One of the unintended consequences of the decade-old public debate about the legalization of physician-assisted suicide is an increased interest in pain control for terminally ill patients. Pain control and other aspects of palliative care are seen not only as medically desirable but as necessary to assure so as to minimize the pressure to legalize physician-assisted suicide or utilize physician-assisted suicide even if not legal. Most of the public debate has centered on the role of physicians in assisted suicide. However, there has been very little discussion about the role that health care professionals - - other than physicians -- would play if assisted suicide were legalized. One group of health care professionals -- besides physicians -- that is likely to be involved in legalized assisted suicide is pharmacists, who would dispense lethal substances prescribed by physicians. The debate about the legalization of assisted suicide has also served as an important catalyst to less drastic alternatives, most notably pain control. This, too, implicates pharmacists because an important, if not the predominant, mechanism of pain control is prescription medications. Any barriers that are placed in the way of pharmacists dispensing medications in accordance with a physician's legitimate prescription for pain control undermines the rights that patients might have to receive such medication and interferes with good end-of-life care. In addition, legal barriers to terminally ill patients receiving adequate medications for pain control undermine the Supreme Court's reasoning about the constitutionality of state statutes making assisted suicide a crime and could lead the Court to reconsider its decisions. Finally, legal barriers to the dispensing of medications for patients to use in physician-assisted suicide, where it is legal, interferes with this right as well. Although approximately 20 states have enacted statutes intended to make pain control medication more readily available by removing liability for patient death caused unintentionally caused by such medications, these statutes provide inadequate protection. If terminally ill patients are to receive the medications they need so that they may die peacefully, without preventable suffering, courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies will need to give pharmacists as well as physicians sufficient latitude to practice their professions in accordance with the intent of the palliative care statutes and the Supreme Court decisions.


Introduction: Endocrine abnormalities are very common in CKD and among them thyroid dysfunction is most commonly occurring in CRF patients. Hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism & euthyroid state have all been reported by various workers but hypothyroidism incidence was found to be more common.
Aim: To assess the prevalence of alteration of thyroid physiology among patients chronic renal failure patients and to correlate between the thyroid hormone levels and the severity of chronic kidney disease.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at our hospital for a period of one year. A total of 73 patients with chronic renal failure were included in the study. A detailed clinical history and clinical examination was conducted with preference to thyroid and renal diseases. Serum fT3, fT4 and TSH were measured using standard technique.
Results: Majority of the study subjects were in stage V (end stage renal disease) CRF followed by stage IV CRF and only 5 – 8% of the subjects were in stage 1 and stage II CRF. The thyroid profile of our study subjects showed hypothyroidism was present in 43.8% of the CRF patients and in that majority of them had low T3 levels, followed by low T4 levels (36.9%) and an increased TSH levels (19.1%). The correlation between the T3, T4 levels and the various stages of CRF had shown a strong negative correlation, as the stages of CRF increases the number of patients with reduced T3 and T4 levels were found to be increasing and this was found to be statistically significant (p.05).
Conclusion: Alteration of thyroid physiology among CRF patients found to be increasingly common and so thyroid screening should be made mandate for all patients with CKD.

Keywords: Chronic kidney disease, Thyroid physiology, Free T3, Free T4 and TSH.


Ingestion of oral dosage forms with food can drastically change drug pharmacokinetic parameters to consumption in fasted state. Accurate prediction of food effect (FE) is an important focus during drug development, as well as a requirement for drug approval by the Food and Drug Administration. FE can significantly restrict the clinical usefulness of drugs and is a principal parameter that must be considered early in drug development. Several approaches are available to predict FE in the human, including cell culture models, a variety of small and large animal models, and, more recently, physiologically based pharmacokinetic comput-erized models that incorporate biorelevant drug physicochemical properties. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. While many methods are available to study FE, not all of these methods are applicable, efficient, consistent, financially feasible, or reasonable for every drug or drug formulation. Most importantly, different models may offer different applicability in accurately predicting FE in human species. Drug development is a long and often expensive process. Understanding of and access to an appropriate, reproducible, frugal means of FE assessment is vital in the field of drug development in order to ensure the development of a safe and effective drug. The following review delineates the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of preclinical FE study methods. While no single approach is good enough to give completely reliable predictions, a combination of in vitro, in vivo, and in silico approach may be advantageous to predict FE.


ABSTRACT Fish provide essential nutrients for the critical window of growth and development in the first 1000 d of life and are thus an attractive option for inclusion in nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific programming. We conducted a systematic review of the evidence for fish and fish-based products for nutrition and health outcomes during the first 1000 d of life in low- and middle-income countries, searching the peer-reviewed and gray literature from 1999 to 2020. Databases included PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, ProQuest, and the Clinical Trials repository. Our search returned 1135 articles, 39 of which met the inclusion criteria. All studies were dual evaluated for risk of bias. Of the included studies, 18 measured maternal health and nutrition outcomes and 24 measured infant/child outcomes (3 measured both). Our search uncovered 10 impact evaluations, all of which measured consumption of fish or fish-based complementary food products in children aged 6–24 mo. We did not find strong evidence for fish consumption in children improving child growth from the impact evaluations; however, the studies were highly heterogeneous in their design and likely underpowered to detect an effect. Results from observational studies were mixed but provided evidence that adding fish to maternal and child diets is associated with improved nutrition outcomes, such as reducing the risk of anemia and improving vitamin D status. Given the nutrient richness of fish and the fact that production is often more environmentally friendly as compared with other animal source foods, more robust evidence is needed on the role of fish consumption in nutrition interventions to inform policy and programming recommendations in low- and middle-income countries.


Abstract For 30 years the field of weather modification has been struggling through a labyrinth of scientific, legal, societal, economic, legislative and operational paths which have produced a continuing controversy on the propriety of operations, the credibility of stated results, and the priorities of research. Such is the nature of our quest for knowledge and the ultimate application of new ideas. Weather modification is unique in that it deals with infinitely changing atmospheric parameters which are more difficult to predict and measure than the unknowns in most other disciplines. If a subject is poorly understood, it is always poorly explained and in the end more rigorously questioned by the uninformed. The present status of weather modification should be neither surprising nor discouraging to the point of rejection. This paper explores some of the major problems at the operational level and discusses the interactions between applications and the other facets of our society which influence those en...


The SPG/SEG 2016 International Geophysical Conference took place 20–22 April 2016 at the Kuntai Hotel in Beijing, China. Jointly organized by the Society of Petroleum Geophysicists (SPG) and SEG, the conference was cochaired by Huimin Hao, chief engineer of BGP, and Xianhuai Zhu, director at large for the SEG Board of Directors. Attracting nearly 550 attendees from 10 countries, including Australia, China, France, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United States, the conference provided an excellent open platform for interaction and communication for the delegates, who represented oil and gas companies, exploration and development institutes, universities, manufacturers, mining companies, and national geophysics survey companies and service companies.


In the twenty-first century, there are three American Wests, which cut across cultural, political, physical, and economic boundaries. Parts of the West are booming, building homes, and adding population; others are legally off limits to such development; and much of the West has been bypassed by such development and growth. These are called here the Booming West, Protected West, and Bypassed West. Maps of climate, political boundaries, ethnic and racial identities, or presidential voting patterns do not match these three Wests. Each West has a different relationship to the others and might see them as threats or opportunities, and each West can be expected to grow in different areas at the expense of other Wests. The boundaries between the three Wests could be important locations; sharp transitions can exist between Wests, perhaps nowhere more so than where a fast growing metro area abuts a national park or forest boundary. Finally, the effects of climate change cut across the three Wests and have different implications for their future. Continued population growth will further emphasize the boundaries between each of the three Wests and raise the stakes for their control.


"The subjects prominently illustrated by the islands Maui and Oahu are: the conditions of extinct volcanoes in different stages of degradation; the origin of long lines of precipice cutting deeply through the mountains; the extent and condition of one of the largest of craters at the period of extinction; and the relation of cinder and tufa cones to the parent volcano. The other islands of the group present facts bearing on these subjects, but the writer's knowledge of them is too imperfect for review in this place." Dana describes Haleakala Crater, using W.W. Alexander's new government map of Maui. He describes young scoria cones, some with exotic blocks of dense basalt. He favors the formation of the two crater gaps by fracturing and subsidence but leaves open the possibility of other explanations. He cites the results of Preston (1888), who determined, by measurement of gravity, that Haleakala's bulk density was greater than that of its surface lavas, thus supporting consolidation through collapse of an original crater. He quotes a second-hand report of a lateral eruption about 150 years before. Dana infers that coral sand deposits near Wailuku were formed under conditions close to those of the present. Dana concludes his observations on Maui with a cursory description of West Maui Volcano, identifying three centers of volcanism in the eroded edifice, and remarking on the eccentric position of the summit craters of each volcano, relative to the entire volcanic mass. Dana spent several days on Oahu, assembling new facts and reconsidering his earlier conclusions (Dana, 1849). He reviews ideas on the formation of the Koolau Pali, now interpreting the caldera center as being closer to the pali. He confirms that the pali originated by catastrophic subsidence and now extends this idea to include all of the vertical sea cliffs found in the island, including those on Molokai, Lanai, Kauai, Niihau, as well as the scarp bounding Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii. He speculates as follows on a subsidence mechanism (p. 95): "A great volcano is a disgorger of lava in vast floods and so it makes its mountain; and it may make also empty cavities at the same time and as a consequence. As long as the ascensive force keeps the liquid lava-column of the active volcano fully up to the summit crater, the mountain may have only local cavities. But whenever a great discharge takes place, a coequal cavity may result; and if the discharge is from fissures at the base of the cone, 10,000 to 18,000 feet below the sea level (not a greater depth than exists in the neighboring seas) an enormous cavity may be left, which only the renewed action of the ascensive force would fill. If the mountain then became extinct with no return of the liquid, it would be a hollow mountain; and the greatest of subsidences which the Hawaiian facts seem to indicate, are small compared with the possible consequences of such a condition." Dana includes a new map of Oahu with several cross-sections and well data from Diamond Head, Punchbowl, and the Hulihee Palace grounds. He reviews evidence for subsidence, concluding that the coral deposits encountered in deep wells are consistent with, but do not necessarily prove, Darwin's ideas on subsidence. He proposes additional deep borings to settle the matter. He repeats his observations on the raised reef and coral sand deposits, indicating that the island has undergone recent uplift.


