Considering the need for peace in the world of today and the ill effects of conflicts, this study delved into the contributions of libraries towards conflict resolution of major communal conflicts in South-East Nigeria. The main objective of the study was to find out different library and information services, resources, programmes and other media provided and utilized by the libraries towards conflict resolution; the challenges they face and strategies to enhance their contributions towards conflict resolution. Public and academic libraries within the conflict zone were used for the study and 20 heads of the main libraries and their branch libraries supplied the needed data. Interview, questionnaire and observations were used as instruments for data collection while data was analyzed using simple frequency counts and percentages. Major findings showed that the libraries had reasonable collections but very few on conflict resolution, the libraries had little interest in conflict resolution and did not make adequate provision towards that. The libraries faced challenges like poor funding, and infrastructural facilities and improved funding is among the strategies which could be used in enhancing their contribution to conflict resolution and peace building.

 Key words: Conflict resolution, peace, library and information services, libraries, Nigeria.


The physical and mechanical characteristics of Sonnati Salmas apricot fruits, pits and kernels were studied in this study. Technological properties such as dimensions, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, bulk density, true density, porosity, volume, mass, true density, bulk density, porosity, 1000-unit mass, coefficient of static friction on various surface and rupture force in 3 axes, were determined at 82.34, 16.48 and 13.03% moisture contents for apricot fruits, apricot pits and apricot kernels respectively. Bulk densities of fruits, pit and kernels were 443.2, 539.4 and 540.1 kg/m , the corresponding true densities 3 were 940.7, 1045.5 and 1023.6 kg/m and the corresponding porosities were 52.87, 48.40 and 47.21%, 3 respectively. The volumes, mass and surface area of fruits were larger than those of pits and kernels. Static coefficient of friction of fruit on all surfaces (wood, glass, galvanize sheet and fiber glass sheet) were measured and static coefficient of friction was less bout for pits and kernels on glass and their value were 0.474 and 0.188, respectively. Rupture force of fruit, pit and kernel were 10.11, 497.79 and 18.92 N through length, 7.98, 322.59 and 41.97N through width and 7.01, 337.21 and 99.58 N through thickness. Results showed that rupture force through length were minimum and this result is very important factor in design post harvest machines, especially about apricot pit crasher machine.


We examine the dimensions of the sports market in the United States.We investigate sports participation, sports viewing, and the supply and demand sides of the sports market. Our estimates of the value of economic activity in the sports market rang from $44 to $60 billion in 2005. The 49,169 firms in the industry employed just over one million workers. About 118 million people participated regularly in sports in 2005, and more than 277 million individuals attended spectator sporting events.


This contribution presents a dual channel speech enhancement system that is operating in the frequency domain. State-of-the-art estimators usually rely on the assumption that the noise signal is stationary or only slightly time-varying. In this contribution we are explicitly considering rapidly time-varying harmonic noise (e.g., engine noise). Therefore we take a spot microphone into account enabling the exploitation of correlation between the main and the spot microphone signals. Our recently proposed noise power spectral density (PSD) estimator for rapidly varing harmonic and random noise [3] is modified and combined with a coherence based noise PSD estimator. The performance of the proposed system provides consistently improved performance.


Cavitation triggers harmful flow instabilities yielding both significant decrease of performance and reduced reliability. The aim of this paper is to investigate the accuracy of numerical methodologies for the correct prediction of cavitation inception in centrifugal pumps. Preliminary analyses are performed on the NACA 0009 hydrofoil using the ANSYS CFX V14.5 code. The available bubble dynamics model is calibrated using the experimental data in cavitation conditions. Then, the optimized parameters are used for the evaluation of the NPSHR curve of the R250 centrifugal pump industrial pump designed by WEIRGabbioneta srl. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes mono- and two-phase calculations are performed. The performance curve of the R250 centrifugal pump is evaluated at first, and then the NPSHR curve is obtained for the design flow rate. The control volume of the numerical analysis includes all the hydraulic features from flange to flange (except for the side chambers) and then a direct comparison with the available experimental data obtained during two experimental campaigns is possible. The numerical activity demonstrated that an adequately calibrated model is able to reproduce the shape of the cavitation curve of an industrial centrifugal pump, although the NPSHR value is underestimated.


The underrepresentation of women in secondary school headship in England and elsewhere is an early and longstanding theme in the women and gender in educational leadership literature. The purpose of this article is to report findings from a statistical survey of secondary school head teachers across England. Data available in the public domain on school websites have been collated during a single academic year to present a new picture of where women lead secondary schools in England. Mapping the distribution of women by local authority continues to show considerable unevenness across the country. This article argues that a geographical perspective still has value. It might influence the mobilization of resources to targeted areas and ultimately result in women's proportionate representation in school leadership. Alongside this is a need for schools and academy trusts to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty.


There are lots of methods of evaluating the environmental quality of groundwater. Based on a comprehensive analysis of those common methods, this paper puts forward a method named fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method on water environmental quality based on entropy weight with consideration of toxicology of evaluation factors. Developed from the entropy-based fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, this method takes into account the influences caused by the toxicology weight and over standard weight of evaluation factors on the calculation of entropy weight. Through some water samples, the evaluation result of this method is more reasonable, objective and comprehensive than the one which is concluded from the entropy-based fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method.


Two fast time-domain algorithms are introduced for ultrawideband-ultrawidebeam (UWB) bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing; they are bistatic fast backprojection (BiFBP) and bistatic fast factorized backprojection (BiFFBP). Both algorithms process radar echoes on a subaperture and subimage basis in order to minimize processing time. They are shown to work with any configuration of bistatic SAR. They also own time-domain characteristics, which are essential for UWB radar signal processing. BiFBP and BiFFBP are experimented successfully on the CARABAS-II simulated data.


Research Problem: The purpose of this research was to discover the factors that influence a New Zealand lawyer's use of and ability to develop effective electronic information seeking behaviour. There have been no previous studies undertaken in New Zealand to understand the cognitive reasons and the reasons directly related to the resources themselves that impact on why lawyers do, or do not look for information effectively from electronic resources. Methodology: A phenomenological study design was used in order to understand an event from the viewpoint of the participants. Nine New Zealand lawyers participated, providing demographic information and taking part in semi-structured interviews. In addition two of these lawyers took part in a further participant observation. Results: The results indicated that factors personal to the applicant such as their previous training, electronic experience, personality and age have an impact on their ability to develop effective electronic information seeking behaviour. In addition external factors such as cost, time and lack of access directly related to electronic resources also have an impact. Implications: Based on the findings of this report it was found that electronic resources were considered to be an important part of a lawyer's work and gaining increasing significance. However not all lawyers have the ability to make full use of these electronic resources. Therefore it is important that lawyers are provided with the opportunity to undertake appropriate training and to access high quality electronic resources. Further study needs to be undertaken to look at strategies and training methods required by lawyers and their employers to improve these skills.


A cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry analysis by using a boron doped diamond (BDD) electrode to understand the behavior of caffeine on its surface as well as the correlation of experimental figures with theoretical calculations was carried out. Voltammetry results clearly reveal that a direct electron transfer is achieved as the main mechanistic behavior of caffeine on the BDD surface during its electrochemical oxidation. From the information provided by experimental measurements, a cluster of the BDD surface was computationally characterized to verify the interactions of caffeine with the electrode, obtaining thermodynamic parameters and geometric interactions by DFT, QTAIM and ELF calculations. According to the energetic analysis results obtained from DFT, the more and less stable geometries were thermodynamically determined, indicating that the topological data of the geometries of interactions were obtained using QTAIM and ELF to verify the influences that occurred during the interaction and relate it to interaction energy.


: Professionally significant functions (visual acuity, color vision and its parameters, and dark adaptation and its parameters) were determined in moderate and severe myopia before and after its excimer laser correction by the LASIK method: in early (1, 3 months) and late (6, 12 months) periods after surgery to decide where the operated persons are allowed to have the jobs associated with railway traffic safety. Sixty-one patients with moderate and severe myopia and 23 control individuals were examined at the Moscow Research and Technological Complex "Eye Surgery". The examinations have demonstrated that the values of visual acuity, color vision, and dark adaptation considerably improved. Whether the persons undergone excimer laser myopia correction are allowed to have the jobs associated with railway transport safety should be individually decided, by taking into account the postoperative recovery of professionally significant visual functions.


We present the final sample of 98 detached double white dwarf (WD) binaries found in the Extremely Low Mass (ELM) Survey, a spectroscopic survey targeting <0.3 M⊙ He-core WDs completed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint. Over the course of the survey we observed ancillary low-mass WD candidates like GD 278, which we show is a P = 0.19 day double WD binary, as well as candidates that turn out to be field blue straggler/subdwarf A-type stars with luminosities too high to be WDs given their Gaia parallaxes. Here, we define a clean sample of ELM WDs that is complete within our target selection and magnitude range 15 < g0 < 20 mag. The measurements are consistent with 100% of ELM WDs being 0.0089 < P < 1.5 day double WD binaries, 35% of which belong to the Galactic halo. We infer that these are mostly He+CO WD binaries given the measurement constraints. The merger rate of the observed He+CO WD binaries exceeds the formation rate of stable mass-transfer AM CVn binaries by a factor of 25, and so the majority of He+CO WD binaries must experience unstable mass transfer and merge. The systems with the shortest periods, such as J0651+2844, are signature LISA verification binaries that can be studied with gravitational waves and light.


