Background: Nursing accounts for 560 full time equivalents working in Acute Medical Units in Ireland. The National Acute Medicine Programme (NAMP),  was launched in 2010. It is a multidisciplinary initiative focusing on acute hospitals, providing leadership and direction for the development, reconfiguration and establishment of Acute Medicine in Ireland. Its aim is to optimise, standardise and improve management of acutely ill medical patients throughout the Irish Healthcare system, providing immediate and early specialist management of adult patients with a wide range of medical conditions who present to the hospital or from within the hospital, and who require urgent or emergency care and are discharged to an appropriate setting. Problem: Acute medicine nurses plays a central role in the immediate triage, assessment, planning, implementation and co-ordination of care across multiple settings from primary care, acute floor, diagnostics, in-patient settings and back into the community. Being a new speciality acute medicine nursing staff were drawn from a range of in-patient and specialist medical settings. There was a need to establish a structure at national level to harness and maximise the contribution of nurses to medical assessment and ambulatory medical care. Hilights: This contribution outlines the history of the development of acute medicine nursing over a six year period 2011-2017,  hilighting key milestones in the contribution to interdisciplinary care, patient flow across the care continuum, unit management, and role definition. It also identifies national structures and processes implemented to support clinical skills and role development in acute medicine nurses at core, enhanced / specialist and advanced nurse practice levels.  Transferability: The approach adopted has laid a foundation for sound needs based decision making informing  education provision and development of advanced practice roles on a national basis. Conclusion: Establishing a structure to support nurses working within a national clinical care programme has facilitated consistency of approach aimed at promoting broad based scopes of practice promoting: enhanced access to services, hospital avoidance, reduced length of in-patient stay, clinical decision making and integrated care processes for acutely unwell medical patients. Skills and competencies developed through a national educational programme are transferable across all acute medical units. Interaction with third level education providers ensures consistency of approach to developing the role of acute medicine nurses. The structures have created career pathways not previously in place for nurses in the speciality of acute medicine.


Cabbage (Brassicaceae) is one of the most frequently consumed exotic vegetables in Benin and also the most affected by insects. To meet growing food demand, farmers rely heavily on synthetic pesticides that are harmful for themselves, consumers and the environment. Integrated pest management has been proposed as the means to improve vegetable productivity and quality in many developing countries. One approach is to substitute pesticides with physical barriers to insects, like nets. Here, we assess consumers' perceptions about cabbage and their purchasing behavior towards cabbage that was produced using these nets in two major cities in Benin. Results indicate that consumers are aware of the health risks associated with intensive use of pesticides but were not able to recognize the quality difference between cabbage produced under nets from those using pesticides. All consumers were willing to pay a price premium for cabbage with minimized pesticides residues compared with conventionally produced cabbage, the average premium being 38%. Women, older, highly educated consumers and those able to distinguish cabbage qualities were willing to pay the most. We suggest that farmers will obtain higher prices if their production of cabbage with preferred characteristics is accompanied by an improved marketing strategy.


We present theoretical models for populations of low‐mass X‐ray binaries in two elliptical galaxies NGC3379 and NGC4278. The models are calculated with the recently updated StarTrack code [1], and are targeted to modeling and understanding the origin of the X‐ray luminosity functions (XLF) in these galaxies. For the first time we explore the population XLF down to luminosities of 3×1036 erg s−1, as probed by the most recent observational results [2]. We consider models for the formation and evolution of low‐mass X‐ray binaries (LMXB) in galactic fields with different common envelope efficiencies, stellar wind prescriptions and initial mass functions. We identify models that produce an XLF in excellent agreement with the observations both in shape and number of systems at a specific luminosity. We also find that the treatment of the outburst luminosity of transient systems remains a crucial parameter for the determination of the XLF as the modeled populations are dominated by transient X‐ray systems. Final...


Visual and written media continue to affect our life as one of the most important forms of communication since the day it entered into the use of mankind and it distributes information, ideas and concepts to create public opinion. However, the desire to receive news as a necessity of people's immediate surroundings and relations with the society is also an indispensable part of modern life. The news stemming from the influence of political power, economic power relations and non-governmental organizations are seen as discursive texts that remind and represent ideology. The news used in the reproduction of ideology is regarded as a form of discourse. In other words; it remains to be seen how the ideology of the dominant power relations among the social groups is shaped. Within this context, this study is aimed to reveal how the ideological production was realized in the news texts about the "Water Supply Project to TRNC" in the media in 2015; for this purpose, in the news published in the media, the subject language, meaning, discourse and symbols were tried to be analyzed within the relations; the ideological approach and prejudices were tried to be determined in the discourses about the project.


Many problems require repeated inference on probabilistic graphical models, with different values for evidence variables or other changes. Examples of such problems include utility maximization, MAP inference, online and interactive inference, parameter and structure learning, and dynamic inference. Since small changes to the evidence typically only affect a small region of the network, repeatedly performing inference from scratch can be massively redundant. In this paper, we propose expanding frontier belief propagation (EFBP), an efficient approximate algorithm for probabilistic inference with incremental changes to the evidence (or model). EFBP is an extension of loopy belief propagation (BP) where each run of inference reuses results from the previous ones, instead of starting from scratch with the new evidence; messages are only propagated in regions of the network affected by the changes. We provide theoretical guarantees bounding the difference in beliefs generated by EFBP and standard BP, and apply EFBP to the problem of expected utility maximization in influence diagrams. Experiments on viral marketing and combinatorial auction problems show that EFBP can converge much faster than BP without significantly affecting the quality of the solutions.


1. The levels of vitamin A alcohol and ester, carotene and xanthophyll in the blood plasma of six cows, grazed out-of-doors on pasture under typical New Zealand conditions, have been followed throughout one lactation. The same constituents have also been followed in the milk fats of these animals and in commercial factory butters over the same season. 2. The seasonal trend in the vitamin A and carotenoid content of New Zealand milk fat is a reflexion of the changing level of these substances in the blood plasma. 3. The decreased level of carotene, xanthophyll and vitamin A ester in the blood plasma over the summer months is consistent with a decreased absorption or utilization of carotenoids over this period. 4. Throughout the year the vitamin A in the milk fat is predominantly in the ester form with no increase in vitamin A alcohol indicative of any increased utilization of hepatic vitamin A reserves. The author is indebted to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for a grant towards this investigation; to Mr M. R. Patchell and the farm staff of The Dairy Research Institute (N.Z.) for assistance in the collection of milk and blood samples; to Dr F. H. McDowall, Mr A. K. R. McDowell and the staff of the Chemistry Laboratory, The Dairy Research Institute (N.Z.), for the preparation of the fat samples and for the supply of factory butters. The assistance of Miss Fay Frecklington and Miss Jane Monroe with part of the experimental work is also acknowledged.


Graph-theoretical approaches to biological network analysis have proven to be effective for small networks but are computationally infeasible for comprehensive genome-scale systems-level elucidation of these networks. The difficulty lies in the NP-hard nature of many global systems biology problems that, in practice, translates to exponential (or worse) run times for finding exact optimal solutions. Moreover, these problems, especially those of an enumerative flavor, are often memory-intensive and must share very large sets of data effectively across many processors. For example, the enumeration of maximal cliques - a core component in gene expression networks analysis, cis regulatory motif finding, and the study of quantitative trait loci for high-throughput molecular phenotypes can result in as many as 3^n/3 maximal cliques for a graph with n vertices. Memory requirements to store those cliques reach terabyte scales even on modest-sized genomes. Emerging hardware architectures with ultra-large globally addressable memory such as the SGI Altix and Cray X1 seem to be well suited for addressing these types of data-intensive problems in systems biology. This paper presents a novel framework that provides exact, parallel and scalable solutions to various graph-theoretical approaches to genome-scale elucidation of biological networks. This framework takes advantage of these large-memory architectures by creating globally addressable bitmap memory indices with potentially high compression rates, fast bitwise-logical operations, and reduced search space. Augmented with recent theoretical advancements based on fixed-parameter tractability, this framework produces computationally feasible performance for genome-scale combinatorial problems of systems biology.


Abstract In Europe 37% of freshwater fish are threatened. However, conservation activity is less widespread for fish compared to other vertebrate groups. The Vulnerable European mudminnow Umbra krameri is a marshland fish endemic to the Carpathian Basin. Its range and population have declined significantly since the 1990s. The main threats to the species are habitat loss and the invasive Chinese sleeper Perccottus glenii. During 2008–2012 a species conservation programme was established to rescue broodstocks from threatened populations, breed them under controlled conditions, translocate both rescued fish and their laboratory-reared offspring to surrogate habitats, and finally reintroduce offspring to their original habitats. Broodstocks from three threatened habitats were bred in the laboratory and produced offspring appropriate for stocking. Six artificial ponds were created in the pilot study area according to the environmental needs of the species, four of which proved to be suitable surrogate habitats in which translocated fish survived and reproduced successfully. Populations in the original habitats were supplemented with fish from laboratory breeding and from the natural recruitment of surrogate habitats, with special care of the corresponding broodstocks. Future challenges include improving our knowledge about the ecological processes in which the European mudminnow participates, identifying the most threatened populations, habitats suitable for restoration and potential areas for creation of surrogate habitats, and enhancing induced propagation methodology.