Pepper (Piper Nigrum L.) popularly known as King of spice is varied uses and dominance in the global spice trade, is the oldest and widely used spice in the world. Pepper has secured a pivotal position in food, pharmaceuticals, perfumery and cosmetic industries. Malaysia is the sixth largest pepper producer in the world. Black pepper has been a highly tradable commodity. The study determine the economic analysis black pepper production in Malaysia using annual data over period 1997-2016. The importance of this study comes from the necessity to determine important factors influencing of black pepper production in Malaysia. An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modelling is employed to investigate the impact of export of black pepper, price of black pepper and area planted of pepper on black pepper production. The findings of study illustrate that the ADF unit root test indicate that the export of black pepper, price of black pepper and area planted of pepper at first difference are stationary. The results of estimated long run coefficients using the ARDL approach for the export and price of black pepper positively significant with black pepper production. The Cumulative Sum of Recursive Residuals (CUSUM) were used to test for structural stability of the model. The ADRL bounds tests suggest that the independent variable series are co-integrated. The ECT also reveals that the independent variable have significant causative implications for black pepper production and able to readjust about 97.23% to long run equilibrium.


The qualities of meat products are influenced by many factors such as bacteria species mostly implicated in food-borne disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibiotic resistance of the coagulase positive and negative Staphylococcus and the toxin production of S. aureus strains isolated from cattle carcasses collected in the abattoir of Cotonou Porto Novo. A total of 240 cattle carcasses were sampled by excision at four sites (shoulder, flank, neck and the thigh). Samples were examined for their contamination by coagulase positive and negative Staphylococcus species. The antibiotic resistance profile of all the isolated species was investigated by disc diffusion method. The production of 4 toxins was investigated by immune diffusion method. About 64% of the collected samples were contaminated by 15 different Staphylococcus strains. The thigh samples were contaminated by 11 difference species and the S. hyicus stains were isolated from only from shoulder samples. The S. aureus strains, were resistantat 90% to oxacillin, cefoxitin and penicillin G. No resistant S. aureus was recorded with two antibiotics (ciprofloxacin and streptomycin). The coagulase negative strains, were highly resistant to oxy-tetracycline (73.6%) and penicillin G (64.6%). Epidermolysins were produced by 40% (ETA) and 50% (ETB) of S. aureus stains and none of them produced LPV and LukE/D. This result reaffirms the potentially critical role that can play commensals in public health.


1. The purpose of this study was to evaluate drug clearance measured by the metabolic intrinsic clearance (CL(int)) in a substrate depletion assay in comparison with the in vivo clearance (CL(tot)) observed in adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) rats. 2. After intravenous administration of diclofenac as a model drug, CL(tot) was 2.8-fold higher in AA rats than in control rats. In two different substrate depletion assays with liver microsomes for glucuronidation and hydroxylation, the CL(int) values for glucuronidation was significantly decreased in AA rats to 60% of the value in control rats, whereas the CL(int) values for hydroxylation were similar. The unbound fraction of diclofenac in plasma (f(u, plasma)) was significantly higher (2.8-fold) in AA rats than in control rats. 3. Hepatic clearance predicted from the CL(int) values for both biotransformation pathways and f(u, plasma) was higher in AA rats than in control rats, with good consistency between predicted and observed values. The same results were obtained for experiments using hepatocytes. 4. The plasma protein-binding activities, rather than metabolic clearance, in both types of rats would be a determining factor in the pharmacokinetic behaviour differences between control and AA rats. 5. In summary, substrate depletion assays with liver microsomes and hepatocytes in combination with protein binding assessment can help to predict changes in pharmacokinetics under AA conditions.


Fire-damaged ecosystems have often been monitored by applying a combination of field survey information and vegetation indices derived from remotely sensed data. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that remotely sensed data can be integrated as a useful tool in predicting the recovery of fire-damaged ecosystems over time. Using regression models, the present study analyzes the trend function described by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) 7 and 12 years after the fire. The method was performed through (i) permanent plot collection per plant community type and data reduction; (ii) comparison of the correlation established between FVC with different vegetation index contrasted with the NDVI; (iii) monitoring vegetation recovery; and (iv) a supervised classification of FVC. The NDVI was the one that correlated most with the FVC. In both the seventh and twelfth year after fire, the linear regression model was used to accurately quantify FVC based on the NDVI. Results show that 12 years after the fire, the recovery rate of the FVC associated with scrub was higher than that of the FVC of other forest classes. Although vegetation recovery is taking place, the continuing increase in the FVC associated with shrub land classes could create a state of successional stagnation.


In Reply. —We appreciate the comments of Dr Fox and share his concern regarding the potential for the current managed care environment to redefine physicians' duty of care to include situations outside the traditional physician-patient relationship. Specifically, we also are concerned about the possibility that a consultant under contract with a managed care organization may be subject to litigation by giving informal advice to another participating physician regarding the care of a patient enrolled in the same plan. Fortunately, the circumstances of the case cited by Fox 1 were sufficiently different than those surrounding most curbside consultations that the verdict in favor of the plaintiff cannot be invoked to encourage future litigation involving consultants who give informal advice to their colleagues. First, the defendant was the de facto assigned primary caregiver (not a consultant) for the plaintiff under the health care plan agreement. Second, as the gatekeeper, the defendant implicitly assumed major


Telephone helplines, whose staff provide practical instruction, information and emotional and social welfare support to patients with cancer, are common across the western world. When evaluated, such services achieve high levels of caller satisfaction. However, most evaluation methods do not measure the effect on psychosocial wellbeing. In this systematic review, researchers from Australia examined 28 papers, and extracted and evaluated data on the characteristics of users, call content and satisfaction. The researchers concluded that most of the studies tended to be descriptive and that there is a lack of robust research evidence for the effectiveness of such services and how and whether such resources improve user outcomes. They advocate the development of more rigorous means of evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of such services. Clinton-McHarg T, Paul C, Boyes A et al (2014) Do cancer helplines deliver benefits to people affected by cancer? A systematic review. Patient Education and Counseling. 97, 3, 302-309.


Background: Nalbuphine is a synthetic opioid with mixed agonist-antagonist action, when added as adjuvant to intrathecal bupivacaine acts on kappa receptors in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord producing analgesia. Aim: To evaluate the onset of sensory block, hemodynamic changes, duration and quality of analgesia, and adverse effects of different doses of nalbuphine with bupivacaine for spinal anesthesia. Materials and Methods: Randomized double blind study done on 200 patients undergoing lower abdominal and lower limb orthopedic surgeries under subarachnoid block. Patients were randomly allocated to four groups receiving either intrathecal 15 mg of bupivacaine + 0.5 mL normal saline alone or 15 mg of bupivacaine with either of nalbuphine 0.8, 1.6, and 2.5 mg + 0.5 mL normal saline. Results: The mean visual analogue scale score in group A is 4.08 ± 0.5 and in groups B, C, and D are 3.4 ± 0.4, 3.5 ± 0.5, and 3.5 ± 0.5, respectively. The duration of analgesia in group A is 190.4 ± 20.0 and in groups B, C, and D were 322.4 ± 31.1, 319 ± 39.8 and 317.8 ± 47.5. The quality of analgesia was good in 72%-76% and excellent in 16%-28% in groups B, C, and D and poor 28% to satisfactory 72% in group A. Conclusion: Addition of 0.8 mg of nalbuphine to 0.5% bupivacaine for subarachnoid block provides excellent analgesia with longer duration of action compared with 1.6 and 2.4 mg of nalbuphine.


Loading companies have a high accident risk because the services that they provide involve a lot cargo moving in out of cargo ships. Job Safety Analysis (JSA) and Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOPs) are common risk management procedures that a company should follow to ensure the safety of the workers by measuring the risks and preparing strategies to control the hazards. This research aims to identify, assess and manage the occupational health and safety of the workers during loading processes in the container terminal of PT Pelindo IV (persero) in Makassar in 2019. It investigates the issue by employing descriptive quantitative method and observational approach. Observational approach allows this research to describe the stages of loading process through observations that utilize work sheet Job Safety Analysis (JSA), Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOPs) and AS/NZS 4360:2004. The research samples consist of 157 respondents who are selected using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The research findings identify some hazards of loading process including physical, mechanical and ergonomic hazards with mechanical hazard having the highest level of hazard by 74.5% particularly in Haulage/Trucking area. The risk assessment indicates that undesirable risks on the first, third, fourth and fifth work stages are categorized into acceptable with control on the second work stage.