Abstract Payments for ecosystem services schemes are viewed as having the potential to achieve positive biodiversity and ecosystem service outcomes and social outcomes, and they have been widely studied since their development in the 1990s. We describe the state of payments for ecosystem services in Indonesia, where nine schemes were identified, four involving water and five involving carbon. We also assess the perceptions of stakeholders (donors, government, and non-government agencies) regarding the status of such schemes in Indonesia, and their views on what factors support or constrain their development. The main factors perceived to support payments for ecosystem services schemes were easily identifiable ecosystem services and service users, and the long-term support provided by individuals or institutions that facilitate the schemes, building on existing relationships between communities and these facilitating agencies. Stakeholders identified problems relating to regulation: the lack of regulation specifically in relation to payments for ecosystem services, but also overlap and uncertainties regarding regulations. Other constraining factors identified were the lack of recognition of environmental problems amongst potential buyers, and issues of rights and tenure for local communities. With so few operational programmes to date, covering a relatively small land area, and such constraints to further development, payments for ecosystem services schemes appear to have limited scope to supply ecosystem services successfully and sustainably at scale.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Lipid disorders are frequent after kidney transplantation (KT) and KT recipients are considered at high- or very-high cardiovascular risk. Among many concurring factors, a major role is played by immunosuppressants. Areas covered: General measures to manage lipid disorders first include physical activity and diet counseling. Modulating the doses of immunosuppressants also improves dyslipidemia. When lipid-lowering drugs are necessary to control elevated plasma cholesterol and/or triglycerides, statins are the cornerstone for managing hypercholesterolemia. However, side-effects (e.g. myopathy, new-onset diabetes, and kidney graft dysfunction) may occur. In these cases, ezetimibe (which does not affect kidney function) alone or on top of statins for the severe cases, is suggested by the most recent Guidelines. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type9 inhibitors are promising but expensive and their use in KT is still limited. Expert opinion: In KT recipients, statins should be used cautiously. Rather than using high-dose statin in difficult patients, an association with ezetimibe is suggested. While fibrates, niacin, and resins do not play a relevant role due to their erratic efficacy and common side-effects, new lipid-lowering drugs are emerging but their safety and efficacy in KT patients still need to be assessed.


OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated whether reduced vestibular function in aging adults is associated with lower hippocampal volume.

STUDY DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SETTING
Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, a long-running longitudinal cohort study of healthy aging.

PATIENTS
Eligible participants were aged ≥ 60 years and had both vestibular physiological testing and brain magnetic resonance imaging at the same visit.

INTERVENTION
Vestibular function testing consisted of the cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) to assess saccular function, ocular VEMP to assess utricular function, and video head-impulse testing to assess the horizontal semicircular canal vestibulo-ocular reflex.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Hippocampal volume calculated using diffeomorphometry.

RESULTS
The study sample included 103 participants (range of 35-90 participants in subanalyses) with mean (±SD) age 77.2 years (±8.71). Multivariate linear models including age, intracranial volume, sex, and race showed that 1 μV amplitude increase of cVEMP was associated with an increase of 319.1 mm (p = 0.003) in mean hippocampal volume. We did not observe a significant relationship between ocular VEMP amplitude or vestibulo-ocular reflex gain and mean hippocampal volume.

CONCLUSIONS
Lower cVEMP amplitude (i.e., reduced saccular function) was significantly associated with lower mean hippocampal volume. This is in line with previous work demonstrating a link between saccular function and spatial cognition. Hippocampal atrophy may be a mechanism by which vestibular loss contributes to impaired spatial cognition in older adults. Future work using longitudinal data will be needed to evaluate the causal nature of the association between vestibular loss and hippocampal atrophy.


Specialized service management is a process of providing service needs to students to support learning activities so that educational goals can be achieved effectively and efficiently. The services provided by the school are very satisfying, such as a library that is equipped with books that fit the lesson, labor that makes students feel happy to experiment, the school health unit (UKS) is a health business run at a school that makes students majoring in science especially feel comfortable and at ease, school cafeteria, religious advice, boarding, cooperatives and transportation. The researcher uses the literature study method by collecting literature study methods by collecting material materials both sourced from books, journals, and other sources related to the administration of facilities and infrastructure. Related sources are about understanding special service administration, types of special services, and also the role of the teacher in the administration of special services. Research uses the literature study method by collecting literature study methods by collecting material materials both sourced from books, journals, and other sources related to the administration of facilities and infrastructure. Related sources are about understanding special service administration, types of special services, and also the role of the teacher in the administration of special services.


The taxonomic listing given in Lichens of Antarctica and South Georgia (Ovstedal & Lewis Smith 2001) has been updated. 17 additional taxa of lichenised fungi are described, including several nomenclatural changes. 14 of these are considered as new records for the Antarctic and one is new to South Georgia. One is described as new to science.


Many of the nontransplant physicians who manage hepatic patients (internists and hepatologists) keep asking about liver transplantation. The purpose of this article is to highlight important topics a nontransplant colleague may require in his practice. There are many topics in this respect; however, three most important topics need to be highlighted; those are; the time of referral to transplantation, the indications and contraindications and the metabolic issues regarding a transplanted patient. Still, there are no clear guidelines for the management of many of the metabolic issues regarding liver transplanted patients. And this why, collaborative efforts of transplant and nontransplant physicians are needed to conduct multicenter, long term randomized controlled trials and proper follow up programs.


Background
Oesophagectomy is a major complex operation associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Epidural analgesia has long been the gold standard postoperative analgesia but is associated with side-effects like hypotension, epidural haematoma and infection. In an attempt to lower morbidity and enhance recovery postoperatively, we have adopted the use of paravertebral catheter analgesia (PVCA) for patients undergoing totally minimal invasive oesophagectomy (TMIO).

Methods
Our objective was to review the current literature about the use of both PVCA and epidural analgesia. In addition, we evaluated the effect of PVCA in a large group of patients undergoing TMIO for cancer. We reviewed the records of 100 consecutive patients who had a TMIO with PVCA, spinal morphine, and PCA. Prospective independent scoring of postoperative pain, length of stay, high-dependency unit (HDU) stay, PVCA failure, the use of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), and the use of vasoconstrictor medication postoperatively was analysed.

Results
One hundred consecutive patients received PVCA with PCA after the TMIO. Catheter related failures occurred in 4 cases. The median pain score over each of the 5 days were 0. The average pain score was highest in the first 24 hours and decreased over the next 4 days postoperatively. The use of PCA was highest in the first 2 days and reduced daily over the subsequent 3 days. Seven patients required rescue analgesia in the form of intercostal nerve (ICN) block. Spinal morphine was successful in 94% of cases. Vasoconstrictors were required in 19% on day 1 and 3% on day 2, postoperatively.

Conclusions
Intraoperative placement of PVCA results in good postoperative pain control after a TMIO. This technique is simple, safe, reproducible and with very low failure rates. Therefore, it should be used instead of epidural catheter analgesia.


• How are hospitals, schools, GPs and social workers funded? How do the poor pay for their housing? • Is the tax payer prepared to pay adequate pensions to the growing numbers of old people? Will we all have to work longer? • Can western welfare states survive in an increasingly competitive world economy? These are some of the questions that the second edition of this best-selling textbook tries to answer. It begins by reviewing the range of ways in which basic human needs can be met and summarises in an accessible way the economic literature on why markets and even governments can fail in this respect. In a series of chapters "Understanding the finance of welfare" describes and assesses in detail the ways in which health care, personal social services, education, housing, pensions and social security are funded in the UK. In each case what happens in the UK is compared with the means used in other countries. Since demand always outruns supply, the book considers how these services are rationed and concludes by asking what future there is for the funding of western welfare states. Much has happened to the funding of social policy and the economy since the first edition of this book, especially in pensions and social care. New devolved assemblies have taken responsibility for setting social policy and their funding has become an issue. In response, much of the book has been revised and all the figures and tables have been updated. "Understanding the finance of welfare" has been designed to fit the needs of social policy student syllabuses where it has become an essential text. It is also important to students of public policy and economics and those training as teachers, medical students and social workers. But it will also be of interest to the general public because there is no more important political topic today than how social services are funded.


Males of all seasonal breeding mammals undergo circannual periods of testis involution resulting in almost complete ablation of the germinative epithelium. We performed a morphometric, histological, hormonal, and gene-expression study of the testes from winter and summer males of the greater white-toothed shrew, Crocidura russula, in populations of the southeastern Iberian Peninsula. Unexpectedly, we found no significant differences between the two study groups. Surprisingly, female data confirmed a non-breeding period in the summer, evidencing that males retain full testis function even when most females are not receptive. This situation, which has not been described before, does not occur in northern populations of the same species where, in addition, the reproductive cycle is inverted with respect to those in the south, as the non-breeding period occurs in winter instead in summer. Considering that the non-reproductive period shortens at lower latitude locations, we hypothesize that in southern populations the non-breeding period is short enough to make testis regression inefficient in terms of energy savings, because: (1) testes of C. russula are very small, a condition derived from their monogamy that implies low investment in spermatogenesis; and (2) the spermatogenic cycle of this species is slow and long. The inverted seasonal breeding cycle and the lack of seasonal testis regression described here are new adaptive processes that deserve further research, and provide evidence that the genetic and hormonal mechanisms controlling reproduction timing in mammals are more plastic and versatile than initially suspected.


