The Community Cooking Workshops (CCWs) are free, bi-weekly, hands-on, cooking and nutrition education workshops for international students facilitated by the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Peer Health Educators (PHEs). The impacts of the CCWs on international student nutrition knowledge, behavior change, and social outcomes were examined. Data was collected and coded from five Spring 2016 CCWs through workshop evaluation forms (n=87, 93% response rate) and nine semi-structured interviews with international student participants. Participants reported changes in eating behavior and knowledge (all food should be consumed in moderation, with variety) and improved sense of community. Future research should assess the long-term impacts of cooking workshops in postsecondary institutions on diet quality, cooking skills, social connectedness, and international student wellbeing


Human Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSCs) are a valuable cell type that has a wide range of biomedical applications because they can differentiate into many types of adult somatic cell. Numerous studies have examined the clinical applications of PSCs. However, several factors such as bioreactor design, mechanical stress, and the physiological environment have not been optimized. These factors can significantly alter the pluripotency and proliferation properties of the cells, which are important for the mass production of PSCs. Nutritional mass transfer and oxygen transfer must be effectively maintained to obtain a high yield. Various culture systems are currently available for optimum cell propagation by maintaining the physiological conditions necessary for cell cultivation. Each type of culture system using a different configuration with various advantages and disadvantages affecting the mechanical conditions in the bioreactor, such as shear stress. These factors make it difficult to preserve the cellular viability and pluripotency of PSCs. Additional limitations of the culture system for PSCs must also be identified and overcome to maintain the culture conditions and enable large-scale expansion and differentiation of PSCs. This review describes the different physiological conditions in the various culture systems and recent developments in culture technology for PSC expansion and differentiation.


The United States Tennis Association is the National Governing Body for tennis in the U.S. and is comprised of three major divisions: (a) professional tennis, (b) player development, and (c) community tennis. The USTA's signature event and primary source of income is the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The organization currently faces several challenges, including two issues which have received significant media attention. The USTA currently lags behind several other nations in developing elite young players, despite the U.S. having large participant numbers. Also, financially-speaking, the U.S. Open is a highly successful event, but its largest show court lacks a roof, which has proven costly as several championship events have been postponed due to weather. The challenge of this case study is for students to develop a strategic plan for how the USTA can best use their resources to grow tennis in the United States.


A fast and practical method is described for calculating the microlensed flux variance of an arbitrary source by uncorrelated stars. The required inputs are the mean convergence and shear due to the smoothed potential of the lensing galaxy, the stellar mass function, and the absolute square of the Fourier transform of the surface brightness in the source plane. The mathematical approach follows previous authors but has been generalized, streamlined, and implemented in publicly available code. Examples of its application are given for Dexter and Agol's inhomogeneous-disk models as well as the usual gaussian sources. Since the quantity calculated is a second moment of the magnification, it is only logarithmically sensitive to the sizes of very compact sources. However, for the inferred sizes of actual QSOs, it has some discriminatory power and may lend itself to simple statistical tests. At the very least, it should be useful for testing the convergence of microlensing simulations.


ABSTRACT Clear Lake is a shallow (Zmean=2.9 m), eutrophic (TPmean=188 μgL−1) lake that is intensively used forrecreation. After a century of intense agriculture in the watershed, the bottom is covered with nutrient-rich organic sediments. We monitored wind, boat traffic and turbidity and found that resuspension of this sediment by wind-induced waves and recreational boat traffic contributes to daily, often substantial, nutrient fluxes. Intensive monitoring over a wind-event showed that total phosphorus concentrations can increase by 100% over a diel period and ammonia concentrations increase to levels near to those toxic to fish at the peak of winds. GIS of the digitally analyzed lake basin coupled with physical models show that when wind speeds exceed 10 ms−1 (22 mph), >46% of the lake's benthic surface area may become mobile. Wind speeds >20 ms−1 (44 mph) can mobilize >98% of the lake bottom sediment surface area. The correlation between boat traffic and sediment resuspension was weak (r2 = 0.23) in near-shore monitoring due to confounding by wind and other factors but heavy boat traffic appears to exacerbate wind-induced resuspension and may slow the resettlement of resuspended sedimente. Boat traffic correlated with up to 50% increases in turbidity. Resuspension of sediments by boats is likely to occur across 56% of the lake area. Benthic sediment resuspension may contribute to the suppression of fish and macrophyte communities, domination of the phytoplankton community by Cyanobacteria, suspension of toxic ammonia, and increased restoration time-scales.


Protein degradation is a fundamental cornerstone of regulation of protein levels in the human body. For proper function, numerous molecular processes rely on fine-tuned communication through specific interactions between proteins. Tagging proteins by a small protein ubiquitin, called ubiquitination, is mediated by set of ubiquitin-conjugating and transferring enzymes with ubiquitin as well as substrates. This process enables specific selection of substrate modifications, which is directly coupled to biological activity.In this work, the E3 ligase enzyme TRIM21, a member of the TRIM (TRIpartite Motif) protein family, and its interactions are explored. First, the three-dimensional solution structure of the TRIM21 B-box2 domain solved by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is presented. The structure reveals how different surfaces of the B-box motif are employed for various modular interactions. Using NMR titration experiments, an exposed interaction surface is identified, described as a novel interaction patch where the B-box2 is likely to bind the RING domain. Taken together, this work establishes an extended understanding of the structural role of the B-box2 domain, and how this domain is related to flanking domains in multimodular TRIM proteins.Our crystal structure of TRIM21-UBE2E1 complex reveals the specific E2 recognition, which is conserved in other TRIMs. Additionally, solution scattering provides further information on the complexes and also confirms that TRIM21 RING1-91 is predominantly dimer. We also understand how the acceptor ubiquitin can be transferred to Lysine residue of TRIM211-91.Another highly regulated system is the RNA polymerase-II transcription, which is the first step for all protein synthesis. TATA-box Binding Protein (TBP) is an essential subunit for initiating the gene transcription, which is regulated by number of other transcription factors. Among these, the oncoprotein c-Myc regulates the transcription by directly mediating its interaction with TBP. The interplay of these interaction and competing binding of TBP and c-Myc is studied in this thesis.Conclusively, this thesis highlights TRIM molecular recognition and its interface with E2, and also provides the first glimpse of interaction between TBP and c-Myc.


This paper presents general hardware-independent models and algorithms to automate the operation of droplet-based microfluidic systems. In these systems, discrete liquid volumes of typically less than 1$muhboxl$are transported across a planar array by dielectrophoretic or electrowetting effects for biochemical analysis. Unlike in systems based on continuous flow through channels, valves, and pumps, the droplet paths can be reconfigured on demand and even in real time. Algorithms that generate efficient sequences of control signals for moving one or many droplets from start to goal positions, subject to constraints such as specific features and obstacles on the array surface or limitations in the control circuitry, are developed. In addition, an approach toward automatic mapping of a biochemical analysis task onto a DMFS is investigated. Achieving optimality in these algorithms can be prohibitive for large-scale configurations because of the high asymptotic complexity of coordinating multiple moving droplets. Instead, these algorithms achieve a compromise between high runtime efficiency and a more limited nonglobal optimality in the generated control sequences.


Flexible electrodes using nanowires (NWs) suffer from challenges of long-term stability and high junction resistance which limit their fields of applications. Welding via thermal annealing is a common strategy to enhance the conductivity of percolated NW networks, however, it affects the structural and mechanical integrity of the NWs. In this study we show that the decoration of NWs with an ultrathin metal oxide is a potential alternative procedure which not only enhances the thermal and chemical stability but, moreover, provides a totally different mechanism to reduce the junction resistance upon heat treatment. Here, we analyze the effect of SnO x decoration on the conductance of silver NWs and NW junctions by using a four-probe measurement setup inside a scanning electron microscope. Dedicated transmission electron microscopy analysis in plan-view and cross-section geometry are carried out to characterize the nanowires and the microstructure of the junctions. Upon heat treatment the junction resistance of both plain silver NWs and SnO x -decorated NWs is reduced by around 80%. While plain silver NWs show characteristic junction welding during annealing, the SnO x -decoration reduces junction resistance by a solder-like process which does not affect the mechanical integrity of the NW junction and is therefore expected to be superior for applications.


To assess the impact of secondary smelting activities to the local resident's well beings, the contents of six elements-Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, As, Se-in human scalp hairs of residents in suburb Fuyang, Zhejiang Province, were determined by atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) and by atomic fluorescence spectrometer (AFS-930), respectively. The results showed that hair elemental contents were markedly higher than those in unpolluted area. The highest hair contents of Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd reached 312, 513, 700 and 7.41 microg x g(-1), respectively, As and Se 10.08 and 0.85 microg x g(-1), respectively. Additionally, a significant relationship between Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd and As in human hair was observed, which indicated at a certain degree that the elemental pollution was caused by similar source-small blast furnace smelting. Moreover, it showed that the Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and As contents in hair of human who were above 40 years old was twice more than those whose age below 40. There was no apparent difference in average content of Cu, Zn, Cd, Se between male and female, except that Pb and As of male hair was higher than female, however, by statistic analysis showing no significant age and gender dependence.