Crack sealing is a maintenance technique commonly used to prevent water and debris penetration and reduce future degradation in pavement. The conventional crack sealing operations are, however, dangerous, costly, and labor-intensive. Labor turnover and training are also increasing problems related to crack sealing crews. Automating crack sealing will improve productivity and quality, and offer safety benefits by getting workers off the road. The reduction in crew size and the increase in productivity of the automated sealing process will be translated directly into significant potential cost savings. The main objective of this study is to develop an automated system for sealing cracks in pavement, and to validate the developed system through field trials. A machine vision algorithm, which is composed of noise elimination, crack network mapping and modeling, and path planning, was developed to operate the proposed automated system effectively. Extension of the algorithms and tools presented in the study to other applications is also recommended for future studies.


Control over IT is an issue and non-commodity IT sourcing attempts often fail to realize
anticipated objectives and cost savings. Accordingly, there is a great interest for successful and
cost-effective IT procurement. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop a
conceptual framework for cost-effective IT procurement for non-commodity outsourcing. To
develop an easy and comprehensive framework, main focus areas are identified, which cover
only the most important key factors and issues. This framework provides recommendations to
manage the main focus areas for sourcing of non-commodity IT services.
These focus areas are identified from a profound literature review and multiple-case study
research. Findings from the literature review indicated that the IT procurement process
consists of the business function, the IT demand function, the IT supply function and the
service provider function. For each function, influencing factors for successful IT procurement
are identified. These key factors are assessed on their influence on cost-effectiveness.
Case study research introduced additional influencing factors for further refinement of the
framework. The identification of these factors is conducted on basis of analytic analysis of the
results from the case study research and the literature review. Cluster analysis is used to
identify the main focus areas that cover the key factors and issues.
Four best practice models are considered for the construction of the conceptual framework.
These models include eSCM, CMMI-ACQ, IPCM and ISPL. These models are assessed and
compared on their strengths and weaknesses, considering amongst others support for the IT
procurement process and cost-effectiveness. The eSCM model is found most useful as it
supports cost-effectiveness, sourcing governance and organizational sourcing strategy.
This study resulted in five main focus areas for IT procurement to successfully and costeffectively
procure IT services. When an organization decides to source an IT service to a
service provider five focus areas should be considered:
Strategic sourcing includes the definition of the organizational sourcing objectives and
strategy. Strategic sourcing is supported by assessment of sourcing options and
organizational competencies. To assure that this focus area is continued on the tactical
level a sourcing policy needs to be defined.
Clear and validated definition of objectives for a sourcing needs to be promoted. First, the
definition of objectives needs to be conducted in realistic and comprehensive way using an
accurate business case. Second, accurate SLAs and measures need to be defined.
The demand-supply function needs to be supported by proper definition of roles and
responsibilities. It needs to be assured the market is properly addressed, a knowledge
system is used and the cost savings and defined and changing objectives are achieved.
In order to add value the IT procurement function needs to be supported by proper
definition of the sourcing processes. Early involvement of IT procurement will increase
cost-effectiveness. This function needs to have expertise for both procurement and IT.
Focusing on a healthy client-provider relationship is necessary as neglecting the relation
between the client organization and the service provider may diminish the above focus
areas. This focus area is supported by relationship management.
A conceptual framework with 15 eSCM practices provides recommendations for these focus
areas. The framework for IT procurement of non-commodity outsourcing enables
straightforward implementation and maximum cost-effectiveness.


PURPOSE
Wide spread clinical use of advanced radiation treatment delivery techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) and IMRT needs an easy-to-use, well-defined, and effective quality assurance (QA) system to ensure the accuracy of dose delivery. The comprehensive evaluation of two delivery QA systems (DQA) (Portal Dosimetry and Compass) for the advanced radiation delivery techniques is necessary for the clinical setting.

METHODS
Portal Dosimetry QA system with Varian PortalVision (PV) provides a quantitative comparison of measured electronic dose profile to a predicted dose profile with Varian's Eclipse™ treatment planning system (TPS) for the VMAT and IMRT plans. Quantitative comparisons of the two images, including dose difference, gamma analysis, points dose measurements, and line profiles are easily acquired in two dimensions. Meanwhile, Compass system with MatriXX can provide an accurate three-dimensional quantitative analysis of dose delivery. We applied the two planning QA systems to our RapidArc patient- specific QAs. Validation of the Compass and Portal Dosimetry systems were performed with ionization chamber measurements for absolute dosimetry and film measurements for gamma index calculations for phantom and patient treatment plans.

RESULTS
Compass system was very sensitive to the MLC leaf gap variations in three dimensional gamma analyses. However, Compass system was not enough to fix the errors in dosimetric leaf gap by itself. DQA process with Portal Dosimetry took approximately 6 minutes for the two Arcs VMAT plan. Compass took about 40 minutes for the same plan in our first clinical trial. For the three typical IMRT and VMAT plans, the two systems showed the same passing rates in 95% pixels passing gamma criteria 3%/3mm.

CONCLUSIONS
Portal Dosimetry DQA system has the advantages of effectiveness and practicality in the clinical setting. On the other hand, Compass was the next supportive system because of its accuracy and reality with patient's anatomy.


The alkali metal potassium has the functions of structure promotion and electronic modulation in metal oxides. Herein, diverse potassium precursors (KOH, KNO3, K2SO4, and KCl) were introduced to α-MnO2 nanorods through a facile post-processing strategy. The presence of potassium species has a remarkable promotion effect on the catalytic performance of α-MnO2. Amongst them, the KOH/MnO2 sample has the highest activity and can destroy 90% toluene (1000 ppm) at just 226 °C with a reaction rate of 3.39 × 10−4 mol gcat−1 s−1, which is over 20 times higher than that of pure α-MnO2. Different anions in the potassium precursors bring a distinct mutation in the α-MnO2 structure, promote the formation of MnO6–K–MnO6 bridging bonds in α-MnO2, and exhibit obvious diverse abilities for balancing charge transfer. KOH is identified as the most promising precursor for alkali metal modification, which significantly improves the distribution of K species over the α-MnO2 surface and strengthens the content and activity of lattice oxygen. It is confirmed that the lattice oxygen plays a key role in the catalytic oxidation of toluene over α-MnO2, which follows the Mars–van Krevelen mechanism. Positive hole defects (Mn3+) caused by KOH treatment play an important role in the diffusion of O and enhance the reducibility of manganese oxide. In addition, the enhanced specific surface area, pore volume, and surface acidity are also conducive for the catalytic oxidation of toluene.


The study had two objectives.  First, to explore, using both Hofstede's original questionnaire and a modified Hofstede questionnaire, if Hofstede's original results would be obtained.  And second, to explore if there are significant differences in the above value orientations among the sample groups chosen.  The overall sample indices were found to be about the same as those estimated by Hofstede over fifteen years ago particularly for power distance and masculinity.  On uncertainty avoidance and individualism, his estimates were significantly lower than this study's overall sample means.  Value orientations also differed across a wide range of occupational groups and research sites.  Two questionnaires (Hofstede's original questionnaire and the research team's questionnaire) were used and found to be congruent.  Thus, either one may be used for measuring inter group differences.  The results of this exploratory study provide enough basis to enlarge the sample in order to identify superordinate variables that will further explain the differences between groups obtained in this study.  The next phase will report the findings on fifteen occupational groups and thirty research sites.


We present detailed analysis and experimental demonstration of full-range detection in cascaded microring sensors by using thermooptical tuning. A cascaded microring sensor translates spectrum shifts into intensity changes eliminating the need for expensive spectral analysis equipment for sensing applications. Without tuning capability, this configuration provides high sensitivity, but a small detection range since the intensity output decays toward zero for low overlap between spectra of individual microrings. We overcome this limitation by using thermooptic tuning in one of the microrings for extending the detection range to span an entire free spectral range of the probing microring. Additionally, we analyze the impact of resonance linewidths and differences in free spectral ranges (FSRs) of microrings on the widths of output intensity peaks. With full FSR thermooptical tuning, we demonstrate a total detection range of 0.0241 refractive index units (RIU) and a limit of detection of 4.6 × 10-5 RIU for microrings with 100-μm radii. Photodetector-based signal readout combined with CMOS compatible manufacturability makes this device design attractive as a silicon-based optical sensing platform.


The major claim in Acemoglu, Aghion, Bursztyn & Hemous (2012) (AABH) is that subsidies for research and development of clean technologies are more important than carbon taxes when dealing with climate change. However, they - unconventionally - assume that a patent only lasts for one period. In this note we introduce long-lived patents into the AABH model. This makes the role of a research subsidy for clean technologies in AABH far less crucial and reestablishes the role of the carbon tax. This is good news as it is far easier to tax emissions than to pick the right technologies to subsidize.


Thirty-seven Canadian engineering organizations participated in the 2015 Canadian Asphalt Mix Exchange Program. The exchange provides an opportunity for particpants to compare their test results to those of other laboratories. It provides a mechanism for review and refinement of existing test methods and equipment. The exchange evaluates the volumetric and mechanical properties of an asphalt-aggregate mixture using Marshall mix design procedures, the gyratory compator, and the ignition oven. This report documents the test results for the year 2015 Canadian Asphalt Mix Exchange Program. The complete report is available on the internet at the following address: http://www.estmtl.ca/Unites-de-recherche/LCMB/CAMEP-CAEP


Snow albedo can be decreased if there are any impurities on the snow surface other than the snow itself. Due to the decrease of snow albedo, melting rates of surface snow can increase, which is very crucial in climate change and hydrogeology in many parts of the world. Anthropogenic black carbons caused by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel affect snow and tephra particles generated by geologic volcanic activities reduce snow albedo. In this study, we investigated isotopic compositions for snow covered by tephra particles and compared with this with clean snow. Isotopic compositions of snow with tephra statistically show more enriched than those of clean snow (p 18 O or D relative to meltwater as melting rates are increased. In addition, the slopes of the linear regression between oxygen and hydrogen for snow with tephra and clean snow are 6.7 and 8, respectively, and the latter is similar to that of the global meteoric water line of 8. Therefore, we can conclude that snow impurities control the isotopic compositions of snow, which is very crucial in the study of climate change and hydrogeology. To quantitatively explain these observations, melting experiments and numerical approaches are required.