Majority of open fractures in Nigeria result from road Traffic Accident (RTA). This is partly due to bad roads and reckless use of motor cycles as the main means of intra-city transport. (Udosen, et al, 2004; Udosen, AM, Ugare G, 2005) These are precarious injuries associated with severe complications leading to amputation. This procedure devised by the authors was designed to reduce these complications, particularly because amputation is not yet acceptable in our environment, where ignorance, poverty and stigmatization are common. This procedure is simple and cheap and has a satisfactory result in an environment of limited resources. The study was done at the University of Calabar teaching hospital within a period of 6years. 62 limbs in 60 patients were salvaged using this procedure at an average of about 10 salvaged limbs per year. 66% (41) of them had regained full function while 28% (17) were still undergoing various forms of rehabilitations. 6% (4) had amputation because of flail limbs and or severe infections. Male: female ratio was 4:1 and the average age was 32years (17-52yrs). All the injuries were caused by road traffic accident and 60% of this were due to motor cycle accidents. The average mangled extremity severity score (MESS) for the injured limbs was 4.5 (3-7). Complications encountered in the study included pin tract infection 58%,wound infection 26%,Chronic osteomyelitis 12%,gross deformity and flail limb 6%,graft failure 6%, Chronic pain 4% Improvement on this method requires adequate funding and provision of necessary equipment as well as training of personnel.


Acid treated P25 catalysts (HP25-x, x represents the treatment temperature) were successfully fabricated via a simple soaking and drying process for photocatalytic H2 production. After acid treatment, a substantial number of –OH groups were obtained on the surface of HP25-60, which can act as Bronsted acid sites providing hydrogen protons for H2 generation. Besides, more oxygen vacancies and Ti3+ sites were also created on the HP25-60 surface after acid treatment, which could enhance the carrier separation and transfer efficiency by capturing more electrons and holes, respectively. The H2 production over HP25-60 reached 4853 μmol h−1 with Pt as a co-catalyst, which is 7.1 times higher than 679 μmol h−1 of bare TiO2. Three favorable factors for H2 photogeneration, i.e. Bronsted acid sites, oxygen vacancies and Ti3+ sites, can be introduced on a catalyst surface via a simple one-step acid strategy, which can be applied as a universally-applicable modification method for valence-alternative metal oxide semiconductors for enhanced H2 photogeneration.


In this paper the dynamic of a droplet on a surface with a hole is investigated under gravitational effect by using lattice Boltzmann method. Incompressible two-phase flow with high density ratio proposed by Lee is considered. Cahn's theory is used to observe the wettability of the surface in contact with liquid and gas phases. Several parameters such as contact angle, surface tension and gravitational acceleration are studied to demonstrate their effects on the deformation of the droplet. To evaluate the results, the benchmark problems for equilibrium contact angle, capillary rise and Laplace law are conducted and a satisfactory agreement with analytical results is shown. Based on this study, four typical deformations of a droplet dripping down a hole can be observed; equilibrium drop on the top of the surface, equilibrium drop under the bottom of the surface, splashing and dripping of the drop. It is seen that at low Ohnesorge numbers the droplet deforms slightly and tends to retain its state. Moreover any increase in the Archimedes number magnifies the tendency to pass through the hole. Also, the relationship between the volume of the remaining droplet on the surface and Archimedes and Ohnesorge numbers is investigated. It is found that by increasing the Archimedes number, the volume of the remaining droplet on the surface reaches a constant value that is dependent on geometric parameters.


Food production per head in the world as a whole has begun to level off in the last decade, while the world population continues to grow, risking malnutrition, perhaps even starvation, civil unrest and environmental damage. Very little more land suitable for agriculture is available, and the factors behind the 'green revolution' may not produce further increases. Genetically modified crops offer the possibility of increased yields, but also present major problems. In developing countries, where yields are well below what is theoretically possible, the best approach may be better management by small farmers through improvements in their traditional methods. Much more financial support for and research in agriculture is needed, together with more equitable distribution of existing production and an end to trade practices designed to make the rich richer.


THE CYPRUS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY is looking forward to welcoming researchers, practitioners and companies in the field of underwater photogrammetry, computer vision, image processing, virtualand augmented-reality, as well as archaeologists, to present and discuss their results and activities. The event follows on from a successful workshop held in 2015 in Sorrento and will feature two days of single-track technical sessions and invited talks, oral presentations, posters and demonstrations. Topics include: underwater photogrammetry; 3D reconstruction for virtualand augmented-reality applications; underwater cultural heritage and archaeology; marine biology; underwater 3D scanning; underwater platforms (ROV, robots, etc.); 4D underwater modelling; 3D bathymetry; active and passive sensor integration and fusion; data processing and 3D modelling; and reference control and accuracy assessment. Dates: 2nd to 3rd May 2019; Theme: A tool for modern applications and cultural heritage recording; Location: Limassol, Cyprus; Contact: email@example.com; Website: http://3d-underwater.cut.ac.cy/


We analyzed the impact of growth at either 350 (ambient) or 700 (elevated) microL L(-1) CO(2) on key elements of the C(4) pathway (photosynthesis, carbon isotope discrimination, and leaf anatomy) using the C(4) cereal sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench.). Gas-exchange analysis of the CO(2) response of photosynthesis indicated that both carboxylation efficiency and the CO(2) saturated rate of photosynthesis were lower in plants grown at elevated relative to ambient CO(2). This was accompanied by a 49% reduction in the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase content of leaves (area basis) in the elevated CO(2)-grown plants, but no change in Rubisco content. Despite the lower phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase content, there was a 3-fold increase in C isotope discrimination in leaves of plants grown at elevated CO(2) and bundle sheath leakiness was estimated to be 24% and 33%, respectively, for the ambient and elevated CO(2)-grown plants. However, we could detect no difference in quantum yield. The ratio of quantum yield of CO(2) fixation to PSII efficiency was lower in plants grown at elevated CO(2), but only when leaf internal was below 50 microL L(-1). This suggests a reduction in the efficiency of the C(4) cycle when [CO(2)] is low, and also implies increased electron transport to acceptors other than CO(2). Analysis of leaf sections using a transmission electron microscope indicated a 2-fold decrease in the thickness of the bundle sheath cell walls in plants grown at elevated relative to ambient CO(2). These results suggest that significant acclimation to increased CO(2) concentrations occurs in sorghum.


This thesis reports an investigation of the influence of sexual selection on the sexual behaviour of the European smooth newt, Triturus vulgaris, and of the North American red-spotted newt, Notophthalmus Viridescens. Both belong to the family Salamandridae of the amphibian order Urodela.

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of sexual selection, and those aspects of competition and mate choice relevant to newt sexual behaviour are discussed.

In Chapter 2, observations and experiments are described which demonstrate inter male competition and mate choice in the smooth newt. Males interfere with one another's attempts to inseminate females, a form of competition known as sexual interference. Under certain conditions, males choose larger, more fecund females as mates, whereas females seem to prefer males reasonably well matched to themselves in body length. The extent to which females mate repeatedly is investigated.

In Chapter 3, the sexual behaviour of the red-spotted newt in encounters between single males and females is described. Males adopt one of two types of courtship, depending on the initial responsiveness of the female partner. Using a form of sequence analysis, the male's behaviour is described, and aspects of it are interpreted in causal and functional terms. Data on the various costs and benefits associated with each type of courtship are presented.

Chapter 4 investigates the influence of sexual selection on the behaviour of the red-spotted newt. The male is sensitive to the ambient sex ratio in his vicinity, and this ratio influences which type of courtship he undertakes. In competitive situations, males interfere with one another, sometimes in a manner similar to that observed in the smooth newt. In laboratory experiments, it is shown that males prefer larger, more fecund females as mates, and that females will mate with more than one male.

Chapter 5 adopts a comparative approach. The results presented in this thesis are discussed in the context of other urodele amphibians and other animals with similarly complex sexual behaviour. The various types of sexual behaviour in both species of newt are considered as alternative mating strategies, and an attempt is made to classify them in terms of contemporary ideas concerning behavioural strategies.

References are listed in Chapter 6.


Adhesion between TiO2 coatings and the fabrics was improved by using a silane adhesive agent. To investigate a suitable method of applying adhesive agent, two different coating methods were conducted. The silane was either mixed with Ti precursor for fabric dipping, or coated onto the fabrics before dipping them in a Ti precursor. The effect of Ti precursor, sol and colloid, on coating morphology was also studied. It was found that continuous coating with no cracking was obtained when the fabrics were pre-treated with the silane. The TiO2 coatings had good adhesion, regardless of the method of applying the adhesive agent. Thick, cracked coatings were obtained from Ti colloid precursor while continuous coating was obtained from the Ti sol precursor.