The design of precision optical gauges for metrology is facilitated by predictions of performance by means of computer simulation. For example, consequences of design parameter variations can be investigated before committing to the time and expense of hardware fabrication or procurement. Once the components are assembled, puzzling test results may be understood by simulating various misalignments. Classical geometric optical ray trace analysis of these systems is not capable of predicting diffraction effects which are important in determining the ultimate achievable metrology precision. We present details of a simulation approach which we have developed for the diffraction analysis of such systems. Optical signals are represented as two-dimensional scalar fields, and paraxial scalar diffraction theory is used to calculate the propagation of signals -- through various optical elements, such as apertures, lenses and corner cubes - to detector focal planes. The simulation includes coherent combination of signal and local reference wavefronts at the focal plane, and modeling the measurement of optical phase by heterodyne detection - a capability critical to optical metrology. We discuss the capabilities, limitations and sources of error inherent in our approach; present the results of modeling one or more metrology systems which are currently under laboratory development; indicate how simulation can identify sources and magnitudes of measurement error; and show correspondence of simulations with laboratory measurement.


The results of investigations of weld lines locations in polyacetal moldings, prepared in 16-cavity injection mold with parallel cavities lay-out, were presented (Fig. 1, 3, 4). A method of melt flow visualization was used to record the weld line location on the surface of molding prepared at the proper injection conditions (method of "record grooves effect" formation control) (Fig. 2, 5). Despite using the geometrically balanced runners the cavities were not filled simultaneously (Fig. 6) and asymmetrical flow front of the polymer in the cavities led to weld lines shifts in relation to expected locations (Fig. 8-11 These results were obtained for both small and high injection velocities (Table 1). The reason of the weld line shift is the polymer melt movement in the runners, determined by runners' configuration. The results presented can be used in design of runners' sets in multicavity injection molds allowing preparation of moldings with no deterioration of mechanical strength in weld line area.


This paper presents a kernel-based approach to indoor-outdoor handover management for 4G femtocells. It is a necessary but difficult task to perform seamless handover from indoor femtocells to outdoor macrocells whilst maintaining call continuity. This paper describes a machine learning algorithm to operate in conjunction with 4G handover triggering mechanisms to reduce the rate of unnecessary handovers between femtocells and macrocells. The results of this algorithm show that handovers can be reduced by 65% by detecting where unnecessary handovers are likely to occur and minimising them. By reducing the number of unnecessary handovers, the system resources efficiency may be improved as a result of the potential reduction in signalling exchange taking place which in turn reduces bandwidth usage, the power used by both the femtocell and the mobile terminal and, the level of signal processing necessary.


In an attentionally overloaded world, relief will come only from interfaces between humans and computation that are able to provide information in the background of our sensory and cognitive processes. Haptic displays may have a special role to play in this emerging movement toward ambient interfaces, because the touch sense is well suited to present many types of information in a way that treads lightly on our mental resources. This paper offers an introduction to the notion of ambient information display, and explores why and how the haptic channel could contribute. It begins with a discussion of the attentional problems posed by contemporary interface technology, and a broad overview of ambient interfaces themselves: their purpose, specification, features, and some general examples. Sense is made of the haptic ambient design space through a morphology of the functionality and social configurations exhibited by existing and envisioned examples. Finally, reflections on design principles and challenges for ambient haptic interfaces are aimed at inspiring, shaping, and informing future development in this area.


Abstract. The retrieval of tropospheric aerosol extinctions from MAX-DOAS observations of O4 using a small number of three or four extinction profile parameters suitable for boundary layer reconstruction is investigated with respect to the following questions. First, to what extent does this nominally over-constrained pure least-squares problem for the inversion of the radiative transfer equation require regularisation and how should parameters of the regularisation be chosen? Second, how can a lack of information in the under-constrained case be best compensated by using the information contained in a sequence of observations and by explicitly including intensities into the fit? The forward model parameterises the optical properties of the boundary layer aerosol by its extinction profile, single-scattering albedo and a Henyey–Greenstein phase function. Forward calculations are carried out online, i.e. without look-up tables. The retrieval uses a Tikhonov regularisation combined with an approximate L-curve criterion and empirical a priori information from the retrieval sequence based on previous valid solutions. The consistency of the approach is demonstrated in selected model case studies assuming a polluted urban scenario and westward viewing direction of the instrument. It is shown that a dynamic choice of the regularisation parameter is crucial for high aerosol load and large diurnal variations. The quality of the retrieval can be improved significantly if the retrieval sequence and thus the a priori is chosen according to the information content of the measurement series. Additional intensities improve the solution for all solar angles if suitably weighted. This flexible retrieval algorithm allows for reconstruction of aerosol profiles in the boundary layer for a wide range of viewing directions and extinctions. It can thus be applied to observational geometries scanning the sky in two angular dimensions and to retrieve further aerosol optical parameters in the boundary layer.


This paper studies the influence of parental involvement in the educational process on the educational achievements of Russian students and their educational strategies, such as studying in high school and successful admission to university. We argue that the patterns of parental involvement represent a link between the formal (school) and informal (family) educational institutions and can have a beneficial effect on academic performance and contribute to the choice of the educational pathway to higher education. Based on data from the longitudinal study 'Trajectories in Education and Careers', it was shown that the results of school state examinations are positively associated with the active participation of parents in school meetings, the employment of tutors (except for the Unified State Exam score in mathematics), and the provision of additional literature for the child. A negative relationship was found between homework control and student success. In general, the factor of 'rational' (not excessive) involvement is positively associated with educational achievement and educational choice, which may indicate the non-linear nature of the relationship. Parental involvement itself depends on the family characteristics, such as mother's education, family income and the number of books at home. In addition, family has a positive impact on educational success and educational strategies, and high school characteristics are especially important for the results of the Unified State Exam and the university choice.


The record shows that Poseidon was once worshipped in every part of Greece as a god of general importance to the community. In the glimpse of Mycenaean ritual afforded by the Pylos tablets Poseidon is the chief deity, and the offerings and perhaps also the custom of 'spreading the bed' point to agrarian concerns. In each of the main districts of historical Greece he is rooted in tradition: Arcadia, that ancient landscape, is full of ancient cults of Poseidon; Ionia gathers to honour Poseidon Helikônios; 'all Boeotia is sacred to Poseidon', according to Aristarchus (Et. Magn. 5.Kypris), and here and in Thessaly he dominates mythical genealogy; the Dorian Peloponnesus is likewise 'sacred to Poseidon' (Diod. 15. 49. 4), and at his shrine on Calaureia, the seat of an early amphictyony, Mycenaean antecedents come into question – as at few other shrines in Greece. Yet much of the testimony is antiquarian and retrospective; Poseidon's pre-eminence is more of a memory than a reality. In such a well-documented city as Athens Poseidon has a very small place indeed in public festivities. In Greek literature his authority is slight and his powers are narrow, being virtually confined to earthquakes and storms at sea; he is chivvied by Zeus and flouted by Odysseus, and the reparation which Odysseus is required to make, of establishing Poseidon's worship among landsmen who take an oar for a winnowing fan, is a mocking and belated tribute to his former domain.


In the past two years, the highest power conversion efficiency of perovskite absorber (PA)–based photovoltaics has been 20.2%. The PA can be fabricated on flat substrates (for example, ZnO, TiO 2 , and PEDOT:PSS) using solution processes, which have a low-cost advantage in terms of industry production. In this report, the recent advances of PA-based photovoltaics will be mentioned. Then, the optoelectronic properties of PA, materi‐ al fabrication, and photovoltaic performance will be discussed. On the other hand, we used scanning electron microscopy, two-dimensional X-ray diffractometer, and photolu‐ minescence spectroscopy to investigate the fundamental properties of CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 thin films fabricated with and without toluene washing treatment, which provides an assess‐ ment of the development potential of PA-based photovoltaics.


Solid waste management is becoming a sustainability issue in highly industrialized societies. Recycling or reuse of solid waste is desirable to reduce the adverse impact of this material. The vast annual production of printed circuit board (PCB) waste in Taiwan creates environmental concerns because of the leaching of toxic chemicals into landfills. This study assessed the feasibility of utilizing resin powder and glass fiber recycled from PCB waste as a partial replacement of fine aggregate (natural river sand) in concrete. It also established a comprehensive test program to promote the use of recycling waste for waste reduction. The crushed powder of PCB mixed with standard mortar in fixed volumetric mix proportion, as sand:cement:water = 2.75:1:0.485 was the control group to test the fresh and hardened properties of the material. The test results of hardened specimen properties showed that the addition of PCB resin powder should be less than 10 %, and the addition level of glass fiber should be less than 2 %. The engineering properties and durability matched those of the cement mortar of the standard control group. Because toxic chemicals released from PCB powder and hardened concretes were found to be less than the tolerance limit in the local ordinances, waste PCB can be used in cement mortar, providing an alternative for recycling industrial waste PCB.


Over the past eight years, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini orbiter has returned hyperspectral images in the 0.35–5.1 μm range of the icy satellites and rings of Saturn. These very different objects show significant variations in surface composition, roughness, and regolith grain size as a result of their evolutionary histories, endogenic processes, and interactions with exogenic particles. The distributions of surface water ice and chromophores, i.e., organic and non-icy materials, across the Saturnian system, are traced using specific spectral indicators (spectral slopes and absorption band depths) obtained from rings mosaics and disk-integrated satellites observations by VIMS. Moving from the inner C ring to Iapetus, we found a marking uniformity in the distribution of abundance of water ice. On the other hand, the distribution of chromophores is much more concentrated in the rings particles and on the outermost satellites (Rhea, Hyperion, and Iapetus). A reduction of red material is observed on the satellites' surfaces orbiting within the E ring environment likely due to fine particles from Enceladus' plumes. Once the exogenous dark material covering the Iapetus' leading hemisphere is removed, the texture of the water ice-rich surfaces, inferred through the 2 μm band depth, appears remarkably uniform across the entire system.