Although triboelectrification is a well-known phenomenon, fundamental understanding of its principle on a material surface has not been studied systematically. Here, we demonstrated that the surface potential, especially the surface dipoles and surface electronic states, governed the triboelectrification by controlling the surface with various electron-donating and -withdrawing functional groups. The functional groups critically affected the surface dipoles and surface electronic states followed by controlling the amount of and even the polarity of triboelectric charges. As a result, only one monolayer with a thickness of less than 1 nm significantly changed the conventional triboelectric series. First-principles simulations confirmed the atomistic origins of triboelectric charges and helped elucidate the triboelectrification mechanism. The simulation also revealed for the first time where charges are retained after triboelectrification. This study provides new insights to understand triboelectrification.


A series of Zn-25Al-based ternary and quaternary alloys was prepared by permanent mold casting and their dry sliding friction and wear properties were investigated using a block-on-disc machine. The hardness and strength of the alloys increased with increasing copper and silicon contents, but when the copper and silicon contents exceeded certain levels the trend reversed. However, their impact energy and ductility showed completely opposite changes with copper and silicon contents. T6 heat treatment increased the hardness and strength of Zn-25Al-3Cu-1Si alloy but reduced its impact energy, ductility, and wear resistance. The working temperature and wear volume of the alloys increased almost linearly with increasing sliding distance and contact pressure, but the latter had no considerable effect on their friction coefficient. Microstructural changes that resulted in the formation of different regions were observed below the wear surface of the alloys. The formation of these regions was discussed in terms of deformation of surface material, oxidation, and smearing of wear particles. The Zn-25Al-based ternary and quaternary alloys were found to be much stronger and more wear resistant than SAE 660 bronze.


The following pages present an account of practices developed at the University of Dayton, a Catholic university in the Marianist tradition, to help faculty more intentionally integrate liberal learning and business education by focusing on ways the Catholic Intellectual Tradition can shape the context in which this integration takes place. The fi rst section describes a series of seminars, looking particularly at how these seminars have led to a focus on "educating for lives of reasoned action." The second section sets out several elements, including practical reasoning and Catholic social thought, that faculty agree are fundamental for educating for this focus. Section three summarizes collaborative structures and practices that have been developed to further curricular revision. The fourth section outlines insights that have been gleaned from this work, including an emerging framework for curricular change.


The empirical literature on intertemporal labor supply behavior documents that the intertemporal elasticity of substitution of labor supply is very low, with a plausible range of zero to 0.2. Drawing upon the literature on the distribution of instrumental variables (IV) estimators, this paper demonstrates that this conventional wisdom is erroneous because it does not take into account the severe finite sample bias in these estimates that arise from weak instruments. This paper adopts several approaches to adjust for the problems induced by these weak instruments. The empirical results show that, when uncorrected for finite sample bias, the two-stage least-squares (2SLS) estimate of the elasticity is essentially zero, as in most of the previous studies, with its valid confidence interval being open-ended, [, +]. However, when corrected for finite sample bias, the estimate becomes approximately 0.5 with a much tighter confidence interval.


Strategic and economic considerations led the University of São Paulo to institute a program to promote the use of OSS, also driven by a national OSS dissemination policy that draws a lot of mass media attention. The major drivers were software license cost reductions and independence from single vendors, as well as the perception that OSS allows increased user control over systems and interoperability. ABSTRACT


Ye [¿Competitive Communication Spectrum Economy and Equilibrium,¿ 2008, working paper] and Lin [¿Budget Allocation in a Competitive Communication Spectrum Economy,¿ EURASIP J. Adv. Signal Process., Article ID: 963717, vol. 2009, p. 12, Sep. 2009] have shown that dynamic spectrum management (DSM) using the market competitive equilibrium (CE), which sets a price for transmission power on each channel, leads to better system performance in terms of the total data transmission rate (by reducing cross talk), than using the Nash equilibrium (NE). But how to achieve such a CE is an open problem. We show that the CE is the solution of a linear complementarity problem (LCP) and can be computed efficiently. We propose a decentralized tatonnement process for adjusting the prices to achieve a CE. We show that under reasonable conditions, any tatonnement process converges to the CE. The conditions are that users of a channel experience the same noise levels and that the crosstalk effects between users are low-rank and weak.


We use recent high-resolution infrared (IR; 1–20 μm) photometry to examine the origin of the IR emission in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN). The data are compared with published model fits that describe the spectral energy distribution (SED) of LLAGN in terms of an advection-dominated accretion flow, truncated thin accretion disk, and jet. The truncated disk in these models is usually not luminous enough to explain the observed IR emission, and in all cases its spectral shape is much narrower than the broad IR peaks in the data. Synchrotron radiation from the jet appears to be important in very radio-loud nuclei, but the detection of strong silicate emission features in many objects indicates that dust must also contribute. We investigate this point by fitting the IR SED of NGC 3998 using dusty torus and optically thin (τmid-IR ∼ 1) dust shell models. While more detailed modeling is necessary, these initial results suggest that dust may account for the nuclear mid-IR emission of many LLAGN.


The demand for eco-friendly synthetic methods of metal nanoparticles is on the rise. We hereby present a green approach for a one pot synthesis of nontoxic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using water soluble, naturally-derived luteolin tetraphosphate (LTP). LTP was used as the reducing and capping agent using water as the solvent excluding the use of other capping agents. The synthesis was achieved by varying the concentrations of the metal precursor and the reducing agent to form spherical and cuboidal AuNPs and spherical & quasi spherical AgNPs, respectively. The AgNPs and AuNPs were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive absorption spectroscopy (EDS) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). TEM images showed that the resulting AuNPs exhibited cuboidal characteristics with average particle sizes ranging from 16 to 23 nm, whereas those of the spherical nanoparticles of the synthesized AuNPs ranged from 8 nm to 11 nm. However, the average edge length of truncated AuNCs ranged from 372 nm to 509 nm. The average particle size for the spherical AgNPs ranged from 12 to 13 nm, whereas that of the larger quasi-spherical AgNPs ranged from 10 nm to 100 nm, respectively. Additional quantitative metrics assessing the properties of the nanomaterials made by our water-based, greener synthesis method and those made by other methods include lattice constant values of gold nanocubes (AuNCs) with TEM images, XRD data and 3-D models of the fcc structure using the Vesta software. The TEM images of AuNCs exhibited slightly truncated edges which are in agreement with AuNCs synthesized using organic solvents. Furthermore, the lattice constant of the SAED pattern of the AuNCs was calculated to be 4.052 A which is in agreement with that for fcc gold of 4.078 A (JCPDS 04-0784) and comparable to that for AuNCs in the literature of 4.068 A. This confirms that the synthesized AuNCs were achieved at room temperature without using organic reducing solvents and toxic capping agents. The synthesized LTP derived AuNPs were found to maintain stability for a period of 8 months compared to those synthesized using luteolin alone which showed stability for only 336 hours.


Nanostructured systems showing reversible
colour switching are envisaged to play a significant role in photo-switches,
photo-optical sensors, smart windows, displays, optical storage memories. Most
of the materials exhibiting reversible colour switching are organic compounds. However,
their UV-light activation, low thermal and chemical stability, as well as harmful
synthesis methods, are of limit for their extensive use. In this research, we
have created an inorganic switchable photochromic material exploiting: (i) TiO2
ability of creating an exciton upon excitation, (ii) copper as the chromophore, and (iii) graphene's extraordinarily high electron mobility. Our material showed itself
to be able to work under visible-light, its photochromic property being three
times faster than conventional titania based photochromic materials, reaching a
stable change in colouration after only 30 mins of visible-light irradiation (versus > 120 min in conventional
Cu-TiO2). With the addition of just 1 wt% graphene, the material
exhibited a staggeringly stable photochromic switching over repeated cycles. These
results relate to the best previously reported values for any form of TiO2-based
photochromic material. This is therefore an excellent candidate for smart self-cleaning
windows, and other chromic devices and applications.


