognition of recently presented parameters of the lower limbs in the vulnerable "40 percenters" permits the use of sound engineering principles in both conservative and operative correction of these disorders.


Aims An accurate and complete history is a key component of a medical consultation. Evidence suggests that up to 80% of diagnosis may be made entirely off the patient history. The aim of this closed loop audit was to examine the effects of a clerking pro forma on the quality of doctors clerking histories of new patients admitted to an acute psychiatric inpatient unit, against standards suggested in the New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Method Data for this audit were gathered by finding the initial clerking history for inpatients at The Orchard on ECR and RIO. The clerking histories of the 18 inpatients present on 12.10.20 were initially audited. These standards recommend in the in the New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry include; Patient Identification (ID), Presenting Complaint (PC), History of Presenting Complaint (HPC), Psychiatric history, Medical history, Family history, Forensic history, Social history, Personal history, Premorbid personality, Mental state exam (MSE). After analysis of the results of the first loop, a clerking pro forma was created and distributed to junior doctors to implement. The clerking histories for the subsequent 18 patients to be admitted were then audited and compared. Result The results of the first audit cycle were poor. Only patient identification and presenting complaint were present in 100% of clerked histories. Concerningly, only 72% of the histories included the patients' medical histories, forensic histories were included 44% of the time, and social history just 39% of the time. The implementation of a clerking history proforma showed improvements in all areas of clerking. Patient ID, PC, HPC, psychiatric history and MSE were now present in 100% of clerked histories. Forensic history showed a statistically significant improvement from 44% to 73% [X2(1) = 5.9; p = 0.015]. Social history showed a statistically significant improvement from 39% to 78% [X2(1) = 5.6; p = 0.018]. Premorbid personality showed a statistically significant improvement from 44% to 89% [X2(1) = 8.0; p = 0.005]. Personal history showed a non-statistically significant improvement from 39% to 56%, as did medical history from 72% to 94%, and family history from 39% to 61%. Conclusion In conclusion, the implementation of a clerking history pro-forma has significantly improved the quality and completeness of clerking histories gathered by doctors at The Orchard. This is hopefully increase diagnostic accuracy and improve the quality of care of patients in the hospital.


Using Papua New Guinea as a case study, this paper investigates the macroeconomic and sectoral impacts of various developments in its agricultural and resource sector. It was found that commodity booms from 2004 to 2009 and the proposed large liquefied natural gas project increase output growth substantially but with Dutch disease consequences. The output expansion of the agricultural and fishery sectors on the other hand has limited positive impacts and the challenge lies in raising the productivity growth in these sectors and the better use of foreign aid. Lastly, the optimal policy strategy for sustainable development in the agricultural, fishery and resource sectors lies in the packaging of appropriate complementary policies (both institutional and economic) that support one another and the coherent implementation of these policies in a timely manner.


What does it take to be an international relations (IR) scholar? IR discourses have tackled this question with focus on very different problems: the role and function of IR scholars for policy; the (ir)relevance and impact of IR knowledge and expertise in world politics; disciplinary history; or in studying IR's institutions. We argue that all these "disciplinary sociology" debates struggle with the relation between an internal scientific IR world and an external social context (policy, society). We reject this distinction and argue that science studies can help us to address these problems more adequately by treating IR as a scientific practice that is closely tied to its social environment. The article sets out to explore science studies' possible contributions. Based on science studies key assumptions, we develop a heuristic by which the relations between IR and its environment can be grasped systematically. From this perspective, IR is pivotally a culture constituted by different domains of practice. Hence, understanding IR scholars in "doing IR" requires taking into account their daily and sometimes trivial practices. For instance, writing an article in IR means much more than only thinking theoretically at a desk. We systematize the different domains of practices as the articulation of knowledge claims, mobilizing the world, autonomy seeking, alliance building, and public representation. "Being an IR scholar" and "producing IR knowledge" depends inevitably on these sets of practices and IR is intrinsically interwoven with its environment through these.