This study evaluates the effects of an acute treatm nt with a Centella asiatica (CA) extract on the bi odistribution of the radiopharmaceutical Na TcO4 and on the fixation of technetium-99m on blood con stituents. Wistar rats were treated with CA extract and, 1 hour after, Na TcO4 was administered; organs/tissues were withdrawn an d weighted. The radioactivity was counted to calculat e the percentage of activity per gram (%ATI/g). Als o, blood samples were withdrawn, plasma (P), blood cells (BC ), insoluble fraction (IF) and soluble fractions of P and BC were isolated and the radioactivity was counted to calculate the percentage of activity (%ATI). Data i ndicated that the acute treatment with CA extract changed signifi cantly (p<0.05) the %ATI/g in several organs/tissue s (spleen, heart, duodenum, stomach, liver, muscle, kidney, te stis and blood) and the %ATI on the blood constitue nts (P, BC, IF-P and IF-BC). These results indicate that the su bstances or metabolites of the CA extract would cha nge the biodistribution of NaTcO4 and the fixation of the technetium-99m on blood co nstituents in an acute treatment.


Two studies were performed that compared a "Paired" condition in which participants studied paired associates with a "Generated" condition in which participants completed word fragments to produce paired associates. In both tasks, participants were responsible for memory of the material either studied or generated. The experiments revealed significant differences between the responses of a predefined prefrontal region and a predefined parietal region. The parietal region responded more in the Generated condition than the Paired condition, whereas there was no difference in the prefrontal region. On the other hand, the prefrontal region responded to the delay between study and test in both the Paired and Generated conditions, whereas the parietal region only responded to delay in the Generated condition. This pattern of results is consistent with the hypothesis that the parietal region is responsive to changes in problem representation and the prefrontal region to retrieval operations. An information-processing model embodying these assumptions was fit to the blood oxygen level-dependent responses in these regions.


Despite its benefits for children's skill development and parent-child bonding, many parents do not often engage in interactive storytelling by having story-related dialogues with their child due to limited availability or challenges in coming up with appropriate questions. While recent advances made AI generation of questions from stories possible, the fully-automated approach excludes parent involvement, disregards educational goals, and underoptimizes for child engagement. Informed by need-finding interviews and participatory design (PD) results, we developed StoryBuddy, an AI-enabled system for parents to create interactive storytelling experiences. StoryBuddy's design highlighted the need for accommodating dynamic user needs between the desire for parent involvement and parent-child bonding and the goal of minimizing parent intervention when busy. The PD revealed varied assessment and educational goals of parents, which StoryBuddy addressed by supporting configuring question types and tracking child progress. A user study validated StoryBuddy's usability and suggested design insights for future parent-AI collaboration systems.


This book seeks to provide an easily accessible evdience based guide to the diagnosis and management of acutley ill patients with cancer. The scope of the book is limited to those emergencies directly caused by the cancer or by its treatment and those conditions where there is a strong predisposition caused by the cancer. Many of these emergencies will be familiar to non-oncologists, however others will not. Any delay caused by unfamiliarity can have disastrous results, for example irreversible neurological deficit in unrecognized spinal cord compression. Not all the emergencies covered in this book require immediate recognition and treatment to prevent potential fatal outcomes, however, all these conditions require urgent action to reduce morbidity and distressing symptoms for patients.


A model of the dimensions that measure the way students perceive and think about the image of vocational education training (VET) was developed together with an instrument to measure the impact of VET's image on students' loyalty towards the VET sector in the Vietnamese context. The data were collected from 900 students: 300 in lower secondary school, 300 in upper secondary school and 300 in vocational education and training using a face-to-face administered survey questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the nature of the constructs or dimensions quantifying the image of vocational education and students' loyalty towards VET. Correlation analysis was used to examine the relationships between the independent variables that comprised the image of VET and the dependant variables of students' loyalty and, finally, regression analysis was used to measure the impact of the image of VET on the students' loyalty. Three main findings emerged from the study: (1) the image of VET was constructed by seven dimensions (entry requirement, facility and equipment, recognition of qualification, student career and job potential, quality of curriculum, social skills and soft skills); (2) students' loyalty was constructed by two dimensions (future study choice and earning potential); and (3) students' loyalty towards VET, namely the rationale underlying their decisions about whether to continue their future studies in higher education or VET, and their perceptions of the earning potential offered by obtaining a qualification in VET, were impacted significantly by their perceptions of the relevance or quality of the VET curriculum to the emerging industrialised and market-led economy of Vietnam, and the level of entry requirements for VET courses, with exception of lower secondary students.

 Key words: Influence, vocational education training, image, loyalty, and students.


This paper shows measurements of the momentum aperture of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) based on Touschek lifetime measurements. The measured data is compared with tracking simulations and a simple model for the apertures will help to explain the observed effects.


Recently, phyto nanotechnology has proposed new methods for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles and is also an eco-friendly, stable, rapid, simple, and cost-effective method. The present study reported the green synthesis of Zn nanoparticles (Zn NPs) by Taxus baccata extract, and the performance of them was tested against three types of bacteria and a type of cancer cells. These experiments are designed in a fully compatible environment. In order to evaluate effective parameters, Ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy was used. In addition we had a comparative study of the performance of synthesized nanoparticles on bacteria, and a comparative study on the pure extract of this plant as an anticancer agent along with biosynthesized Zn nanoparticles. The SEM and FESEM results revealed hexagonal structure with the particle size of 20 nm. TEM analysis of the synthesized nanoparticles showed hexagonal particles with an average size of 20-25 nm. FTIR analysis confirmed the reduction of functional groups, Alkaloids, corresponding of synthsis Zn nanoparticles from their salt solution. The antibacterial activity of Taxus baccata extract, Zn nanoparticles, and zinc nitrate solution was tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Anticancer activity of Taxus baccata extract, zinc nitrate solution and synthesized Zn nanoparticles on cancer cells was assessed by Breast cancer cell line MCF-7. The results showed that the synthesized Zn nanoparticles using plant leaf extract had strong anti-cancer activity on MCF-7 cells. On the other hand, the synthesized metal nanoparticles had no effect on the three types of bacteria.


We report a retrospective series of 156 penetrating keratoplasties that were performed in 144 patients during a two-year period, with a minimum of one-year follow-up. Three different types of rejection were identified--endothelial rejection, epithelial rejection, and subepithelial infiltrates (SEIs). We also report the clinical signs, frequency, preoperative correlates, significance, and treatment of each type of rejection. The overall frequency of any kind of rejection was 29%. Endothelial rejection was seen in 21% of the grafts, epithelial rejection was seen in 10% of the grafts, and SEIs was seen in 15% of the grafts. The frequency of endothelial rejection increased with preoperative corneal vascularization. All three types of rejection decreased in frequency with the increasing age of the recipient. Endothelial rejection was more successfully treated in the cases that had no preoperative stromal vascularization.


This note considers the problem of information consensus among multiple agents in the presence of limited and unreliable information exchange with dynamically changing interaction topologies. Both discrete and continuous update schemes are proposed for information consensus. This note shows that information consensus under dynamically changing interaction topologies can be achieved asymptotically if the union of the directed interaction graphs have a spanning tree frequently enough as the system evolves.


Wireless Body Area Network over Software Defined Radio (SDR) Platform is the solution towards providing ubiquitous wireless health monitoring of patients over Internet. In this paper, a system is designed to enable ECG signals to be compressed and communicated to remote server at regular intervals over SDR platform comprised of Wireless Open Access Research Platform boards. To enable this, a TCP/IP based client-server model is proposed which allows data to be sent whenever the SDR channel is free. Test-bed analysis has shown that signal compression through Discrete Wavelet Transform by choosing the correct filter can provide significant 83.8% energy efficiency, without much data loss. This work provides the framework and highlights the open issues to develop the SDR platform into a Cognitive Radio module.


We address a crucial but underappreciated question: what else besides corporate law matters for corporate governance? We take the novel view that corporate governance must involve more than corporate law. Corporate scholars focus almost exclusively on corporate law mechanisms for controlling managerial agency costs. We contend, however, that contracting parties also attempt to control agency costs in their contracts with the firm. In particular, we hypothesize that banks, by monitoring firms in connection with their loans, enhance firm value for the benefit of shareholders.We examine over one-thousand public firms for the period 1990-2004 to test the value of bank monitoring. Our approach builds on existing empirical scholarship on corporate governance, to which we add data on the presence of bank loans and their interactions with free cash flow, governance indices, and individual corporate governance provisions. We find evidence consistent with our hypothesis that bank monitoring improves firm value, especially where agency costs are high. Bank monitoring may provide an additional mechanism for corporate governance.Our findings have important implications for both regulatory design and corporate governance. Bank monitoring may offer positive spillovers not previously considered in the crafting of regulation affecting bank lending, creditor rights, and the operation of loan and credit derivatives markets. Legal rules affecting bank lending or monitoring may indirectly and inadvertently affect firm value, a nontrivial consideration given the pervasiveness of bank debt among public companies. We identify a number of regulatory areas that may deserve new attention. Similarly, future empirical corporate governance research should account for the effects of bank governance, as well as investigate further its potential for improving firm value.