Stability is a critical concern in the design and maintenance of power systems. Di↵erent approaches have been proposed for the analysis of power grid stability in various scenarios depending on small or large perturbations and the speed of the phenomenon of interest. In this work, we consider the power grid as a group of flocking birds, as synchronization is the key issue in both contexts. The framework of partial di↵erence equation (PdE) is used to analyze the system stability, when designing the communication network of the power grid network for conveying measurements between di↵erent power stations. Both the cases where communication network delay is negligible and non-negligible are studied here. The communication network design problem is formulated as an optimization problem under the consideration of a stable power grid. Corresponding optimization algorithms are designed to solve the problem. To convey measurements of the power network, wireless sensor networks is adopted, for its non-invasive and easy deployment properties. Periodic sleep scheduling is adopted to e↵ectively save energy for the wireless sensor networks. To provide a controllable end-to-end delay for the communication networks, a dynamic duty cycle control approach is designed, featuring a single-hop delay controller based on the well known feedback control theory. The delay control approach also features a queuing delay adaptation scheme that adapts the duty cycle of each node to unpredictable packet rates, as well as a novel energy balancing approach that extends the network lifetime by dynamically adjusting the delay requirement allocated to each hop. iv Table of


Purpose-grown shrub willow (Salix spp.) represents a viable bioenergy feedstock, especially if these plantations can be successfully grown on unproductive land that is marginal for annual crop production. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of irrigation and fertilization on willow biomass feedstock quantity, as well as its quality, in order to meet specific bioenergy conversion industry requirements. A split-split-plot experimental design is being used on a Sutherland clay soil in Saskatoon, SK and consists of two clones (SV1 and Charlie), three irrigation treatments (no irrigation, 75%, and 100% field capacity), and three fertilization treatments (no fertilizer, 1x, and 2x recommended fertilizer rate). For both willow clones, after two years there was a highly significant (P values < 0.0001) growth response to irrigation, with no significant (P values > 0.05) effects of fertilization or irrigation x fertilization except for the 2x recommended fertilizer rate at 100% field capacity with the clone SV1. The positive willow growth response to irrigation is indicative of the importance of soil moisture within the semi-arid climate of Saskatchewan. The lack of fertilizer effect reflects the relatively fertile soil at the site and the low fertilizer use efficiency of broadcasted fertilizer within these agroforestry systems.


The sensitivity of direct shortwave radiative effects of dust (DRE) to assumed particle shape is investigated. Radiative transfer simulations are conducted using optical properties of either spheres, mass-equivalent spheroids (mass-conserving case), or (mass-equivalent) spheroids whose number concentration is modified so that they have the same midvisible optical thickness (tau(545 nm)) as spheres (tau-conserving case). The impact of particle shape on DRE is investigated for different dust particle effective radii, optical thickness of the dust cloud, solar zenith angle, and spectral surface albedo (ocean, grass, and desert). It is found that the influence of particle shape on the DRE is strongest over ocean. It also depends very strongly on the shape distribution of spheroids used, to a degree that the results for two distributions of spheroids may deviate more from each other than from those for spheres. Finally, the effects of nonsphericity largely depend on whether the mass- or tau-conserving case is considered. For example, when using a shape distribution of spheroids recommended in a recent study for approximating the single-scattering properties of dust, the DRE at the surface differs at most 5% from that from spherical particles in the mass-conserving case. This stems from compensating nonsphericity effects on optical thickness, asymmetry parameter, and single-scattering albedo. However, in the tau-conserving case, the negative DRE at the surface can be up to 15% weaker for spheroids than spheres.


Modelling electrochemical processes at the three phase junction between electrode–aqueous electrolyte–oil droplet presents a considerable challenge due to the complexity of simultaneous electron transfer between electrode and droplet, ion uptake or expulsion between droplet and aqueous phase, the interaction of redox centers at high concentration, and transport processes accompanying the electrochemical process. For the case of oxidation of para-tetrahexylphenylenediamine (THPD) microdroplet deposits on basal plane pyrolytic graphite electrodes or random arrrays of microelectrodes (RAM) three models may be envisaged which proceed via A) exchange of ions between droplet and aqueous electrolyte with the electrochemical process commencing at the electrode–oil interface, B) rapid electron transport over the oil–aqueous electrolyte interface and the electrochemical process commencing from the oil–aqueous electrolyte interface inwards, and C) slow electron transport across the oil–aqueous electrolyte interface and the electrochemical process commencing solely from the triple interface. Numerical simulation procedures for these three models, which allow for interaction of redox centers via a regular solution theory approach, are compared with experimental data. A positive interaction parameter, Z=1.4, consistent with a dominant ionic liquid–ionic liquid and neutral oil–neutral oil type interaction is determined from experimental data recorded at sufficiently slow scan rates. The overall mechanism, which governs the voltammetric characteristics at higher scan rates, is shown to be apparently consistent with the triple interface model C). However, the rate of diffusional transport determined by comparison of experimental with simulation data is orders of magnitudes too high. Additional convection processes, possibly of the Marangoni type, appear to be responsible for the fast rate observed for the redox process. The significance of the models presented in the context of microdroplet deposits for other related electrochemical systems is discussed.


The compressor impellers for mass-produced turbochargers are generally die-casted and machined to their final configuration. Manufacturing uncertainties are inherently introduced as stochastic dimensional deviations in the impeller geometry. These deviations eventually propagate into the compressor functionality as variability in output performance. This paper presents a probabilistic evaluation of the impact of manufacturing uncertainties on the compressor performance using the non-intrusive Monte Carlo method coupled with metamodels prepared for compressor performance modeling using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and comprehensive experimentation. The probabilistic evaluation or the uncertainty quantification (UQ) of manufacturing uncertainties has identified the most sensitive and uncertain of the impeller geometric parameters contributing the most to variability in compressor performance. Consequently, the tolerances of different impeller dimensions can be reviewed, thereby influencing the production quality and costs.


Mutations in sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.], which are poorly understood, are widely implicated as a component in cultivar decline. In sweetpotato, mutations are also likely to result from the activity of plant retrotransposons, which are known to be present in the sweetpotato genome. The majority of the transcriptional activity of plant retrotransposons that has been characterized to date, is stress-induced, involving both biotic and abiotic stresses. Viral infection, a form of biotic stress, is also one that commonly occurs in sweetpotato. The objective of this study is to test whether viral stress, in the form of single and combined viral infections, transcriptionally activates Ty1-copia elements, a family of LTR retrotransposons, at the whole-plant level. To assess activation, transcripts from the RT domain of Ty1-copia elements were relatively quantified using Real-Time Quantitative PCR. Relative amounts of transcripts from five viral inoculation treatments were then compared to those from the virus-free plants of the control treatment. Results showed that the relative amount of Ty1–copia transcripts from the viral combination treatment of BWFT-3 (SPCSV isolate) + SPFMV, which produced the most severe symptoms on both varieties tested, was significantly higher than the other viral treatments and the control. No significant difference was observed among the other treatments. No significant difference was also observed in transcript amounts between the two cultivars inoculated with the same virus. This represents the first study examining the effect of stress on relative transposon transcriptional activation.


The credit crisis broken out in 2008 changed persistently the financial branch as well as the image of the economy of the world on the basis of this, it can be claimed that its influence has still had significant impact on our everyday life. Due to the fact that the recession has indirect or direct effect on all branches, ultimately the credit crisis has become a severe recession, which has affected sensitively almost all members of the economy. By now, however, something has changed sensibly. According to the statistics of the KSH, the expansion of the GDP of the fourth quarter of the year 2014 of our country was better than expected: it has increased 3.4%. This result means 3.6% GDP growth in relation to a whole year. Concerning consumption, increase can be realized. The real consumption of the households has gone up with 2% comparing the same period of the preceding year. The most consumption centred items of the economy, the households transformed their consumption habits as the result of the protracted crisis. The crisis management behaviours of the population is henceforward characterised by keeping back the expenses besides the bare necessities, which calls new and creative consumption techniques into being. Moreover, frequent saving methods are the holding back of the overhead consumption as well as the giving up the consumer goods temporarily. Among the real consumption components, the consumption expense representing the highest rate increased by 1.9% in 2014. It would appear that the crucial period of the crisis has already been behind us although most of the consumers cannot sit back since the recovery is not so obvious. It is enough if we take the instructions aiming at the adjustments of the budget into consideration, which have indirect impacts on the consumer-being. This study is making an attempt at showing the route of the Hungarian consumers from the instant consumer desire to rational consumption habit forced to sacrifice.


Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-specific phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) specifically cleaves GPIs. This phospholipase D is a secreted protein consisting of two domains: an N-terminal catalytic domain and a predicted C-terminal b-propeller. Although the biochemical properties of GPI-PLD have been extensively studied, its catalytic site has not been identified. We hypothesized that a histidine residue(s) may play a critical role in the catalytic activity of GPI-PLD, based on the observations that (i) Zn2+, which utilizes histidine residues for binding, is required for GPI-PLD catalytic activity, (ii) a phosphohistidine intermediate is involved in phospholipase D hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine, (iii) computer modelling suggests a catalytic site containing histidine residues, and (iv) our observation that diethyl pyrocarbonate, which modifies histidine residues, inhibits GPI-PLD catalytic activity. Individual mutation of the ten histidine residues to asparagine in the catalytic domain of murine GPI-PLD resulted in three general phenotypes: not secreted or retained (His56 or His88), secreted with catalytic activity (His34, His81, His98 or His219) and secreted without catalytic activity (His29, His125, His133 or His158). Changing His133 but not His29, His125 or His158 to Cys resulted in a mutant that retained catalytic activity, suggesting that at least His133 is involved in Zn2+ binding. His133 and His158 also retained the biochemical properties of wild-type GPI-PLD including trypsin cleavage pattern and phosphorylation by protein kinase A. Hence, His29, His125, His133 and His158 are required for GPI-PLD catalytic activity.


By using a hsp70-Ubx fusion gene, we have ectopically expressed a Ubx product in the embryonic head primordia and studied the developmental effects on the larval head. We find that after high and persistent levels of Ubx product, the head is replaced by three (C1, C2 and C3) abdominal-like denticle belts. The C2 and C3 belts are the homeotic transformations of parasegments 1 and 2, respectively, while the C1 belt probably derives from the transformation and subsequent fusion of the most anterior procephalic primordia. On the basis of their response to the Ubx product and other arguments, we propose that the larval head is made of two genetically distinct components; one is the procephalon and the anterior region of the mandibular lobe, and the other is part of the parasegmental trunk and includes parasegments 1 and 2. Our results also indicate that most or all the larval head structures derive from precursor cells of ventral origin.


Many observations indicate that dark matter dominates the extragalactic universe, yet no totally dark structure of galactic proportions has ever been convincingly identified. Previously, we have suggested that VIRGOHI 21, a 21 cm source we found in the Virgo Cluster using Jodrell Bank, was a possible dark galaxy because of its broad line width (~200 km s-1) unaccompanied by any visible gravitational source to account for it. We have now imaged VIRGOHI 21 in the neutral hydrogen line and find what could be a dark, edge-on, spinning disk with the mass and diameter of a typical spiral galaxy. Moreover, VIRGOHI 21 has unquestionably been involved in an interaction with NGC 4254, a luminous spiral with an odd one-armed morphology, but lacking the massive interactor normally linked with such a feature. Numerical models of NGC 4254 call for a close interaction ~108 yr ago with a perturber of ~1011 M☉. This we take as additional evidence for the massive nature of VIRGOHI 21, as there does not appear to be any other viable candidate. We have also used the Hubble Space Telescope to search for stars associated with the H I and find none down to an I-band surface brightness limit of 31.1 ± 0.2 mag arcsec-2.


NRC recently established an AC Josephson Voltage Standard (ACJVS) system based on a NIST pulse-driven Josephson-junction array. This paper describes the efforts undertaken at NRC and the experience that was gained. An experimental method of measuring corrections due to the probe leads is described and first results are reported.


While iron is a vital requirement for normal cellular physiology, excessive intestinal absorption of iron as seen in hemochromatosis leads to its deposition in parenchymal cells of various organs such as the liver, heart, and pancreas, resulting in cellular toxicity, tissue injury, and organ fibrosis. Cellular injury is induced by iron-generated oxyradicals and peroxidation of lipid membranes. In the liver, lipid peroxidation results in damage to hepatocellular organelles, such as mitochondria and lysosomes, which is thought to contribute to hepatocyte necrosis and apoptosis, and ultimately lead to the development of hepatic fibrogenesis. Hepatic stellate cells are central to the development of hepatic fibrosis, as they can be activated into collagen-producing myofibroblasts. Numerous potential stimuli associated with hepatic iron overload and iron-induced hepatocellular injury have been assessed in an attempt to explain stellate cell transformation in hemochromatosis. Stellate cell activation and fibrosis appear to be regulated by a series of events involving cellular interaction between resident and nonresident cells of the liver, the sequestration of free iron versus the transport and storage of mobilizable iron, and extracellular matrix remodeling as well as intracellular signaling events associated with inflammatory and fibrogenic cytokines.


Business model has allowed strategic management to depart from the "one best way" of traditional approaches, integrating the various ways to deploy resources, to create and capture value. Hence, the "business model thinking" has induced major change in strategic management over the last ten years. In this essay, we take a pragmatist approach to tentatively detail the main features of the environment of the organization introduced by business model thinking. We advance that adopting a business model perspective does not mean that the environment is neglected in the strategy process. However, the environment is not considered as deterministic, and the organization does not have to fit with it or to try to change it. Through a pragmatist lens, the business model is conceived as performing the ecosystem of an organization within a broader environment. Therefore, we argue that the business model selects the relevant competitive landscape. This view has three main consequences. First, the environment is not the same for every organization in a given industry and the traditional concepts of strategy (entry barriers, competition intensity, bargaining power with suppliers or customers...) should be applied after the choice of business model has been made and not ex ante at the industry level. Second, the ability to implement a business model relies essentially on the negotiations and interactions with the stakeholders selected through the choice or design of the business model. Third, business models and ecosystems are not static but co-evolve. Once defined, ecosystems progressively constrain the business models. But ecosystems also change through mutual interaction and therefore offer new opportunities for the evolution of the business models.


Research on security of digital video transmission and storage has been gaining attention from researchers in recent times because of its usage in various applications and transmission of sensitive information through the internet. This is as a result of the swift development in efficient video compression techniques and internet technologies. Encryption which is the widely used technique in securing video communication and storage secures video data in compressed formats. This paper presents a survey of some existing video encryption techniques with an explanation on the concept of video compression. The review which also explored the performance metrics used in the evaluation and comparison of the performance of video encryption algorithms is being believed to give readers a quick summary of some of the available encryption techniques.


We examined the leaf age dependence, magnitude and variability of herbivore consumption of Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile leaves in the Spanish Mediterranean Two patterns of herbivore consumption along the life-span of P. oceanica leaves were found, namely a linear and a parabolic curve of cumulative leaf consumption versus leaf age, which are indicative of leaf-age-independent consumption rates and preference for mid-aged leaves, respectively. The flsh Boops salpa contributed about 75% to the total herbivore consumption, and seemed to be responsible for the parabolic pattern of consumption with leaf age. Herbivory appeared to be a minor factor in the control of P. oceanica production since it only accounted, on the average, for about 2 % of its leaf production. This percentage tends to increase in the northern populations of the Spanish Mediterranean as a result of the longer leaf life-span and associated higher cumulative consumption values, and the lower leaf production of these populations. It is concluded that, in spite of the low levels of herbivory on P oceanica in the Mediterranean, this seagrass supports a high herbivore production due to its large primary production.


BACKGROUND
Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is still one of the major problems in strabismus surgery, especially in children. In recent years many studies have been published, suggesting that choosing propofol as the anaesthetic agent may help to reduce the high incidence of PONV in children undergoing strabismus surgery. Experience with remifentanil in children is still very limited and little is known, whether propofol in combination with this new short acting opioid is also superior regarding PONV in squint surgery compared to sevoflurane/N2O. Additionally, little is known, whether the type of operation or the muscle which is operated on has any influence with respect to PONV.

METHODS
Following sample size estimation, ethics committee approval and parents informed consent in a prospective, randomised, observer-blind study 105 ASA I and II children aged 3-8 years scheduled for elective strabismus surgery were assigned into one of the following groups: Group TIVA (propofol/remifentanil, n = 53): anaesthesia was induced by remifentanil 0.5 microgram kg-1 min-1 over 2 min (loading phase), followed by 3 mg kg-1 propofol along with 30% O2 in air. After endotracheal intubation anaesthesia was maintained initially with remifentanil 0.25 microgram kg-1 min-1 and propofol 10 mg kg-1 h-1 by constant infusion. In the course of the operation the infusions of the anaesthetics were adjusted to the decreasing need for anaesthesia. Group VOLATIL (sevoflurane/N2O, n = 52): anaesthesia was induced by inhalation of sevoflurane along with 50% O2 in N2O. After endotracheal intubation anaesthesia was maintained with sevoflurane 1.0-1.5 MAC along with 30% O2 in N2O and in the course of the operation the administration of the inhaled anaesthetics was adjusted correspondingly. Preoperatively collected data included gender, age, weight and history of PONV. Intraoperatively collected data consisted of data belonging to routine monitoring (heart rate, blood pressure, peripheral oxygen saturation and temperature) as well as the duration of the operation and anaesthesia and specific data regarding the operation (including the number and type of muscles as well as the kind of operation). Data collected within the first 24 hours postoperatively in the recovery room and on the ward by blinded observers included any PONV events as well as the antiemetics and analgesics applied.