One of the biggest challenges currently faced by the Department of Homeland Security is guaranteeing cybersecurity. Each and every day some type of cybercrime occurs. Such crimes have the potential to affect the country's national security. This paper investigates the significance of internet traffic and analysis to Homeland Security. It will look at the importance of internet traffic and analysis to Homeland Security as well as encrypted traffic and its implications to cyber-security. The manner in which the U.S. has handled cybersecurity over the past twenty years and the methods that the government has used in this time period will be discussed. Encrypted mobile messaging applications will also be discussed. At the end of the discussions, solutions are recommended and a conclusion given.


Cynodontin, emodin, endocrocin and secalonic acids A, E and G have been isolated from five strains of Pyrenochaeta terrestis. Aspergillus aculeatus produces emodin, endocrocin and secalonic acids B, D and F. No cynodontin was detected. Isolation of emodin in small amounts supports previous evidence that it is an intermediate in secalonic acid biosynthesis. Isolation of cynodontin and endocrocin, which are co-produced with secalonic acids in other organisms, suggests that these compounds are formed by a common branching pathway. A natural isolate of P. terrestris contained variant strains which produced different relative amounts of secalonic acids A, E and G. From the combinations of secalonic acids produced in organisms so far examined it is concluded that precursor tetrahydroxanthone units or formed in pairs differing in stereo-chemistry only at C-5 or at the trans-invariant C-6 : C-10a positions. A possible biosynthetic pathway is discussed.


Abstract As a result of the global effort for sustainable management of natural resources, the spatial scale, holistic concept, and/or integrative approach of "landscape" is increasingly used in collaborative environmental planning and governance. However, it is often overseen that "landscape" is just one possible way to see and interpret the human environment—and that it is not understood cross-culturally. What if the unintended misuse of the landscape concept by researchers and, consequently, by practitioners, in cultures where there is no such notion or univocal idea, were an obstacle for managing natural resources sustainably and achieving well-being of humans and nonhumans? We argue that considering the diversity of seeing and interpreting the environment could be a radically new, people-centered, and gender-sensitive ontological approach to planning and governance that has the transformative power to improve the interactions of society and natural resources.


The Economics of Agriculture (Ekonomika poljoprivrede) is an international scientific journal, published quarterly by BSAAE (Balkan Scientific Association of Agricultural Economists) in cooperation with Institute of Agricultural Economics (IAE) Belgrade and Academy of Economic Studies, in which are published original scientific papers, review articles, pre-announcements, book reviews, short communications and research reports.


In this Master?s thesis an optimization model for finding the optimal design of a standby base operating in remote regions is presented. The research and development within optimization of standby vessel design is limited. The objective of this thesis has been to utilize the state of the art within the areas of maritime fleet optimization, ship design optimization and the analytical hierarchy process in the development of a working model. Application of emergency preparedness assessment processes in the North Sea as quantifiable mathematical restrictions is also addressed. By developing a linear optimization model, and implementing it into optimization software, a possible solution in finding the optimal design of a standby base has been approached. The scope of the thesis has been to find the basic design of the standby base, its attributes and the fleet of cooperating standby vessels with the minimum total cost and satisfactory emergency preparedness. As an addition, the model has also been extended with a weighted objective function considering the trade-off between cost and emergency preparedness. In order to investigate the behavior of the model in producing the optimal design and functionality of a standby base, it was tested on a case study for future petroleum development near Jan Mayen. The results revealed a significant cost reduction when the standby base was implemented as apposed to only standby vessels. It also revealed that different design options proved more appropriate as a standby base when the data was run for the original model and the weighted objective function extension. Because of the limited state of the art connected to optimizing the design of standby vessels, the model in this thesis is a version of what I consider to be a possible way of developing a tool in aiding naval architects. Because of the model?s use of expert judgments, obtaining applicable results demands extensive work connected to data pre-processing.


As the supply of rock phosphate decreases, it is essential that the agriculture industry reduces wasteful phosphorus (P) fertilizer application by improving crop acquisition of P. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), a fungus that forms a beneficial relationship with many crops, is one potential solution to this problem. Numerous studies show that crops inoculated with AMF have many benefits such as increased P uptake, resulting in higher yield and resistance to abiotic stresses. The objective of this study was to understand the impact of mycorrhizal symbiosis on bean growth under varying soil conditions of P and salinity. We tested several P concentrations and salinity levels and found that beans planted in soil conditions containing the highest levels of P and salinity exhibited significantly lower root-to-shoot ratios than any other trials while still maintaining similar biomass weight. This suggests that AMF hyphae increased the affinity of the plant for absorbing nutrients, allowing it to focus on shoot growth instead of root growth. We also observed that adding more P fertilizer to the AMF-inoculated bean plants both under salt and non-salt conditions led to diminishing returns in terms of plant height and dry weight. Hence, adding more P fertilizer to compensate for high soil salinity in AMF-inoculated soil could be inefficient and lead to fertilizer run-off that would negatively impact surrounding ecosystems.