Two-stage gasification allows power production from biomass and waste with high efficiency. The process involves pyrolysis at about 550°C followed by heating of the pyrolysis gas to about 1300°C in order to crack hydrocarbons and obtain syngas, a mixture of H2, CO, H2O and CO2. The second stage produces soot as unwanted by-product. Experimental results are reported on the suppression of soot formation in the second stage for two different fuels: beech wood pellets and Rofire pellets, made from rejects of paper recycling. Syngas obtained from these two fuels and from an industrial waste fuel has been cleaned and fed to a commercial SOFC stack for 250 hours in total. The SOFC stack showed comparable performance on real and synthetic syngas and no signs of accelerated degradation in performance over these tests. The experimental results have been used for the design and analysis of a future 25 MWth demonstration plant. As an alternative, a 2.6 MWth system was considered which uses the Green MoDem approach to convert waste fuel into bio-oil and syngas. The 25 MWth system can reach high efficiency only if char produced in the pyrolysis step is converted into additional syngas by steam gasification, and if SOFC off-gas and system waste heat are used in a steam bottoming cycle for additional power production. A net electrical efficiency of 38% is predicted. In addition, heat can be delivered with 37% efficiency. The 2.6 MWth system with only a dual fuel engine to burn bio-oil and syngas promises nearly 40% electrical efficiency plus 41% efficiency for heat production. If syngas is fed to an SOFC system and off-gas and bio-oil to a dual fuel engine, the electrical efficiency can rise to 45%. However, the efficiency for heat production drops to 15%, as waste heat from the SOFC system cannot be used effectively. The economic analysis makes clear that at -20 €/tonne fuel, 70 €/MWh for electricity and 7 €/GJ for heat the 25 MWth system is not economically viable at the price level of 1600 €/kWe expected for SOFC systems in the near future and 200 €/kWth for two stage gasification and gas cleaning. In order to reach break-even, the electricity price would have to rise to 141 €/MWh. For break-even at 70 €/MWh, the price of both main parts would have to drop to e.g. 500 €/kWe for the SOFC and to 80 €/kWth for the gasification and gas cleaning. At the higher equipment price level, break-even may already be reached at an electricity price of 87 €/MWh if more favourable conditions apply, i.e. -100 €/tonne fuel, CO2 credits of 10 €/tonne, cheap labour and full use of the available heat. In that case, the simple pay-back time would become 9.3 years. In those favourable conditions, the simple pay-back time of the base case Green MoDem system with dual-fuel engine would be 4.9 years. Addition of an SOFC system would increase the simple pay-back time to 10.5 years.


This article reported a qualitative research based on Giorgi's (1975a, 1975b) phenomenological methodology that studied male identity formation of Chinese Canadian immigrants who grew up in China and later settled down in Canada. The purpose was to explore how their male identity developed, their current ideas about being men, and what they wanted to become in the future. The data yielded a theme that they learnt to be men by their own searching. Their experience of navigating across two cultures revealed some characteristics of growing up in a Chinese culture and the journey of searching for male identity in Canada.


Modelling the dynamic performance of an elevator car system represents a complex task and forms an important step in the elevator system design procedure. The need to consider the behaviour of passengers travelling in the car complicates the procedure further. This paper presents an original approach to identify the stiffness and damping characteristics of an elevator car system. A simplified model is developed and the experimental rig with a rectangular elevator platform fixed on the top of four silent blocks attached to a shaker is setup. The transmissibility measurements are carried out with a harmonic excitation applied first to a platform with no passenger load and then to the platform with one passenger within the frequency range of 1 – 20 Hz. A single person standing on the platform is employed in order to assess the passenger's contribution to the dynamic behaviour of the elevator car system. The curve fitting technique implemented in MATLAB is used to determine the damping and stiffness coefficients both for the empty car system and the car-passenger system. Investigation on the tolerances for both parameters is carried out. An approach to simplify the experimental procedure and to reduce the number of individual tests is proposed.


The star graph was introduced as an attractive alternative to the well-known hypercube and its properties have been well studied in the past. Most of these studies have focused on topological properties and algorithmic aspects of this network. Although several analytical models have been proposed in the literature for different interconnection networks, none of them have dealt with star graphs. This paper proposes the first analytical model to predict message latency in wormhole-switched star interconnection networks with fully adaptive routing. The analysis focuses on a fully adaptive routing algorithm which has shown to be the most effective for star graphs. The results obtained from simulation experiments confirm that the proposed model exhibits a good accuracy under different operating conditions


The open source Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFOAM) software was used to investigate the performance of a fully premixed, modern highperformance 4-valve, iso-octane, dual overhead cam (DOHC) engine with quasi-symmetric pent roof combustion chamber running at 1500 revolutions per minute. The peak pressure occurred at the TDC and had a value of about 30 bar. The results from this study show that the maximum combustion temperature occurred at approximately 95 degrees crank angle ATDC and has a volume averaged value of about 2700 K ° , whereas the actual computed peak temperature was found to be about 3000oK and it occurred at grid point 12630. The other temperatures which were found to be higher than the volume averaged temperature were found to be in the range 2968.81 2974.01 K to K ° ° and correspond to grid point positions 12630 to 12633.The flame-wrinkling factor, / t u S S = Ξ was found to be in the range 1.0 ≤ Ξ ≤ 3.8. The dynamics of the regress variable b was accurately predicted.


Background: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) affects a range of language domains that impact on communication. Little is known about the nature of conversation breakdown in PPA. The identification of trouble in conversation, its repair and the success of repairs has been used effectively to examine conversation breakdown in neurogenic language disorders such as dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and acute onset aphasia. This study investigated trouble and repair in the conversations of people with PPA. Aims: The first aim of this study is to describe the contributions of individuals with PPA and their conversation partner to conversation. The second aim is to describe the trouble that occurs in dyadic conversations between three individuals with PPA and their communication partner. The third aim is to describe the repair behaviours used by the individuals with PPA and their communication partners. Methods & Procedures: Dyadic conversations about everyday activities between three individuals with PPA and their partners and three control dyads were video recorded and transcribed. Number of words, number of turns and length of turns were measured and trouble-indicating behaviours (TIBs) and repair behaviours were categorised. Outcomes & Results: Individuals with PPA had reduced mean length of turn but maintained their share of turn-taking. They demonstrated a variety of TIBs that differed from the noninteractive repairs, which do not require a response from the partner in the conversation and which have been observed in studies of conversation in DAT. Their partners bore the greater burden of highlighting trouble and need for repair using collaborative, interactive, TIBs. Three different conversational profiles were observed in the three PPA dyads, reflecting different patterns of language and cognitive impairment. Conclusions: Individuals with PPA were active participants in conversation effectively indicating and responding to trouble. Understanding trouble and repair in the conversations of individuals with PPA has the potential to enhance assessment and inform clinical practice.


Ocean monitoring will improve outcomes if ways of knowing and priorities from a range of interest groups are successfully integrated. Coastal Indigenous communities hold unique knowledge of the ocean gathered through many generations of inter-dependent living with marine ecosystems. Experiences and observations from living within that system have generated ongoing local and traditional ecological knowledge (LEK and TEK) and Indigenous knowledge (IK) upon which localized sustainable management strategies have been based. Consequently, a comprehensive approach to ocean monitoring should connect academic practices ("science") and local community and Indigenous practices, encompassing "TEK, LEK, and IK." This paper recommends research approaches and methods for connecting scientists, local communities, and IK holders and their respective knowledge systems, and priorities, to help improve marine ecosystem management. Case studies from Canada and New Zealand (NZ) highlight the emerging recognition of IK systems in natural resource management, policy and economic development. The in-depth case studies from Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and the new Moana Project, NZ highlight real-world experiences connecting IK with scientific monitoring programs. Trial-tested recommendations for successful collaboration include practices for two-way knowledge sharing between scientists and communities, co-development of funding proposals, project plans and educational resources, mutually agreed installation of monitoring equipment, and ongoing sharing of data and research results. We recommend that future ocean monitoring research be conducted using cross-cultural and/or transdisciplinary approaches. Vast oceans and relatively limited monitoring data coupled with the urgency of a changing climate emphasize the need for all eyes possible providing new data and insights. Community members and ocean monitoring scientists in joint research teams are essential for increasing ocean information using diverse methods compared with previous scientific research. Research partnerships can also ensure impactful outcomes through improved understanding of community needs and priorities.


Humans have long been fascinated with patterns in nature and in socially constructedwork and cultural environments. Consequently, the abilities to identify patterns andmake sense of reality have been highly prized.British philosopher, Social and political theorist, Sir Isaiah Berlin highlighted the centralrole of patterns:"The pattern, and it alone, brings into being and causes to pass away and confers purpose,that is to say, value and meaning, on all there is. To understand is to perceive patterns.(…) To make intelligible is to reveal the basic pattern." (p. 129)Patterns are regular and intelligible forms or sequences that are discernible in the waythat events unfold, or that something happens or is done. Patterns can thus be describedas perceptible regularities in nature or in manmade (artificial) designs.