In the current review, we examined teacher leadership research completed since York-Barr and Duke published the seminal review on teacher leadership in 2004. The review was undertaken to examine how teacher leadership is defined, how teacher leaders are prepared, their impact, and those factors that facilitate or inhibit teacher leaders' work. Beyond this, the review considered theories informing teacher leadership, teacher leadership within disciplinary contexts, and the roles of teacher leaders in social justice and equity issues. The most salient findings were (a) teacher leadership, although rarely defined, focused on roles beyond the classroom, supporting the professional learning of peers, influencing policy/decision making, and ultimately targeting student learning; (b) the research is not always theoretically grounded; (c) principals, school structures, and norms are important in empowering or marginalizing teacher leaders; and (d) very little teacher leadership research examines issues of social justice and equity.


The present study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of H9N2 influenza in broiler farms at the time of slaughter in Iran. A total of 747 birds were sampled from 74 Farms in 13 provinces within 2013-2016. The obtained sera were investigated using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. Out of 74 sampled farms and 747 birds, 57 farms (77%) and 445 (59.57%) birds were reported to be seropositive. In 2013, 10 farms and 110 birds were sampled out of which three farms (29.6%) and 29 birds (30%) were seropositive. In 2014, 24 farms and 220 birds were sampled out of which 22 farms (91.6%) and 220 birds (86.6%) were positive in six provinces. In 2015, 30 farms and 278 birds were sampled out of which 5 farms (16%) and134 birds (48.2%) were positive in four provinces. Finally, in 2016, 7 farms (70%) out of 10 sampled farms and 62 birds (59%) out of 105 sampled birds were positive for H9N2 in eight provinces. The mean titer of units in 2013 was statistically lower, as compared to that in 2014 (p <0.01). In addition, the proportion of positive serum units in 2013 was statistically lower, as compared to that in 2014 (p <0.001). In general, the prevalence of H9N2 was high indicating the continuous circulation of the virus in Iran. Given the importance and impact of this virus on the poultry industry, people's livelihood, and public health, more epidemiological studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted measures and methods in controlling the H9N2 virus.


Millets are major food and feed sources in the developing world especially in the semiarid tropical regions of Africa and Asia. The work was conducted with the purpose to evaluate the growth parameters and physiological attributes under kharif rainfed conditions in ten ragi genotypes among them seven are pre release genotypes (PPR-1012, PPR-2885, PPR-2773, BR-36, PPR-1040, PPR-1044, PR-10-30) and remaining three are released genotypes (Sri chaitanya, Vakula and Hima). The experiment was conducted in factorial randomized block design with three replications. During the experiment a long dry spell for 20 days occurred i.e. from 47 DAS to 67 DAS, which has coincided with panicle initiation and flowering stages. Plant height showed sigmoid growth curve trend and the increase was exponential from 30DAS to 60DAS, there after it has increased with decreasing trend when compared to other growth parameters. The process of growth is dependent upon cell division and cell expansion which takes place under adequate moisture conditions. Hence plant growth and development is highly variable with genotype x environment interaction. In this experiment, a significant difference was observed from 60 DAS to 90 DAS in plant height, leaf area, total dry matter, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight and only in root dry weight no significant differences between genotypes. Physiological attributes like leaf area index (LAI) significant differences were not observed between genotypes is an important plant factor in determining the dry matter accumulation and hence the crop yield, and leaf area duration (LAD) Significant differences were observed between genotypes throughout the duration, however such differences between treatments were observed only 45-60 DAS onwards. Hence these genotypes can perform better under moisture stress conditions and are suitable for rainfed situations. The present study reveals that there is sufficient genotypic variability among ragi genotypes for growth parameters and physiological attributes. The overall performance of these genotypes BR-36, PPR-1012 and PPR-2773 was the best among the ten genotypes tested and confirms its suitable for rainfed conditions.


The flow around surface-mounted finite-height bluff bodies is more complex than the flow around a two-dimensional or "infinite" cylinder. The flow over the free end and the boundary layer flow around the body-wall junction strongly influence the near-wake flow pattern. Streamwise tip vortex structures interact in a complex manner with Karman vortex shedding from the sides of the body, and are responsible for a downward-directed local velocity field in the upper part of the wake known as "downwash." A second pair of streamwise vortex structures, known as the base vortices, is found close to the ground plane. Upstream of the body the familiar horseshoe vortex is found. The interactions between the tip vortices, base vortices, and Karman vortex shedding are strongly influenced by the aspect ratio, AR = H/D (for height, H, and width, D), the Reynolds number, Re, and the relative thickness of the boundary layer, δ/D.The flow above the free ends of surface-mounted finite-height circular cylinders and square prisms was studied in a low-speed wind tunnel using particle image velocimetry (PIV). Cylinders and prisms of AR = 9, 7, 5, and 3 were tested at Re = 4.2 × 104. The bodies were mounted normal to a ground plane and were partially immersed in a turbulent flat-plate boundary layer with δ/D = 1.7. PIV measurements were made above the free ends in three vertical planes at different cross-stream locations (y/D = 0, 0.25, and 0.375). The ensemble-averaged streamlines, turbulence intensity and Reynolds shear stress fields were obtained in these planes.The PIV results provide insight into the separated flow above the free ends, including the effects of AR and body shape. For the finite square prism, the large, separated, recirculating flow region extends into the near-wake. For the finite circular cylinder, this region is smaller and the separated flow reattaches onto the free-end surface. For the square prism of AR = 3, considerable difference is seen in the free-end flow pattern compared to the more slender prisms of AR = 9, 7 and 5. In particular, a cross-stream vortex is formed due to interaction between the separated flow from the leading edge of the prism and the reverse flow over the free end. This vortex is seen in all three planes for AR = 3 but only in the symmetry plane for AR = 9, while for the finite circular cylinder the flow pattern above the free end seems to be the same in all three planes for all aspect ratios, consisting of a cross-stream vortex at approximately x/D = 0.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


This case presents the apparent organizational charters of ten large companies. "Organizational charters" is a term defined in the note by that name (UVA-OB-0600) that includes (a) purpose, (b) vision, (c) values, (d) strategy, (e) operating goals, and (f) leadership. The case includes public data from company Web sites and annual reports in computers, foods, and conglomerates. Students can assets the clarity of these 10 charters and practice thinking and speaking without confusion about them.


The knowledge of latest technology that allows the development of competitive products in reduced times is crucial to guarantee a sustainable growth of the national industry. This work presents the development of a computational system for the Virtual Design of products, the VirtusCADE, which is a CAD/CAE interactive software (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Engineering). The VirtusCADE includes 3D geometric modeling of surfaces and solids and mesh generation. The system uses the parametric modeling of surfaces, including algorithms for determination of intersection between surfaces and for triangular mesh generation in trimmed parametric surfaces. The graphical interface is interactive and allows the direct real time manipulation of objects (lines, surfaces and solids) in 3D using the OpenGL technology. The system prioritizes the usability, implementing several graphic tools that facilitate the manipulation in 3D. The VirtusCADE contemplates the structural simulation through the Finite Element Method. The code architecture is based on oriented object programming, which allows great scaling capability for the implementation of new tools. This project has great applicability in numerical simulation of physical phenomena, such structural analysis of buildings, vehicles parts, with impact in the industries of civil construction, metal-mechanics, aerospatial, naval and automotive.


We analyse how the presence of trade unions affects the pattern of mergers in an international oligopoly and the welfare implications thereof. We find that an international merger results in lower wages for all firms. A national merger results in higher wages, highest for the non-merging firms. Using a model of endogenous merger formation, we find that the equilibrium market structure, if it exists, always implies one or more international mergers. Unless products are close substitutes there are more mergers than socially preferred.


In January 1882, Oscar Wilde arrived in New York to begin a nationwide publicity tour. Mentioned in a few newspaper articles -- but barely a footnote in the history books -- was the black valet who accompanied him. In a daring and richly imaginative work, Louis Edwards rescues this figure from obscurity, blurring the line between fact and fiction as he follows Wilde and his gifted confidant, Traquair, on a whirlwind tour across the country, from high-society Newport to art-conscious San Francisco to the Deep South. Edwards's brilliantly conjured Wilde astounds the New World with his eloquent lectures and larger-than-life presence, while Traquair delights in the greatest year of his youth: losing his virginity in a Washington, D. C., brothel; meeting Jefferson Davis in Mississippi; falling hopelessly in love in St. Louis; and learning about his own family's secret history. Juxtaposed with Traquair's experiences are those of his Caucasian best friend, Baxter, who travels to England and becomes enmeshed in a circle of luminaries including Lady Wilde, James Whistler, Lillie Langtry, and Wilde's future wife, Constance Lloyd. Combining seductive, epigrammatic language and a unique perspective on class and race in late-nineteenth-century America, "Oscar Wilde Discovers America" builds to a surprising climax that offers a chilling forecast of the tragic destiny of Wilde and a stunning redefinition of the American spirit.


CONTEXT
The correlation of the diagnosis made at intraoperative consultation (IC) with the final diagnosis is one of the cornerstones of quality assurance in the anatomic pathology laboratory.

OBJECTIVE
To review correlation of IC diagnoses with final diagnoses during a 1-year period in a regionalized, multisite hospital setting in a major Canadian city.