The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) is conducting a large "area of emphasis" project to develop an industry-endorsed comprehensive seismic design methodology for precast concrete floor diaphragms. A multi-university research team from the University of Arizona (UA), Lehigh University (LU), and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) has been selected to perform this collaborative research. An active industry task group is overseeing the planning and execution phases of the research. These groups comprise the DSDM (Diaphragm Seismic Design Methodology) Consortium. The DSDM Consortium research closely integrates finite element analyses of the diaphragm at UA with full-scale reinforcing detail experiments at LU and shaking table system tests at UCSD. The purpose of this and a companion paper, published in the September-October 2005 issue of the PCI JOURNAL, is to outline the foundation for this research and provide context for the technical papers to follow as well as the eventual design methodology. The earlier companion paper described the underlying design philosophy and the resulting design framework that will serve as a basis for the emerging design methodology. This paper focuses on the research program itself, including the integrated research approach, the project's physical scope, and the specific analytical and experimental research activities.


This paper investigates on a marked case of regional inequality concerning the information and communication technology adoption process and the role of subsidies in Italy. There is a consolidated and persistent gap between the industrialized North and the sensibly backward South. Econometric results show that adoption of ICT is affected by the geographical location, the industry and firm characteristics. A matching estimator is applied to explore subsidies effectiveness. We find that subsidies have a significant impact but only for small firms. Given the firm system in Italy, we conclude that, to limit the acceleration of Italian North-South dualism, subsidies should only be granted to small firms.


1. Type 1 diabetes (due to b-cell destruction, usually leading to absolute insulin deficiency) 2. Type 2 diabetes (due to a progressive loss of insulin secretion on the background of insulin resistance) 3. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) (diabetes diagnosed in the second or third trimester of pregnancy that is not clearly overt diabetes) 4. Specific types of diabetes due to other causes, e.g., monogenic diabetes syndromes (such as neonatal diabetes and maturity-onset diabetes of the young [MODY]), diseases of the exocrine pancreas (such as cystic fibrosis), and drugor chemical-induced diabetes (such as with glucocorticoid use, in the treatment of HIV/AIDS or after organ transplantation)


Under a large dimensional approximate factor model for asset returns, I use high-frequency data for the S&P 500 firms to estimate the latent continuous and jump factors. I estimate four very persistent continuous systematic factors for 2007 to 2012 and three from 2003 to 2006. These four continuous factors can be approximated very well by a market, an oil, a finance and an electricity portfolio. The value, size and momentum factors play no significant role in explaining these factors. For the time period 2003 to 2006 the finance factor seems to disappear. There exists only one persistent jump factor, namely a market jump factor. Using implied volatilities from option price data, I analyze the systematic factor structure of the volatilities. There is only one persistent market volatility factor, while during the financial crisis an additional temporary banking volatility factor appears. Based on the estimated factors, I can decompose the leverage effect, i.e. the correlation of the asset return with its volatility, into a systematic and an idiosyncratic component. The negative leverage effect is mainly driven by the systematic component, while it can be non-existent for idiosyncratic risk.


SUMMARY Chicken macrophages, obtained by cultivation of blood monocytes, were infected with epimastigote and bloodstream trypomastigotes of the Y and the CL strains of Trypanosoma cruzi. The percentage of infected cells and the mean number of parasites per cell were determined after 2, 6, 12 and 24 h of parasite–cell contact. After 6 h of contact about 80% and 40% of the macrophages were infected by trypomastigotes of the Y and CL strains respectively. After longer periods of contact almost all macrophages were infected by Y trypomastigotes while only about 60% were infected by those of the CL strain. After 2 h of contact almost all macrophages were infected by CL epimastigotes while only about 50% were infected by Y epimastigotes. After 6 h of contact almost all macrophages were infected by epimastigotes of both strains. These results are discussed taking into consideration differences between parasites of the two strains and between the two developmental stages of the T. cruzi life-cycle.