For this study, we designed learning activities in which students applied newly acquired knowledge to solve meaningful daily life problems in their local community – a real, familiar, and relevant environment for students. For example, students learned about signs and rules in class and then applied this new knowledge to create their own rules for a location in their community (e.g., playground rules that tell visitors what is or is not allowed to do in a local playground) to make it more environmentally friendly. To facilitate this, we developed a mobile learning system equipped with a dictionary as well as textual annotation, recording, and sharing functions. This mobile learning system enables students to take pictures of objects, describe them verbally or in writing, and share their work with peers. Our goal was to study the effectiveness of learning activities supported by a mobile learning system on the cognitive learning process by examining the changes in students' cognitive processes and the distribution of students who reach a certain level of cognition before and after learning. Fifty-seven junior high school students participated in the research, and their views of the mobile learning system and interest in continuing use were also explored. Students were divided into one control <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $({{\mathrm{n}} = 26})$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="hwang-ieq1-2574356.gif"/></alternatives> </inline-formula> group and one experimental <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$({{\mathrm{n}} = 31})$ </tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="hwang-ieq2-2574356.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> group. The control group completed learning activities using a traditional approach while the experimental group used a learning system installed in tablet PCs. The effectiveness of the mobile PC system on students' cognitive processes was tested by comparing the control and experimental groups' pre-test and post-test outcomes. Changes in students' cognitive processes were measured by calculating the differences in student scores among three tasks. The distribution of students who reached a certain level of cognition was derived based on their learning performance. Students' perceptions were evaluated using a questionnaire survey. The mobile learning system kept records of how students used it. Our results show that the experimental students significantly outperformed the control students on test items related to high cognitive levels. Students made clear cognitive progress from the second topic to the third one. Most students rated the learning system highly and want to use it in the future. Finally, the results show that creating text annotations is the best indicator of learning. Based on these results, we recommend applying appropriate learning activities supported by a mobile learning system to facilitate students' cognitive processes when they are studying English as a foreign language in an authentic environment.


The effect of different population levels (100, 1000 and 10,000) of infective juveniles (IJs) of Steinernema masoodi was tested on the egg hatching and juvenile mortality of Meloidogyne incognita in cavity blocks containing distilled water. A population of 1000 or more IJs of S. masoodi caused significant inhibition of the hatching of eggs and induced mortality to juveniles of M. incognita. The effect of the entomopathogenic nematode (EPN) on root penetration by root-knot nematode (RKN) juveniles was studied using concomitant inoculation with 500 J2 or 15 egg masses of RKN and 500, 1000, 5000 or 10,000 IJs of S. masoodi. The tested population levels of the EPN resulted in significant and progressive decrease in the penetration of RKN J2 into tomato roots. The effect of the EPN on galling, reproduction and soil population of RKN and on the plant growth and yield of tomato was investigated using pre, post and concomitant inoculation with 2000 J2 of M. incognita and 1000, 5000 or 10,000 IJs of S. masoodi/plant in earthenware pots. The pre-inoculation with 10,000 EPN IJs caused 11-39% reduction in galling, egg mass production and soil population of RKN and 19-22% increase in plant dry weight and yield of tomato. Steinernema masoodi at 5000 IJs inoculum level markedly suppressed nematode pathogenesis irrespective of inoculation mode, but the effect was significantly less than that obtained with 10,000 IJs, whereas 1000 IJs did not produce significant effects (P ≤0.05) on nematode pathogenesis.


Moral hazard and opportunism is an inherent part of contracting and procurement strategies, especially in complex transactions that require co-creation, which is often the case in the construction industry. This paper clarifies the meaning of moral hazard in the context of construction procurement. Typically there is a double moral hazard problem, as not only the supplier, but also the client can "misbehave" in a number of ways. It is also important to note that both internal moral hazard (within the client and contractor organizations) and external moral hazard (between client and contractor) must be handled. The aim of this conceptual paper is to give an overview of strategies to reduce the risk of moral hazard. Eight different strategies are identified: 1) "the shadow of the future," promises of future work if effort is high 2) selection mechanism for contractor/employee, 3) length of contract, length of warranties, 4) level of detail in the contract, 5) payment systems, 6) monitoring in- tensity, 7) social norms, and 8) relation specific investments. These can be grouped into two ideal types; hard/formal and soft/informal strategies, of which the first is most suitable in simple and standardized projects, whereas soft/informal strategies are better in complex and uncertain projects. JEL codes: L74; N6


We live in a universe that can be seen and experienced from many different perspectives. We therefore need to look at the universe from many different angles. Everything and everyone is a form of the universe being expressed in a particular way. In other words, each one of us can say with absolute certainly "We are the Universe!" Since we are the universe, each one of us provides a valuable perspective that complements the contributions of everyone and everything else around us.Each of us is the universe being expressed in a particular location in a specific way. We're all part of the same moving and evolving cosmos, but the view of it is unique from each of our respective locations.


China, one of the most polluting countries in the world, is facing tremendous challenges in dealing with environmental problems. Although the government has implemented various regulations and introduced strong enforcement to reduce toxic emissions and encourage recycling, little is known about how parents in China socialise their children into environmentally responsible individuals. This article reports on what 267 Chinese parents do, as agents of environmental protection, to raise their children's awareness of environmental issues, and how their environmental literacy affects these children's attitudes and behaviours. A survey was developed to measure how parents engage their children in environmental literacy, how confident parents feel in their own environmental awareness, and whether this has an effect on their engagement with children. The participants were found to play an agentive socialisation role in their engagement with children on pro-environmentalism in terms of shaping their behaviours and attitudes and developing their knowledge and skills. Furthermore, the correlational analysis results reveal that engagement in some aspects of environmental literacy is related to parents' socio-economic status (SES) and their age; namely, the lower the SES or age, the higher the engagement. The study serves as a baseline for parents' engagement with environmental literacy in China and has important implications for a concerted action by schools, the government, and environmental organisations to empower parents to be true agents of environmental literacy.


With the advent of Grid and application technologies, scientists and engineers are building more and more complex applications to manage and process large data sets, and execute scientific experiments on distributed resources. Such application scenarios require means for composing and executing complex workflows. Therefore, many efforts have been made towards the development of workflow management systems for Grid computing.

In this paper, we propose a QoS-based workflow management system and scheduling algorithm that find the best match between workflow applications and resources while meeting QoS requests. The infrastructure is based on the event condition action (ECA) rules in active database. In none of reported works, the ECA rules haven't been used so far. We also attempt to solve the fault tolerance problem by duplicating delayed tasks using proper rules. Some rules are used for QoS monitoring. We implement the ECA rules in Grid-JQA [1, 2] in order to show that using the rules in the grid environment have better performance. The results of a simulation are provided to evaluate the main idea of the paper.


Hurricanes over Singapore is the companion volume to the successful Buffaloes over Singapore published in 2003. It continues the story of the RAF's gallant but futile attempt to stop the might of the Japanese invasion force in its quest to conquer not only Singapore, but also Sumatra and Java and all the other islands that constituted the Netherlands East Indies. The Hurricanes went into action over Singapore on 20 January 1942 and the last two aircraft made the final flight at Java on 8 March that year. During the intervening time the Hurricane pilots and ground crew - British, New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians, Dutch and Americans - gave their all, with many making the supreme sacrifice. The majority of survivors would spend the next 3-1/2 years as prisoners of the Japanese - and some of their heart-rending stories are detailed here. This expertly researched account, the most comprehensive to date, and accompanied by rare photographs, is told wherever possible by the pilots themselves, the majority of whom were young and inexperienced. Their efforts should not be forgotten and this book is a dispassionate tribute to those who fell in battle, those who died as prisoners and t


A new titanium (Ti) salicide technology with in-situ silicidation using high-temperature sputtering has been developed. This process enhances TiSi/sub 2/ phase transition from C49 to C54 without agglomeration, which results in achieving silicidation in 0.2 /spl mu/m gates and 0.4 /spl mu/m diffusion layers. A sheet resistance less than 6/spl Omega///spl square/ can be obtained for both n/sup +/ and p/sup +/ silicide gates. CMOS transistors having 0.09 /spl mu/m effective channel length were successfully formed using the in-situ silicidation technique.


Computer simulations (CS) profoundly alter many aspects of our lives yet exhibit an ontological recalcitrance that impede our understanding of what they are and how they function. The dominant theoretical framework for understanding computer simulation (CS) related artworks is rooted in postmodern ideas that proliferate 'immaterial readings, consequently hiding the making processes of the artwork, and making it difficult to discuss the material points of contact between the physical and virtual world. There is limited literature that focuses specifically on CS-related contemporary art. This thesis draws together the most pertinent history, theory and practice for artists and curators working with CS-related artworks. This study employs a reflective practice methodology to explore the changing modes of materiality ascribed to computer simulation-related artworks. The research consists of three phases of practice, theoretical analysis and reflection. Five artworks were created for three exhibitions, that elucidated how space, time and behaviour are constructed within game engines, and how this can inform the understanding of existing and future CS artworks. A parametric time system was developed: a new visual scripting logic for real-time artworks that allows them to be exhibited for different durations without altering the content or recompiling code. Characteristics of CS were established in relation to existing art practices. Postmodern and new materialist theories were analysed and discussed with a view to better understanding CS within art contexts. In relation to my own practice, assemblage theory, media ecology and media geology were found to be the most appropriate theoretical frameworks in which to understand CS artworks. The final chapter expands on these ideas in relation to the recalcitrant temporal aspects of the CS assemblage. For artists working especially with computer simulated artworks, this thesis provides a set of practical and theoretical examples of the contexts that real-time computer simulations, specifically with ecological and environmental concerns, can be discussed within. The comparison and analysis of postmodernist and new materialist theories provides a way of considering computer simulations within a contemporary philosophical context.