RESULTS
Vomiting was observed less frequently in the TIVA-group than in the VOLATIL-group (21 of 53 vs. 32 of 52, p = 0.03) within the first 24 hours postoperatively. Posterior fixation suture ("faden-operation") compared to other operations was followed rather frequently by nausea and vomiting (30 of 44 and 33 of 44, respectively), whereas recessions were rarely associated with nausea and vomiting (12 of 35 and 9 of 35, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
TIVA with propofol/remifentanil proved to be a suitable form of anaesthesia for children in this setting. Propofol showed advantages over sevoflurane/N2O with respect to PONV after squint surgery in children also when applied in the combination with remifentanil. TIVA with propofol/remifentanil may therefore be one way to reduce the high incidence of PONV in this setting, bearing in mind, that PONV is not only influenced by the regimen of the general anaesthesia but rather by the combination of many other factors, in particular the type of operation.


Since the beginning of this brand new century, and especially since the 2001 Sept 11 events in the U.S, several biometric technologies are considered mature enough to be a new tool for security. Generally associated to a personal device for privacy protection, biometric references are stored in secured electronic devices such as smart cards, and systems are using cryptographic tools to communicate with the smart card and securely exchange biometric data. After a general introduction about biometrics, smart cards and cryptography, a second part will introduce our work with fake finger attacks on fingerprint sensors and tests done with different materials. The third part will present our approach for a lightweight fingerprint recognition algorithm for smart cards. The fourth part will detail security protocols used in different applications such as Personal Identity Verification cards. We will discuss our implementation such as the one we developed for the NIST to be used in PIV smart cards. Finally, a fifth part will address Cryptography-Biometrics interaction. We will highlight the antagonism between Cryptography – determinism, stable data – and Biometrics – statistical, error-prone –. Then we will present our application of challenge-response protocol to biometric data for easing the fingerprint recognition process.


Dehydration is one of the common presentations to the general practice or emergency departments (EDs) in children having acute gastroenteritis (AGE). Assessing the severity of dehydration remains a challenge among physicians, and the dehydration scales currently available are inaccurate. The correct assessment of dehydration is the basis for proper management of acute diarrhea in children. Rapid oral rehydration therapy (ORT) over 3–4 hours remains the cornerstone treatment of AGE with dehydration. It is advisable to reserve intravenous (IV) rehydration therapy for patients with severe dehydration and for those who fail ORT. Rapid standard-volume (20 ml/kg/hour) IV bolus of isotonic solution for 1–4 hours followed by oral fluid intake or maintenance IV fluids seems to be adequate for most cases requiring IV rehydration. A minority of patients may be presented with complications due to diarrheal dehydration, such as dyselectrolytemia, which requires careful calculation of fluids and electrolytes with slow correction approach.


Lipids are important signaling molecules regulating biological processes under normal and diseased conditions. Although p53 mutation is well-known for causing cancer, the relationship between p53-related tumorigenesis and altered lipid profile is unclear. We profiled differences in lipid expressions in liver, lung, and kidney in p53 knockout (KO) mice by high-speed quantitative analysis of 320 lipids (399 species identified) using nanoflow ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (nUPLC-MS/MS). Lung tissues were most severely affected by the lack of p53 gene, as shown by significant reduction (24-44%, P < 0.05) in total phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), sphingomyelin (SM), diacylglycerol (DG), and triacylglycerol (TG), and significant increases (30-50%) in phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylinositol (PI), and monohexosylceramide (MHC). MHC levels increased in all tissues. Dihexosylceramide (DHC) level decreased only in kidney tissue. Most PI, PS, and phosphatidic acid (PA) species showing significant increases contained a saturated acyl chain (18:0) in lung and liver tissues. Neutral glycerolipids (16:0/22:0-DG and most TGs with saturated and monounsaturated acyl chains) decreased 2-4-fold in the liver tissue. Our results suggest that the lack of p53 and altered lipid profiles are closely related, but as their changes vary from one tissue to another, the lipid alterations are tissue-specific.


In her article in this issue of the Journal of Tax Administration, Professor Kristin Hickman explores the relationship between the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service ('IRS'), and exceptionalism to general administrative law principles, dubbed "tax exceptionalism". It builds upon work that Hickman has produced in response to the 2011 case of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research v. United States in which the Supreme Court is generally considered to have rejected the idea of tax exceptionalism. Indeed, Hickman's article deals a decisive blow to the idea of tax exceptionalism by noting that the functions of the IRS are not dissimilar to those of other administrative agencies. Why then "should the IRS avoid general administrative law requirements when other agencies administering substantially similar programs must follow them?" That does not mean that questions do not remain. Whilst it can be accepted easily that there should be no general exceptionalism, that tells us little about "which administrative practices are susceptible to legal challenge under general administrative law principles" or whether provisions of the tax code might in fact "justify certain tax-specific departures from general administrative law requirements, doctrines, and norms." A similar dichotomy can be said to arise in the UK between, on the one hand, the idea that there are no special principles of public law which apply to tax law and, on the other hand, the fact that the application of general principles of law in respect of the tax administration, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs ('HMRC'), will differ from treatment given to other administrative agencies. This article will explore this dichotomy by first exploring briefly the history of the prospect of tax exceptionalism in the UK, and thereafter looking in depth at instances where HMRC may be said, in practice, to benefit from distinct treatment. The article will further assess situations where greater tolerance was given to HMRC actions than ought to have been afforded.


Aims Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is often associated with early microvascular complications. Previous studies demonstrated that increased systolic (SAP) and diastolic arterial blood pressures (DAP) are linked to microvascular morbidity in T1D. The aim of the study was to investigate the predictive role of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in unravelling early cardio-renal dysfunction in T1D. Methods Two T1D patient groups participating in two-centre prospective cohorts were studied. Group A consisted of 57 participants aged 13.9 years (SD: 3.1) and group B consisted of 59 patients aged 28.0 years (SD: 4.4). Forty-nine healthy children [age: 10.5 years (SD: 6.6)] and 18 healthy adults [age 27.7 years (SD: 4.2)] served as controls. Serum concentrations of NGAL (ELISA) were determined, and SAP and DAP were examined (SAP and DAP also expressed as z-scores in the younger group). Results NGAL correlated positively with SAP in both patient groups (P = 0.020 and P = 0.031, resp.) and SAP z-score (P = 0.009) (group A) and negatively with eGFR in both groups (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001, resp.). Conclusions NGAL may be proposed as a biomarker of early renal dysfunction even in nonalbuminuric T1D patients, since it was strongly associated with renal function decline and increasing systolic arterial pressure even at prehypertensive range in people with T1D, in a broad age range.


Abstract In this paper, we show that the Saccharomyces cerevisiae 20 S proteasome subunit 1 (PRS1), recently renamed as α7, is the main in vivo phosphorylated and in vitro CK2-phosphorylatable proteasome component. In vitro phosphorylation occurs only in the presence of polylysine, a characteristic that distinguishes the yeast proteasome from mammalian ones which are phosphorylated by CK2 in the absence of polylysine. A peptide reproducing the long acidic C-terminal tail of α7/PRS1, where consensus CK2 phosphorylation sites are located, was also phosphorylated by the CK2 holoenzyme in a polylysine-dependent manner, suggesting that this region contains structural features responsible for this particular behavior.


Climate risk is a critically important challenge for society. Current accounting-related efforts include initiatives by regulators to promulgate climate risk disclosure standards, focusing on disclosure of nonfinancial and forward-looking information. These proposals are certain to evolve over time. With management accounting research's focus on decision-making and performance evaluation using nonfinancial performance measures and effective management control systems, management accounting researchers are in a strong position to provide unique input into the ongoing development of these reporting standards. In this commentary, we discuss topics where management accounting researchers can contribute to the standard-setting efforts. Contributing to these efforts requires a change in mindset for management accounting researchers from primarily focusing on internal and potentially idiosyncratic decision-makers to a broader audience that includes external providers of capital. However, the reward to doing so is participation in interesting and important research avenues that can have a real impact on society.
 JEL Classifications: M49; M48; M14.


The 1 A resolution X-ray crystal structures of Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) salts of the B-DNA decamers CCAACGTTGG and CCAGCGCTGG reveal sequence-specific binding of Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) to the major and minor grooves of DNA, as well as non-specific binding to backbone phosphate oxygen atoms. Minor groove binding involves H-bond interactions between cross-strand DNA base atoms of adjacent base-pairs and the cations' water ligands. In the major groove the cations' water ligands can interact through H-bonds with O and N atoms from either one base or adjacent bases, and in addition the softer Ca(2+) can form polar covalent bonds bridging adjacent N7 and O6 atoms at GG bases. For reasons outlined earlier, localized monovalent cations are neither expected nor found.Ultra-high atomic resolution gives an unprecedented view of hydration in both grooves of DNA, permits an analysis of individual anisotropic displacement parameters, and reveals up to 22 divalent cations per DNA duplex. Each DNA helix is quite anisotropic, and alternate conformations, with motion in the direction of opening and closing the minor groove, are observed for the sugar-phosphate backbone. Taking into consideration the variability of experimental parameters and crystal packing environments among these four helices, and 24 other Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) bound B-DNA structures, we conclude that sequence-specific and strand-specific binding of Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) to the major groove causes DNA bending by base-roll compression towards the major groove, while sequence-specific binding of Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) in the minor groove has a negligible effect on helix curvature. The minor groove opens and closes to accommodate Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) without the necessity for significant bending of the overall helix. The program Shelxdna was written to facilitate refinement and analysis of X-ray crystal structures by Shelxl-97 and to plot and analyze one or more Curves and Freehelix output files.