DESIGN
One pathologist reviewed all surgical pathology cases at Calgary Laboratory Services from June 2004 through May 2005 that had an IC to extract the following data points: intraoperative diagnoses, final diagnoses, correlation between the two, anatomic site of the tissue on which the IC was requested, pathologic procedure requested of the IC, types of disagreements encountered, reasons for disagreement, and deferrals.

RESULTS
Intraoperative consultations occurred for 2812 specimens, of which 87 were discordant and 135 were deferred. Percent agreement was 96.75% (95% confidence interval, 96.08-97.42) with a kappa statistic of 0.94 (95% confidence interval, 0.92-0.95). Lymph nodes for evaluation for metastases (427), thyroid/parathyroid (401), and central/peripheral nervous system (378) specimens were sent most frequently for IC, and the latter 2 tissue types accounted for the greatest number of disagreements. The most common assessments requested were the presence/typing of a neoplasm (1161) and assessment of margins (730), which also accounted for the largest number of disagreements. Disagreements were most frequently due to interpretive (53) and gross sampling (23) errors; false-negative disagreements were nearly 3 times as common as false positives.

CONCLUSIONS
The IC was an excellent diagnostic test. Agreement and deferral rates varied by specimen site and by type of assessment requested.


Plain packaging of tobacco products is a new tobacco control tool which has been considered in recent times by several governments throughout the world. By standardizing the appearance of all cigarette boxes, plain packaging aims to make all packs look unattractive and render health warnings more prominent. Australia is set to become the first country in the world to introduce legislation requiring "plain packaging" for cigarettes. Plain packaging raises both health-related and legal tricky issues. Indeed, it is being persistently challenged not only by the tobacco industry as to its legality, but also in its genuine effectiveness.After summing up the state of the art of the debate triggered by this innovative tobacco control tool, this report predicts that plain packaging is a thorny issue which is likely to keep busy IPRs and WTO specialists as well as academics in the years to come.


This special issue on the global and the local in engineering and development builds on an earlier JID Policy Arena on reflexive engineering. It extends our thinking by elaborating the notion of 'liquid engineering', which sees engineering and development as messy and improvisational, a borderland hybrid space, composed of objects and practices, and as reflexive and evolutionary. A set of research articles explore this in different ways using a set of case studies, and the policy arena that follows examines liquid engineering in the context of development practice. All the articles suggest that development engineering is at its most successful when embedded locally and informed by global standards flexed or adapted to local conditions. The local through the integration of relevant case studies can then also shape global practices in useful ways.


Improving efficiency in Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) engineering and ensuring interoperability requires a tool or a tool suite, which handles the desired (heterogeneous) data representations or better an integrated (homogeneous) data representation - a data format aiming at interoperability. CAEX (Computer Aided Engineering Exchange, [1]) is one possible example of such a format. Its objective is a tool-independent description of plant planning data. CAEX is also used as a top-level format for AutomationML [2], [3]. To simplify the usage of this complex data exchange format, the authors developed various useful assistance tools which help users to work with it. These tools for transformation of arbitrary plant engineering data, their background and methodology will be presented in this contribution.


(1) Background: One effect of microgravity on the human body is fluid redistribution due to the removal of the hydrostatic gravitational gradient. These fluid shifts are expected to be the source of severe medical risks and it is critical to advance methods to monitor them in real-time. One technique to monitor fluid shifts captures the electrical impedance of segmental tissues, but limited research is available to evaluate if fluid shifts in response to microgravity are symmetrical due to the bilateral symmetry of the body. This study aims to evaluate this fluid shift symmetry. (2) Methods: Segmental tissue resistance at 10 kHz and 100 kHz was collected at 30 min intervals from the left/right arm, leg, and trunk of 12 healthy adults over 4 h of 6° head-down-tilt body positioning. (3) Results: Statistically significant increases were observed in the segmental leg resistances, first observed at 120 min and 90 min for 10 kHz and 100 kHz measurements, respectively. Median increases were approximately 11% to 12% for the 10 kHz resistance and 9% for the 100 kHz resistance. No statistically significant changes in the segmental arm or trunk resistance. Comparing the left and right segmental leg resistance, there were no statistically significant differences in the resistance changes based on the side of the body. (4) Conclusions: The fluid shifts induced by the 6° body position resulted in similar changes in both left and right body segments (that had statistically significant changes in this work). These findings support that future wearable systems to monitor microgravity-induced fluid shifts may only require monitoring of one side of body segments (reducing the hardware needed for the system).


In this article, by using the Brunovsky normal form, we provide a reformulation of the problem consisting in finding the actuator design which minimizes the controllability cost for finite-dimensional linear systems with scalar controls. Such systems may be seen as spatially discretized linear partial differential equations with lumped controls. The change of coordinates induced by Brunovsky's normal form allows us to remove the restriction of having to work with diagonalizable system dynamics and does not entail a randomization procedure as done in past literature on diffusion equations or waves. Instead, the optimization problem reduces to a minimization of the norm of the inverse of a change of basis matrix and allows for an easy deduction of existence of solutions, and for a clearer picture of some of the problem's intrinsic symmetries. Numerical experiments help to visualize these properties, indicate further open problems, and also show a possible obstruction of using gradient-based algorithms—this is alleviated by using an evolutionary algorithm.


abstract This article links up with the debate in economic geography on "local buzz" and "global pipelines" as two distinct forms of interactive knowledge creation among firms and related actors and argues for a rethinking of the way social scientists should approach interactive knowledge creation. It highlights the importance of combining the insights from studies of clusters and innovation systems with an activity-oriented approach in which more attention is paid to the specific characteristics of the innovation processes and the conditions underpinning their organization. To illustrate the applicability and added value of such an alternative approach, the notion of embeddedness is linked with some basic ideas adopted from the literature on knowledge communities. The framework is then applied to a study of innovation activities conducted by firms and academic research groups working with biotechnology-related applications in the Swedish part of the Medicon Valley life science region. The findings reveal that local buzz is largely absent in these types of activities. Most interactive knowledge creation, which appears to be spontaneous and unregulated, is, on closer examination, found safely embedded in globally configured professional knowledge communities and attainable only by those who qualify.


Satellite observations of Earth's climate system have evolved dramatically since the first crude video images of cloud cover taken over 40 years ago. Today, spaceborne measurements of precipitation, cloud attributes, radiative fluxes, and surface properties make crucial contributions to monitoring key processes and the evolving state of the planet's hydrologic cycle. We illustrate how this maturing capability has enabled study of the hydrologic cycle in a global context that goes beyond consideration of local or regional water balance. Remote sensing has become a key technology for addressing such interdisciplinary questions as whether the global hydrologic cycle is changing and if so how? What key processes linking the atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere are at play, and what are the prospects for predicting extreme hydrologic events of significant societal impact? The discussion is motivated first by considering these key science problems. Following a brief overview of key remote sensing concepts, we then survey existing capabilities to determine various quantities such as precipitation, evaporation, soil moisture, turbulent fluxes, cloud cover, water vapor, and the links to radiative fluxes. Both successes and persisting challenges are discussed. An assessment of where we stand in developing an integrated picture of the hydrologic cycle and climate is presented, along with anticipated improvements in the future measurements.

In the context of climate, we demonstrate that in spite of substantial improvements in determining hydrologic variables and processes from space, some key challenges remain. Our examination here of signals in precipitation, evaporation, and radiative fluxes suggests that at present we can detect regional patterns of interannual variability with considerable skill; we can resolve globally integrated signals with only modest certainty; and for the most part, we have little confidence yet in decadal changes or trends. Nevertheless, the situation is encouraging because in many cases these retrievals have been done without regard to intercalibration of sensor data streams, and in the case of operational retrievals, algorithm modifications which result in spurious trends. Careful reprocessing is likely to yield substantial benefits. Future planned missions with active remote sensing at 94 GHz (CloudSat) and interferometric measurements at 1.4 GHz promise to expand our knowledge of hydrologic processes of crucial importance to climate.

Keywords:

remote sensing;
global hydrologic cycle;
precipitation;
land-surface data assimilation;
turbulent fluxes


In Optical Allusions: Screens, Paintings, and Poetry in Classical Japan (ca. 800-1200), Joseph T. Sorensen illustrates how, on both the theoretical and the practical level, painted screens and other visual art objects helped define some of the essential characteristics of Japanese court poetry. In his examination of the important genre later termed screen poetry, Sorensen employs ekphrasis (the literary description of a visual art object) as a framework to analyze poems composed on or for painted screens. He provides close readings of poems and their social, political, and cultural contexts to argue the importance of the visual arts in the formation of Japanese poetics and poetic conventions.


In this paper we discuss the aspect of randomness in the arts and its mathematical principles. By means of two concrete examples, we are especially interested in the evolutionary process of random paintings and dynamic algorithms, related to works in computer animated generative art. Our aim is to demonstrate ways of using randomness under mathematical conditions as they are constitutional aspects for the production of contemporary art.


Clean development mechanism is one way of cooperation between developed and developing countries to decrease greenhouse gases emission in the "Kyoto Protoco1". An advanced technology of Japan Mitsubishi Corporation was introduced to Kaifeng Jinkai Chemical Engineering to reduce the emission of N2O by improving nitric acid production installation. This can not only reduce the greenhouse gases emission, reduce nitric acid production costs and create considerable economic efficiency to enterprise but also promote clean development mechanism and make great contribution to the world environmental protection.