The association of pancreatic disorders with fat necrosis in domestic animals is rare. This report concerns a case of cutaneous/subcutaneous necrotizing panniculitis and steatitis associated with a pancreatic adenocarcinoma in an 11-year-old male Siamese cat. Clinical investigation revealed variably sized nodules on the trunk, limbs and abdomen. Some of them were ulcerated; others showed a shiny yellow necrotic background featuring irregular sinus tracts. The cat was euthanized at the owner's request before a diagnosis could be made. At necropsy, abundant oily material resembling mustard replaced the subcutaneous tissue and small yellow nodules were disseminated in the omentum, mesentery and serosa of the abdomen. A multilobulated mass arising from the anterior pancreatic head was found along with liver and lymph node metastasis. Histopathology showed wide fistulous tracts draining necrotic fat from the subcutis toward the surface and multifocal areas of necrotic adipocytes replacing the panniculus. Duct-like structures and tubules lined by neoplastic epithelial cells were observed in the primary pancreatic tumour and in the metastatic sites. The aetiology of the fat necrosis was possibly the result of systemic release of lipolytic pancreatic enzymes.


The marine Gilbert-type fan deltas of the Pliocene-Holocene Crati Basin (southern Italy) preserve evidence for distinct tectonic control on their development. Syndepositional faults characterized by high rates of vertical motion produced steep coastlines and segmentation of the basin into sub-basins protected from strong longshore and tidal currents. These morphologic conditions, similar to those occurring in fjords, triggered the development of deltaic foreset beds and their extensive progradation. The style of motion of the syndepositional faults controlled the architecture of both the individual fans and the basin infill. In the extension-dominated sector of the Crati Basin, Gilbert-type fan deltas occur as individual fans and show a simple delta foreset unit. In the strike-slip-dominated sector, Gilbert-type fan deltas occur as stacked sequences and commonly show a composite delta foreset unit reflecting persistent large-scale faulting events and repeated source-area uplift and basin-floor subsidence.


The focus of this chapter is on reading non-Roman writing systems, in particular Thai and Chinese, and on how it can enhance our understanding of the reading process in general. A specific focus is on the visual information processing aspects of reading and on the computational modelling of these processes. It will be argued that the focus of current modelling efforts on Roman-derived alphabetic writing systems has limited the generality of the resulting models. Two research issues will be addressed: (1) the effective targetting by the eye of words in an unspaced writing system and (2) the parallel processing of more than one word in a fixation. The former issue poses serious problems for all current models of eye movement control in reading, while the answer to the question posed by the latter issue can, arguably, be found by looking to data from Chinese readers.


Gondolella pohli new species assemblages, from the Desmoinesian of Illinois, confirm that the initial apparatus reconstruction of the conodont genus Gondolella was incomplete and support later reconstructions based on discrete elements. Gondolella pohli is the first species of a biostratigraphically important conodont genus to be based primarily on assemblages and to be placed within a known phylogeny. The 43 assemblages confirm the presence of seven distinct element types in the Gondolella apparatus and permit the reconstruction of each of these to a greater degree than previously possible. Because the assemblages are probably all fecal, the apparatus of the closely related Neogondolella is used to interpret the apparatus plan—the position and identity of the 15 elements—single pairs of Pa, Pb, M, Sb1, and Sb2 elements, two pairs of Sc elements, and an unpaired bilaterally symmetrical Sa element in the Gondolella apparatus. Using the similarity of the latter to the apparatuses of the better known ozarkodinids, we infer a three-dimensional fanlike apparatus architecture for the prioniodinid Gondolella. Gondolella is apparently restricted to the Pennsylvanian and probably evolved in the Early Pennsylvanian from the Idioprioniodus-Embsaygnathus lineage by loss of the Pa element posterior process and by remodelling of the other apparatus elements. Some species in the Idioprioniodus-Gondolella lineage are atypical among prioniodinids in having developed a Pa element platform; the lineage is also noteworthy because both ancestor and descendant inhabited low-energy, low pH environments during the Pennsylvanian.