The concept of broadband coherent supercontinuum (SC) generation in all-normal dispersion (ANDi) fibers in the near-infrared, visible and ultraviolet (UV) spectral regions is introduced and investigated in detail. In numerical studies, explicit design criteria are established for ANDi photonic crystal fiber (PCF) designs that allow the generation of flat and smooth ultrabroad spectral profiles without significant fine structure and with excellent stability and coherence properties. The key benefit of SC generation in ANDi fibers is the conservation of a single ultrashort pulse in the time domain with smooth and recompressible phase distribution. Self-phase modulation and optical wave breaking are identified as the dominant nonlinear effects responsible for the nonlinear spectral broadening. It is further demonstrated that coherence properties, spectral bandwidth and temporal compressibility are independent of input pulse duration for constant peak power. The numerical predictions are in excellent agreement with experimental results obtained in two realizations of ANDi PCF optimized for the near-infrared and visible spectral region. In these experiments, the broadest SC spectrum generated in the normal dispersion regime of an optical fiber to date is achieved. The exceptional temporal properties of the generated SC pulses are demonstrated by their application in ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy and by their temporal recompression to sub-two cycle durations by linear chirp compensation. The concept is further extended to tapered optical fibers with submicron diameter. Realized either as freestanding photonic nanowire or suspended core fiber, these tapered ANDi fibers allow the generation of coherent SC spectra with considerable spectral power densities in the usually hard to reach wavelength region below 300 nm.


This document describes an approach to support network applications, that is client-server applications with a dynamic number of short-lived clients, within the original Ada 95 distributed systems model. The conformance of this concept with the Ada Standard is verified. An implementation based on Glade, the implementation for the GNAT compiler of Annex E of the Ada Reference Manual, is presented, highlighting the necessary modifications to the configuration language and the run-time system.


We present a case of a 52-year-old man with previous mitral valve replacement who presented to an outside hospital for planned cardiac ablation for atrial fibrillation. During the procedure, while advancing the microcatheter across the mitral valve, the microcatheter was sheared embolising into the right middle cerebral artery. This retained cardiac microcatheter tip was successfully retrieved with the monorail microsnare technique. The patient made a complete recovery without any neurological deficits or evidence of infarct on follow-up imaging.


The effect of prior and subsequent precipitation on recrystallization behavior during the isothermal annealing of an Al-0.2%wt.Sc alloy heavily deformed by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) up to 10 cycles at ambient temperature was investigated. Three kind of different microstructures, i.e., solution treated one, 300°C pre-aged one and 400°C pre-aged one, were prepared as the starting structures for the ARB process. It is found that precipitation pinning effect of Al3Sc suppresses recrystallization and especially the 400°C pre-aging was effective to stabilize the ultrafine grained structure of the matrix. Dissolution of pre-aging Al3Sc precipitates was suggested by re-precipitation during annealing of the ARB processed specimens at around 300°C.


High‐frequency sound diffraction over an undulating sea bottom, including underwater ridges and hills, has become of increasing interest to the ocean acoustic community. In many cases, the top layers of the seabed are relatively soft. Thus, sound diffraction by an underwater ridge with a very soft boundary (closed‐cell foam material) is investigated in a laboratory tank. The diffracted acoustic pressure is measured in the penumbra, along the ridge and along vertical axes behind the ridge. Experimental data are compared with Fock and Pierce's theory, which originally described the diffraction field of an electromagnetic wave propagating over a curved conducting surface. Experimental data and numerical results are in good agreement. The insertion loss caused by the underwater soft ridge is much higher than that caused by a rigid ridge. [Work supported by ONR.]


In this study, some trend analyses were made to determine the variations of monthly rainfall data belonging to Sakarya Basin which is one of the big and important basin in Turkey. Data records of monthly rainfall from 1960 to 2000 of 25 stations in Sakarya Basin were analyzed using four different non-parametric methods namely Sen's T, Spearman's Rho, Mann-Kendall and Seasonal Mann- Kendall to demonstrate the existence of any possible trends. Trend analyses were also divided into two phases. In the first phase, the monthly rainfall data was evaluated annually. In the second phase, variation of rainfall series belonged to 25 stations was evaluated for each month. Homogeneity of trends in monthly rainfall was also tested by using a procedure developed by Van Belle and Hughes. The linear slopes (change per unit time) of trends were calculated by using a trend slope method suggested by Sen. The starting points of trends for each month were defined by using the Mann-Kendall Rank Correlation test. Consequently, downward trends at the 0.05 significance were found at half of the investigated stations. Trends were found at total 44 months with in the months in which some trend exist at the 0.05 significance level in total 300 month. 20% of them trends is upward whereas 80% downward. The upward trends were found in October period at 6 stations and August period at 3 stations. Trends of remaining 35 months were downward.


Classifier fusion is a well-studied problem in which decisions from multiple classifiers are combined at the score, rank, or decision level to obtain better results than a single classifier. Subsequently, various techniques for combining classifiers at each of these levels have been proposed in the literature. Many popular methods entail scaling and normalizing the scores obtained by each classifier to a common numerical range before combining the normalized scores using the sum rule or another classifier. In this research, we explore an alternative method to combine classifiers at the score level. The Pool Adjacent Violators (PAV) algorithm has traditionally been utilized to convert classifier match scores to confidence values that model posterior probabilities for test data. The PAV algorithm and other score normalization techniques have studied the same problem without being aware of each other. In this first ever study to combine the two, we propose the PAV algorithm for classifier fusion on publicly available NIST multi-modal biometrics score dataset. We observe that it provides several advantages over existing techniques and find that the interpretation learned by the PAV algorithm is more robust than the scaling learned by other popular normalization algorithms such as min-max. Moreover, the PAV algorithm enables the combined score to be interpreted as confidence and is able to further improve the results obtained by other approaches. We also observe that utilizing traditional normalization techniques first for individual classifiers and then normalizing the fused score using PAV offers a performance boost compared to only using the PAV algorithm.


OF DISSERTATION ANTI-MULLERIAN HORMONE IN STALLIONS AND MARES: PHYSIOLOGICAL VARIATIONS, CLINICAL APPLICATIONS, AND MOLECULAR ASPECTS Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) is a homodimeric glycoprotein that is best known for its role in regression of the Mullerian duct in the male fetus. Accumulating evidence indicates that AMH also has an important role during different physiological processes after birth. In contrast to other species, relatively little is known about AMH in the horse. In chapter one, developmental and seasonal changes in serum AMH concentrations in male horses were determined, and the use of AMH for determination of retained cryptorchid testes was established. In chapter two, the interrelationship between plasma AMH concentrations, antral follicle counts (AFC), and age in mares was evaluated. Molecular and hormonal changes in the equine follicle with regard to variations in antral follicle count and follicular development were examined in chapter three. In chapter four, the effect of AFC on age-related changes in follicular parameters in light-type horse mares was examined. Peripheral AMH concentrations were significantly higher in prepubertal colts than in postpubertal stallions and varied with season in mature stallions with higher concentrations during the physiological breeding season. Furthermore, serum AMH concentrations were significantly higher in cryptorchid stallions compared to intact stallions or geldings. Circulating AMH concentrations varied widely amongst mares of the same age while the repeatability of AMH was high within and between estrous cycles. More importantly, AMH concentrations were positively associated with AFC, and this relationship increased with mare age. In addition, variations in AMH concentrations or AFC were associated with molecular differences in granulosa cells of growing follicles, and the expression of AMH and genes co-expressed with AMH in the equine follicle as well as intrafollicular AMH concentrations decreased during follicular development. Finally, the inter-ovulatory interval and length of the follicular phase is increased in aged mares with low AFC. In conclusion, AMH is a useful biomarker for cryptorchidism in stallions and ovarian reserve in mares. Furthermore, follicular function was interrelated to AFC or AMH based upon molecular differences in growing follicles, while age-related changes in follicular parameters are linked to differences in AFC.


textabstractTCR gene therapy represents a feasible and promising treatment for patients with cancer and virus infections. Currently, this treatment rationale is hampered by diluted surface expression of the TCR transgene and generation of potentially self reactive T-cells, both a direct consequence of mis-pairing with endogenous TCR chains. As we reported previously (Gene Ther 16:1369, 2000; J Immunol 180:7736, 2008), TCR mis-pairing can be successfully addressed by a TCR:CD3ζ fusion protein (i.e., TCR:ζ). Here, we set out to minimize the content of CD3ζ in TCR:ζ, specific for MAGEA1/ HLA-A1, without compromising TCR pairing and function. Domain-exchange and 3D-modeling strategies defined a set of minimal TCR:ζ variants, which, together with a murinized and cysteine-modified TCR (TCR:mu+cys), were tested for functional TCR expression and TCR pairing. Our data with Jurkat T cells show that the CD3ζ transmembrane domain is important for cell-surface expression, whereas the CD3ζ intracellular domain is crucial for T-cell activation. Notably, inability of TCR:ζ to mis-pair was not observed for TCR:mu+cys, which depended exclusively on the transmembrane domain of CD3ζ and could not be recapitulated by a limited number of structurally defined CD3ζ transmembrane amino acids. The extracellular CD3ζ domain was dispensable for TCR:ζ's ability to prevent TCR mis-pairing, bind pMHC and mediate NFAT activation. In primary human T cells, however, minimal TCR:ζ without CD3ζ's extracellular domain but not TCR:ζ nor TCR:mu+cys revealed compromised cell surface expression and T cell function. Taken together, our study demonstrates that CD3ζ's transmembrane domain dictates TCR:ζ's inability to TCR mis-pair, but only TCR coupled to complete CD3ζ and not its minimal variants were functionally expressed in primary T cells.