Abstract.
 Recent identification of new species within the genus Kerivoula from the Southeast Asian region has indicated that this genus was understudied and currently underestimated in terms of its species diversity. Thus, this morphological study was carried out to record and analyse the morphological characters of available specimens of Malaysian Kerivoula from the Museum of Zoology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Thirty-one external, skull and dental characters were taken and analysed using the multivariate analysis, dicriminant function analysis. As the result, six groupings of Kerivoula was identified, namely K. intermedia, K. hardwickii, K. pellucida, K. lenis and K. papulosa which were divided into two distinctive groupings of K. papulosa type large (K. papillosa type L, hereafter) and K. papillosa type small (K. papillosa type S, hereafter). Variable dentary length was identified as the best predictor to characterize each group of Kerivoula. The separation of the K. papulosa specimens into two separate morphotypes were characterised by their different sizes whereby the former group was larger in size compared to the latter. It is suggested that each represents an independent species even though both morphotypes occur sympatrically. The homogenising effect of the previous environmental events might have been the primary factor of the sympatric occurrence of both morphotypes. Nevertheless, further study regarding ecology, morphology and genetics should be carried out to provide a better insight regarding the cryptic population of K. papillosa in Borneo and Malaysia.


Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression (PTR) is the process responsible for modulating mRNA levels and the related amount of protein. Initially thought to have a limited impact on cell phenotype, it has become increasingly recognized as a strong determinant of the quantitative changes in proteomes, and therefore a driving force for cell phenotypes. Untranslated regions of mRNAs (UTRs) are the core mediator of this process, containing sequence and structural elements bound by various kind of regulators, which influence nuclear export, localization, stability of mRNAs and their translation rates, as well as capping, alternative splicing and polyadenylation of the transcribed pre-mRNA.
One of the most important classes of PTR factors are the RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), whose human genome complement is at least 800 genes, characterized by the presence of different functional domains. RBPs bind to the 5'UTR of a transcript often to modulate translation initiation, and to the 3'UTR usually to influence its stability or translatability. Another major group of actors in PTR are noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Among them are various classes of long ncRNAs (lncRNAs), the intensively studied microRNAs (miRNAs), siRNAs (small-interfering RNAs) and several other RNA types. miRNAs bind to 3'UTRs by means of short regions of perfect sequence complementation or with some mismatches. Both RBPs and ncRNAs bind mRNAs to the so-called cis-elements, found primarily in 5' and 3' UTRs. These elements can be represented as recurring RNA sequences or secondary structures to which the trans factors bind to exert a control over the mRNA.
In order to integrate the available experimental data, we have developed AURA, a database offering a comprehensive view of the phenomena through regulatory data including RBP and miRNA binding sites, cis-element annotations, secondary structures, phylogenetic conservation, SNPs, RNA-editing data, gene expression profiles and more. A dynamic graphical interface allows the user to browse through the UTRs in an easy and seamless way. To further enrich this body of data, we also implemented a pipeline for the identification of hyperconserved elements in human UTRs, which we applied to both 5' and 3'UTRs. We were thus able to recover known and novel PTR mechanisms involving RBPs, including an RBP network controlled by HuR. We are eventually applying the results of these works to infer altered, and thus potentially disease-related, PTR mechanisms in an highthroughput neuroblastoma dataset.


In South Africa, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a significant health problem causing disability and premature death. Home Based Carers (HBCs) who care for T2DM patients in a rural village in South Africa lack formal training, which may result in knowledge deficits on the provision of care.

 To describe knowledge of HBCs who care for T2DM patients in a rural village in South Africa.

 A self-administered questionnaire with closed-ended questions was used. The questionnaire included seven questions to assess biographic characteristics, 13 self-test statements to assess actual common practices and 29 statements to test diabetes knowledge. Data were captured and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 24.

 More than 60% of the HBCs' had between 5 and 10 years of experience with a mean of 9 years. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of HBCs had some kind of secondary education but 89% never attended an in-service training on T2DM. Only 27% of HBCs agreed with the statement they could instruct people with diabetes on daily personal care and 11% agreed they could identify the normal ranges of blood glucose. Where 57% of the respondents agreed with the statement they could not perform one method of blood glucose control, 1 out of 3 (32%) agreed with the statement they could not instruct people with diabetes on self-care management for a sick day. The results revealed that there was no significant relationship (rho= .055, N = 53, p = 0.69) between HBCs years of experience and knowledge scores.

 The study showed that HBCs who care for people with diabetes lack knowledge with regard to diabetes mellitus. Therefore, people with diabetes in a rural village in South Africa are not managed well and there is a need for training of HBCs on T2DM.


Effects of EMR on the behavior of Wistar rats (196 males, 180-240 g of mass) under the conflict of opposed motivations: strong positive, drinking, motivation, and strong negative, pain, motivation were studied. The animals were exposed to low intensity EMR (40 microW/cm2) produced by two independent sources, 475 MHz (Albatross) with two orthogonal E vectors, and synchronization of rhythm modulation in the range of electroencephalography (EEG) frequency. The effect on behavior was observed during 10 min: 1) following the 5-minute exposure to EMR and 2) during the 10-minute exposure. Low intensity EMR of the above mentioned parameters and pulse modulation of 4, 8, 10 and 13 Hz was found to inhibit development of phobia to pain, increase the number of punishable contacts. It testifies to the existence of a weak anxiolytic effect which is similar to the effect of tranquilizers. If animals were exposed to EMR following administration of phenazepam, the radiation was shown to produce potentiation of the anxiolytic effect ofphenazepam. Effect of phenazepam is associated with activation ofbenzdiazipine receptors in the structure ofGABA-ergic receptor complex, which regulates neural membrane chloride channel conductance. We can suggest that anxiolytic and neurodepressive effects of EMR are realized to some extent at the level of ionophore and regulatory receptor complexes.


ABSTRACT The kinetochore, which consists of DNA sequence elements and structural proteins, is essential for high-fidelity chromosome transmission during cell division. In budding yeast, Sgt1, together with Skp1, is required for assembly of the core kinetochore complex (CBF3) via Ctf13 activation. Formation of the active Ctf13-Skp1 complex also requires Hsp90, a molecular chaperone. We have found that Sgt1 interacts with Hsp90 in yeast. We also have determined that Skp1 and Hsc82 (a yeast Hsp90 protein) bind to the N-terminal region of Sgt1 that contains tetratricopeptide repeat motifs. Results of sequence and phenotypic analyses of sgt1 mutants strongly suggest that the N-terminal region containing the Hsc82-binding and Skp1-binding domains of Sgt1 is important for the kinetochore function of Sgt1. We found that Hsp90's binding to Sgt1 stimulates the binding of Sgt1 to Skp1 and that Sgt1 and Hsp90 stimulate the binding of Skp1 to Ctf13, the F-box core kinetochore protein. Our results strongly suggest that Sgt1 and Hsp90 function in assembling CBF3 by activating Skp1 and Ctf13.


One of the contentious issues of intellectual property rights is related to data exclusivity. Data exclusivity relates to protection of data generated by the innovator from disclosure to third party in order to prevent 'unfair commercial use'. The debate has serious implications for pharmaceutical companies where substantial amount of data is generated during discovery and development of a new drug. The data is in the form of clinical trials data, reports of pharmacological and toxicological profile of drug, its use and indications etc. This data which is submitted to regulatory authorities of concerned countries for marketing approval is generally referred by regulatory authorities for approval of generic medicine. Multinational companies based in developed countries argue that this data generated during drug discovery and development needs to be protected in the form of 'data exclusivity' which is mandated under Article 39.3 of TRIPS Agreement. Developing countries state that 'data exclusivity' is not mandatory according to TRIPS Agreement. So far India has not provided for 'data exclusivity'. India's position on 'data exclusivity' with respect to other countries of the world is subject to recommendations and suggestions of the committee set up by the Government of India to look into issue of 'data exclusivity' which is discussed in this article.


When the Nicaraguan government vowed in 2012 to revive a long-dormant idea to carve a canal through the heart of the country, scientists expected a national debate on the project's merits. More than three times as long and twice as deep as the recently enlarged Panama Canal, the $40 billion Grand Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans would be the largest civil earthmoving project in history, with a social and environmental footprint to match. But in June 2013, when Nicaragua's government asked its National Assembly to grant a 50-year concession for the canal to a Chinese firm, approval took just 2 days. Now, after the release of a massive impact assessment of the project, and just months before the company says it will break ground, the debate has begun in earnest.


In active sound profiling (ASP), the target is to obtain a certain sound field or profile using similar techniques as in active noise control (ANC). Active sound profiling can be applied to a passenger car, for example, to modify the engine sound in the cabin. A fundamental algorithm in active sound profiling is the command-FXLMS (C-FXLMS) algorithm, which is an extension of the famous FXLMS algorithm widely used in active noise control. The computational demand of the C-FXLMS algorithm is dominated by the reference signal filtering. In order to reduce the computational burden, an alternative method to modify periodic reference signals has been developed. Since the reference signals are periodic, a method delaying the signals and modifying their magnitude can be used. The magnitude and phase delay values are obtained via the system identification process and stored in lookup tables. The new method is computationally efficient but requires more memory than the conventional filtering. In this paper, the C-FXLMS algorithm has also been combined with the eigenvalue-equalized FXLMS (EE-FXLMS) algorithm. In the EE-FXLMS algorithm, the secondary-path model is modified so that the magnitude becomes flat. This leads to frequency-independent step sizes in the adaptation of the algorithm, increasing robustness and enabling easier tuning of the step sizes. The memory requirement is also decreased since the size of the lookup table for magnitude values is significantly reduced. The eigenvalue-equalized C-FXLMS algorithm using the lookup-table based reference signal compensation has been tested in a simulation model. The model is based on an experimental ASP system installed in a passenger car. Simulations have been carried out both in ASP and ANC. Results prove that the algorithm converges fast and, in ASP, is able to track the desired levels with sufficient accuracy. In ANC, the engine sound is significantly attenuated.


