Choice of law in cross-border insolvency is gaining increased attention, not just by lowly academics but by policymakers who actually matter. I argue it is time to bring some normative guidance to the burgeoning reform efforts. At the highest level of theoretical purity, universalism seems to have (rightly) captured the biggest following. But it has been scaled back by what I call "second-order" considerations of pragmatics to its lesser, modified form. I take that retrenchment as necessary and note how it has been deployed through a carveout-based regime of subject-specific exceptions from lex fori concursus. Given that lay of the land, I suggest a "third-order" normative framework for moving beyond discrete subject matter carveouts and instead propose a reorientation toward a normative principle to justify the necessary carveouts of modified universalism: actual, defensive litigant reliance should be what warrants departure from COMI insolvency law. I contend that this new framework will serve a desirable cabining effect on territorialism by reserving the application of non-COMI law for circumstances when it is truly "required."


Background. Relatively little attention has been focused on whether or how the effects of reader characteristics, or of the linguistic properties of a text, predict reading comprehension of health-related information. In addition, there is little evidence for the utility of any of the writing guidelines promulgated by the National Health Service (NHS) in order to improve the comprehension of health information. Nonetheless, some previous research suggests that health-related texts could be adapted for different groups of users to optimise understanding. Thus, existing knowledge presents important limitations, and raises concerns with potentially far-reaching practical implications. To address these concerns, I investigated how variation in individual differences and in text features predicts the comprehension of health-related texts, examining how the effects of textual features may differ for different kinds of readers. Method. The focus of this thesis is on Study 3, in which I investigated the predictors of tested comprehension, but I report preliminary studies where I examined the readability of a sample of health-related texts (Study 1), and the perceived comprehension of a sample of health-related texts (Study 2). In the primary study (Study 3), I used Bayesian mixed-effects models to analyse the influences that affect the accuracy of responses to questions probing the comprehension of a sample of health-related texts. I measured variation among 200 participants in their cognitive abilities, to capture the effects of individual differences, as well as variation in the linguistic features of texts, to capture the effects of text structure and content. Results. I found that tested comprehension was less likely to be accurate among older participants. However, comprehension accuracy was greater given higher levels of education, health literacy, and English language proficiency levels. In addition, self-rated evaluations of perceived comprehension predicted comprehension, but only in the absence of other individual-differences-related predictors. Variation in text features, including readability estimates, did not predict comprehension accuracy, and there was no evidence for the modulation of the effects of individual differences by text features. Discussion. Text features did not module the effects of individual differences to influence comprehension accuracy in any meaningful way. This suggests that adapting health-related texts to different groups of the population may be of limited practical value. Implications. Individual differences really matter to comprehension. Thus, optimally, understanding of health-related texts amongst the end-users should be tested, and interventions to aid readers, such as those with relatively low health literacy levels, could be used to improve comprehension of health-texts. In the absence of sensitive measures of reader characteristics, and when testing of understanding is not possible, the use of end-user evaluations of health-related texts may serve as a useful proxy of tested comprehension. However, looking for text effects, and guidance focusing on text effects, seems less useful given the reported evidence. Consequently, the effectiveness of designing health-related texts with the consideration of NHS's text writing guidelines, is likely to be limited.


A theoretical model for bubble propagation under T-bar type overlays due to an in-plane rotating field is developed. By making certain assumptions about the nature of the overlay magnetisation, it is shown that bubble driving forces can be readily calculated for a circular bubble of varying diameter moving freely in 2-dimensions. Expressions for the frictional forces acting on a bubble are derived and the resulting equations are solved to yield the bubble centre trajectory, the radius, velocity and phase variations. This analysis is applied to examine bubble propagation along a straight portion and around a corner of a T-bar circuit. Cases of successful propagation of an isolated bubble, as well as of failure to propagate, are given. Bias margins for a straight T-bar track at 100 kHz are obtained theoretically and compared with experimental results for a chip having the same parameters.


The invention relates to a thidiazuron which is taken as an active matter for the preparation method and application of the product of the quality improvement and production increase of the plant; the content of the thidiazuron in weight percentage is from 0.01 percent to 20 percent, or which in weight volume percentage is from 0.01percent to 15 percent, the others are carriers. The utility model can be made up into liquid preparation and solid preparation. The liquid preparation in weight volume percentage is from 0.01 percent to 15 percent; the thidiazuron content of solid preparation in weight percentage is from 0.01 percent to 20 percent. The thidiazuron which is taken as the active matter for the product of quality improvement and production increase of the plant can be applicable for the plant, the seed of the plant or the medium for the growth of the plant. The invention can be used for the fruit trees such as grape and apple tree; the vegetables such as pumpkin and cucumber; the cash crops such as tobacco and cotton; the oil plants such as rapeseed and peanut; the grazing such as clover blossom; the grain crops such as wheat and corn; and the grafts for various fruit trees. The invention has the advantages that: 1. the invention has the functions of quality improvement and production increase, and can enhance the using effect of the active matter; 2. the invention can used in the mix between the medicaments in different action mechanism, which ensures the using effect of the product; 3. the invention improves the safety, and prevents adverse effects to the crops. Thereby the invention can bring more direct beneficial effects for the vegetable(fruit) farmers.


The increase of dispersed generation (DG) has a strong impact on power system operation. A distribution network, where most of dispersed generators are connected, cannot be considered as passive anymore. Active character of the distribution networks brings problems and uncertainties, but at the same time offers more possibilities for control. Control of distribution networks with DG can be performed by means of primary controllers of dispersed generators, compensating devices and tap changers of transformers. Most of the control normally is using only local measurements. At the same time, it is obvious that the problems, which will arise with the increase of the DG in the future, must be solved by partially decentralized control (control, centralized inside defined area). In this paper, possible structure for such control is presented.


CoRoT and Kepler high-precision photometric data allowed the detection and characterization of the oscillation parameters in stars other than the Sun. Moreover, thanks to the scaling relations, it is possible to estimate masses and radii for thousands of solar-type oscillating stars. Recently, a Δν − ρ relation has been found for δ Scuti stars. Now, analysing several hundreds of this kind of stars observed with CoRoT and Kepler, we present an empiric relation between their frequency at maximum power of their oscillation spectra and their effective temperature. Such a relation can be explained with the help of the κ-mechanism and the observed dispersion of the residuals is compatible with they being caused by the gravity-darkening effect.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to establish if there are differences in the 24-hour melatonin secretion profile between patients with major depression (before, and after treatment with clomipramine) compared to those in healthy subjects. Additionally, we determined if there are differences in melatonin concentrations, depending on the severity of depression, and the presence of 24-hour rhythm disturbances.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Twenty patients with major depression and 24-hour rhythm disturbances, and 14 healthy volunteers took part in the study. Before, and after treatment with clomipramine all subjects had blood samples collected at 08:00, 14:00, 20:00, 24:00, 02:00, 04:00, and 08:00 h, for estimation of melatonin concentrations. Before and after treatment, the severity of depression was evaluated using the following scales: the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HADRS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and clinical observation, as well as presence, and if so, severity of 24-hour rhythm disturbances were assessed.

RESULTS
In individuals with major depression with marked disturbances of their diurnal rhythms, melatonin secretion is also disturbed, shown by the higher melatonin concentrations at night as compared to those in healthy individuals. However, melatonin levels were independent of the severity or the clinical manifestation of depression. Moreover, no correlation between the disturbances in their diurnal rhythms (sleep-watchfulness, diurnal mood shifts) and disturbed melatonin pattern was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Melatonin nocturnal concentrations in patients with major depression were higher than those in healthy individuals. However, the melatonin concentration values do not differentiate the patients in terms of the severity of the depressive symptoms.


Resveratrol (trans 3,5,4 'trihydroxystilbene) is a polyphenol found in some plants and fruits. There are indications that it may be associated with the prevention of osteoporosis due to its action similar to a SERM (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators), a substance used to treat osteoporosis (among other diseases) in women whose use of hormone replacement therapy does not is indicated. However, more specific information about their effect in various quotas of bone tissue is still scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of resveratrol to protect against bone changes characteristics of estrogen deficit in young adult ovariectomized rats. Were utilized 30 animals (Wistar rats) distributed into 3 groups: intact group (INT) with 10 intact animals, ovariectomized group (OVX) with 10 ovariectomized animals treated with a saline and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) solution, ovariectomized + resveratrol group (OVX + RES) with 10 ovariectomized animals treated with a resveratrol, saline and DMSO solution [0.7 mg/kg BW (body weight)], 7 times a week, for 12 weeks. Biometric, biophysical, biomechanical, microtomographical and radiographic density parameters were analyzed from bones with higher cortical (femur) and trabecular quota (vertebrae). The biomechanical properties of femurs were obtained by the three-point bending test and the lumbar vertebrae obtained by bone compression test. Lumbar vertebrae were used to perform the microtomographical analysis and radiographic density analysis. The ovariectomized rats gained more body weight and had lower bone density and radiographic density, and also showed reduction of microtomographical parameters when compared to the intact group. The biomechanical parameters of femurs did not change in neither group. The animals treated with resveratrol did not shown decrease in microtomographical parameters and bone density of the vertebrae as the untreated group. Therefore, the results suggest resveratrol as a potential protector of ovariectomy induced spoliation of bone tissues with greater trabecular quota. Palavras-chaves: resveratrol, osteoporosis, bone tissue, bone biomechanics, bone microtomography, radiographic density e rats.