: The authors present the results of interspecies identification of coagulaso-negative staphylococci isolated from different sources. Modification of the method of aerobic carbohydrate and alcohols fermentation of hard media is described. Use of the latest recommendations of the International Subcommittee on taxonomy of staphylocossi and micrococci permitted to identify the greater part of 120 strains studied as Staph. epidermidis and Staph. saprophyticus; however, 1/3 of the cultures differed from these species ("intermediate" strains). Galactose and mannose fermentation was characteristic of Staph. epidermidis, and the absence of fermentation of these carbohydrates--of Staph. saprophyticus. The differences in the fermentation of mannite and tregalose, on the one hand, and on mannose and galactose--on the other, were characteristic of 57% of the "intermediate" strains. The data obtained permitted to draw a conclusion on nonhomogeneity of the group of coagulase-negative staphylococci by their reference to different carbohydrates and alcohols, and on a possibility of existence of not only of different species of these staphylococci, but also of their biochemical variants.


Recent advances in theory and computational experiments have shown the need to refine the previous categorisation of magnetic reconnection at three-dimensional null points -- points at which the magnetic field vanishes. We propose here a division into three different types, depending on the nature of the flow near the spine and fan of the null. The spine is an isolated field line which approaches the null (or recedes from it), while the fan is a surface of field lines which recede from it (or approach it).
So-called "torsional spine reconnection" occurs when field lines in the vicinity of the fan rotate, with current becoming concentrated along the spine, so that nearby field lines undergo rotational slippage. In "torsional fan reconnection" field lines near the spine rotate and create a current that is concentrated in the fan with a rotational flux mismatch and rotational slippage. In both of these regimes, the spine and fan are perpendicular and there is no flux transfer across spine or fan. The third regime, called "spine-fan reconnection", is the most common in practice and combines elements of the previous spine and fan models. In this case, in response to a generic shearing motion, the null point collapses to form a current sheet that is focused at the null itself, in a sheet that locally spans both the spine and fan. In this regime the spine and fan are no longer perpendicular and there is flux transfer across both of them.


ABSTRACT We set out to analyze the application and effect of cyber-campaigning among candidates at the 2011 Danish general election campaign in order to provide hard evidence on whether new technologies are electorally decisive, or whether traditional offline campaigning still makes sense. First, both Web sites and Facebook sites are popular among candidates, but other features such as blogs, feeds, newsletters, video uploads, SMS, and Twitter are used by less than half the candidates. Second, only age and possibly education seem to matter when explaining the uptake of cyber-campaigning. The prominent candidates are not significantly more likely to use cyber-campaigning tools and activities. Third, the analysis of the effect of cyber-campaigning shows that the online score has an effect on the interparty competition for personal votes, but it does not have a significant effect when controlling for other relevant variables. The online rank of candidates within party and constituency is more important for intraparty competition; in fact, it has a significant effect: it matters to be more online than fellow candidates. In sum, the effect of cyber-campaigning is limited, but it matters more to the contest among same-party candidates than among parties in an open list, multimember constituency electoral system like the Danish have.


: Effects of plasmapheresis and hemosorption on efficacy of the treatment of autoimmune male infertility (AMI) were studied in 289 AMI males with oligoasthenozoospermia aged 19 to 37 years. The males were divided into three groups by the levels of antisperm antibodies (ASAB) in the blood and ejaculate. The study was made of cellular and humoral immunity, intensity of protein and lipid free radical oxidation and antioxidant defense. Patients of group 1 with high ASAB in the blood but low in ejaculate received a course of plasmapheresis. Patients of group 2 with high ASAB both in the blood and ejaculate were subjected to hemosorption and plasmapheresis in one contour. Group 3 patients with high ASAB in ejaculate but low in the blood received efferent therapy only after medication and photomodification of the blood. The treatment reduced elevated levels of ASAB in the blood and ejaculate, normalized free radical oxidation, cellular and humoral immunity, antioxidant defense. This resulted in improvement of spermogram parameters, efficacy of assisted reproductive technologies, higher probability of natural pregnancy in the patients' wives.


Amnesty International has identified soaring Indigenous incarceration rates as one of the most significant social justice and policy issues for the Australian criminal justice system. Indigenous Australians are 12 times more likely to be in custody than other Australians. A high rate of recidivism for Indigenous offenders contributes significantly to this figure. A tertiary qualification can significantly decrease recidivism rates post-release. However, higher education institutions are increasingly relying on digital technologies that require internet access to support learning and teaching. As a result, students from low socio-economic status backgrounds, particularly Indigenous students, are being progressively excluded from higher education due to their inability to access appropriate technologies and internet access. These factors are greatly exacerbated for Indigenous incarcerated students.

This paper reports on an Australian government HEPPP-funded project, Making the Connection, which facilitates participation in digital higher education at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in prisons with a view to reducing recidivism, particularly for Indigenous Australians. Participation in education can help those incarcerated to develop critical thinking skills, digital literacies and the capacity for self-reflection. In addition, it promotes the prospects for employment on release and promotes positive connection to community and families. This helps reduce the risk of reoffending upon release, by equipping people with the cognitive tools to engage constructively with families, communities and an increasingly digital society.

Acknowledging that many incarcerated offenders are from low socioeconomic backgrounds and are unlikely to possess all of the skills necessary to successfully undertake higher education, this project facilitates access to the USQ's Indigenous Higher Education Pathways Program (IHEPP) for Indigenous offenders. Successful completion of this program grants immediate entry to USQ's Diploma of Arts (Social Sciences) program, Diploma of Business Administration program, or Diploma of Sciences program, all of which can articulate into degree programs. This combination of programs provides multiple entry points into the pathway for Indigenous incarcerated students, facilitating participation for students with varying degrees of experience, education and digital literacy. This is significant given that Indigenous students are half as likely as non-Indigenous students to complete year 12. Low levels of education remain a key part of the ongoing cycle that leads to the over-representation of Indigenous people in Australian prisons.

Most correctional jurisdictions prohibit the use of the internet by prisoners, yet most universities are increasingly reliant on the online provision of programs. This often results in the further marginalisation of those who are already marginalised, including prisoners. The Making the Connection project is developing internet-independent digital technologies and a suite of higher education programs that will facilitate participation of incarcerated Indigenous Australians with higher education.


Over the past 80 yr, an initially obscure branch of calculus has gained some attention as a compact, mathematically convenient description of linear viscoelasticity. Rieman and Liouville developed the classical definitions of fractional‐order integration and differentiation. These definitions are fading‐memory, linear operators well‐suited for describing relaxation, dispersion, and attenuation effects. Early in this century, several authors suggested ad hoc fractional‐order differentials to describe viscoelastic effects. Scott Blair first suggested the Rieman and Liouville operators in the early 1940s. Several investigators have subsequently echoed Scott Blair's suggestion. More recently, the fractional‐order calculus viscoelasticity formulation has been expanded to include dynamics and finite‐element formulations. Most recently, the formulation has led to the development of the thermorheologically complex model, a generalization of the thermorheologically simple material model, and the model has been rel...


Detecting implicit causal relations in texts is a task that requires both common sense and world knowledge. Existing datasets are focused either on commonsense causal reasoning or explicit causal relations. In this work, we present HeadlineCause, a dataset for detecting implicit causal relations between pairs of news headlines. The dataset includes over 5000 headline pairs from English news and over 9000 headline pairs from Russian news labeled through crowdsourcing. The pairs vary from totally unrelated or belonging to the same general topic to the ones including causation and refutation relations. We also present a set of models and experiments that demonstrates the dataset validity, including a multilingual XLM-RoBERTa based model for causality detection and a GPT-2 based model for possible effects prediction.