Early identification and lifestyle intervention is beneficial for people with risk for diabetes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in healthy overweight or obese women using the FINDRISC score and a twelve-week long mobile app-based lifestyle intervention.Fifty-four subjects were involved and forty-eight were analysed, n = 28 in the intervention group (online group: OG) and n = 20 in the control group (CG). Body composition was assessed using the InBody 720 device and diabetes risk was evaluated with the Finnish Diabetes Risk Questionnaire. The calorie intake and macronutrients were evaluated by a 3-day diary. Group differences and pre- and post-results were analysed using student t-tests by TIBCO Statistica 13.40.14.Significantly decreased body mass index (28.0 ± 2.5 kg m−2 vs 25.8 ± 4.3 kg m−2, P = 0.00), body fat percentage (37.5 ± 6.3% vs 34.1 ± 5.9%, P = 0.03), waist circumference (100.8 ± 7.2 cm vs 94.7 ± 8.2 cm, P = 0.00) and visceral fat (124.0 ± 29.2 cm³ vs 109.0 ± 24.6 cm³, P = 0.04) were found in the OG. By the end of the programme, both groups showed significant decrease in food consumption, daily calorie intake (OG: 2,348.6 ± 348.0 vs 1,483.1 ± 114.4, CG: 2,372.4 ± 464.2 vs 1,654.1 ± 201.3 kcal day−1, P = 0.00), fibre (OG: 19.5 ± 3.7 vs 26.1 ± 3.4, CG: 17.8 ± 3.9 vs 22.0 ± 4.8 g day−1, P = 0.00) and cholesterol consumption (OG: 365.2 ± 58.9 vs 266.2 ± 65.8, CG: 377.4 ± 72.1 vs 269.2 ± 42.7 mg day−1, P = 0.00). OG had a more significant reduction in body mass index (P = 0.03) and body fat percentage (P = 0.04) values at the end of the programme compared to the control group.In this study, it was found that mHealth intervention is a useful and effective method in the Hungarian female population. Further studies are needed to investigate modifications of this intervention to achieve more health-related effects.


The share of biomass in energy production is constantly growing. This is caused by environmental and industry standards and EU guidelines. Biomass is used in the process of co-firing in large power plants and industrial installations. In the existing power stations, biomass is milled and burned simultaneously with coal. However, low-emission combustion techniques, including biomass co-combustion, have some negative side effects that can be split into two categories. The direct effects influence the process control stability, whereas the indirect ones on combustion installations via increased corrosion or boiler slagging. The effects can be minimised using additional information about the process. The proper combustion diagnosis as well as an appropriate, robust control system ought to be applied. The chapter is devoted to the analysis of modern, robust control techniques for complex power engineering applications.


First-order system least squares (FOSLS) is a recently developed methodology for solving partial differential equations. Among its advantages are that the finite element spaces are not restricted by the inf-sup condition imposed, for example, on mixed methods and that the least-squares functional itself serves as an appropriate error measure. This paper studies the FOSLS approach for scalar second-order elliptic boundary value problems with discontinuous coefficients, irregular boundaries, and mixed boundary conditions. A least-squares functional is defined, and ellipticity is established in a natural norm of an appropriately scaled least-squares bilinear form. For some geometries, this ellipticity is independent of the size of the jumps in the coefficients. The occurrence of singularities at interface corners, cross points, reentrant corners, and irregular boundary points is discussed, and a basis of singular functions with local support around singular points is established. A companion paper shows that the singular basis functions can be added at little extra cost and lead to optimal performance of standard finite element discretization and multilevel solver techniques, also independent of the size of coefficient jumps for some geometries.


Coastal ecosystems are vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances which can cause loss of benthic macrofauna and their ecosystem functioning. Despite the importance of functional assessments for conservation and management, knowledge gaps persist on the generality of how the diversity and functional traits of benthic communities influence ecosystem functioning. We investigated eight sites in three different habitats across ~1,260 km of coastline, to evaluate patterns between taxonomic and functional diversity of benthic macrofauna, and the relationship between benthic macrofauna, functional traits and environmental conditions. A total of 74 benthic macrofauna taxa were identified. Significant differences across sites and season were found for metrics based on taxonomic and functional traits. Multivariate analysis revealed spatial-temporal differences, which were more evident based on taxa than functional traits. Functional diversity also showed spatial and temporal differences and was positively correlated with the number of taxa. The dominant functional traits modalities were deposit feeders, with large (>20 mm) body size, burrowers, bioirrigators, deeper than 3 cm in sediments, and irregular morphology. Novel Generalized Linear Latent Variable Models (GLLVM) uncovered several site-dependent relationships between taxa, traits and environmental conditions. Functional redundancy was lowest in a highly modified lagoon, and highest in a more pristine embayment. The outcomes from this study showed site-dependent patterns of benthic communities based on either taxonomic or functional metrics, highlighting that both perspectives are complementary to obtain a holistic understanding of the functioning in marine sediments under environmental change.


Net community production (NCP) is a community level process informing on the balance between production and consumption, determining the role of plankton communities in carbon and nutrient balances fueling the marine food web. An assessment of net and gross community production (NCP, GPP) and community respiration (CR) in 86 surface plankton communities sampled between 15° and 36° South along coastal Western Australia (WA) revealed a prevalence of net autotrophic metabolism (GPP/CR > 1), comprising 81% of the communities sampled. NCP, GPP, and CR decreased with decreasing nutrient and chlorophyll-a concentrations, from estuarine, to coastal and oceanic waters. CR, standardized per unit chlorophyll-a, increased with temperature, with higher activation energies (Ea) than GPP per unit chlorophyll-a (Ea 1.07 ± 0.18 eV and 0.65 ± 0.15 eV, respectively) either across ecosystem types and for coastal and estuary communities alone, indicating plankton CR to increase much faster with warming than GPP. These results characterize surface plankton communities across Western Australia as CO2 sinks, the stronger thermal-dependence of respiration that gross primary production rates suggests that their role may weaken with future warming.


This article reports the results of an empirical analysis of the impact of Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, which was enacted in 2005 to replace the former Section 304. I examine all Section 304 motions filed in the three years before the change in law and all Chapter 15 filings following in the three years afterwards, analyzing the number of petitions originating from haven jurisdictions. These data indicate that, while the change in law itself did not produce any detectable change in practice, the subsequent interpretation of Chapter 15 in the high-profile case of an offshore Bear Stearns hedge fund did make an impact: after that decision, the number of petitions seeking cooperation with havens dramatically dropped off. From this finding, I concluded that Chapter 15 is promoting cooperation but in a fact-sensitive way that can prevent forum shopping.


A range of well-known treatment methods for destroying tumor and similar harmful growth in human body utilizes the coherence between the inherently periodic movement of the affected body part and periodic respiratory signal of the patient, with the objective of minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues. Such methods require constant monitoring by an operator who observes the 3D body motion via its 2D projection onto an ultrasound imaging plane and studies the synchronism of this motion with the respiratory signal. Keeping an attentive eye on the respiratory signal as well as the ultrasound video for the entire treatment period is often inconvenient and burdensome. In this paper, we propose a video visualization technique called CycleStack Plot which reduces this cognitive overhead by blending the video and the signal together in a stack-like layout. This visualization reveals the inherent synchronism between the target's movement and the respiratory signal, visually highlights significant phase shifts of either of the two cyclic phenomena, with the hope of arresting the operator's attention. Our proposed visualization also provides a visual overview for the post-treatment analysis which enables educated users to quickly and effectively skim through the excessively long process. This paper demonstrates the utility of CycleStack Plot with a case study using real ultrasound videos. In addition, a user study has been performed to evaluate the merits and limitations of the proposed method with respect to the conventional way of watching a video and a signal side-by-side. Even though the motivation of the proposed visualization is improvement of medical applications that use ultrasound, the core techniques discussed here have potential to be extended to other application domains requiring analysis of cyclic patterns from videos.


Abstract Evaluating and enhancing supervisee competence is a key function of supervision and can be aided by the use of direct assessments of clinical competence, e.g. the Cognitive Therapy Scale – Revised (CTS-R). We aimed to review the literature regarding inter-rater reliability and training on the CTS and CTS-R to present exploratory data on training raters to use this measure. We employed a systematic review. An exploratory study evaluated the outcomes of a CTS-R supervisor training workshop (n = 34), including self-reported familiarity with and confidence in using the tool, and inter-rater consistency on three CTS-R subscales, pre- and post-training. CTS and CTS-R inter-rater reliability was variable, with evidence of rater training enhancing reliability, although the form, duration and frequency of such training is unclear. The exploratory study found that supervisors rated themselves as more familiar with and confident in using the CTS-R at the end of training compared to at the beginning. However, inter-rater reliability was poor at the beginning and end of the training. Rating competence requires supervisors to make qualitative judgements, which is inherently variable. Training raters has been shown to improve rater reliability, although this was not demonstrated in the exploratory study. Practice implications and future research priorities are identified.