Normal aging is associated with morphological alte-rations in brain. Ventricular system is located deep inside brain and reflect the overall process of parenchymal atrophy. Once neurode-generative disorders course with more prominent dilatation of brain ventricles, to establish normative volumetric parameters from Brazi-lian healthy old individuals is necessary, and it may be an additional tool on differentiation from the normal to pathological. Objective : To investigate brain ventricular volume changes in Brazilian healthy el-derly people. Methods : Transversal study using magnetic resonance imaging (1.5T) of the brain from 21 elderly healthy volunteers (67A6 years old). Data were assessed with manual segmentation techni-que. Regions of interest were the brain ventricles and intracranial volumes. Old (60-69 years old, 15 women) and Older (>69 years old) groups were created for analysis. Results : Volume of all ventricular compartments significantly increased ( p <.001) with age, with excep-tion of the fourth ventricle. The third and lateral ventricles increased between groups 2.1- and 2.8-fold, respectively. Mean total ventricular volume was 1.2A.4% of intracranial volume in Old and 3.2A1.8% in Ol-der group (p<.001), which represents 15A6ml and 40A24ml (p=.001), respectively. We observed a moderate to strong positive correlation between ventricular volume and age, with the best correlation in the third ventricle (r=.710). Total intracranial volume diminished with age, but without statistical significance. Conclusions : Brain ventricles vo-lume increased significantly with age in healthy old individuals, with exception of the fourth ventricle.


The isolated gas-phase actinide dioxide dications, AnO22+, were evaluated by DFT and coupled cluster CCSD(T) calculations for 12 actinides, An = U-Lr. CASSCF calculations were used to define the orbitals for the CCSD(T) calculations. The characteristic linear [O═An═O]2+ hexavalent actinyl(VI) was found to be the lowest energy structure for An = U, Np, and Pu, which also form stable actinyl(VI) species in solution and possibly for Am when spin-orbit effects are included. For Am, there is a divalent [AnII(O2)]2+ structure where the dioxygen is an end-on physisorbed η1-3O2 2 kcal/mol above the actinyl when spin-orbit effects are included which lower the energy of the actinyl structure. For An = Cm, Bk, and Lr, the lowest energy structure is trivalent [AnIII(O2-)]2+ where the dioxygen is a side-on superoxide, η2-O2-. For Cm, the actinyl is close in energy to the ground state when spin-orbit effects are included. For An = Cf, Es, Fm, Md, and No, the lowest energy structure is divalent [AnII(O2)]2+ where the dioxygen is an end-on physisorbed η1-3O2. The relative energies suggest that curyl(VI) and berkelyl(VI), like well-known americyl(VI), might be stabilized by coordinating ligands in condensed phases. The results further indicate that for californyl and beyond, the actinyl(VI) moieties will probably be elusive even using strong donor ligands. The prevalence of low oxidation states (OSs) An(II) and An(III) for transplutonium actinides reflects stabilization of the 5f orbitals and validates established trends, including the remarkably high stability of divalent No. Bond distances and other parameters suggest maximum bond covalency around plutonyl(VI), with a particularly substantial decrease in bond strength between americyl(VI) and curyl(VI).


Hydrothermal carbonization (in acronym, HTC) is a thermochemical conversion process through which it is possible to directly transform wet organic substrates into a carbonaceous material, referred as hydrochar. Hydrochar has chemical and physical characteristics that make it similar to fossil peats and lignite. Depending on the process conditions, mostly temperature and residence time, this material can be enriched in its carbon content, modifying its structure and providing it interesting characteristics that make it possible to be used for several applications, such as for energy production, as a soil conditioner and improver, for carbon dioxide sorption and sequestration, and some others reported in literature. HTC is a different process, if compared to other common thermochemical processes, such as pyrolysis, torrefaction, gasification, etc., because it works in wet conditions (humidity content higher than 60%). As a matter of fact, biomass is transformed into hydrochar because of the properties of hot pressurized water, that acts both as a reactant and as a catalyst. The HTC process has been studied from many years, although at present not all the chemical reactions that occur during the process are completely known. Moreover, the application of this quite new process to different substrates can bring to different results. Even though HTC can be applied to any kind of organic material (of both animal and vegetable derivation), the possible uses of hydrochar can strongly be influenced by the characteristics of the feedstock. This, for example, can be due to legislative constraints. In Chapter 1, an overview of the existing literature is presented. To get insights on this process, a small bench scale batch reactor has been designed and built at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical engineering of the University of Trento, Italy. This reactor has been tested, prior to be used with real substrates. In Chapter 2 the reactor and the preliminary tests done are described. In this work, the HTC process applied to three different substrates have been studied: grape marc, the EWC 19.05.03 residue and the EWC 19.12.12 residue. In Chapter 3 the three raw substrates are described. Grape marc is produced by the winery industries or by distilleries. This feedstock is composed by woody seeds and holocellulosic skins and it presents an average humidity content of about 60%. At present, it is used for the production of animal food or it is landfilled. In this case, the application of HTC can be an interesting alternative to these end uses because, through this process, grape marc can be recovered, for example, for energy production. The hydrochar produced from this feedstock could be even used as a soil conditioner. In Chapter 4 several analyses on the hydrochar, on the process water and on the gaseous phase obtained during the carbonization tests are presented. The EWC 19.05.03 residue is a by-product of the composting treatment applied to the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW). In collaboration with Contarina S.p.A., a company that collects and treats MSW in the province of Treviso, in the North-East of Italy, this by-product was carbonized and tested both as a soil conditioner and for energy production. Results of the analyses on the solid, liquid and gaseous phases produced by the HTC process are reported in Chapter 5. The EWC 19.12.12 residue is a by-product of the refuse derived fuel (RDF) production, from the residual fraction of the MSW. This substrate was provided by Contarina S.p.A. and preliminary tests on the exploitability of the hydrochar for energy production are reported in Chapter 6, together with analyses on both the liquid and gaseous phases. A rigorous energy balance has been proposed in Chapter 8, based on the experimental data obtained for grape seeds. In this chapter, all the hypotheses and the assumptions taken to evaluate the enthalpy of the HTC reaction at different process conditions (namely, three different temperatures and three residence times) are described. In Chapter 8 a kinetic model is proposed, based on a two-step reaction mechanism. The activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the various degradation reactions were determined by means of least square optimization versus the experimental data of grape marc. A thermo fluid model is even proposed in this chapter. The model integrates mass, momentum and heat equations within the reactor domain by means of the finite volumes method (f.v.m.) approach. Convective and radiative exchange between the reactor and the fluid within the reactor have been implemented in the f.v.m. model. Under two strong assumptions (mono-component and mono-phase fluid, which fulfils the reactor), it was possible to estimate the behaviour of an equivalent fluid (eq_fluid), in terms of thermal properties of the fluid (thermal capacity, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity). Moreover, a simplified dynamic analytic model is also presented – based on lumped capacitance method – in order to simulate the thermal behaviour of the system, using the actual temperature profile imposed by the reactor external heater. A resistance-capacitance network was used to describe the system. Finally, the Henry's law has been applied to assess the amount of gas really produced during the HTC process.
In Chapter 9, the main conclusions of this work are reported.


Although MRI has a spectrum of findings which help in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) spine, a broad spectrum of spine pathologies resemble Pott's spine on MRI and are often missed due to inadequate clinical details. As a result, patients are often subject to unnecessary biopsy. A blinded radiologist may misdiagnose such mimic cases as TB. Our aim is to enable the reader to learn the main criteria that differentiate spine TB from other spine etiologies that mimic TB. A retrospective search was done and authors collected only MRI spine reports that showed a differential diagnosis or diagnosis of TB spine from the computer-based data records of the institution over a four-year period. This revealed 306 cases of TB spine out of which 78 cases with an alternate diagnosis that resembled TB spine were included. We describe a single institute review of 78 such cases that resemble and mimic Pott's spine on MRI. The cases being: (n = 15) pyogenic spondylitis, (n = 1) brucellar spondylodiscitis, (n = 12) rheumatoid arthritis, (n = 12) metastases, (n = 8) lymphoma, (n = 5) post-trauma fractures, (n = 10) degenerative disc disease, (n = 2) Baastrup's disease, (n = 9) osteoporotic fracture, (n = 3) spinal neuropathic arthritis, and (n = 1) case of Rosai–Dorfman disease. The clinical and radiological findings of all these cases were correlated with lab findings and histopathology wherever necessary. Appropriate recognition of these entities that resemble and mimic TB spine on MRI is important for optimal patient care. This paper exposes radiologists to a variety of spine pathologies for which biopsy is not indicated, and highlights key imaging findings of these entities to facilitate greater diagnostic accuracy in clinical practice.


Large-scale data analysis lies in the core of modern enterprises and scientific research. With the emergence of cloud computing, the use of an analytical query processing infrastructure (e.g., Amazon EC2) can be directly mapped to monetary value. MapReduce has been a popular framework in the context of cloud computing, designed to serve long running queries (jobs) which can be processed in batch mode. Taking into account that different jobs often perform similar work, there are many opportunities for sharing. In principle, sharing similar work reduces the overall amount of work, which can lead to reducing monetary charges incurred while utilizing the processing infrastructure. In this paper we propose a sharing framework tailored to MapReduce. Our framework, MRShare, transforms a batch of queries into a new batch that will be executed more efficiently, by merging jobs into groups and evaluating each group as a single query. Based on our cost model for MapReduce, we define an optimization problem and we provide a solution that derives the optimal grouping of queries. Experiments in our prototype, built on top of Hadoop, demonstrate the overall effectiveness of our approach and substantial savings.