Preliminary Research: This chapter has discussed the EHR, the Quality of Care, and the users of the EHR and their needs. The EHR is a complex system with many benefits and drawbacks. Table 2.1 showed that the EHR could improve the Quality of Care by supporting qualitative documentation, decision support, cli-ent portals, evidence-based and validated standards, and cooperation among professionals. The professionals have different needs according to the EHR. They all need the right information at the right moment. ECPs are allowed to see a lot of information about the clients they care for, which makes that they have a specific need to see the most important information for them. They also communicate with many different disciplines. The nurse aides on the other hand, mainly need the EHR to know what they need to do today. Especially changes in the plan and the current situation of a client are important information aspects for them. Nurses have to communicate a lot, just like the ECPs. Furthermore they need to easily understand the progress of the situation of a client to indicate whether action or change is needed. Communication: Communication is more than talking or transferring information. In this chapter the term was unravelled based on six questions (who, what, where, when, why and how). Many aspects that were found are dependent on other aspects. How a person communicates depends on the goal of his message and the current situation (environment, timing, person). Many communications takes or could take place through the EHR. It is therefore important to keep in mind which aspects of communication change when a certain design decision is made. Establishment of requirements: The goal of phase 1 was to establish the requirements of this research. Users of different EHRs and different disciplines were asked to participate in generative sessions to envision their ideal EHR. The results have been analysed and ordered into twelve categories. Not all issues can be handled in one research, so choices had to be made. It has been chosen to focus on the communi-cation that takes place while writing and reading the reports about a client. The concept that has been designed has some added functionalities beside the standards (input field and list of reports), like the option to send a message to a colleague, to tag reports and to add a task. In the next phase this design has been presented to the participants of this research. The goal of this next phase is to verify and improve the concept of this chapter. Verification and improvement of the functionalities: In this second phase of the research the assumptions made in the first phase were verified. A paper prototype was created, on which the participants could comment and could provide input to im-prove the concept. The comments have been analysed using the list of requirements and an im-proved concept has been created. Other applications of Nedap (Ons Messages and Ons Tasks) are coupled to the interface. By using a mobile-first approach, more structure is brought into the de-sign. Some features (like selecting parts of a report to couple to a goal) are left out, other features (like the prevention of sending messages to absent colleagues) have been added. This concept is tested on usability in the last user meeting (chapter 10).


Motivated by increased losses of Antarctic stratospheric ozone and by improved understanding of the mechanism, a concept is suggested for action to arrest this ozone loss: injecting the alkanes ethane or propane (E or P) into the Antarctic stratosphere. A numerical model of chemical processes was used to explore the concept. The model results suggest that annual injections of about 50,000 tons of E or P could suppress ozone loss, but there are some scenarios where smaller E or P injections could increase ozone depletion. Further, key uncertainties must be resolved, induding initial concentrations of nitrogen-oxide species in austral spring, and several poorly defined physical and chemical processes must be quantifed. There would also be major difficulties in delivering and distributing the needed alkanes.


There is a pressing need to equip post-marketing drug quality surveillance systems with higher throughput and robust analytical tools that can reinforce pharmaceutical quality control to ensure safety of patients and integrity of treatment practices. This manuscript reports the development of a flow injection analysis mass spectrometry-based gradient ratio standard addition (FI-GRSA-MS) method for quantification of artesunate, a common antimalarial active pharmaceutical ingredient in a simple, efficient, accurate, and high throughput manner. Dodecylamine (DDA) was evaluated as an electrospray modifier for improving the sensitivity of the GRSA quantitation method. The linear dynamic range and precision for artesunate quantification were found to be 7 ng to 86 pg artesunate and 2.1%, respectively. When compared to high performance liquid chromatography, results were found to be equivalent at the 95% confidence level. To identify chemical markers of improper drug storage and artesunate degradation, tablets were artificially exposed to heat for time periods ranging between 1 and 12 hours and the degradation products detected were identified via accurate mass and isotopic cluster abundance measurements. Moreover, degradation behavior of artesunate tablets from two different manufacturers under identical degradation conditions was investigated, indicating that tablet formulation plays a significant role in the shelf life of these valuable medicines.


Over the past few decades the use of portable and wearable electronics has grown steadily. These devices are becoming increasingly more powerful. However, the gains that have been made in the device performance have resulted in the need for significantly higher power to operate the electronics. This issue has been further complicated due to the stagnant growth of battery technology over the past decade. In order to increase the life of these electronics, researchers have begun investigating methods of generating energy from ambient sources such that the life of the electronics can be prolonged. Recent developments in the field have led to the design of a number of mechanisms that can be used to generate electrical energy, from a variety of sources including thermal, solar, strain, inertia, etc. Many of these energy sources are available for use with humans, but their use must be carefully considered such that parasitic effects that could disrupt the user's gait or endurance are avoided. These issues have arisen from previous attempts to integrate power harvesting mechanisms into a shoe such that the energy released during a heal strike could be harvested. This study develops a novel energy harvesting backpack that can generate electrical energy from the differential forces between the wearer and the pack. The goal of this system is to make the energy harvesting device transparent to the wearer such that his or her endurance and dexterity is not compromised. This will be accomplished by replacing the traditional strap of the backpack with one made of the piezoelectric polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). Piezoelectric materials have a structure such that an applied electrical potential results in a mechanical strain. Conversely, an applied stress results in the generation of an electrical charge, which makes the material useful for power harvesting applications. PVDF is highly flexible and has a high strength, allowing it to effectively act as the load bearing member. In order to preserve the performance of the backpack and user, the design of the pack will be held as close to existing systems as possible. This paper develops a theoretical model of the piezoelectric strap and uses experimental testing to identify its performance in this application.


Realisation of Vision 2020, that is, to become a high-income country by 2020, requires Malaysia to move up the production value chain, away from the current low-cost labour model that relies heavily on imported workers. Education's role in producing the human capital needed is crucial. Unfortunately, despite heavy allocations for education, the quality of education leaves much to be desired. Technical and vocational education and training, an important part of the education system have so far played a minor role in the education system. This is a missed opportunity, given that a systems approach to workforce development can have a salutary impact. Despite improvements over the past decade, several weaknesses have hobbled technical and vocational education and training, preventing it from playing a supportive role to academic education. The lack of coordination among key stakeholders is a major problem. Yet Malaysia's neighbour, Singapore, boasts a vocational training system that has won high praise. At the centre of the Singapore's system is the Tripartite Alliance, which brings together the key stakeholders, namely the Government, employers, and the workforce. In drawing lessons to overcome deficiencies in vocational training, Malaysia does not have to look far.


The main focus of this paper was to present data to advance the design of a previously developed thermally-enhanced structural insulated panel (SIP) that had been outfitted with phase change materials (PCMs) (Medina et al., 2008). To advance the development of the previous design, which had only been evaluated under full weather conditions, a set of well-controlled laboratory experiments was carried out. For this, a dynamic wall simulator was built, where a range of important parameters was evaluated. This was done through a comparative heat transfer examination of SIPs, with and without PCMs; where parameters, such as, foam core material of the SIP and material of the PCM holding containers (i.e., encapsulating pipes) were evaluated. Instantaneous heat transfer rates measurements are presented. The two parameters considered (i.e., foam material and pipe material) were found to have firstorder effects on the performance of PCM-enhanced SIPs. The PCM outfitted SIPs reduced the peak heat fluxes when compared to their own kind, but without PCM. The results indicate that SIPs with molded expanded polystyrene (EPS) cores would benefit more from the PCM enhancement than SIPs with urethane cores. PVC pipes as holding containers for the PCMs did not prove as efficient as metal pipes.


A simple and novel strategy for damping subsynchronous resonant oscillations through control of converter firing angles of a superconducting magnetic energy storage system (SMES) is proposed. The strategy is derived such that the current injected or drawn by the SMES compensates for any deviation in real and reactive power in the system. The proposed control has been tested on the IEEE second benchmark model for subsynchronous resonance studies. It has been found to eliminate the slowly growing transients resulting from the unstable modes very effectively. The control algorithm is simple and its realization will require very little hardware.


This article reviews some of the literature pertaining to futures markets. After briefly considering how the evolution of the institution of futures trading has required changing interpretations, we devote a longer section to the interplay between theory and evidence concerning intertemporal price relationships. While disputed and inconclusive interpretations persist, Working's theory of the price of storage and his revision of hedging doctrine are clear landmarks of progress in understanding these price relationships. We deal separately with hedging theory; then with the relation between futures and price variability; and finally with the stochastic attributes of futures prices.


ABSTRACT
 Late Jurassic dinosaur faunas from the Southern Hemisphere are still poorly known, and it thus remains unclear whether or not the famous Tendaguru fauna (Kimmeridgian—Tithonian, Tanzania) represents a typical Gondwanan dinosaur assemblage of that time. In South America, only the Oxfordian—Kimmeridgian Cañadón Calcáreo Formation of Chubut Province, Argentina, has yielded more than isolated Late Jurassic dinosaur remains so far. Here we report fragmentary remains of a dipolodocid sauropod from this unit, representing the first record of this family from the Late Jurassic of South America. Incorporating the basal macronarian Tehuelchesaurus, an unidentified brachiosaurid, the dicraeosaurid Brachytrachelopan, and the diplodocid described here, the taxonomic composition of the sauropod fauna from the Cañadón Calcáreo Formation is remarkably similar to that of the Tendaguru Formation, but also to roughly contemporaneous faunas in North America and Europe. The diverse non-neosauropodan sauropod fauna known from the early Middle Jurassic (Aalenian—Bajocian) of the same depositional basin within Chubut Province is congruent with the dominance of non-neosauropodan sauropods in continental faunas globally to at least the Bathonian. These assemblages suggest a rapid faunal turnover within sauropod faunas in the late Middle Jurassic-earliest Late Jurassic at least in western Pangea, through which basal eusauropods were replaced by diplodocoid and macronarian neosauropods. Taking paleogeographical reconstructions into account, this faunal replacement might have taken place in a surprisingly short time interval of maximally five million years close to the end of the Middle Jurassic.