Background: Constant evaluation is important for maintaining and improving the quality of end-of-life care. We therefore conduct the fourth Japan Hospice and Palliative Evaluation Study (J-HOPE4) as a continuous evaluation study. In this present paper, we describe the design of J-HOPE4. The main purposes of J-HOPE4 are as follows:1) to evaluate the processes, structures, and outcomes of palliative care acute hospitals, palliative care units, and home hospice services; 2) to examine bereaved family members' self-reported psychosocial conditions, such as grief and depression as bereavement outcomes;3) to provide data to ensure and improve the quality of care provided by participating institutions via feedback based on the results from each institution; and 4) provide clinical and academic information concerning the implications of various issues in palliative care by conducting additional studies. Methods: We will conduct a cross-sectional, anonymous, self-reported questionnaire survey. In total, 190 institutions will participate in this study, meaning that 12,000 bereaved family members will be sent a questionnaire. Discussion: This is one of the largest cross-sectional surveys involving hospice and palliative care, both in Japan and worldwide. Because this study will have a large sample size, the findings are expected to be generalizable to other settings.


The present report deals with the results and interpretation of a series of experiments on the effect of three choline derivatives on the electrical activity of the cerebral cortex of cats. The three compounds tested were acetylcholine chloride, acetylbetamethylcholine chloride (mecholyl chloride) and carbamylcholine chloride (doryl).1 METHOD Adult cats were anesthetized with intraperitoneal injections of dial; both cerebral hemispheres were widely exposed and the dura removed. A total of 57 animals was used. The electrical activity of various cortical areas was recorded with a multichannel Grass electroencephalograph. The stages of amplification in this instrument are condenser coupled, and the recorder writes in ink on a paper tape. This instrument records all frequencies between 2 and 70 per second. Unipolar leads were employed, the stigmatic electrode being formed by a cotton wool wick soaked in physiologic solution of sodium chloride, one end of which rested on the surface of the


The sensitivity of oceanic CO2 uptake to alterations in the marine biological carbon pump, such as brought about by natural or purposeful ocean fertilization, has repeatedly been investigated by studies employing numerical biogeochemical ocean models. It is shown here that the results of such ocean-centered studies are very sensitive to the assumption made about the response of the carbon reservoirs on the atmospheric side of the sea surface. Assumptions made include prescribed atmospheric pCO2, an interactive atmospheric CO2 pool exchanging carbon with the ocean but not with the terrestrial biosphere, and an interactive atmosphere that exchanges carbon with both oceanic and terrestrial carbon pools. The impact of these assumptions on simulated annual to millennial oceanic carbon uptake is investigated for a hypothetical increase in the C:N ratio of the biological pump and for an idealized enhancement of phytoplankton growth. Compared to simulations with interactive atmosphere, using prescribed atmospheric pCO2 overestimates the sensitivity of the oceanic CO2 uptake to changes in the biological pump, by about 2%, 25%, 100%, and >500% on annual, decadal, centennial, and millennial timescales, respectively. The smaller efficiency of the oceanic carbon uptake under an interactive atmosphere is due to the back flux of CO2 that occurs when atmospheric CO2 is reduced. Adding an interactive terrestrial carbon pool to the atmosphere-ocean model system has a small effect on annual timescales, but increases the simulated fertilization-induced oceanic carbon uptake by about 4%, 50%, and 100% on decadal, centennial, and millennial timescales, respectively, for pCO2 sensitivities of the terrestrial carbon storage in the middle range of the C4MIP models (Friedlingstein et al., 2006). For such sensitivities, a substantial fraction of oceanic carbon uptake induced by natural or purposeful ocean fertilization originates, on timescales longer than decades, not from the atmosphere but from the terrestrial biosphere.


Myocarditis is a common disease in all age groups. Correct diagnosis of myocarditis is difficult, but of clinical and scientific importance. It is the aim of this review to describe and evaluate diagnostic possibilities. It is not possible to make a definitive diagnosis of myocarditis by electrocardiography, laboratory tests or echocardiography. Nor can techniques of nuclear medicine or coronary angiography provide an unequivocal diagnosis of myocarditis. Myocarditis can be diagnosed with certainty only by endomyocardial biopsy, which must be examined by histological, immunohistological and molecular techniques to obtain maximal sensitivity. But optimal diagnosis of a biopsy is subject to the problem of sampling error. Furthermore, myocardial biopsy is in practice used only rarely, despite a low complication rate. Thus the diagnosis of myocarditis is often based merely on suspicion. The limitations of standard methods employed so far have made cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) a valuable new additional test when there is the clinical suspicion of myocarditis. A myocardial biopsy will often reveal myocarditis in patients with cardiac symptoms and CMRI findings typical of myocarditis, especially if the biopsy was obtained near the area of contrast enhancement in the CMRI. CMRI can also be used for noninvasive and low-risk follow-up of functional parameters and tissue damage.


20 water-soluble antigen have been identified with the help of rabbit antisera to extracts of the early gastrula ectoderm and neural plate in Rana temporaria. All of them were also found in the early blastula embryos and unfertilized eggs. The identified antigens are characterized by a definite embryospecificity. As the development proceeds, the concentration of these antigens in the embryonic tissues decreases until the complete disappearance of corresponding immunoelectrophoretic reactions. By this characteristic all antigens under study are subdivided into four groups: I--five antigens identified at the early developmental stages only (until hatching, stage 29); II--nine antigens present up to stages 33--35; III--three antigens followed up to stages 39--40 (well formed tadpole); IV--three antigens were found at all developmental stages under study up to stages 45--47. 11 out of 20 identified antigens have antigenic similarity with the proteins of blood serum of adult amphibians. Besides, the early gastrula ectoderm contains antigens similar with those of the brain of adult amphibians.


The innovations in microelectronics education for russian aerospace industry are discussed. Three proposals are suggested: 1) special master's programs; 2) joint departments with the enterprises; 3) special center of design and investigation in extremal electronics. It is maintained that the flexible construction "university-enterprise" would help to prepare the next generation of microelectronics engineers satisfying the aerospace industry requirements.


Mice were tested in a situation permitting them to step readily from a small, restrictive platform to a larger one. Conditioned avoidance was established by a single training trial when animals received a shock by stepping from one platform to another. At various intervals after the single punishing shock, subjects were anesthetized with diethyl ether. Interference with retention, tested 1 day later, was shown for intervals up to 24 minutes, at which time ether no longer appeared to influence the subsequent response.


For associative processing and relational data bases characterized by sequential memory search, it is convenient to store a sequence of data files in a content-addressable memory since it can perform two concurrent data base operations at a time (search and update, search and delete, etc.) and the sequential nature of its operation is in conformity with the sequential nature of maintenance and update of data files. To take into account various communication delays introduced by the communication network in transferring updated words to the content-adressable memory assume that a sequence of data words contained in the same data file is stored with a shifting distance from one another, d ¿ 1, where the d integer is selectable by a programmer, and a pair of adjacent data words from the same file may have a constant or variable d. (A particular case, d = 1, means consecutive word storage.) In this paper, we discuss various memory allocation algorithms that allow formation of a multiprocessor system that incorporates several content-addressable memories and is designated for fast data base applications. All memory allocation schemes introduced in this paper are described by a Diophantine equation whose solution, x, shows the distance between any two processors that are not in conflict when they access the same content-addressable memory. The paper presents a technique for finding a maximal set of noninterfering processors and conflict-free allocation techniques for various structures of data files.


If agent-based applications are to be used in large scale, open environments, security is a main issue; digital identity management (DIDM) an essential element. DIDM is needed to be able to determine the rights and obligations of the four main


The research presented in this thesis was motivated by the need to improve introductory physics courses. Introductory physics courses are generally the first courses in which students learn to create models to solve complex problems. However, many students taking introductory physics courses fail to acquire a command of the concepts, methods and tools presented in these courses. The reforms proposed by this thesis focus on altering the content of introductory courses rather than content delivery methods as most reforms do.
This thesis explores how the performance on a widely used test of conceptual understanding in mechanics compares between students taking a course with updated and modified content and students taking a traditional course. Better performance by traditional students was found to stem from their additional practice on the types of items which appeared on the test. The results of this work brought into question the role of the introductory physics course for non-majors.
One aspect of this new role is the teaching of new methods such as computation (the use of a computer to solve numerically, simulate and visualize physical problems). This thesis explores the potential benefits for students who learn computation as part of physics course. After students worked through a suite of computational homework problems, many were able to model a new physical situation with which they had no experience.
The failure of some students to model this new situation might have stemmed from their unfavorable attitudes towards learning computation. In this thesis, we present the development of a new tool for characterizing students' attitudes. Preliminary measurements indicated significant differences between successful and unsuccessful students.


Atenolol selective electrodes were prepared based on a complex atenolol-phosphotungstate as an active material using the plasticizers di-butyl phosphate (DBP), tri-butyl phosphate (TBP), o-nitro phenyl octyl ether (NPOE) and di-octyl phthalate (DOPH) in a PVC matrix membrane. The properties of the prepared electrodes were studied, namely slope, concentration range, detection limit, lifetime, pH effect and selectivity. The experimental results showed that the best electrode was based on DOPH as plasticizer, displaying a linear range from 1.00 x 10-4 M to 5.00 x 10-2 M with a Nernstian slope of 55.91 mV/decade and correlation coefficient of 0.9995. The detection limit was 5.00 x 10-5 M and the lifetime was around 90 days. The proposed electrode was successfully applied to the determination of atenolol in a pharmaceutical preparation. The average recovery for atenolol determination in tablets was around 98.50%, with standard deviation \pm 0.1.