The main aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of speed and place of ceiling fans on thermal comfort parameters (predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied) and energy expenses in two different office rooms with a certain geometry in winter using district heating system. In all of the models, the regime of a flow is turbulent and governing equations are solved by finite volume method and SIMPLE algorithm. Based on the results, using ceiling fans in winter (heating system) has a considerable influence on the improvement of buildings thermal comfort and reducing consumption of energy. By using ceiling fans the effective temperature of room increases and therefore radiator energy consumption decreases. Furthermore, the results show that the location of ceiling fan does not have any effect on room effective temperature and residents' thermal comfort. According to the results, predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied parameters improve by turning ceiling fans on and increasing fan normal air velocity. But, the operation of fan leads to cooling system after a certain velocity and it is not acceptable for the heating system. Finally, the CF.A case with p(x)=1.0 m, V=0.2 m/s and Tradiator=51 oC, and CF.B.1 case with p(x)=2.5 m, V=0.27 m/s and Tradiator=37 oC, by providing thermal comfort conditions and reducing consumption of energy about 58% and 73%, respectively are reported as optimal cases. Review History: Received: 6 August 2016 Revised: 13 March 2017 Accepted: 15 April 2017 Available Online: 25 April 2017


This dissertation addresses the broad question about how phonology and phonetics are interrelated, specifically how phonetic language changes, which gradually alter the phonetics of speech sounds, affect the phonological system of the language, and vice versa. Some questions I address are: (i) What aspects of speakers' knowledge of their language are changing during a phonetic change? (ii) What is the relative timing of a phonetic change and phonological reanalysis? (iii) Can a modular feed-forward model of phonology and phonetics account of the observed patterns of phonetic change? (iv) What are the consequences of my results for theories of phonology, phonetics, and language acquisition? (v) What unique insight into the answers to these questions can the study of language change in progress give us over other methodologies? To address these questions, I drew data from the Philadelphia Neighborhood Corpus [PNC] (Labov and Rosenfelder, 2011), a collection of sociolinguistic interviews carried out between 1973 and 2013. Using the PNC data, I utilized a number of different statistical modeling techniques to evaluate models of phonetic change and phonologization, including standard mixed effects regression modeling in R (Bates, 2006), and hierarchical Bayesian modeling via Hamiltonian Monte Carlo in Stan (Stan Development Team, 2012). My results are challenging to the conventional wisdom that phonologization is a late-stage reanalysis of phonetic coarticulatory and perceptual effects (e.g. Ohala, 1981). Rather, it appears that phonologization occurs simultaneously with the onset of phonetic changes. I arrive at this conclusion by examining the rate of change of contextual vowel variants, and by investigating mismatches between which variants are expected to change on phonetic grounds versus phonological grounds. In my analysis, not only can a modular feedforward model of phonology and phonetics account for observed patterns of phonetic change, but must be appealed to in some cases. These results revise some the facts to be explained by diachronic phonology, and I suggest the question to be pursued ought to be how phonological innovations happen when there are relatively small phonetic precursors. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Linguistics This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/862 First Advisor William Labov


The evolution of microstructure, precipitate size, volume fraction and integrated intensity of Al-8.0Zn-2.05Mg-1.76Cu (7055) and 7055-1.0Li alloys during isothermal ageing has been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and synchrotron-radiation small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). According to the TEM results, referring to the thermodynamic phase diagram, it was found that the addition of Li changed the types of the precipitates. T1 phase was observed in the 7055-1.0Li alloy besides the GP zones, η' and η with variant orientations with matrix, η1、η2 and η4. The super-lattice spots of L12 (Cu3Au) structure were probably due to the existence of Al3Li (δ') or Al3(Zr,Li). Furthermore, the precipitation sequence has been modified in Li-containing Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys. The precipitate volume fraction derived from the integrated intensity for 7055 alloy reached an plateau except ageing at 120°C and the maximum was about 0.052-0.054 in the temperature range 140-160°C.


Selling to consumers is becoming increasingly complex and difficult due to changes in the channel structure of the marketplace. These changes are being driven in part by a technological revolution incorporating interactive digital media. This introduction to the special issue presents a brief overview of technology-focused research in business-to consumer selling. The goal of the introduction is to suggest and illustrate a research agenda that depicts the role and implications of technology in business-to-consumer selling.


Although we agree with Newell and Anderson & Lebiere (A&L) that a unified theory of cognition is needed to advance cognitive science, we disagree on how to achieve it. A hybrid system can score high in the Newell Test but may not offer a veridical and coherent theory of cognition. A multilevel approach, involving theories at both psychological and brain levels, is suggested.


This study is aimed at the determination of the activity concentrations of naturally occuring and technically enhanced levels of radiation in 129 soil samples collected across the landscape of the State of Qatar. The State of Qatar is a peninsula with a total area of 11,437 km2 which lies over a geological formation comprising a sequence of limestone, dolomite, chalk, clay and gypsum. This work aims to establish the first baseline measurements for radioactivity concentration in the soil and (Saudi and Qatari) building materials collected from the Qatarian peninsula. Representative samples from various locations across the Qatarian peninsula have been collected and analysed in order to establish activity concentrations associated with the 235,8U and 232Th natural decay chains, the long-lived naturally occurring radionuclide 40K and the artificial man-made radionuclide 137Cs. The activity concentrations have been measured via high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry using a hyper-pure germanium detector situated in a low-background environment with a copper inner-plated passive lead shield. A wide range of different gamma-ray energy transitions lines ranging from -100 keV up to 2.6 MeV associated with decays from the decay products of the 235,8U and 232Th decay chains have been analyzed separately to obtain more statistically significant overall results, under the assumption of secular equilibrium of the radionuclides within these samples. Using this method, a signficant improvement can be obtained in the statistical uncertainty of the derived activity concentrations. Details of the sample preparation and the gamma-ray spectroscopic analysis techniques are presented. Four radiological maps showing the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs are presented. Five soil samples were found to be elevated in 226Ra concentrations. Two samples among the elevated samples were significantly above the average value. Notably, these samples were collected from an area contains an oil field (NW Dukhan). The weighted mean of the activity concentrations of 226Ra were found to be 201.93 ± 1. 54stat ± 12. 9syst. and 342 ± 1. 9stat ± 24. 9syst. Bq/kg respectively in these samples. The mean values of activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K for the full cohort of samples were found to be 17. 22 ± 1.55, 6.38 ± 0.26, and 169 ± 5 Bq/kg respectively. These values lie within the expected range relative to the world average values in soil samples of 30, 35 and 400 Bq/kg respectively. The mean value of activity concentration of 137Cs was also measured and found to be comparable with other published data. The mean value of gamma dose rate (D), the radium equivalent (Raeq), the external hazard index (Hex) and annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) for the complete set of samples were all below the published maximal admissible values and indicate that the State of Qatar can be regarded as having normal levels of natural background radiation. The values of gamma dose rate obtained for samples no. X228 and 29-X228 were both found to be higher than the permissible value which is 51 nGy/h. They were 92. 82 ± 6.72 ±10. 23systematic and 160.27 ± 11.51 stat. ± 18.1syst. nGy/h respectively. The value of the radium equivalent (Raeq) in these two samples was found to be just below the permissible value of Raeq of 370 Bq/kg, which corresponds to an annual effective dose of 1 mSv. It was around 367.52 ± 26. 40Stat ± 41.51syst nGy/h. It can be concluded that the measured level of the natural radiation background in the present study show that the areas studied have normal levels of background radiation, with exception of these two areas. The measured level of natural radioactivity in the present study for the Saudi and Qatari building materials from the 20 investigated samples used in the State of Qatar is lower than other published data and lies within the world ranges for building materials of 50, 50 and 500 (Bq/kg) for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, respectively. The gamma dose rate, the radium equivalent (Raeq), the external and internal hazard indices (Hex and Hint) and annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) which were determined for each of the samples indicate that the State of Qatar can be regarded as having normal levels of natural background radiation.


Retention and graduation rates of Black and Latino male students in higher education continue to be an issue. More specifically, Black and Latino male students fall well behind other groups in retention and graduation rates within STEM education broadly, and engineering education specifically. Institutional support specifically designed for Black and Latino males in engineering may assist this population in addressing and overcoming this obstacle. BROTHERHOOD is a student led organization designed to support and encourage the men of color at the University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering. This inquiry explored the experiences of current and former Black and Latino BROTHERHOOD leaders. An outcomes assessment was used to assess areas where BROTHERHOOD is succeeding and areas where the organization may improve in addressing the unique needs and challenges of Black and Latino males in the Swanson School of Engineering. The inquiry incorporated a qualitative method using open-ended, semi-structured interview questions. Participants were invited through simple random sampling. Sixteen participants were interviewed, including eight current BROTHERHOOD leaders and eight alumni who were former leaders. Three key findings emerged from this inquiry: 1) BROTHERHOOD provides social and emotional support; 2) BROTHERHOOD leadership fosters student empowerment; and 3) BROTHERHOOD has four areas of improvement. This outcomes assessment may be utilized to support a future program evaluation of BROTHERHOOD to further measure how the specific organizational components assist the participating men of color in their educational, professional, and social experiences as undergraduate engineering students in the Swanson School of Engineering.