This clinical experiment tested variations of psychological preparation and supportive care designed to increase the adjustment of children (and their parents) hospitalized for elective surgery. Eighty-four children, aged 3 to 12, admitted for tonsillectomies were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions or to a control group: (1) a combination of systematic preparation, rehearsal, and supportive care conducted prior to each stressful procedure; (2) a single-session preparation conducted after admission, and (3) consistent supportive care given by one nurse at the same points as in the first condition, but including no systematic preparation or rehearsal. The children's hospital adjustment was measured by blind ratings of behavioral upset and cooperation during the blood test, medication injection, transport to surgery, induction, and postoperative fluid intake and by recovery room medications and pulse rates and time to first voiding. Post-hospital adjustment was assessed with Vernon et al.'s Post Hospital Behavior Inventory. Parent outcome measures included self-ratings for anxiety and satisfaction with information and care. As hypothesized, the results demonstrated that children who received condition one showed significantly less upset and more cooperation and their parents reported significantly greater satisfaction and less anxiety than did children or parents in the other groups. Younger children were significantly more upset and less cooperative than older children.


Biological medicines are a heterogeneous group of drugs that are produced by living organisms using genetic or biological technology. Unlike chemically derived small molecules biologics are structurally complex making characterization and manufacturing difficult. Moreover, biological medicines show a great variety concerning their clinical use. To appropriately consider these particularities, there are other standards and guidelines for approval of similar derivatives of biologics, the so-called biosimilars or follow-on biologics. In contrast to a generic medicinal product containing a chemically identical active ingredient, a biosimilar is only expected to be similar to the innovator drug. Nowadays, monoclonal antibodies, fragments of antibodies, and fusion proteins manufactured by recombinant procedures play an important role. They have been used in many specialties for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes and are subject to continuous further development and improvement. Their nomenclature is based on a classification by the WHO which allows drawing conclusions for class of substance, origin, and pharmacological target.


Objective: The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the effect of family support, school connectedness, and school environments on depressive symptoms among adolescents across racial/ethnic groups on both the student-level and school-level. Method: This study uses a sample of 4228 students (2122 girls and 2016 boys) from the public use data of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Students were measured at two time points (one year apart) on school connectedness, family support, socio-demographic factors, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies' Depression Scale. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to examine potential predictors on adolescent depressive symptoms. This is, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first study to examine the interplay of school connectedness, school racial composition, and adolescent depression. Results: School connectedness partially mediates the effects of family support on depressive symptoms, but both remain strong predictors of depressive symptoms. African American adolescents are the only racial/ethnic group that has constantly higher CES-D scores than the non-Hispanic white adolescents. School-level connectedness is positively related to students' depressive symptoms. The racial composition of a school has different effects on students' depressive symptoms on student's race. Conclusions: Low perceived family support, low school connectedness, being female, and being African American are consistently associated with greater depressive symptoms one year later. The overall level of school connectedness of a school is found to be related with greater individual student's depressive symptoms, while the effects of school proportion of minority students on students' depressive symptoms differ significantly across the race/ethnicity of students. Future study is needed to explore the association between racial/ethnic segregation and adolescent depression while considering students' racial/ethnic status.


Efficiency versus cost. It's a trade-off that bedevils makers of solar cells. Cells made from crystalline silicon are good at absorbing photons and converting them to electricity. But they cost a lot. In contrast, noncrystalline cells made with amorphous silicon are much cheaper—but only about half as efficient as their crystalline counterparts. Now researchers think that they can trade in this devilish trade-off. At a conference last month in Arlington, Virginia, scientists were energized by a report that an ultrathin film—a mixture of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium—has been made into prototype cells that convert nearly 18% of incoming photons to electricity, a performance approaching that of the best crystalline silicon cells. If researchers can overcome nagging manufacturing and marketing problems, new devices could produce power for less than $0.50 per watt.


Excited states in Ag-96 were populated in fragmentation of an 850-MeV/u Xe-124 beam on a 4-g/cm(2) Be target. Three new high-spin isomers were identified and the structure of the populated states was investigated. The level scheme of Ag-96 was established, and a spin parity of (13(-)), (15(+)), and (19(+)) was assigned to the new isomeric states. Shell-model calculations were performed in various model spaces, including pi nu(p(1/2), g(9/2), f(5/2), p(3/2)) and the large-scale shell-model space pi nu(gds), to account for the observed parity changing M2 and E3 transitions from the (13(-)) isomer and the E2 and E4 transitions from the (19(+)) core-excited isomer, respectively. The calculated level schemes and reduced transition strengths are found to be in very good agreement with the experiment. (Less)


Children's interpretations of metaphors used in a science text and their teacher's use of explanatory metaphor are analysed and compared to identify key processes in metaphor understanding and to suggest factors that contribute to successful use of metaphor in learning science. The research adopts a Vygotskian socio-cognitive approach to metaphor in discourse. Participants are children in Years 5 and 6, aged around 10 years, and their teacher, in a UK school. The data include think-aloud protocols and teacher-led classroom discourse, analysed for metaphor processing. Sample episodes from the data are used to illustrate how conceptual knowledge is used to interpret metaphor, and how the learning potential of metaphor may be rendered ineffective by interpretation problems or by the choice of metaphor. The mediation of metaphor by a skilled teacher reveals strategies for avoiding such problems and maximising the impact of metaphor on the learning of the formalised concepts of science.


In TD-SCDMA trunking system, imperfect power control and user mobility are disadvantages for the capacity and performance of the system. In order to meet the requested Quality of Service (QoS) of group users, in this paper, we introduce a congestion control mechanism in downlink for TD-SCDMA trunking system. The mechanism is based on Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) mode selection and interrupt connections of users, analyzed in detail and verified by using MATLAB to structure a dynamic system level simulation platform. The simulation results reveal that system performance can be significantly improved.


english) This paper outlines the main features of knowledge-based economy in which the dynamics of technology, fueled by the spread of scientific and technological knowledge, are at the center of development processes. All this leads to a qualitative transformation and evolution, but also quantitative, of the modern industrial economies. In this context, the role of institutions is certainly relevant, because the institutions, understood as rules of the game, but also the organizations play a crucial action in economic development and structural changes of economies.The essay will seek to highlight the conditions necessary to stimulate virtuous processes of development with reference also to our country, knowing that trying to define the framework conditions for economic development is, however, a task too ambitious.


Protein domains are conspicuous structural units in globular proteins, and their identification has been a topic of intense biochemical interest dating back to the earliest crystal structures. Numerous disparate domain identification algorithms have been proposed, all involving some combination of visual intuition and/or structure-based decomposition. Instead, we present a rigorous, thermodynamically-based approach that redefines domains as cooperative chain segments. In greater detail, most small proteins fold with high cooperativity, meaning that the equilibrium population is dominated by completely folded and completely unfolded molecules, with a negligible subpopulation of partially folded intermediates. Here, we redefine structural domains in thermodynamic terms as cooperative folding units, based on m-values, which measure the cooperativity of a protein or its substructures. In our analysis, a domain is equated to a contiguous segment of the folded protein whose m-value is largely unaffected when that segment is excised from its parent structure. Defined in this way, a domain is a self-contained cooperative unit; i.e., its cooperativity depends primarily upon intrasegment interactions, not intersegment interactions. Implementing this concept computationally, the domains in a large representative set of proteins were identified; all exhibit consistency with experimental findings. Specifically, our domain divisions correspond to the experimentally determined equilibrium folding intermediates in a set of nine proteins. The approach was also proofed against a representative set of 71 additional proteins, again with confirmatory results. Our reframed interpretation of a protein domain transforms an indeterminate structural phenomenon into a quantifiable molecular property grounded in solution thermodynamics.


Cultivars and rootstocks tolerant to salinity are determinant to increase the salt tolerance of planted fruit trees including pistachio. In this research, the effect of salinity stress on morphological and physiological traits as well as the concentration of nutrition elements in some pistachio cultivars was investigated based on completely randomized design (CRD), with two factors cultivars and irrigation water salinity. Studied cultivars were Ghazvini, Shahpasand, Akbari, Khanjari, Jandaghi, Italiyayi, Fndoghi 48, Sabz Pesteh Tohg, Ahmad Aghaee, Rezaie Zood Res, Mousa Abadi, Ebrahimi, Kaleh Ghochi and Badami Zarand and levels of salinity were 0.5, 4.9, 9.8, 14.75 and 19.8 dS/m. Each treatment had nine replicas. The results showed that increasing salinity reduced branch height, branch diameter, number of total leaves, and percentage of green leaves, relative humidity content, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophylls in all cultivars. But percentage of necrotic leaves, percentage of downfall leaves, relative ionic percentage and cell membrane injury percentage were increased. The results showed that salinity stress affected the young trees through increasing the amount of minimum fluorescence (F0) and decreasing the maximum fluorescence (FM) and reducing variable fluorescence (FV) as well as the ratio of variable fluorescence to maximum fluorescence from 0.83±1 in the control plants to 0.59±0.015 in Rezaie Zood Res cultivar and 0.61±0.009 in Mousa Abadi cultivar. The results also showed that in the total cultivars studied, the highest amount of Na+ in leaves and roots (2.09±0.04% and 3.04±0.06%), and the lowest amount of K+ in leaves and roots (0.40±0.02% and 0.34±0.01%), were observed in treatment 19.75 dS/m. Overall, Ghazvini was found to be the most tolerant cultivar to salinity stress. This cultivar could well tolerate salinity 14.75 dS/m.