This paper examines contemporary theoretical and empirical debates in applying conceptions of intersectionality to the study of 'race' in education. We consider that intersectionality is currently being approached through multiple theoretical perspectives in education and that it is possible to identify post-structural, queer, psychoanalytic, Marxist, class-culturalist, feminist and Critical Race Theory strands in analysing 'race' intersections. This theoretical pluralism means that it is not possible to speak of an independent 'intersectional approach' and that, as might be expected, all such approaches arise from established social theories. However, it is possible to distinguish between 'grand narrative' social theories which often tend to collapse intersectional approaches into a single explanatory framework (sometimes even to the extent that intersections are collapsed into a single element of social existence such as the collapsing of 'race' into 'class' in what could be called vulgar theories of racialisation) and approaches that attempt theoretical integration by combining social theories. We consider that the way in which this is being performed does not fit easily into established models of the development of educational theory, even by metaphors of the 'toolbox' of theory. Rather, it requires elements of theoretical bootstrapping (using metaphor or artifice to create a self sustaining theory) and retrofitting (adding new theoretical elements to existing theories). The theories that emerge, rather than being (necessarily) consistent social theories can be best thought of 'mash ups' (a term that has previously been applied to the development of music or software). We consider that 'mash up' social theories are a productive way to consider the development of intersectional theorising by not only examining what might be called the cross-roads of personhood but also in terms of new theoretical integrations (or disintegrations). We give examples from our book 'Race and Intersectionality in Education' (authors, 2011) to show how specific incidences of Marxism / Critical Race Theory; Feminism / Post-structuralism and class cultural / ethnic pluralist theories in tension can be useful for future theorising in this area through suggesting possible 'mash ups'. The implications for educational theorising extend beyond the scope of 'race' and intersectionality in education and suggest a space for theory that is playful and idiosyncratic.


Among young binary stars whose magnetospheres are expected to collide, only two systems have been observed near periastron in the X-ray band: the low-mass DQ Tau and the older and more massive HD 152404. Both exhibit elevated levels of X-ray emission at periastron. Our goal is to determine whether colliding magnetospheres in young high-eccentricity binaries commonly produce elevated average levels of X-ray activity. This work is based on Chandra snapshots of multiple periastron and non-periastron passages in four nearby young eccentric binaries (Parenago 523, RX J1622.7-2325 Nw, UZ Tau E, and HD 152404). We find that for the merged sample of all four binaries the current X-ray data show an increasing average X-ray flux near periastron (at a ∼2.5-sigma level). Further comparison of these data with the X-ray properties of hundreds of young stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster, produced by the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP), indicates that the X-ray emission from the merged sample of our binaries cannot be explained within the framework of the COUP-like X-ray activity. However, due to the inhomogeneities of the merged binary sample and the relatively low statistical significance of the detected flux increase, these findings are regarded as tentative only. More data are needed to prove that the flux increase is real and is related to the processes of colliding magnetospheres.


According to recent work of Bounias and Bonaly (2000), there is a close relationship between the conceptualization of biological life and mathematical conceptualization such that both of them co-depend on each other when discussing preliminary conditions for properties of biosystems. More precisely, such properties can be realized only, if the space of orbits of members of some topological space X by the set of functions governing the interactions of these members is compact and complete. This result has important consequences for the maximization of complementarity in habitat occupation as well as for the reciprocal contributions of sub(eco)systems with respect to their structural mutualism. In this present paper it will be shown what this more technical result means in philosophical terms with a view to the biosemiotic consequences. As this approach fits naturally into the Kassel programme of investigat-ing the relationship between the cognitive perceiving of the world and its communicative modeling (Zimmermann 2004a, 2005b), it is found that topology as formal nucleus of spatial modeling is more than relevant for the understanding of repre-senting and co-creating the world as it is cognitively perceived and communicated in its design. Also, its implications may well serve the theoretical (top-down) foundation of biosemiotics itself.


The High Arctic is one of the regions most susceptible to climate change on a global scale. Increased temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover are anticipated in the region, with consequent increases in nutrient runoff to surface waters. Mosses are often the dominant submerged macrophyte in Arctic and High Arctic lakes. If the growth rate of mosses in these lakes is nutrient-limited, then production could increase with climate changes that result in higher nutrient concentrations. We conducted a laboratory study to 1) measure the growth response of Warnstorfia fluitans (Hedw.) Loeske from a High Arctic lake to nitrogen and phosphorus availability; and 2) determine whether growth rate was N- or P-limited by examining its relationship to internal P and N content. The growth rates of W. fluitans were generally low, ranging from 0.003 to 0.012 day-1. The growth rates increased with increasing plant P content, but not with increasing N content, indicating that moss growth was P-limited at low P availability in the experiment. Critical plant P concentration for maximum growth rate was 0.086% dry weight. This is the first time a critical P threshold has been calculated. The results imply that if climate changes result in increased P concentrations in surface waters, a higher production of moss could occur in High Arctic lakes.


Streptomyces lavendulae was studied in a defined medium. When tyrosine was added to the medium a brown-black pigment was synthesized; without tyrosine, only a trace of this pigment was detected. Growth was the same with or without tyrosine. The addition of (2-14C) DL-tyrosine to the medium resulted in synthesis of a radioactive pigment, and tyrosinase activity was demonstrated in extracts of disrupted organisms. Of 15 amino acids added to the medium only tyrosine and tryptophan were used for pigment formation. Pigment production was inhibited by pbenzyloxy-phenol, an inhibitor of mammalian melanogenesis. In yeast + glucose medium a pH range of 6.8-8-2 was optimal for pigment synthesis; more pigment was formed at 20' than at 28' in spite of the fact that there was twice as much growth at the latter temperature. The pigment was precipitated from culture media by a method described for precipitating melanin from urine and in every way tested was identical with a synthetic dihydroxyphenylalanine-melanin. The data indicate that the brown-black pigment synthesized by S. lavendulae is melanin.


This essay discusses the potential impacts of the narratives that lawyers, law student, legal educators, and others use to define what it means to be part of the legal profession on the lawyer's traditional role as a conservator of the rule of law and other legal institutions. While cultural narratives about the law have always included legal mythologies of long hours, difficult partners and clients, and the dedication required to practice law, more recent narratives such as legal "scamblogs," and oral traditions among students seem to signal a marked shift to failure stories based in despondency, despair, and anger. Whether these recent narratives will dominate the culture of lawyering remains to be seen, but the proliferation of these types of stories potentially threatens the willingness of current and future lawyers to participate in a rule of law system that appears to cheat them of both their careers and their future happiness.


To achieve national five climate partition 3 Step in building energy-saving target of 65% by a single product realization, it is to say that wall material realize the heat preservation. The iInsulation heat preservation problem , durability , fire prevention and frame beam-column parts with cold Bridges must be solve of wall materials products . This paper introduces the material composition, structure characteristics, product performance, technical and the engineering application supporting technology on non-bearing wall material of thermal insulation and durable fire integration —break hot energy-saving composite block. And the new wall materials about the development of a technical ideas are introduced at the same time.


This paper is based on the author's recent experience with the development of computer software for a dual unit tensile acceptance test station controlled by two minicomputers in a graphite production facility. Specific examples from that experience are used as illustrations in a more general discussion. Major items that must be considered in the design, development, and implementation of a real-time software system are control, operator, and equipment interfaces, data acquisition and analysis, and software verification and change control. In addition to actual movement of the test machine crosshead, control aspects include consideration of methods to determine the condition of the machine by way of calibration and load rate checks, and control of the specimen testing sequence. Operator and machine interfaces should be designed in such a way that the operator does not feel impeded in the performance of his work by the computer. Control panels should indicate the progress of the computer during testing so that the operator does not panic during computer delays. The software must be designed to have a high probability of acquiring all of the digitized stress-strain points without placing a disproportionate load on the computing system. Data analysis programs should be designed to compute values for comparison with acceptance specifications and to assist in analyzing unusual data. Orderly verification of the software by an outside person provides added insurance that the final system will perform the activities specified in the original program specifications. Any changes to verified software should be fully documented. authorized, and, if required, reverified before implementation. This paper describes how the general requirements outlined above were implemented in a production testing system.


Since 1974, Uruguay has adopted an export-led growth strategy of deployment. Macroeconomic policies implemented toward this general objective have achieved impressive results in improving the general economic situation of the country. Increases in nontraditional manufactured exports have been largely responsible for the improvement in the overall growth performance and have brought about a substantial diversification of the export structure. Soybeans have also appeared recently as another nontraditional potentially exportable agricultural product. However, soybean production in Uruguay has not developed enough to make soybean exports an important and permanent source of foreign exchange. Given the need to diversify the export structure of the country, it is important to study why soybean has not developed more in Uruguay. The overall objective of this study is to investigate selected aspects of the Uruguayan soybean subsector in order to provide information for use in evaluating alternative forms of market organization and operation which could lead to improvement in export performance.


Mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1; EC 220.127.116.11) are responsible for a proportion of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) through acquisition of an as-yet-unidentified toxic property or properties. Two proposed possibilities are that toxicity may arise from imperfectly folded mutant SOD1 catalyzing the nitration of tyrosines [Beckman, J. S., Carson, M., Smith, C. D. & Koppenol, W. H. (1993) Nature (London) 364, 584] through use of peroxynitrite or from peroxidation arising from elevated production of hydroxyl radicals through use of hydrogen peroxide as a substrate [Wiedau-Pazos, M., Goto, J. J., Rabizadeh, S., Gralla, E. D., Roe, J. A., Valentine, J. S. & Bredesen, D. E. (1996) Science 271, 515-518]. To test these possibilities, levels of nitrotyrosine and markers for hydroxyl radical formation were measured in two lines of transgenic mice that develop progressive motor neuron disease from expressing human familial ALS-linked SOD1 mutation G37R. Relative to normal mice or mice expressing high levels of wild-type human SOD1, 3-nitrotyrosine levels were elevated by 2- to 3-fold in spinal cords coincident with the earliest pathological abnormalities and remained elevated in spinal cord throughout progression of disease. However, no increases in protein-bound nitrotyrosine were found during any stage of SOD1-mutant-mediated disease in mice or at end stage of sporadic or SOD1-mediated familial human ALS. When salicylate trapping of hydroxyl radicals and measurement of levels of malondialdehyde were used, there was no evidence throughout disease progression in mice for enhanced production of hydroxyl radicals or lipid peroxidation, respectively. The presence of elevated nitrotyrosine levels beginning at the earliest stages of cellular pathology and continuing throughout progression of disease demonstrates that tyrosine nitration is one in vivo aberrant property of this ALS-linked SOD1 mutant.


Malware is probably the most significant computer security threat to enterprises and businesses alike. To address the exposure gap left by antivirus products, an emerging category of desktop security products that use application-level sandboxing attempts to address malware threats by containing their malicious behavior. High profile applications that now employ sandboxing include the Google Chrome browser, Internet Explorer Protect Mode, and Adobe Reader X. Partial virtualization techniques usually involve a combination of privilege restrictions by user ac counts and a virtual file system. Other terms for this approach include lightweight virtualiza tion, OS virtualization, process virtualization, and process confinement. Full virtualization techniquesare also called hardware virtu alization because the hardware layer and resources, including de vice drivers, are virtualized for a "guest" OS by a hypervisor layer.Utilizing hardware virtualization based techniques, a malware pro tection solution runs the target application in its own OS in a virtual machine.


According to several scholars, the politicization of issues connected to immigration and the European Union (EU) has generated a new cleavage that now structures political competition in Western Europe. Italy is an interesting case for studying this process, as two 'different' populist-Eurosceptic parties, namely the Northern League (LN) and the Five Star Movement (M5S), significantly increased their share of votes in the last round of national elections and eventually managed to form a governmental coalition by politicizing these two issues. This paper proposes a multifaceted conceptualisation of the EU and immigration issues in order to investigate how LN and M5S position themselves across their multiple sub-dimensions. The empirical analysis is based on an original dataset of parliamentary speeches delivered by the two parties' representatives in two distinct institutional arenas: the Italian one and the European Parliament. The results show that LN's positions are guided by cultural-identitarian and sovereignist arguments, while M5S mobilizes the two issues to boost its anti-elitist claims. Therefore, the paper claims that the governmental coalition between the two parties is driven by office-seeking motivations, rather than by a policy-seeking strategy.


The China s rapid economic growth coupled with the weapon modernization has caused more concern in most countries, mainly in the Asia Pacific region. Even though the Chinese government has explained the reason for the development of their military and actively supports economic activities in other Pacific countries, it does not reduce the threats felt by certain countries in the region, particularly Japan. As a result, Japan had come to make a change in military strategy, supported by the United States power. This situation further aggravated the peace and security in the Asia Pacific region. Not only China and Japan relations will be even hotter, this situation also raises concerns of the countries in the region. The presence of the United States, unresolved political issues with Taiwan, the increasing tension of the seizure of the waters in the East China Sea and South China Sea, coupled with the suspicion related to the history of the past, making the action-reaction between China and Japan disturb stability in the region.


Water scarcity plagues two-thirds of the global population. Interestingly, researchers have found that spider silk exhibits excellent water-collection ability owing to its unique structure and chemical components. Based on this characteristic, numerous bioinspired fibers have been fabricated for water collection. Herein, we review the water-collection process for spider silk and recent vital advances in bioinspired fibriform materials, focusing on the water-collection mechanisms of spindle-knot fibers, which exhibit directional droplet transport, hanging mechanism and hanging ability. Also, we evaluated their water-collection abilities on a micro- and macro-scale, which gave a better view for the design of bioinspired water-collection materials. These advances enable the significant use of bioinspired fibers in water collection, which may be applied in several other fields, such as directional transport, tissue engineering, oil-water separation and biosensors.


This paper proposes a nonparametric test for parametric conditional distributions of dynamic models. The test is of the Kolmogorov type coupled with Khmaladze's martingale transformation. It is asymptotically distribution-free and has nontrivial power against root-n local alternatives. The method is applicable for various dynamic models, including autoregressive and moving average models, generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH), integrated GARCH, and general nonlinear time series regressions. The method is also applicable for cross-sectional models. Finally, we apply the procedure to testing conditional normality and the conditional t-distribution in a GARCH model for the NYSE equal-weighted returns.


This thesis critically analyses the deficits-inflation nexus and inflation targeting in lower-income countries. Previous research has found a significant relationship between fiscal deficits and inflation in low-income countries, but not in high-income countries. It is shown here that the crucial factor is the quality of institutions. The relationship holds in countries with weak institutions, but not in those with strong institutions, even if their per capita GDP is quite low. The implication is that institutional improvements can enhance macroeconomic outcomes in poor countries. The robustness of the findings is tested using various measures of institutional quality. On the other hand, we provide new insights on inflation targeting (IT) in low-income countries. Previous research on inflation targeting has focused on high-income and emerging market economies since low-income countries (LICs) were slow to adopt the framework. Only recently has enough data accumulated for the performance of IT in LICs to be assessed. We show that unlike in emerging markets, in LICs IT is not been effective in reducing inflation. Weak institutions, a typical feature in LICs, do help explain this especially when we examine their role under floating exchange rate regimes. Finally, we characterise monetary policy in Ghana, one of the earliest low-income countries to adopt an IT framework, but where IT has not been very successful in reducing the levels and volatility of inflation within a modified Taylor rule. We investigate whether poor conduct of monetary policy is responsible for the poor performance of IT and find that is not. Monetary policy reaction functions are similar to those estimated for countries with successful monetary policies, and interest rates respond in the theoretically recommended way to inflation shocks.


The digital divide refers to the gap between those who benefit from the digital technologies and those who cannot. The difference in the availability and accessibility to technology and systems is quite dramatic between developed and developing countries. Current practice is to attempt to make technologies available to more people in developing countries by bolstering IT stock without addressing the underlying issues surrounding ICT illiteracy in these countries. Such an approach is only compounding the problems. More often than not, ill-suited technologies paired with systems that do not support local practices meet with minimal usage and are deemed a failure. This research paper proposes three facilitating factors – (i) Technology Exposure, (ii) Cultural Awareness and (iii) Systems Blending to increase the effectiveness of systems deployments in developing environments. The paper extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to measure the impact of each of these three factors on the system adoption outcome.


Commercially purchased bacon has been periodically analyzed since 1971 for N-nitrosopyrrolidine in the fried product. The downward trend in the concentration of N-nitrosopyrrolidine that has been observed is partially explained by the use of reduced levels of nitrite and increased levels of ascorbate in bacon curing mixtures.


Leukemias are clonal proliferative disorders arising from immature leukocytes in the bone marrow. While the advent of targeted therapies has improved survival in certain subtypes, relapse after initial therapy is a major problem. Dendritic cell (DC) vaccination has the potential to induce tumor-specific T cells providing long-lasting, anti-tumor immunity. This approach has demonstrated safety but limited clinical success until recently, as DC vaccination faces several barriers in both solid and hematological malignancies. Importantly, vaccine-mediated stimulation of protective immune responses is hindered by the aberrant production of immunosuppressive factors by cancer cells which impede both DC and T cell function. Leukemias present the additional challenge of severely disrupted hematopoiesis owing to both cytogenic defects in hematopoietic progenitors and an abnormal hematopoietic stem cell niche in the bone marrow; these factors accentuate systemic immunosuppression and DC malfunction. Despite these obstacles, several recent clinical trials have caused great excitement by extending survival in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients through DC vaccination. Here, we review the phenotype and functional capacity of DCs in leukemia and approaches to harness DCs in leukemia patients. We describe the recent clinical successes in AML and detail the multiple new strategies that might enhance prognosis in AML and other leukemias.


Typically 'income tax' laws rely on financial accounting data to determine the taxable income of a business entity, although financial and tax accounting have different goals and requirements. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between financial and tax accounting rules in Albania. The study employs a mixed methodology, comprising a review of the legislation, institutional framework and context, and semi-structured interviews with accountants, academics and institutional players. By reviewing the development of this relationship during the past 20 years, we aim to identify and explain the major divergences at present between two sets of rules.