Background: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a global cause of early heart failure. Early RHD is characterized by valvar regurgitation, leading to ventricular distention and possible elaboration of amino-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). We investigated the ability of NT-proBNP to distinguish cases of latent RHD detected by echocardiographic screening from the controls. Materials and Methods: Ugandan children (N = 44, 36% males, mean age: 12 ± 2 years) with latent RHD (cases) and siblings (controls) by echocardiography were enrolled. Cases and controls were matched for age and sex, and they had normal hemoglobin (mean: 12.8 mg/dL). Children with congenital heart disease, pregnancy, left ventricular dilation or ejection fraction (EF) below 55%, or other acute or known chronic health conditions were excluded. RHD cases were defined by the World Heart Federation (WHF) 2012 consensus guideline criteria as definite. Controls had no echocardiography (echo) evidence for RHD. At the time of echo, venous blood samples were drawn and stored as serum. NT-proBNP levels were measured using sandwich immunoassay. Paired t-tests were used to compare NT-proBNP concentrations including sex-specific analyses. Results: The mean NT-proBNP concentration in the cases was 105.74 ± 67.21 pg/mL while in the controls, it was 86.63 ± 55.77 pg/mL. The cases did not differ from the controls (P = 0.3). In sex-specific analyses, male cases differed significantly from the controls (158.78 ± 68.82 versus 76 ± 42.43, P = 0.008). Female cases did not differ from the controls (75.44 ± 45.03 versus 92.30 ± 62.35 respectively, P = 0.4). Conclusion: Serum NT-proBNP did not distinguish between latent RHD cases and the controls. Sex and within-family exposures may confound this result. More investigation into biomarker-based RHD detection is warranted.


Ficus carica fruits are widely consumed in most part of rural areas in Northern part of Nigeria. This study was carried out to evaluate the ascorbic acid contents, tocopherols content, total polyphenols (as garlic acid equivalents), total flavonoids (as quercetin equivalents) and antioxidants capacity of Ficus carica fruits on a dry weight basis (DW). The contents of Ascorbic acid were determined colourimetrically using 2,6-dichloroindophenol; total polyphenolic compounds by Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, vitamin E was determined spectrophotometrically using standard α-tocopherols and antioxidant scavenging activity by DPPH.  The value recorded was 37.00 ± 1.59 mg/100 g, 0.7 ± 0.1 mg/100 g, 384 ± 3.11 mgGAE/100 g, 21.63 ± 1.89 mgQE/100 g, 66.82 ± 7.80% and 560.25 ± 2.89%, respectively for ascorbic acid, tocopherols, total polyphenols, total flavonoids, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity and antioxidant capacity respectively. The results obtained showed that the fruits if properly utilized can serve as a supplement of ascorbic acid, tocopherols and some polyphenols which important antioxidants with a wide range of biological benefits.


The problem of a planar rigid body, with unknown rotational inertia and an unknown input nonlinearity, tracking a desired angular velocity trajectory is addressed using adaptive feedback control. First, an adaptive controller is developed for tracking a desired angular velocity command, assuming linearly entering control. Sufficient conditions on the command signal for estimating the inertia are given. To account for an unknown input nonlinearity, a piecewise-linear approximation of the nonlinearity is inverted to obtain improved angular velocity tracking and inertia identification. Finally, a direct adaptive algorithm, incorporating feedback linearization is proposed, and Lyapunov analysis is used to show convergence of the angular velocity and inertia estimate errors. The approach is validated by experimental implementation.


This paper explores the possibilities of the nutrition-sensitive agriculture approach in the context of the programs and actions towards promoting food and nutrition sovereignty and security in Brazil. To analyze the links between nutrition and agriculture, this paper presents the conceptual framework related to food and nutrition security, and stresses the correlations among concepts, institutional structures and program design in Brazil. Dominant models of food production and consumption are scrutinized in the light of these relationships. This paper also highlights differences amongst different ways to promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture through food-acquisition programs from family farmers, experiences in agro-ecology and bio-fortification programs. In the closing remarks, the paper draws some lessons learned from the Brazilian experience that highlight the advantages of family farming and rapid food production, distribution and consumption cycles in order to promote access to an affordable, diversified and more adequate diet in nutritional terms.