The formation of gullies is one of the greatest environmental disasters in Southeastern Nigeria. Large areas of agricultural lands are lost or have become unsuitable for cultivation due to gully erosion. There have been numerous attempts to curb gully erosion in the region; especially through large-scale engineering projects, however, little has been discussed about ways to prevent their onset or the use of community-based low-technology approaches to mitigate their development. We reviewed pertinent literature, interviewed key stakeholders, observed gully erosion sites and had informal discussions with key experts in the field on the causes of gully erosion and community-based approaches in tackling the problem. Based on these discussions, interviews and observations, we showed that many eroding gullies in the region are human-induced and therefore can be prevented. The results also reveal that many of the causes of gully erosion can be traced to poor land management practices and to a lack of innovation and awareness measures. We conclude that community-based, low-technology land management practices and public awareness programs through workshops could halt the development of many gullies in the Southeastern region of Nigeria.


Space, often absent from kinesiological analyses, has significant impacts on how communities operationalize health (Fusco, 2007). The spatial dialogue between bodies and intentional movement directs how bodies are invited, or disinvited, to be physically active (Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2011). As communities re-imagine public spaces in the name of neoliberal health (Ayo, 2012; Fusco, 2007), the challenge becomes distinguishing which forms of physical activity and movement are or are not accepted in those spaces. Thus, as bodies claim space, some bodies are ignored, regulated, or removed, while others are celebrated and designed for (Soja, 1980). Skateboarding offers a unique look at how bodies are navigating the challenging landscape of the postmodern. Particularly, skateboarding claims public space, whether or not that space was intended for its use, placing skateboarding in conversation with the municipality and community in multiple ways. Utilizing the integration of social science frameworks (Lefebvrian Triad, edgework, publicness, and biographies) that focus on spatial relations, this project examined the regulation of human movement by municipalities through the critical reading of Seattle's Citywide Skatepark Plan (Skatepark Advisory Taskforce, 2007) and Portland's Skatepark System Plan (Portland Parks & Recreation, 2008). Identifying seven key themes, a description of how cities develop, deploy, and consume skateboarding and related sports (e.g., BMX, inline) and the spaces they occupy is presented. The analyses introduce five major assertions that describe how municipalities manage physical movement through "the city" in the name of the common good. These assertions serve to shape how communities define legal bodies and movement through cityscapes and what this means for the skateboarder and skateboarding. Specifically, the introduction of a Skating Commons and ideas of complacent resistance are explored as challenges facing the municipality and skateboarding in the creation of sociospatial networks within "the city." The application of these assertions in the "lived" experiences of "the city" has the potential to impact how individuals understand, value, and engage in physical activity and movement.


Hen ovalbumin contains one cystine disulfide (Cys73-Cys120) and four cysteine sulfhydryl groups (Cys11,Cys30,Cys367, and Cys382) in a single polypeptide chain of 385 amino acid residues. To investigate whether or not such a structure is shared by related avian species, the contents of disulfide-involved half-cystine residues and their positions in the primary structure of ovalbumins from five species were compared with those of hen ovalbumin. Ovalbumins were alkylated with a fluorescent dye, IAEDANS, under disulfide-reduced and disulfide-intact conditions and digested with a number of proteolytic enzymes. The sequences were deduced from peptides containing half-cystine residues labeled with the fluorescent dye. The results showed that the number of free cysteine sulfhydryl groups of ovalbumins was different among the species, three for guinea fowl and turkey (Cys11, Cys367, and Cys382); and two for Pekin duck, mallard duck, and Emden goose (Cys11 and Cys331). On the other hand, a single intrachain disulfide bond could be identified from ovalbumins of five species using a combination of peptide mapping and N-terminal amino acid sequencing analysis under reduced and non-reduced conditions, in which the intrachain disulfide bond was like that of hen ovalbumin (Cys73-Cys120). The results also indicated that the variations in amino acid sequences on these peptides containing half-cystine residues bear a close relationship with the phylogeny of the six species.


BACKGROUND
An inflammatory response and systemic oxidative stress are directly caused by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. Cytokines, such as interleukin (IL) 1β, IL-6 and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), can also be stimulated. Reducing the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines plays an important role in limiting the postoperative inflammatory response. Silymarin has strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cytoprotective properties.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the protective anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of silymarin against the inflammation and oxidative stresss inherent to CABG surgery.

METHODS
Of the 102 patients undergoing elective first-time CABG surgery that were recruited, 50 (49.02%) received silymarin treatment and 52 (50.9%) were controls. Plasma cytokine levels (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) were measured preoperatively, 6 h and 24 h after CABG surgery. C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were analyzed.

RESULTS
Postoperative cytokine levels in the silymarin group were significantly lower compared with preoperative levels, and were significantly lower compared with postoperative control group levels. The area under the curve for cytokines and CRP for the silymarin group were significantly lower compared with preoperative levels, and were significantly lower compared with postoperative control group levels. Postoperative levels of TEAC and MDA in the silymarin-treated group were significantly lower than in the control group. GSH levels were significantly elevated in the silymarin group compared with control. No side effects or mortality were associated with the use of silymarin.

CONCLUSION
The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of silymarin treatment provided protection against reperfusion injury and inflammation after CABG surgery.


The mathematician Alexander Borovik speaks of the importance of the `vertical unity' of mathematics. By this he means to draw our attention to the fact that many sophisticated mathematical concepts, even those introduced at the cutting-edge of research, have their roots in our most basic conceptualisations of the world. If this is so, we might expect any truly fundamental mathematical language to detect such structural commonalities. It is reasonable to suppose then that the lack of philosophical interest in such vertical unity is related to the prominence given by philosophers to languages which do not express well such relations. In this chapter, I suggest that we look beyond set theory to the newly emerging homotopy type theory, which makes plain what there is in common between very simple aspects of logic, arithmetic and geometry and much more sophisticated concepts. With this language in mind, new light is thrown on thenature of mathematical concepts with clear benefits for educationalists.


Farsite is a secure, scalable, distributed file system that logically functions as a centralized file server but that is physically realized on a set of client desktop computers. Farsite provides security, reliability and availability by storing replicas of each file on multiple machines. It continuously monitors machine availability and relocates replicas as necessary to maximize the effective availability of the system. We evaluate several replica placement methods using large-scale simulation with machine availability data from over 50,000 desktop computers. We find that initially placing replicas in an availability-sensitive fashion yields pathological results, whereas very good results are obtained by random initial placement followed by incremental improvement using a scalable, distributed, fault-tolerant and attack-resistant hill-climbing algorithm. The algorithm is resilient to severe restrictions on communication and replica placement, and it does not excessively co-locate replicas of different files on the same set of machines.


We describe a statistical approach to the problem of estimating the times of cell-division cycles in time-lapse movies of early mouse embryos. Our method is based on the likelihoods for cells of certain radii ranges to be in each frame - without actually locating or counting the cells. Computing the likelihoods consists of a voting scheme where votes come form quadruples of points in a way similar to the first step of the Randomized Hough Transform for ellipse detection. To locate divisions, we search for points of abrupt change in the matrix of likelihoods (built for all frames), and pick the two optimal division points using a dynamic programming algorithm. Our results for the first and second cell division cycles differ less than two frames from the medians of the annotated times in a database of 100 annotated videos, and outperform two other recent methods in the same set.


Scientists and engineers devote considerable effort to developing large, complex codes to solve important problems. However, while they often develop useful code, many scientists and engineers are frequently unaware of how various software engineering practices can help them write better code. This article presents the results of a survey on this topic.


ABSTRACT What impact does engagement in crime have on terrorist group survival? In theory criminal activity may decrease group survival by damaging group legitimacy or prompting government crackdowns. Conversely, crime might boost group survival by facilitating access to revenues or by further taxing state policing capacity. Moreover, different types of crime might have different effects. We investigate the impact of crime on terrorist group survival using cross-sectional data on 578 terrorist groups observed between 1970 and 2007. We find that engagement in crime reduces a group's chance of demise by around 50% and extends its lifespan by around 7 years on average. Terrorist groups involved in narcotics are less likely to end by police or military force, but are also less likely to win political concessions. We find that groups involved in extortion live the longest and are also less likely to end by force or by splintering.


Objective To evaluate the effect of intensive geriatric rehabilitation on demented patients with hip fracture. Design Preplanned subanalysis of randomised intervention study. Settting Jyväskylä Central Hospital, Finland. Participants 243 independently living patients aged 65 years or older admitted to hospital with hip fracture. Intervention After surgery patients in the intervention group (n = 120) were referred to the geriatric ward whereas those in the control group were discharged to local hospitals. Main outcome measures Length of hospital stay, mortality, and place of residence three months and one year after surgery for hip fracture. Results The median length of hospital stay of hip fracture patients with moderate dementia (mini mental state examination score 12-17) was 47 days in the intervention group (n = 24) and 147 days in the control group (n = 12, P = 0.04). The corresponding figures for patients with mild dementia (score 18-23) were 29 days in the intervention group (n = 35) and 46.5 days in the control group (n = 42, P = 0.002). Three months after the operation, in the intervention group 91% (32) of the patients with mild dementia and 63% (15) of the patients with moderate dementia were living independently. In the control group, the corresponding figures were 67% (28) and 17% (2). There were no significant differences in mortality or in the lengths of hospital stay of severely demented patients and patients with normal mini mental state examination scores. Conclusions Hip fracture patients with mild or moderate dementia can often return to the community if they are provided with active geriatric rehabilitation.