Much knowledge is available on soil threats in Europe, but this is fragmented and incomplete, in particular regarding the complexity and functioning of soil systems and their interaction with human activities. The main aim of the new RECARE project is to develop effective prevention, remediation and restoration (or Sustainable Land management – SLM) measures using an innovative trans-disciplinary approach in 17 case study areas across Europe, covering a range of soil threats in different bio-physical and socio-economic environments. Within these Case Study sites, i) the current state of degradation and conservation will be assessed ii) impacts of degradation and conservation on soil functions and ecosystem services will be quantified, iii) SLM measures will be selected, implemented and evaluated in a participatory process, and iv) the applicability and impact of these measures at the European level will be assessed. Existing national and EU policies will be reviewed and compared to identify potential contradictions and synergies. A comprehensive dissemination and communication strategy will serve a variety of stakeholders to stimulate renewed care for European soils


Over the past years, researchers have proposed various methods to discover causal relationships among time-series data as well as algorithms to fill in missing entries in time-series data. Little to no work has been done in combining the two strategies for the purpose of learning causal relationships using unevenly sampled multivariate time-series data. In this paper, we examine how the causal parameters learnt from unevenly sampled data (with missing entries) deviates from the parameters learnt using the evenly sampled data (without missing entries). However, to obtain the causal relationship from a given time-series requires evenly sampled data, which suggests filling the missing data values before obtaining the causal parameters. Therefore, the proposed method is based on applying a Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) model for missing data recovery, followed by several pairwise Granger causality equations in Vector Autoregssive form to fit the recovered data and obtain the causal parameters. Experimental results show that the causal parameters generated by using GPR data filling offers much lower RMSE than the dummy model (fill with last seen entry) under all missing values percentage, suggesting that GPR data filling can better preserve the causal relationships when compared with dummy data filling, thus should be considered when dealing with unevenly sampled time-series causality learning.


We present a discrete-optimization technique for finding feasible robot arm trajectories that pass through provided 6-DOF Cartesian-space end-effector paths with high accuracy, a problem called pathwise-inverse kinematics. The output from our method consists of a path function of joint-angles that best follows the provided end-effector path function, given some definition of "best". Our method, called Stampede, casts the robot motion translation problem as a discrete-space graph-search problem where the nodes in the graph are individually solved for using non-linear optimization; framing the problem in such a way gives rise to a well-structured graph that affords an effective best path calculation using an efficient dynamic-programming algorithm. We present techniques for sampling configuration space, such as diversity sampling and adaptive sampling, to construct the search-space in the graph. Through an evaluation, we show that our approach performs well in finding smooth, feasible, collision-free robot motions that match the input end-effector trace with very high accuracy, while alternative approaches, such as a state-of-the-art per-frame inverse kinematics solver and a global non-linear trajectory-optimization approach, performed unfavorably.


Gene therapy is an area that is currently developing for treatment of various congenital and acquired diseases. The basic concept is that a transgene is expressed in a target cell resulting in alleviation of disease. In general there are certain obstacles limiting gene therapy regardless of the target disease. These include restriction of transgene expression to target cells, inadequate transgene expression and ineffective in vivo transgene delivery. Cancer is one of the leading diseases to cause death in the human and canine population. For this reason gene therapy has been studied as a potential novel treatment for cancer. Two step transcriptional amplification system is a system applied to gene therapy in order to improve efficacy. In this system a relatively weak tissue or disease specific promoter initiates the transcription of a transcriptional activator protein. This protein when expressed in target cells binds to binding sites upstream of a secondary promoter which then drives the transcription of the transgene of interest at a high level. By use of a two step amplification mechanism and a novel transcriptional activator fusion protein VP16E2, we increased transgene expression compared to the commonly used Gal4VP16 transcriptional activator fusion protein. By incorporating the human telomerase promoter hTERT as a primary promoter and the minimal 6xE23'BpTATA promoter as a secondary promoter, transgene expression is maintained in telomerase positive cells representing cancer cells, but is restricted in telomerase negative cell lines. By inserting the tumour necrosis factor apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) gene as a transgene in this system we have shown that apoptosis is elicited in telomerase positive cells although not in telomerase negative cells. The similarities in incidence and nature of human and canine cancer forms and the need for a better translational model for human disease has put canines in focus for cancer studies and drug development. Conditionally replicative oncolytic viruses developed in humans are species specific and therefore can not be studied satisfactorily in rodent preclinical models. We have made a mutant adenovirus based on the canine adenovirus type 1. We have put the viral replication under control of our two step amplification mechanism making the viral replication dependent on telomerase activity of the infected cell. This virus is able to kill telomerase positive canine cells but not telomerase negative canine cells in vitro. This virus is a potential tool for studying a conditionally replicative oncolytic virus in vivo in naturally occurring canine cancer cases. This is a good translational model for human cancer treatment and thereby benefits both species.


Rapid industrialization leads to the deterioration of quality of life and the environment. Petroleum hydrocarbon pollution is one of the contributing factors to that. Petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) are natural products, and under high temperature and pressure, they are produced by the anaerobic conversion of biomass. Excessive use of PHCs leads to pollution in the agriculturally important soils and the ultimate source of potability of water, that is, groundwater which is gaining significant attention throughout the world. The fortuitous release of PHCs such as gasoline, diesel, and heating oil are common sources of groundwater contamination. The PHC concentrations in groundwater are often above drinking water standards and bioremediation actions have to be taken. Due to their organic nature, PHCs are difficult to degrade as unavailable for microbial action. Due to this, PHCs are the most widespread environmental contaminants. Plant-microbe synergistic association for remediation of PHCs is comprehensive and it is an effective tool for reclamation of soil and environment from these kinds of undesirable materials. In addition to providing plant growth promotion, microbes can degrade PHCs effectively.


Direct evidence of dynamic structural distortions associated with complex magnetic behavior in the layered perovskite La, ?Sri 8Mn207 crystals is observed by ion channeling inbestigationr These crystals are found to be full) ferromaynetic belou 120 K with a small ferromagnetic component ( G 0 3% by volume) persisting abobe 120 K extending up to 320 K along with a paramagnetic phase and becoming fully paramdgnetic above 320 K A large magnetoresistance is seen around 120 K A change of 1 5 picometer is found in the atomic displacement in the temperature region 70 to 150 K which is about four times larger than the change in the thermal vibrational amplitude as well as the chdnge in the lattice parameters c and a as seen in neutron diffraction studies thus providing a clear indication of dynamic distortions Even in the wide temperature region between 120 to 320 K, anomalouc displacement of Mn La and Sr atoms are seen in ion channeling correlating well with the teaturec observed in magnetization measurements These displacements are two times larger than those due to thermdl motion. thereby supporting the idea of dynamic fluctuations in the Jahn Teller distorted MnO, octahedra playing an important role at the magnetic phase trdnsitioni in this material There is a large magneto crystalline anisotrop) with the hard axis along the c-direction The material ceems to be an inhomogeneous magnetic sqstem with the presence of small region\ of highly correlated spins parallel to the ab plane and appears to be in a state of two dimensional magnetic order in the region 120 to 320 K The correlation of channeling anomalies with the magnetic anomalies strongly suggests that these mdgnetic effects a e intrinsic and not caused by impurities


Serum hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is rapidly increased in patients suffering from various tissue injuries including arterial occlusive diseases. However, the cellular sources of the HGF increase remain largely unknown. In the present study, we showed that bioactive mature HGF is constitutively present on the surface of granulocytes in human peripheral blood. Exogenously added 125I-labeled iodo-HGF efficiently bound to granulocyte surface, whereas only a scarce amount of HGF mRNA was detected in granulocytes, indicating that the mature HGF on granulocytes is likely to be derived from other cell types. Interestingly, treatment of granulocytes with human serum rapidly induced the release of the cell surface-associated HGF. In vivo, thromboplastin injection into mice increased HGF release from transplanted human granulocytes, which was inhibited by the pretreatment with DX9065a, a specific inhibitor of factor Xa. Furthermore, DX9065a also inhibited the serum-induced HGF release from human granulocytes in vitro, suggesting that the HGF-releasing factor(s) in serum is associated with factor Xa activation. Thus, human granulocytes may function as a transporter of HGF in the peripheral blood, releasing HGF at the injured sites caused by blood coagulation, where HGF may promote tissue repair.


DOCUMENT RANKING BY GRAPH BASED LEXICAL COHESION AND TERM PROXIMITY COMPUTATION Hayrettin Gurkok M.S. in Computer Engineering Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. H. Murat Karamuftuoglu August, 2008 During the course of reading, the meaning of each word is processed in the context of the meaning of the preceding words in text. Traditional IR systems usually adopt index terms to index and retrieve documents. Unfortunately, a lot of the semantics in a document or query is lost when the text is replaced with just a set of words (bag-of-words). This makes it mandatory to adapt linguistic theories and incorporate language processing techniques into IR tasks. The occurrences of index terms in a document are motivated. Frequently, in a document, the appearance of one word attracts the appearance of another. This can occur in forms of short-distance relationships (proximity) like common noun phrases as well as long-distance relationships (transitivity) defined as lexical cohesion in text. Much of the work done on determining context is based on estimating either long-distance or short-distance word relationships in a document. This work proposes a graph representation for documents and a new matching function based on this representation. By the use of graphs, it is possible to capture both shortand long-distance relationships in a single entity to calculate an overall context score. Experiments made on three TREC document collections showed significant performance improvements over the benchmark, Okapi BM25, retrieval model. Additionally, linguistic implications about the nature and trend of cohesion between query terms were achieved.