The intensity of volcanic activity and seasonal rains associated with the instability of the natural slopes has caused many rockfalls in the Dolomieu crater located on top of the volcano Piton de la Fournaise in La Reunion Island. These phenomena, that involve individual blocks up to larger volumes, are expected to be related to the volcanic activity. The unpredictable nature and destructive power of gravitational flows make in-situ measurements extremely difficult. The seismic signal generated by these slope instabilities provides thus a unique tool to trace back these events and retrieve their characteristics (volume, duration, localization, . . . ). The permanent seismic network set on Le Piton de la Fournaise volcano is particularly well suited to the study of seismic signals related to gravitational collapse and of their relation to volcanic activity. Using this network and the new seismic broadband stations recently installed, the seismic signals generated by slope instabilities have been acquired and analyzed. In a first step, signal processing techniques have been developed to distinguish the seismic signal generated by rockfalls from that generated by other seismological events that affect the Piton de la Fournaise Volcano. A localization method has been developed based on inversion of waves arrival time. We focus on the 2006-2007 period, during which the crater has undergone a major collapse. This event has considerably destabilized the Dolomieu crater edges, providing a good opportunity to study the evolution in time of the rockfall activity. Analysis of the seismic signal and simple scaling laws for granular flows made it possible to derive interesting relations between the energy of the seismic waves and the characteristics of rockfalls. The role of the local topography in these relations has been investigated using numerical modeling of dry granular flows and the Digital Elevation Model of the Dolomieu crater constructed by photogrammetric techniques. Good agreement is found between the scaling laws obtained theoretically and those derived from seismic observation providing insight into the effect of the source parameters on the generated seismic signal. The detection methods and the scaling laws developed here provide useful tools for monitoring of rockfall activity, in particular in relation with the volcanic activity. These works were conducted within UNDERVOLC project.


Background: Asthmatic patients present different degrees of anxiety and depression, being psiquiatric pathologies the most frequent alterations related to this illness. In this country there is available information of asthma in kids but just a few about adult patients. Objectives: To know the frequency of anxiety and depression in adult asthmatic patients, compare them with healthy individuals and determine their relationship with the severity of illness. Patients and methods: There were included asthmatic adults (GINA 2002) and as control group healthy individuals, it has been aplicated the HAD scale (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) to determine the presence of anxiety and depression Results: 120 patients participated, 60 in each group with a mean age of 34 years old in the group 1 (asthmatic) and 31 years old in group 2 (healthy individuals). The HAD scale results in group 1 showed that 30% of patients presented anxiety, and 8% showed depression; in group 2 18% had anxiety and 3% depression. There are more anxiety and depression in asthmatic patients than in healthy individuals, p < 0.05, correlation between depression and severity of asthma is r = 0.288. Conclusions: Anxiety is frequent in asthmatic patients, being less common the presence of depression but related with asthma severity. These results contrast with available information where up to 54% of asthmatic patient present anxiety and 30% depression, using the same scale HAD. It is necessary to identify these problems, with the object to give an integral an accurate treatment to the patient.


Advances in the theoretical understanding of large-scale tectonic and surface processes, along with a rapid growth of computing technology, have stimulated interest in the use of numerical surface process models (SPMs) of long-term landscape evolution, especially in relation to the links between tectonics and topography. Because of these advances and possibilities and because SPMs continue to play an important part in recent geological, geomorphological, thermochronological and other geosciences research, the models warrant review and assessment. This review summarizes and evaluates the important issues concerning SPMs of long-term landscape evolution that have been addressed only in a passing way by previous authors. The issues reviewed here are: (1) the formulation of the 'laws' that represent fluvial and hillslope processes in SPMs; (2) the implementation of the various algorithms on numerical grids; (3) model parameterization and calibration; and (4) model testing.


In the streptozocin-induced diabetic rat, the placenta is larger and the fetus is smaller than normal. To study cellular differences that might contribute to the size and functional disparity between diabetic and control placentas, a light- and electron-microscopic analysis was performed on 14-, 18-, and 22-day (term) control and diabetic placentas. Diabetic placentas, especially later in gestation, were marked by the presence of large numbers of glycogendistended cells in the basal zone. Within the placental labyrinth, the trophoblastic layers of the interhemal membrane were significantly thicker in the diabetic placentas on days 18 and 22, and large accumulations of lipid droplets were present, especially in the inner two trophoblastic layers. In normal placentas there is a marked thinning of the placental barrier in the labyrinth by day 22 of gestation, making the thickness of the labyrinthine layers in age-matched diabetic placentas even more impressive. Finally, the labyrinth of 22-day diabetic placentas contained more glycogen and rough endoplasmic reticulum in the inner trophoblastic layer, a feature that is found in less-mature (18-day) control placentas. Thus, the diabetic placentas have a number of features that are consistent with functional immaturity/ dysmaturity. Cytologic evidence confirms the presence of increased glycogen and lipid reserves in both the junctional zone and the cellular area between maternal and fetal blood. The thickening and modification in the interhemal membrane of the labyrinth of the diabetic placentas increase the diffusion distance between the maternal and fetal circulations and thus may adversely affect placental exchange functioning and result in the fetal growth retardation seen in this model of the diabetic pregnancy.


We study supersymmetric (SUSY) models derived from the ten-dimensional SUSY Yang- Mills theory compactified on magnetized orbifolds, with nonvanishing Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms induced by magnetic fluxes in extra dimensions. Allowing the presence of FI-terms relaxes a constraint on flux configurations in SUSY model building based on magnetized backgrounds. In this case, charged fields develop their vacuum expectation values (VEVs) to cancel the FI-terms in the D-flat directions of fluxed gauge symmetries, which break the gauge symmetries and lead to a SUSY vacuum. Based on this idea, we propose a new class of SUSY magnetized orbifold models with three generations of quarks and leptons. Especially, we construct a model where the right-handed sneutrinos develop their VEVs which restore the supersymmetry but yield lepton number violating terms below the compactification scale, and show their phenomenological consequences.


This paper explores the cultural representations embedded in the EFL textbooks for Primary English language education in China. In particular, it examines how cultural globalisation and localisation are competing with each other as the educational policy in English attempts to strike a balance between the local culture and 'western' culture. Using discourse analysis as an analytical framework, this paper argues that culture as a social construct is constantly evolving and traditions are fused with new cultural values and worldviews brought about by globalisation. As such, the analysis of the textbooks illustrates that culture as a social phenomenon has changed over the decades and glocalisation is gaining new perspectives in English language education in China. Importantly, the analysis shows that new cultural elements have been established and cultural globalisation has taken place when local culture adapt 'foreign' cultures to suit local needs. Acknowledging that there are cultural conflicts and competing ideologies in the texts, the paper argues that these conflicts and contradictories can be used to develop students' critical language awareness and foster their critical analytical abilities. Importantly, the analysis can facilitate the students' English language learning by providing them with opportunities to read beyond texts per se to cultural politics and practices. Juxtaposing different cultural and ideological perspectives can help students understand that cultural values are socially and politically constructed when they are confronted with complex linguistic and cultural environments in reality.


During the in-line coating process of Mn-strengthened-Interstitial-Free-steels, selective oxidation under low dew-point atmospheres may result in surface oxides that are not wetted by the coating alloy. In the current study, we investigate the formation of external and internal oxides in the metal in order to characterize the influence of fast path diffusion. The short-time oxidation in the metal was carried out in a gold-image furnace and the resulting external and internal oxides were characterized through scanning-electron microscopy. An IF steel sample containing 1.5wt.% Mn was used and the effects of dew point (DP) ranging from –75 to –15oC on oxidation was investigated at 800oC by varying the PH2/PH2O ratio in the oxidizing gas. Simulations were carried out by considering the combined effect of diffusion and mass transfer represented by a system of partial differential equations. The model equations were solved using finite element method in a Multiphysics modeling software COMSOL. The experimental and simulated results were found to be in agreement, and showed that, for DP up to –30oC, gas phase mass transport of oxidant gas controls the oxidation which results in exclusively external oxide nodules distributed uniformly on the surface. At –15oC > DP > –30oC, the oxidation evolves as ridges along grain boundaries and the simulations indicate that this is due to solid state diffusion control and the controlling mechanism is fast path diffusion through the alloy. At this point, internal oxides also start to appear.


Cardiac progenitors are specified early in development and progressively differentiate and mature into fully functional cardiomyocytes. This process is controlled by an extensively studied transcriptional program. However, the regulatory events coordinating the progression of such program from development to maturation are largely unknown. Here, we show that the genome organizer CTCF is essential for cardiogenesis and that it mediates genomic interactions to coordinate cardiomyocyte differentiation and maturation in the developing heart. Inactivation of Ctcf in cardiac progenitor cells and their derivatives in vivo during development caused severe cardiac defects and death at embryonic day 12.5. Genome wide expression analysis in Ctcf mutant hearts revealed that genes controlling mitochondrial function and protein production, required for cardiomyocyte maturation, were upregulated. However, mitochondria from mutant cardiomyocytes do not mature properly. In contrast, multiple development regulatory genes near predicted heart enhancers, including genes in the IrxA cluster, were downregulated in Ctcf mutants, suggesting that CTCF promotes cardiomyocyte differentiation by facilitating enhancer-promoter interactions. Accordingly, loss of CTCF disrupts gene expression and chromatin interactions as shown by chromatin conformation capture followed by deep sequencing. Furthermore, CRISPR-mediated deletion of an intergenic CTCF site within the IrxA cluster alters gene expression in the developing heart. Thus, CTCF mediates local regulatory interactions to coordinate transcriptional programs controlling transitions in morphology and function during heart development.


Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of mortality and leads to frequent hospital admissions and emergency department (ED) visits. COPD exacerbations are an important patient outcome, and reducing their frequency would result in significant cost savings. Remote monitoring and self-monitoring could both help patients manage their symptoms and reduce the frequency of exacerbations, but they have different resource implications and have not been directly compared. Objective This study aims to compare the effectiveness of implementing a technology-enabled self-monitoring program versus a technology-enabled remote monitoring program in patients with COPD compared with a standard care group. Methods We conducted a 3-arm randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of a remote monitoring and a self-monitoring program relative to standard care. Patients with COPD were recruited from outpatient clinics and a pulmonary rehabilitation program. Patients in both interventions used a Bluetooth-enabled device kit to monitor oxygen saturation, blood pressure, temperature, weight, and symptoms, but only patients in the remote monitoring group were monitored by a respiratory therapist. All patients were assessed at baseline and at 3 and 6 months after program initiation. Outcomes included self-management skills, as measured by the Partners in Health (PIH) Scale; patient symptoms measured with the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ); and the Bristol COPD Knowledge Questionnaire (BCKQ). Patients were also asked to self-report on health system use, and data on health use were collected from the hospital. Results A total of 122 patients participated in the study: 40 in the standard care, 41 in the self-monitoring, and 41 in the remote monitoring groups. Although all 3 groups improved in PIH scores, BCKQ scores, and SGRQ impact scores, there were no significant differences among any of the groups. No effects were observed on the SGRQ activity or symptom scores or on hospitalizations, ED visits, or clinic visits. Conclusions Despite regular use of the technology, patients with COPD assigned to remote monitoring or self-monitoring did not have any improvement in patient outcomes such as self-management skills, knowledge, or symptoms, or in health care use compared with each other or with a standard care group. This may be owing to low health care use at baseline, the lack of structured educational components in the intervention groups, and the lack of integration of the action plan with the technology. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03741855; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/ NCT03741855


Purpose: The purpose of the article is to indicate factors shaping a model of work organization that takes into account new forms of work in an Industry 4.0 enterprise which will function in the future post-pandemic period. Design/Methodology/Approach: The basis for identifying factors shaping a new work model was research on the future of work organization carried out in 2020-21 at a multinational automotive corporation, which successfully implemented Industry 4.0 principles in its executive and management processes. The research in the form of a case study was conducted in two stages. The first stage - a survey with an analysis of results based on descriptive statistics, the second stage - qualitative research focusing on observation techniques and desk research. Findings: The first part presents an analysis of the theory fundamentals characterizing the conditions of new forms of work. The second part describes research methodology and presents research results representing the issues under investigation. The result of the analysis is the presentation of key factors that should be taken into account when creating a new model of work including on-site, hybrid and remote work. Practical implications: The decision-making areas shaping a new model of work organization which are indicated in the article may serve as a model for other enterprises (especially manufacturing ones) regarding assessing the possibility of introducing new forms of work and key factors that will determine them. Originality/Value: As for the theoretical aspect, the article organizes the existing knowledge in the range of factors determining new models of work organization. As far as the research aspect is concerned, it is a source of knowledge about solutions developed in an Industry 4.0 enterprise.


The transient behavior of a heterogeneous catalytic process described by a 2-site adsorption-desorption model was studied. After a stop on the supply of reactant, a temporary increase in the prodn. rate is predicted. Anal. solns. to describe the instantaneous reaction rate in a differential reactor are presented. The theor. results explain published exptl. observations that the reaction rate under transient conditions can be several times higher than under steady-state conditions. By model simulations it was found that the transient rate can be considerably higher than under optimum steady-state conditions. The relations developed are useful in model discrimination and parameter estn. [on SciFinder (R)]


The immunosuppressant mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) inhibits the enzyme inosine-5' monophosphate dehydrogenase and thus interferes with cellular GTP synthesis. MMF suppresses the cellular and humoral immune response and has antiproliferative effects on vascular smooth muscle and mesangial cells in vitro and in vivo. In large multicenter trials with almost 1500 patients MMF has been proven highly efficacious for transplant rejection prophylaxis with the main side-effects of gastrointestinal disorders and a slightly increased incidence of viral infections. Recent investigations suggest MMF as an alternative immunosuppressant in cyclosporin A nephrotoxicity. Preliminary observations show promising results for MMF in the treatment of autoimmune-mediated renal disease. The rationale for its use in this patient group and evidence from experimental studies are discussed. As current therapy of this disease entity is still unsatisfactory, future clinical trials are necessary to investigate the efficacy and safety of MMF for this new indication.


More and more universities in the Netherlands and abroad are offering their curricula in different countries. In England, for instance, more students are earning a British degree outside the United Kingdom than there are exchange students. The core of this partnership is that a curriculum created by an institution is copied, adapted and implemented in a different context with the goal of offering students an equivalent learning environment. Some partnerships fail This dissertation examines what these partnerships offer students, staff and the education system. Are students actually receiving an equivalent education? Creating a similar learning environment is challenging due to inevitable differences in terms of resources, teaching styles and the students' learning strategies. Work placement positions in a hospital setting make medical curricula particularly challenging. This dissertation identifies the educational challenges, specifically in the medical domain. The result is a guideline that can help partners deal with the tension between standardisation of curricula on the one hand and the necessary and inevitable modifications in the partner context on the other. As a result, this dissertation contributes to the debate on whether this form of internationalisation is desired and how partnerships can be organised.


Why do Latinos show high opposition toward affirmative action, a policy that benefits them as a group? Using data from a nationally representative survey experiment, I find that racial prejudice drives Latino affirmative action policy preferences to mirror those of non-Hispanic whites – with caveats. My results show that whites oppose affirmative action for both blacks and Latinos, and Latinos oppose affirmative action only for blacks. Both white and Latino opposition to affirmative action is a function of their anti-black racial prejudice. However, I also find evidence that Latino policy attitudes toward affirmative action are also a function of Latino identity. Specifically, among Latinos with a strong Latino in-group identity, we see evidence of a solidarity effect - affirmative action support for both Latinos and blacks.


For much of the last century, value investors considered themselves to be the winners in the investment world, a result they attributed to their patience, maturity and good sense. That view, at least on the surface, was backed up by evidence that "value" stocks, defined as stocks that trade at low multiples of earnings and book value, earned higher returns than "growth" stocks, defined loosely as companies that trade at high multiples of earnings or book value. It was reinforced by the mythology of great value investors, with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger taking center stage, as deep thinkers, with profound insights on how markets work. In the last two decades, value investing lost its edge, and a debate has revolved around whether this is a temporary phase, and the result of an unusual macro environment, or a reflection of a permanent change in economies and markets. In this paper, we argue that value investing, at least as practiced today, has become rigid and ritualistic, and that while some of its failures can be attributed to external factors, many can be traced back to practices and rules of thumb that have outlived their usefulness. We argue that if value investing is to be successful in the future, it needs to develop a more dynamic view of value and a greater willingness to live with and invest in the face of uncertainty.


By knowing their customers' needs better, firms can offer products and services at the right price, in the right context, and at the right time. Web personalization enables this sort of interaction. Firms can implement personalization by integrating independent packages such as data mining and collaborative filtering tools with the Web server; or personalization could take the form of a package solution. In general, Web personalization serves three main objectives: It draws attention to a company and its products and services; implants messages; and attempts to persuade. The study presented provides empirical support that Web personalization can motivate users to consider agent-recommended items.


Purpose: Companies engage in business relationships for a variety of reasons, including specialization, product development, and building competitive networks. Research has demonstrated that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) may challenge ongoing business relationships. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether and how competition authorities consider business relationships when evaluating M&As. Methodology: The article uses the documentation from 450 M&As reported to the Swedish competition authority to capture the way in which an authority evaluates M&As. The Swedish competition authority evaluation corresponds to other national and international evaluation procedures. Findings: The findings indicate that the competition authorities neglect an important aspect of business life, namely companies forming business relationships. The competition authorities evaluate M&As on the basis of risk for price increases, and consequently disregard such issues as heterogeneity in demand and offerings, and values built into existing business relationships. Originality/Value/Contribution: The article contributes to research on business relationships through exploring how a public authority deals with such relationships. It also contributes to research on mergers and acquisitions through examining how these activities are evaluated by competition authorities. Furthermore, the article contributes to competition research by reflecting on competition law concerning M&A regulations in relation to business relationships.


This paper proposes a fast convergence algorithm for adaptive noise cancellers with novel SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) estimation and stepsize control. The stepsize for coefficient adaptation is controlled with an estimated SNR for low distortion of the output signal and a small residual noise. A first SNR estimate, defined as a ratio of the noise-canceller output to the reference input, enables quick coefficient growth in the initial adaptation stage. A second SNR estimate, which replaces the reference input in the denominator of the first SNR estimates with the noise replica, achieves low distortion in the output and small residual noise simultaneously. Switchover from the first to the second SNR estimate takes place when the latter becomes comparable to the former. Evaluations with clean speech and noise recorded at a busy station demonstrate that the time until SNR-estimate switchover is reduced by 91% at SNR=0dB compared to the conventional algorithm, leading to fast evolution of adaptive filter coefficients.