We propose a new scheme for multiple antenna transmission in the context of spread spectrum signaling. The new scheme consists of using shifted Gold sequences to modulate independent information on the multiple antennas. We show that this new scheme greatly improves the throughput over currently known multiple antenna methods. We also find the optimal power allocation strategy among multiple transmit antennas for a fixed feedback rate.


Objectives. In the United States, injury is a leading cause of alcohol-related death, and alcohol use is the leading risk factor for injury. We reviewed state and federal legislation regulating the intersection of alcohol and fi earms. Methods. We examined the current criminal codes of all 50 states and the District of Columbia using the databases Westlaw and LexisNexis to review restrictions on fi earm use while intoxicated. Results. We found three types of laws in 26 states that restrict fi earm use by intoxicated people: sales or transfers are restricted in six states, carrying of concealed weapons is restricted in four states, and possession or discharge of a fi earm while intoxicated is restricted in 20 states. Conclusions. Regulation of the carrying and use of fi earms by acutely intoxicated individuals may represent a public health opportunity to reduce fi earm-related injury.


Because of nonlinear dynamic performances and uncertain working environment, precise motion control of Automatic Underwater Vehicle (AUV) has always been a problem. For the time lag and nonlinearity of AUV, a new method called Predictive S Control (PSC) based on model of Support Vector Machine (SVM) is presented. Firstly, in establishing the model of SVM, the fine property of approaching to the nonlinear model is utilized to solve the predictive problem. Then, the control parameters of S controller are optimized by constructing the error function. At last the motion control of AUV is realized. It has been proved that this method is feasible and effective. Using this method, a good control result is obtained in the simulation.


To date, relatively few studies have tried to determine the practicality of using physiological information to help answer complex ecological questions and assist in conservation actions aimed at improving conditions for fish populations. In this study, the physiological stress responses of fish were evaluated in-stream between agricultural and forested stream reaches to determine whether differences in these responses can be used as tools to evaluate conservation actions. Creek chub Semotilus atromaculatus sampled directly from forested and agricultural stream segments did not show differences in a suite of physiological indicators. When given a thermal challenge in the laboratory, creek chub sampled from cooler forested stream reaches had higher cortisol levels and higher metabolic stress responses to thermal challenge than creek chub collected from warmer and more thermally variable agricultural reaches within the same stream. Despite fish from agricultural and forested stream segments having different primary and secondary stress responses, fish were able to maintain homeostasis of other physiological indicators to thermal challenge. These results demonstrate that local habitat conditions within discrete stream reaches may impact the stress responses of resident fish and provide insight into changes in community structure and the ability of tolerant fish species to persist in agricultural areas.


: In the experiment, performed on dogs ultrastructure of the ischiatic nerve allograft, preserved in liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees) has been studied. In 7 days after the operation in the transplanted piece of the nerve trunk certain phenomena, similar to the Wallerian degeneration are noted, while viability of neurilemma cells is preserved. Processes of second degeneration are mainly completed by the end of the first month after the operation. During this time active regeneration of nervous fibers is noted; it is accompanied with neutralization of the graft. The latter is mostly expressed in 6 months after the operation. The dynamics studied on ultramicroscopic rearrangements of the cryopreserved graft proves the previously obtained data on possibility of its use in clinics for substitution of defects in peripheral nerves.


This paper reports a numerical study on the photosynthetic productivity of algae photobioreactors using wild strains and genetically engineered strains with low chlorophyll pigment content. First, the specific photosynthetic rates of the wild strain algae Chlammydomonas reinhardtii CC125 and the truncated chlorophyll transformant tla1 were obtained from experiments as a function of the total available irradiation for each cell. This rate was modeled with a modified Monod function accounting for light saturation and light inhibition. The models were coupled with the radiative transport equation (RTE) to predict both the local and total photosynthetic rate of an open pond photobioreactor. The benefits and limitations of using truncated antenna transformants for increasing productivity of mass algae culturing are discussed.© 2010 ASME


Nowadays embedded parts which connect steel members with concrete structures have frequently emerged in civil engineering; however the existing design code for embedded parts cannot satisfy the increasing demand of engineering as it was derived from limited experiments. In the paper, a finite element study on embedded parts with big-diameter reinforcing bars under shear force is conducted. The aim of the study was to fully investigate the mechanical performances of embedded parts under shear force using a three-dimensional finite element analysis with the help of a commercial software ANSYS. Cross-section internal force of anchor bar, embedded part deformation, interaction force between anchor bar and concrete, and friction force were investigated in order to well know the system response. The results show that the shear capacity of embedded part obtained from finite element analysis is conservative.


In this series the BMJ asks the movers and shakers of the medical world about work, life, and less serious matters


Plan a cycling-tourist trip over several days taking into account tourism features (ie greenways, points of interest, ...) or specific bike features (ie secure roads, distance, ...) can be a difficult task.

In collaboration with a French company ("La compagnie des Mobilites"), the aim of our research is to develop efficient methods for solving this problem in a short computation time. The problem can be defined as follows. From cyclist preferences, the goal is to find a route from predefined starting and arrival points, that can be follow by the cyclist in a given number of day N. This route should include N-1 stops at not predefined hotels and can pass by some points of interest to visit. Each point is characterized by a duration of visit, a time window where the site is open and a entrance charge. The cyclist preferences are a daily earlier departure time from the starting point or hotels, a daily maximum distance to travel, a daily maximum time that cyclist spent cycling and visiting, and a total maximum cost of the trip. Several criteria to evaluate a solution have to be taking into account: minimize the total traveling distance, maximize the safety of the roads, and maximize the tourist attraction related to the points of interest and the roads.The objective is to propose a set of non-dominated solutions satisfying all the constraints.

We will present an exact and an approximate methods for solving this problem, called the "Multi-Objective Orienteering Problem with Hotel Selection".


New concepts like agent-based modelling are providing social scientists with new tools, more suited to their background than other simulation techniques. The success of this new trend will be strongly related to the existence of simulation tools capable of fulfilling the needs of these disciplines. Given the computational requirement of realistic agent-based models, high-performance computing infrastructure is often necessary to perform the calculations. At present, such resources are unlikely to be available to humanities researchers. Having developed Pandora, an open-source framework designed to create and execute large-scale social simulations in high-performance computing environments, this work presents an evaluation of the impact of cloud computing within this context. We find that the constraints of the cloud environment do not have a significant impact on the generic pattern of execution, providing a cost-effective solution for social scientists.


This in vitro study aimed to evaluate the action of TiF4 on sound and carious bovine and human enamel. Sound (S) and pre-demineralised (DE) bovine and human (primary and permanent) enamel samples were treated with TiF4 (pH 1.0) or NaF varnishes (pH 5.0), containing 0.95, 1.95, or 2.45% F for 12 h. The enamel surfaces were analysed using SEM-EDX (scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) (n = 10, 5 S and 5 DE) and KOH-soluble fluoride was quantified (n = 20, 10 S and 10 DE). Hydroxyapatite powder produced by precipitation method was treated with the corresponding fluoride solutions for 1 min (n = 2). The formed compounds were detected using X-ray diffraction (XRD). All TiF4 varnishes produced a coating layer rich in Ti and F on all types of enamel surface, with micro-cracks in its extension. TiF4 (1.95 and 2.45% F) provided higher fluoride deposition than NaF, especially for bovine enamel (p < 0.0001). It also induced a higher fluoride deposition on DE samples compared to S samples (p < 0.0001), except for primary enamel. The Ti content was higher for bovine and human primary enamel than human permanent enamel, with some differences between S and DE. The XRD analysis showed that TiF4 induced the formation of new compounds such as CaF2, TiO2, and Ti(HPO4)2·H2O. In conclusion, TiF4 (>0.95% F) interacts better, when compared to NaF, with bovine and human primary enamel than with human permanent enamel. TiF4 provoked higher F deposition compared to NaF. Carious enamel showed higher F uptake than sound enamel by TiF4 application, while Ti uptake was dependent on the enamel condition and origin.


▪ Abstract Significant changes occurred in human evolution between 2.5 and 1.8 million years ago. Stone tools first appeared, brains expanded, bodies enlarged, sexual dimorphism in body size decreased, limb proportions changed, cheek teeth reduced in size, and crania began to share more unique features with later Homo. Although the two earliest species of Homo, H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, retained many primitive features in common with australopithecine species, they both shared key unique features with later species of Homo. Two of the most conspicuous shared derived characters were the sizes of the brain and masticatory apparatus relative to body weight. Despite the shared derived characters of H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, one unexpected complication in the transition from australopithecine to Homo was that the postcranial anatomy of H. habilis retained many australopithecine characteristics. H. rudolfensis, however, seems to have had a more human-like body plan, similar to later species of Homo. H...


Service quality is assessment base for impatient obtains health service activities at hospital. This research aim (1) how know the applying of dimension service quality consisted by tangible, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance has relationship with satisfaction of patient, and (2) dimension quality of which service gives the relation of dominance to satisfaction of patient. This research executed in Sye k h Yusuf Public Hospital Sungguminasa Gowa Sub-Province, by getting sample 300 patient as responder. Data collecting using questionnaire and data processing applies analytical technique Chi-Square, Coefficient Contingence, and index of relation power. Result of research indicates that (1) either in simultan and also partially dimension service quality consisted of by tangible,  empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance has the relation of signifikan with satisfaction of patient, and (2) evidence dimension physical having the dominance relation to satisfaction of patient.