This publication examines the indirect effects of Colombia's most important Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program on the levels of criminality in the urban area of the city of Bogota. The following two sources of information were combined to carry out this study: the Sistema de Informacion de Beneficiarios de Familias en Accion (SIFA) and the National Police crime reports. This study evaluates two possible channels through which Familias en Accion might affect the levels of crime. On the one hand there is an "income effect," for which the existing variation in the date when program payments are made is exploited. The results herein indicate that, through this effect, the program is responsible for reducing crime against property. Specifically, the authors find that transfers made by the program reduce the rate of theft from persons and vehicle theft by 7.2 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, during the days following the transfers made by Familias en Accion. The authors also examine whether the conditionality of school attendance as a requirement for obtaining the program subsidies offered "incapacitates " (i.e., impedes) youngsters from engaging in criminal activities. To measure this effect, the authors looked at the public school vacation calendar, as well as the dates of the stoppages called by the main education sector trade union, FECODE. The results indicate that the Familias en Accion program has no impact on crime levels through the so-called "incapacitation effect." Overall, this paper reveals that whereas the transfers made by the program do reduce crime through the income effect, the incapacitation effect does not seem to operate. JEL Classification: O15, I38, I21, J22.


A low-temperature controllable chemical bath deposition (CBD) method was demonstrated to prepare ZnO nanorod arrays. Our deposition technique includes the seeding and subsequent main CBD growth. The uniform growth ZnO nanorod arrays on the condensed ZnO seeding layer could be controlled by changing the processing parameters. Experiment results reveal that the ZnO nanorod arrays prepared under 0.03-0.05 M concentration with reaction temperature of 95 °C demonstrate the well-aligned orientation and optimum optical properties with high aspect ratio of ~21. The n-ZnO/p-NiO heterojunction electrode shows excellent rectifying behavior with extremely low leakage current. After the sensitization with N719, it is found that the degree of orientation and aspect ratio value play critical roles in the photovoltaic properties of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (SS-DSSCs).


Membrane tethers are extracted from breast cancer cells using a force generated by an optical trap. It is experimentally obtained that the radius of tether is about 0.1 μm and the static tether force is about 8.5 pN. Calculations based on the experimental measurements give a bending modulus for the tether of 1.35×10−19 N.m and a surface membrane tension of 6.76×10−6 N/m in the breast cancer cell. The treatment with cytochalasin D results in the decreasing bending modulus and decreasing apparent surface tension. When the membrane protein caveolin is over-expressed, similar cases occur in bending modulus and apparent surface tension. In addition, the viscous resistance coefficient of the membrane is calculated to be 1.15 pN.s/μm according to the dynamic tether forces obtained under different pulling velocities.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an incurable cancer predominantly induced by asbestos exposure. This aggressive tumor commonly presents at an advanced stage of disease. Although surgery, combination chemotherapy and radiotherapy may be used in disease management, median survival from diagnosis is less than 12 months. New therapeutic approaches are required to improve outcome in this disease.

Chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) are fusion molecules that couple the HLA-independent binding of a selected cell surface target antigen to the delivery of a tailored T-cell activating signal. Using CAR technology, we aim to develop a novel immunotherapy for MPM that is both safe and effective. These molecules are delivered to patient T-cells using retroviral gene transfer, thereby stably re-directing their specificity for antigen. The receptor tyrosine kinase MET is overexpressed in >80% of MPM patients making it an attractive candidate for CAR directed immunotherapy.

Methods: Three MET-targeted peptide-binding motifs have been incorporated into a second generation CAR framework containing a fused CD28/CD3ζ endodomain. Functional assessment of MET-targeted CARs has been assessed by co-cultivation of genetically enhanced test and control T-cells with MPM cell lines that express MET at various levels.

Results: In preliminary studies we have shown that human T-cells engineered to express MET CARs can destroy mesothelioma tumor cell monolayers, accompanied by T-cell proliferation and cytokine production. Xenograft models are currently under development using bioluminescence to further evaluate functionality and toxicity in vivo.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate proof of concept for the utility of CAR engineered T-cells to recognise and destroy MET-expressing MPM tumor cells. We envisage that regional i.e. intrapleural delivery of human CAR positive T-cells could be used to maximise therapeutic index of this approach.

Citation Format: Thivyan Thayaparan, Sjoukje v.d Stegen, Ana C. Parente Pereira, Roseanna Petrovic, James Spicer, John Maher. Immunotherapy of malignant pleural mesothelioma using MET specific t – cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2800. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2800


The advantages of network coding have been extensively studied in the field of wireless networks. Integrating network coding with existing IEEE 802.11 MAC layer is a challenging problem. The IEEE 802.11 MAC does not provide any reliability mechanisms for overheard packets. This paper addresses this problem and suggests different mechanisms to support reliability as part of the MAC protocol. Analytical expressions to this problem are given to qualify the performance of the modified network coding. These expressions are confirmed by numerical result. While the suggested reliability mechanisms introduce some signaling overhead, the results show that the performance is yet improved.


Since the 16th century until the recent age, the study of exegesis is increasing significantly in Indonesia. This is marked by the spirit of producing commentaries from Indonesian scholars (pre-modern) such as works of Abd al-Raūf al-Sinkilī (Tarjumān al-Mustafīd), Syaikh Nawawī (Tafsir Marah Labīd) and Ahmad Sanusī (Tafsir al-Qurān al-Karīm), and modern era explicitly Quraish Shihab (Tafsir al-Misbah) and Didin Hafidhudddin (Tafsir al-Hijri). On the other hand, Quranic exegesis is magnetizing the modern society, academia, and the government. Two things are a sign that Indonesia necessitates developing new outlooks contained in the works of interpretation, so the view of Indonesian society to be more extensive and varied without being limited by one of his Indonesian commentators. Yunan Yusuf, one of the Indonesian Muslim philosopher, within Tafsir Khuluqun 'Adzīm endeavors coloring Indonesian elucidation by creating distinctive works that are an interpretation of the Koran from the short chapters (Madaniyah) to the extended chapters (Makiyah). This article discovers specifically the explanation of al-Mulk and depicts a qualitative method with the analytical comparative approach through the two references commentaries Indonesia Tafsir al-Azhar and al-Misbah. Yunan interprets the Koran critically and decisively with the color philosophy, and able to convey the message of the Qur'an through other verses in the Qur'an (munāsabah al-Qurān bi al-Qurān).


A 65-year-old man first visited our hospital due to hypercreatinekinasemia (hyperCKemia) (669 IU/l) 12 years ago at age 53. At that time, he had normal muscle strength without other neurological deficits, electromyography (EMG) was normal, and a muscle biopsy obtained from the biceps brachii was intact in routine histochemical studies. These findings led to a diagnosis of idiopathic hyperCKemia that lasted for over a decade. At age 65, the patient became aware of muscle weakness and serum CK was elevated to 4,846 IU/l. Neurological examination revealed very mild atrophy in both thighs, proximal muscle weakness in the left upper and right lower limbs without myalgia, grasping pain, joint pain, and skin lesions. A typical myogenic pattern was detected on EMG exclusively in proximal limb muscles, and fat-suppressed MRI showed high intensity signal areas in adductor magnus muscles. The clinical diagnosis was limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, but MRI findings suggestive of an inflammatory process prompted us to perform muscle biopsy at the rectus femoris. The pathology had characteristic features of necrotizing myopathy containing necrotic and regenerating fibers without prominent inflammatory cell infiltration. Serum anti-signal recognition particle (SRP) antibodies were found to be positive and the final diagnosis was anti-SRP antibody myopathy. Muscle weakness progressed slowly despite therapy with oral corticosteroids. Addition of intravenous high-dose immunoglobulin therapy led to an apparent improvement of muscle weakness in parallel with lowering of the serum CK level. In those who were thought to be idiopathic hyperCKemia or hereditary muscle disorders, potential immunotherapy-effective group does exist. We suggest considering such cases including anti-SRP antibody myopathy during diagnosis, and non-invasive MRI study may be useful to differentiate immunotherapy-effective group from hereditary muscle disorders.


Nowadays, fiber based flexible electromagnetic shields have widespread applications in ensuring Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). Shielding is a solution of EMC, and the main methods to estimate shielding effectiveness are represented by the circuit method and the impedance method. Magnetron sputtering of metallic layers represents a novel technique to impart electric conductive properties to fabrics. Coating of fabrics represents a second main option to manufacture textile shields beside the insertion of conductive yarns in the fabric structure. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is often used to assess a comparatively modern with a classical manufacturing process in order to prove its eco-friendly character. This chapter comparatively assesses flexible EM shields manufactured of fabrics with inserted conductive yarns with and without magnetron plasma coating. The copper plasma coating of cotton fabrics with inserted silver yarns increases shielding effectiveness (EMSE) by 8–10 dB. In order to keep for the LCA study the same functional unit of 50 dB at 100 MHz for one sqm of fabric, the fabric structure is modeled with a reduced distance between the inserted conductive yarns. Results of the LCA study show a substantial impact on the environment for the plasma coated fabric upon using a laboratory scale deposition set-up.