Misfolding-prone proteins produced in bacteria usually fail to adopt their native conformation and aggregate. In cells producing folding-reluctant protein species, folding modulators are supposed to be limiting, a fact that enhances protein deposition. Therefore, coproducing DnaK or other main chaperones along with the target protein has been a common approach to gain solubility, although with very inconsistent and often discouraging results. In an attempt to understand the reason for this inconsistency, the impact of exogenous DnaK (encoded in an accompanying plasmid) on two protein features observed as indicators of protein quality, namely solubility and functionality, has been analysed here through the specific fluorescence emission of a reporter Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). Intriguingly, GFP solubility is strongly dependent on its own yield but poorly affected by DnaK levels. On the contrary, the specific fluorescence of both soluble and insoluble GFP populations is simultaneously modulated by the availability of DnaK, with a profile that is clearly dissimilar to that shown by protein solubility. Therefore, solubility, not being coincident with the biological activity of the target protein, might not be a robust indicator of protein quality.


This trial aimed to evaluate the effects of the time post-burning, and additives on fermentative characteristics, losses and chemical composition on the sugar cane silage. The sugar cane variety IAC 86-2480 was ensiled on the 1, 4, 7, 10 and 14 days after burning. The additives evaluated were: control (Cont.), Lactobacillus buchneri (LB), Calcium oxide micro pulverized (CO), and Lactobacillus buchneri (LB) plus Calcium oxide micro pulverized (LB + CO). The yeast population was determined before ensiled. After 56 days of the fermentation period the silos were opening to take samplings. The experimental design was a completely randomized design, in a factorial scheme (additive and burning time) with seven treatments and four replications. The sugar cane was recontaminated with yeast, the populations increased from 5.04 to 6.48 log cfu/g of forage. Dry matter content decreased after fermentation period in average 7.6 units, compared to the sugar cane forage before ensilage. Control and LB silage showed lowest dry matter recovery (DMR), 613 g/kg and 631 g/kg, respectively, compared to the Cal and LB + Cal, 807 g/kg and 832 g/kg. This fact probably was associated to the calcium oxide control on the yeast populations. In relation to the time post-burning, the greatest changes were observed in the gas production and DMR. Gas production were higher in the first days post-burning and decreased in response to the prolongation time post-burning. The time post-burning alters the nutritive value of the fresh sugarcane and its silage and also the size of the losses from the ensilage process.


Autoparasitoids are species of parasitic wasps in the family Aphelinidae which produce females as solitary primary endoparasitoids of homopterans such as whitefly and scale insects ('primary hosts'), and males as solitary hyperparasitoids. Males generally develop on immature conspecific females or on individuals of other primary parasitoid species ('secondary hosts'). Encarsia pergandiella is an autoparasitoid that has been introduced to Italy for control of greenhouse whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum, in greenhouses and field crops. In this study we examined the secondary host selection behaviour of this species with regard to conspecific females and females of two thelytokous species, E. formosa and E. meritoria. Encarsia formosa has been used successfully for greenhouse whitefly control in Northern Europe, but has not been effective in Southern Italy in winter crops in unheated greenhouses. E. meritoria has recently spread in Italy, and may have potential for biological control of whitefly in the greenhouse environment. In the first experiment, female E. pergandiella were exposed to one of three pair‐wise combinations of the three species in petri dish arenas. Parasitism was determined by dissection of the hosts. The number of hosts parasitized by E. pergandiella females did not differ with host species. However, significantly greater numbers of eggs were laid in E. meritoria in both treatments in which it was present; these hosts were more likely to be superparasitized. In a second experiment, observations of females in arenas with equal numbers of all three host species indicated that females encountered and parasitized all host species with approximately equal frequency, although the length of time females spent in the oviposition posture differed with host species.


Introduction: MPA (or microscopic polyarteritis) is clinically described as patients with exclusively nongranulomatous small vessel vasculitis involving the upper or lower respiratory tract (e.g., alveolar capillaritis). The most common manifestation of MPA is necrotizing glomerulonephritis and/or pulmonary capillaritis. Serologically, more than 90% of MPA patients have a positive antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). There have been selective case reports documenting pancytopenia associated with vasculitis.

Case: Here, we discuss a 56 year old female patient who presented with pancytopenia, and was found to have biopsy-proven small vessel vasculitis with negative ANCA. She presented with 5-6 weeks of worsening generalized fatigue, cough with hemoptysis, intermittent fever, and shortness of breath on exertion and weight loss of 8lbs over this time. On presentation, she was febrile (102F) and found to have pancytopenia, with normal kidney function. She was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for a presumed viral illness and underwent a bone marrow biopsy for evaluation of pancytopenia. Further imaging with computerized tomography (CT) scan demonstrated ground glass haziness. Bone marrow biopsy revealed normal results. She was discharged with the diagnosis of a pancytopenic viral illness. She returned 4 weeks later with worsening of her symptoms. CT chest showed significant interval changes compared to previous CT with bilateral ground glass opacities. Lung biopsy was performed which showed small vessel vasculitis. Repeat CT chest following steroid treatment demonstrated significant improvement.

 Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of pancytopenia in small vessel vasculitis not associated with lupus. In cases of MPA, 96% are ANCA positive. However, this patient fits into the criteria of ANCA-negative vasculitis. Although ILD is an uncommon presentation of MPA, there have been an increasing number of cases citing association of vasculitis with ILD. In conclusion, vasculitis associated with pancytopenia continues to be poorly understood. ANCA negativity at the time of presentation can give a false sense of security and delay treatment.


Although macroinvertebrates are potentially useful for assessing the condition of temporary wetlands, little is yet known about them. Macroinvertebrate assemblages were assessed in 138 temporary wetlands in the south-western Cape, recording 126 taxa. However, predicted richness estimates were all higher than the observed richness. Five new species were collected—three hydraenid beetles, one streptocephalid fairy shrimp and one hydryphantid acarine—indicating the current paucity of knowledge about temporary wetland macroinvertebrates. The occurrence of the invasive snail Aplexa marmorata (Physidae) in this region was recorded for the first time. Assemblages were dominated by a few widespread taxa. Only four out of 73 genera accounted for more than half the total relative abundance and only two of these occurred in more than half the wetlands. Vegetated biotopes supported a higher relative abundance than open-water biotopes, but no difference existed between wetlands with one, two or three biotopes, indicating the conservation potential of wetlands with homogeneous biotopes. Wetlands from the different wetland regions did not show a clear separation based on their assemblage composition.


The author introduces a technique for compressing mobile data terminal messages to improve system capacity. Messages are divided into two types based on their content. One type, which contains messages composed of English text, is compressed to an average of 3.25 bits/character using a static dictionary technique. The other type, which contains messages which are partially English text and partially nonEnglish alphanumeric data, is compressed to an average of 5.03 bits/character via single-character Huffman encoding. For public safety applications, this two-type compression method yields a 69% improvement in system capacity relative to standard 7 bits/character ASCII encoding.<<ETX>>


This paper presents a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) algorithm for solving the optimal power flow (OPF) problems. The main distinction of this approach is in using particlepsilas worth experience in stead of the best previous experience. The proposed approach is evaluated on the IEEE 30-bus test system which minimizes the total fuel cost considering operational constraints such as power flow equations, transmission flow limits, bus voltages and reactive power of generators. The results obtained using the proposed approach are compared with results of other optimization methods.


In field tests conducted for four cropping seasons, crude water extracts of green neem leaves ( Azadirachta indica A. Juss), chinaberry ( Melia azedarach L.), malabar nut ( Justicia adhatoda L.) and Indian privet ( Vitex negundo L.) all at 200 g of leaves per litre of water; were superior to the crude water extracts of the green leaves of mug-wort ( Artenzisia vulgaris L.), yellow lantana ( Lantana camara L.), crown plant ( Calotropis gigantea (L.) R. Br.) and dry fruits water extract of chinabeny, all at the same rate as above, and neem seed kernel-based water dispersable powder at 0.1 %; in suppressing the cruciferous insects, namely the cabbage butterfly ( Pieris brassicae nepalensis Doubleday), the soyabean hairy caterpillar ( Spilarctia casigneta Kollar), the tobacco caterpillar ( Spodoptera litura Fab.) and the diamondback moth ( Plutella xylostella L.) on cabbage and increasing its yield. Synthetic organic insecticides, namely malathion (0.05% and monocro tophos (0.05%) were superior to all the botanicals in suppressing the above insects and increasing the cabbage yield. However, the health and environmental risks involved and high prices of these chemical insecticides should discourage the farmers for their use


The following symposium was presented on behalf of DART-P. The aim of the symposium was to examine recent research that has aimed to enhance the psychological well being of students in Higher Education. A recent report by the Guardian commented that "A surge in the number of students at top universities using mental health services is due in part to the hike in tuition fees to £9,000", campaigners have said, adding that financial stress is linked to anxiety and depression. The first paper discussed a specialist mentoring programme for undergraduate students with MHC or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and its impact on participants psychological well-being. From the utilisation of survey instruments, mentees indicated that mentoring had a positive impact on their academic skills and university life, social relationships and skills, and well-being. The second paper explored reciprocal peer coaching in a module context using a mixed methods approach. Results indicated that the peer reciprocal coaching relationship impacted upon increasing student resilience and psychological well- being. Finally, paper three highlighted the benefits of technology-enhanced learning, while underestimating the actual impact they have on learners' experiences and well-being using a mixed methods approach with 88 students. Findings indicated that students used ubiquitous connectivity to enhance their well-being by satisfying four basics psychological desires and needs: ease, freedom, engagement and security. The emergent theory was used to generate a model of students' psychosocial well-being.


Consider a supply chain including a re nery producing evaporating chemical product, an exporter, and one or some engine oil producers outside the exporter's country. The exporter uses vendor-managed inventory system implemented between re nery and exporter to decrease his/her inventory cost. This paper develops two models with partial backordering for evaporating chemical product developed in a two-layer chain includingsingle re nery and single exporter with one product before and after utilizing vendormanaged inventory policy. Demand and partial backordering rates are deterministic and constant. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the applicability of the proposed model and solution method.


Transaction costs play a key role in the behaviour of smallholders in developing countries. We exploit the introduction of an additional tobacco auction floor in Malawi to investigate the impact of a reduction in transaction costs and improved market access on production per hectare and the underlying smallholder's decisions on production and cultivated area of tobacco, the major cash crop in Malawi. Given the non-experimental nature of the data we use matching and potential outcome models to identify impact. Estimations are based on annual data by Extension Planning Area, 198 in total, fully covering Malawi, for the period 2003-04 to 2009-10. The estimation results support a statistically significant positive impact of the introduction of a new auction floor on smallholders' behaviour: production per hectare, production and area of tobacco has increased in the long run with respectively 20-25%, 36-38% and 15-21%. This outcome, and the increase in cultivated area in articular, suggests that lower transaction costs trigger smallholder farmers to shift to commercial agriculture.


This investigation is a follow-up to a longitudinal speech and educational outcome study involving approximately 400 normally developing children that was initiated in 1960. From this database, two groups of subjects (now aged 32-34), their spouses, and all of their offspring over the age of 3:0 (years:months) completed a battery of cognitive-linguistic and interview measures. One group (probands) consisted of 24 adults with a documented history of a moderate phonological-language disorder that persisted through at least the end of the first grade. The other group (controls) consisted of 28 adults who were known to have had normal articulation abilities as children. Results of this study demonstrated that, in comparison to the children of controls, the children of the proband subjects performed significantly more poorly on all tests of articulation and expressive language functioning and were significantly more likely to have received articulation treatment. There was, however, no evidence that specific misarticulations or phonological processes traveled within proband families. These results are in agreement with those of most previous family studies that have demonstrated an increased rate of occurrence of speech-language disorders of unknown origin in families including a first-degree relative who is similarly affected.


Allele frequencies are most often reported from small convenience samples of unknown demographics and limited generalizability. We determined the distribution of apolipoprotein E genotype (APOE) and allele frequencies for a large, well-defined, representative, rural, population-based sample (n = 4450) aged 55–95 years in Ballabgarh, in the northern Indian state of Haryana. The overall APOE E*2, E*3, and E*4 allele frequencies were 0.039, 0.887, and 0.073, respectively; frequencies are also reported by age, sex, and religious/caste groups. The APOE*4 frequency is among the lowest reported anywhere in the world. APOE allele frequencies did not vary significantly by age or sex in this study. To our knowledge, this is the largest Indian sample ever genotyped for the APOE polymorphism. The representativeness of the sample and its known demographics provide a much-needed normative background for studies of gene-disease associations.


An activity consists of an actor performing a series of actions in a pre-defined temporal order. An action is an individual atomic unit of an activity. Different instances of the same activity may consist of varying relative speeds at which the various actions are executed, in addition to other intra- and inter- person variabilities. Most existing algorithms for activity recognition are not very robust to intra- and inter-personal changes of the same activity, and are extremely sensitive to warping of the temporal axis due to variations in speed profile. In this paper, we provide a systematic approach to learn the nature of such time warps while simultaneously allowing for the variations in descriptors for actions. For each activity we learn an 'average' sequence that we denote as the nominal activity trajectory. We also learn a function space of time warpings for each activity separately. The model can be used to learn individualspecific warping patterns so that it may also be used for activity based person identification. The proposed model leads us to algorithms for learning a model for each activity, clustering activity sequences and activity recognition that are robust to temporal, intra- and inter-person variations. We provide experimental results using two datasets.


Gay men more frequently report erectile difficulties than heterosexual men, possibly due to the additional stress gay men experience as a result of their sexual minority status. Internalized homophobia (IH), defined as the internalization of negative societal attitudes about being gay, is associated with adverse sexual outcomes. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. According to Barlow's model of sexual dysfunction, cognitive interference plays a key role in the development and maintenance of erectile dysfunction. The present study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between IH, cognitive anxiety symptoms, and erectile function in a sample of 252 HIV-negative gay and bisexual men. Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires assessing internalized homophobia, cognitive anxiety symptoms, and erectile functioning at baseline, 3-month, and 6-month follow-ups. Cognitive anxiety symptoms did not mediate the relationship between IH and erectile function at baseline or across 6-months. Limitations and future directions are discussed.


In 2017, the italian Chamber of Deputies approved the law n. 24 of 2017 (so-called "Gelli") on professional liability of healthcare professionals. One of the most significant innovations contained in the "Gelli" Law is a new provision in case of medical malpractice ('imperizia'), where the healthcare professional will avoid liability if he or she can show that they have acted in accordance with recommended guidelines published under law. In the absence of these guidelines the professional must adhere to principles of good practice.1 Guidelines  provided by the law aim to standardize medical acts. They are based on the principles of evidence-based medicine, an approach to medical practice aimed at optimizing the decision-making process. In literature many physicians and jurists have commented, in a discordant manner, the choices of the Legislator. In this article a historical perspective is proposed, finding analogies between the principles of the "Gelli" law and positivist thought. The evolution that Positivism has had in the medical field has been analyzed, in particular studying the evolution of the thought of the Italian physician and strong positivist Paolo Mantegazza (1831-1910). In light of the facts it is concluded that the physician must always keep in mind that medicine is a science applied to man, and any medical act must be a consequence of a doctor-patient concordance that inevitably takes into consideration every single individual in his uniqueness. Thus, although difficult the next step of the legislator should be to favor the establishment of high-quality medical-patient relationships. In any case, if the physician has been most careful in managing a good relationship with each individual patient and in understanding her/his situation before performing medical acts, she/he may perhaps fear less potential judicial repercussions.


I show how conditional Gaussians, whose means are conditioned by a random variable, can be estimated and their likelihoods computed. This is based upon how regular Gaussians have their own parameters and likelihood computed. After explaining how to estimate the parameters of Gaussians and conditional Gaussians, I explain how to calculate their likelihoods even if there are missing elements in the data or, in the case of the conditional Gaussian, even if the conditioning variable is missing.


We present a surface-normal modulator architecture for optical interconnects that offers misalignment tolerance as well as high contrast ratio over a wide wavelength range for a small drive voltage. A contrast ratio greater than 3 dB was achieved for only 0.8-V drive across a 16-nm wavelength range from 1498 to 1514 nm. The misalignment tolerance between this device, and the input optical beam was measured to be 30 /spl mu/m.


Commercial oil-free micro turbomachinery relies on gas foil bearings (GFBs) for reliable performance with improved efficiency. However, GFB modeling is still largely empirical, lacking experimental validation. An analysis of simple GFBs operating at large shaft speeds (infinite speed number) follows. The bearing ultimate load and stiffness coefficients are derived from simple algebraic equations for the gas film pressures at the equilibrium journal position and due to small amplitude journal motions, respectively. GFBs without a clearance or with assembly interference are easily modeled. The underlying elastic structure (bump foil strip) determines the ultimate load capacity of a GFB as well as its stiffnesses, along with the limiting journal displacement and structural deformation. Thus, an accurate estimation of the actual minimum film thickness is found prior to performing calculations with a complex computational model, even for the case of large loads that result in a journal eccentricity well exceeding the nominal clearance, if applicable. An initial assembly preload (interference between shaft and foil) increases the GFB static stiffness at both null and infinite rotor speeds. At infinite speed, cross-coupled stiffnesses are nil; and thus, GFBs are impervious to hydrodynamic whirl instability.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Motivated by the need for additional tools to disinfect discharge water from well boats, and to prevent distribution of salmon lice, the effect of ultrasonic cavitation on the planktonic stages of the salmon louse, nauplii and copepodids, as well as marine heterotrophic bacteria, and the marine green microalgae Tetraselmis suecica, has been investigated. Survival and morphology were registered after different exposure times. Efficacy of the ultrasonic cavitation treatments varied with exposure time. A reduction in survival was registered even for the shortest exposure time (5 seconds) for both naupliar and copepodid stages of the salmon louse (36.7 ± 11.5 and 67.20 ± 7.2% survival respectively). Survival reached zero after exposure times of 20 and 60 seconds for the nauplii and copepodid stages, respectively. A reduction in 70% was observed for bacteria at all exposure times (5 to 300 s), while a reduction of 95% was observed after 300 s for algal cells. The logged energy transfer to the samples was on average 17.5 J/s. In conclusion, cavitation treatment is destructive for the planktonic stages of salmon lice, and may contribute to reduce discharge of pathogens and parasites from well boats when adapted for this purpose and combined with existing water disinfection methods.


In the past year, various models of Covid-19 spread have been proposed. While most of these models focused on the replication of the interactions' processes through which the virus is passed on from infected agent to susceptible ones, less effort has been devoted to the process through which agents modify their behaviour as they adapt to the risks posed by the pandemic. Understanding the way agents respond to Covid19 spread is important as this behavioral response affects the dynamics of virus spread by modifying interaction patterns. In this paper, we present an agent-based model which includes a behavioural module determining the households' isolation propensity in order to understand the role of various behavioural parameters in the spread of Covid-19.


Abstract
Purpose
Rural Australian patients continue to receive inadequate medical attention. One potential solution to this is to train Indigenous Australians to become medical doctors and return to their community to serve their people. The study aims to examine whether Indigenous medical students have a stronger intention to practice in underserved communities.

Methodology
A sample of Indigenous (N = 17) and non-Indigenous students (N = 188) from a medical program in Sydney was surveyed about their medical self-concept and motivation. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted, group differences were tested, and correlation patterns were examined.

Findings
CFA found seven distinct factors – three medical self-concepts (affective, cognitive, and cultural competence), one motivation factor, and three work-related variables – intention to serve underserved communities (intention), understanding of Indigenous health (understanding), and work-related anxiety (anxiety). Indigenous medical students were higher in cultural competence, intention, and understanding. Both the affective and cognitive components of medical self-concept were more highly correlated with intention and understanding for Indigenous students than for non-Indigenous students.

Research implications
It is important to examine medical students' self-concepts as well as their cultural characteristics and strengths that seed success in promoting service to underserved Indigenous communities.

Practical implications
The findings show that Indigenous medical students tended to understand Indigenous health issues better and to be more willing to serve underserved Indigenous communities. By enhancing both the affective and cognitive components of medical self-concepts, the "home-grown" medical education program is more likely to produce medical doctors to serve underserved communities with a good understanding of Indigenous health.


In this study, we measured detection and tolerance thresholds of auditory-visual asynchrony between time-expanded speech and a moving image of the talker's face. During experiments, words were presented under two conditions: asynchrony by time-expanded speech (expansion condition: EXP) and simple timing shift (asynchronous condition: ASYN). We used 16 Japanese shorter words (four morae) and 20 Japanese longer words (seven or eight morae). All auditory speech was presented in pink noise to avoid the ceiling effect. The SNRs for shorter and longer words were respectively set to −10 dB and −3.5 dB. For EXP, auditory speech signals were analyzed and resynthesized using STRAIGHT to change the words' duration (Kawahara et al., 1998). The resynthesized auditory signals were combined with the visual signals so that the onset of the utterance was synchronous. For ASYN, the auditory speech signal was simply lagged behind the visual speech signal. Results showed that detection and tolerance thresholds in longer words were higher than those for shorter words. However, when the threshold was recalculated as a function of the ratio of the expansion rate to word duration, these differences were not observed. These results suggest that detection and tolerance thresholds for auditory-visual asynchrony between timeexpanded speech and a moving image of talker's face might depend on the ratio of the expansion rate to word duration. Index Terms: Auditory-visual asynchrony, Time-expanded speech, Detection and tolerance thresholds


A brief overview is given about some issues in current astroparticle physics, focusing on the dark matter (DM) problem, where the connection to Large Hadron Collider (LHC) physics is particularly strong. New data from the Planck satellite has made the evidence in favour of the existence of DM even stronger. The favourite, though not the only, candidates for cosmological DM, weakly interacting massive particles, are being probed by a variety of experiments—direct detection through scattering in terrestrial detectors, indirect detection by observing products of annihilation of DM in the Galaxy and finally searches at accelerators such as the LHC. The field is in the interesting situation that all of these search methods are reaching sensitivities where signals of DM may plausibly soon be found, and a vast array of models will be probed in the next few years. Of course, expectations for a positive signature are high, which calls for caution regarding 'false alarms'. Some of the presently puzzling and partly conflicting pieces of evidence for DM detection are discussed as well as expectations for the future.


The virulence (expressed as LD50 values) for mice of two mutant strains of Salmonella dublin, both containing TnA insertions in the resident plasmid, was reduced by 10(4)-10(5) when infection was by the oral or intravenous or intraperitoneal route. When the plasmid was lost from one of the mutants no further decrease in virulence was observed. Results also suggested that plasmid genes are not involved in the ability of S. dublin to cross the gut wall.


The mechanisms underlying the biphasic response (BR) of the circular muscle of the guinea pig ileum (CMGPI) to bradykinin (BK) have been examined. Both BK and lysyl-BK (1 nM to 1 microM) caused graded contractions followed by relaxations of the CMGPI, yielding EC50 of 21 and 92 nM for contraction and of 10 and 27 nM for relaxation, respectively. The selective B1 receptor agonist Des-Arg9-BK was without effect up to 3 microM. The potencies of BK and lysyl-BK to evoke BR were markedly increased by enalapril (3 microM) and decreased by raising the preparation tone with the thromboxane A2/prostaglandin H2-mimetic U46619 (30 ng/ml). The BR of CMGPI to BK was unaffected by atropine, yohimbine, pyrilamine, propranolol, prazosin, phorbol ester, des-Arg9-[leu8]-BK (1 microM, each), tetrodotoxin (0.3 microM), [3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic acid-8-(diethylamino) octyl ester (10 microM), [N-6-(aminohexyl)-5-chloro-1-naphthalenosulfonamide (10 microM), glibenclamide (0.3 microM), nordihydroguaiaretic acid (50 microM), phenidone (30 microM) or dexamethasone (0.1 microM). However, indomethacin (3 microM), ibuprofen (30 microM) and 3-amino, 1-(m-[trifluoromethyl] phenyl)2-pyrazoline (10 microM) each abolished the relaxant and increased the contractile response to BK, suggesting that a cyclo-oxygenase-derived eicosanoid mediates relaxation and limits contraction. Prostaglandin (PG) E2 (up to 100 nM) caused only graded relaxations, PGF2 alpha (up to 3 microM) and 9,11-dideoxy-9 alpha,11 alpha-methanoepoxy prostaglandin F2 alpha (up to 300 ng/ml) caused only contractions and the PGI2 analog iloprost was without effect up to 1 micrograms/ml.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Respiratory infections in poultry are the major group of diseases which cause significant economic losses to poultry industry. Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale are the bacteria which cause Ornithobacteriosis (ORT) to the avian species. This bacterial infection causes respiratory symptoms and high mortality among chickens. Broilers and particularly breeders species are affected the most in farms in India and other countries worldwide. It is important to prevent the infection with proper biosecurity measures and vaccinations. But, still, the disease is prevalent in many parts of the world. In the present study, serum samples from seven states of India were collected and studied for the presence of antibodies against ORT. 74.37% samples were found positive for ORT infection. Age and season wise study was also conducted to investigate the effect of these parameters on the occurrence of the disease. The samples were divided into four age-wise groups i.e., 17-30, 31-40, 41-50 and 51-62 weeks. Samples of 41-50 weeks age showed highest positive results (87.50%) compared to other ages. Samples were divided into season-wise groups i.e., Winter, Summer, and Monsoon. Birds were found highest positive for ORT infection in monsoon (88.31%) and lowest in winter (62.20%). ORT was found highly prevalent in India, proper biosecurity measures and vaccination programs are required to prevent the spread of disease.


Despite the potential for antisocial and counterproductive social media behavior–particularly in the context of humanitarian assistance/disaster response (HA/DR)–there is a paucity of automated methods to address it. Current methods focus primarily on detecting hate speech and banning problematic content. We propose an alternative strategy of using automated counter speech to focus not just on moderating uncivil behavior, but also the promotion of civil discourse. In this paper, we propose a novel framework to employ pre-trained language models to alleviate the bottlenecks in adoption of such counter speech, namely a lack of understanding on the dynamics of counter speech and a scarcity of well curated datasets, which are compounded in HA/DR settings. We utilize GPT LMs to create a conversational testbed to simulate online conversations where various approaches for counter speech and other content moderation methods can be evaluated. Additionally, we leverage BERT-based models to detect hate speech and other network and syntactic features to suggest the optimal strategy to employ. We also present empirical results on the experiments we have conducted which provide a proof of concept for the framework.


We analyze the heterogeneous influence that monetary policy has on the growth rates of real personal income in 79 Russian regions over the period from 2Q2015 to 4Q2019, taking into account some of the channels of monetary policy transmission mechanism and spatial effects. The analysis was performed on the basis of panel data and a spatial autoregressive model. Besides that, we have calculated individual direct effects of changes of the interest rate for each region. Our results confirm the existence of a negative relationship between changes in the interest rate and growth rates of real personal income. This relationship is heterogeneous for different regions. Among the significant factors affecting the heterogeneity of the influence of monetary policy are the industrial structure and concentration of small businesses in regional economies. We have also found significant positive spatial effects of neighboring regions on each other. Our results generally coincide with those received in analyses of the effects of monetary policy in other countries.


The study examined the quarry industrial environment, and studied specifically its unwholesome practices such as pollution and unprotective behaviour and how these problems affect the conditions of employees in such industries in Ebonyi State. The research also concentrated on the identification of those diseases, their sources and other psychological ailments and how they impacted negatively on employees and other residents around the quarry sites. The study aimed at determining the level of compliance of safety and protective devices among employees. The study also probed to ascertain the gender distribution and the level of proneness to the hazards. The study adopted survey design and used cluster sampling technique in the selection of participants in small and medium scale quarries in Abakaliki capital territory. Statistical summarization technique (Pearson correlation co-efficient) was used in the data analysis. The study made use of self constructed and validated questionnaire in the gathering of primary data among selected participants. Also, the study made use of hospital dispensary file records as secondary data gathering technique to augment information for data analysis. The results of the study showed wide scale negative impact on environment, the physical and psychological health of the employees, the productivity and efficiency of the quarry employees.

 Key Words: Occupational health hazards, Industrial pollution, Quarry industry, Sources of hazards, Preventive practices, Awareness of knowledge of hazards