In the Sanctuary of Hera on the Greek island of Samos a wide range of hydrotechnical elements has been excavated. Well over one hundred fountains, basins, cisterns, channels and pipelines have been recorded. Since the end of 2016, a joint research project of the German Archaeological Institute and the Lubeck University of Applied Sciences aims to analyse these structures in terms of geohydrology, water management and hydraulic engineering and to examine their role in the cult activities. In the first of three years run-time the interdisciplinary team focused on collecting data, both in archives and on site. During a field-campaign in summer 2017 soil and sediment as well samples of water and calcium carbonate deposits (sinter) were taken.


In a theoretical context of side-channel attacks, optimal bounds between success rate and guessing entropy are derived with a simple majorization (Schur-concavity) argument. They are further theoretically refined for different versions of the classical Hamming weight leakage model, in particular assuming a priori equiprobable secret keys and additive white Gaussian measurement noise. Closed-form expressions and numerical computation are given. A study of the impact of the choice of the substitution box with respect to side-channel resistance reveals that its nonlinearity tends to homogenize the expressivity of success rate and guessing entropy. The intriguing approximate relation $GE=1/SR$ is observed in the case of 8-bit bytes and low noise.


This guide is for Karri Gordon's WR122 College Credit Now class at North Salem High School. It is designed to help students complete the Potential Source List assignment.


ABSTRACT Considering that unexpected events are a major contributory factor of road accidents the main objective of this article is to investigate the effect of several parameters including overall driving performance, distraction sources, driver characteristics, as well as road and traffic environment on accident probability at unexpected incidents. For this purpose, a driving simulator experiment was carried out, in which 95 participants from all age groups were asked to drive under different types of distraction (no distraction, conversation with passenger, cell phone use) in different road and traffic conditions. Then, in the framework of the statistical analysis, driving performance is estimated as a new unobserved (latent) variable based on several individual driving simulator parameters while a structural equation model is developed investigating which factors lead to increased accident probability at unexpected incidents. Regarding driver distraction, results indicate that cell phone use has a negative effect on accident risk confirming the initial hypothesis that when talking on the cell phone drivers find it difficult to handle an unexpected incident and as a result are more likely to commit an accident. Overall, a risky driving profile is developed, completing the puzzle of the effect of driver distraction on driver behavior and road safety.


Aim We consider three questions. (1) How different are the predicted distribution maps when climate-only and climate-plus-terrain models are developed from highresolution data? (2) What are the implications of differences between the models whenpredictingfuturedistributionsunderclimatechangescenarios,particularlyfor climate-only models at coarse resolution? (3) Does the use of high-resolution data and climate-plus-terrain models predict an increase in the number of local refugia? Location South-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Methods We developed two species distribution models for Eucalyptus fastigata under current climate conditions using generalized additive modelling. One used only climate variables as predictors (mean annual temperature, mean annual rainfall, mean summer rainfall); the other used both climate and landscape (June daily radiation, topographic position, lithology, nutrients) variables as predictors. Predictions of the distribution under current climate and climate change were then made for both models at a pixel resolution of 100 m. Results The model using climate and landscape variables as predictors explained a significantly greater proportion of the deviance than the climate-only model. Inclusion of landscape variables resulted in the prediction of much larger areas of existing optimal habitat. An overlay of predicted future climate on the current climate space indicated that extrapolation of the statistical models was not occurring and models were therefore more robust. Under climate change, landscape-defined refugia persisted in areas where the climate-only model predicted major declines. In areas where expansion was predicted, the increase in optimal habitat was always greater with landscape predictors. Recognition of extensive optimal habitat conditions and potential refugia was dependent on the use of high-resolution landscape data. Main conclusions Using only climate variables as predictors for assessing species responses to climate change ignores the accepted conceptual model of plant species distribution. Explicit statements justifying the selection of predictors based on ecological principles are needed. Models using only climate variables overestimate range reduction under climate change and fail to predict potential refugia. Fine-scale-resolution data are required to capture important climate/ landscape interactions. Extrapolation of statistical models to regions in climate space outside the region where they were fitted is risky.


We report the improvement of the performance of AlGaN-based ultraviolet (UV)-light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using oblique-angle deposited SiO2-based omnidirectional reflectors (ODRs). The electron-beam (e-beam) deposition at angles of 60° and 80° resulted in the formation of porous SiO2 films. The refractive index (n) varied from 1.49 to 1.25 at 365 nm with changing angle from 0 to 80°. Simulation based on the transfer matrix method showed that the porous SiO2 (n = 1.25)/Al ODR gave the normal incidence reflectance of 95.4% at 365 nm, whereas the conventional SiO2 (n = 1.49)/Al and ITO/Al reflectors have the normal incidence reflectance of 93.8% and 79%, respectively. The UV-LED with different reflectors had a forward voltage in the range of 3.40–3.51 V at 20 mA. The UV-LEDs with porous SiO2/Al ODRs (40% mesh ohmic area) yielded 21% higher light output at 100 mA and 24% relative external quantum efficiency (EQE) at 6 mA compared with the one with a reference ITO/Al reflector. The plan-view emission images showed that the SiO2/Al ODR UV-LED displayed better current spreading than the reference one with the ITO/Al reflector experiencing current crowding near the p-pad.


This book examines the political and conceptual metamorphosis of China's oil industry from self-reliance to internationalization. Through the empirical case study of Daqing, the premiere oilfield of the People's Republic of China (PRC) for most of the postwar period and a symbol of industrialization as well as self-reliance, key historical developmental concepts and events are analyzed. Japan's role in stimulating the development of the China's oil industry will also be highlighted as the Japanese government and its business sectors emerged as a supplier of technology and equipment to the Chinese oil industry as well as China's first major oil customer in the early internationalization phase of the PRC's oil industry.


In this study, an authentic paper-based key-feature test for electrotechnical diagnostic problem-solving competence was developed, administered to car mechatronic apprentices    ( N = 206) and validated using diagnostic problem-solving scores. It was hypothesized that the paper-based test scores represent the same construct as the problem-solving scores. The written test turned out to have a relatively high reliability (EAP/PV = .75). Additionally, it was found that the paper-based scores and problem-solving scores were highly correlated ( r = .76) but represented empirically distinct dimensions. Presumably, the written test especially covered diagnostic knowledge and failed to cover other relevant subcomponents of diagnostic problem-solving competence. It is argued that this unexpected finding might be caused by construct underrepresentation and construct-irrelevant variance of the paper-based key-feature test. Keywords: Professional competence, domain-specific problem-solving, key-feature items, construct representation, construct-irrelevant variance


The Certification Law in the Russian Federation regulates both voluntary and mandatory forest certification. The Mandatory Forest Certification Scheme (MFCS) was developed observing the principles, criteria and indicators of the Helsinki and Montreal processes, as well as the Russian list of criteria and indicators. Also the principles of the Forest Stewardship Council and the International Organization for Standardization Standard 14001 were used as reference. The scheme has been tested in five regions, and an auditing of a large North-American forest company will be carried out during the summer of 2001 in Karelia.

The mandatory scheme differs in some respects from the certification systems developed elsewhere. One of the major distinguishing features is that the set of criteria are presented in the form of 24 normative documents, including the Forest Code. In addition, the applicant of the MFCS certificate is the forest user, instead of the forest owner, which is the state in the Russian Federation.

The scheme is aimed to cover the ecological, economical, social and cultural aspects of sustainable forestry, and an independent certification body issues the certificate. The scheme includes third party auditing and provides the possibility for the state or public organizations to supervise forest loggings, and request non-scheduled auditing from the Forest Certification Center if deemed necessary.

The scheme is aimed to complement the Helsinki and Montreal processes by putting the general forest policy into action at the operational level in the leskhozes.


Soybean is one of the most valuable oilseeds in the world, an important source of protein for animal and human food. Correct management of fertilization is essential, especially nitrogen (N), which is demanded in greater quantity. Molybdenum (Mo) and nickel (Ni) are essential micronutrients for the plant and are directly involved in the N cycle and production of amino acids. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of applying Mo and Ni on soybean yield components, crop yield, N assimilation and protein yield. Applying Ni and Mo, individually reduced the insertion height of the f irst pod, and Ni and Ni + Mo signif icantly increased stem diameter. Application of Ni associated with Mo resulted in a 12% crop yield increase, as well as a 6% higher protein content, relative to the control. The highest protein content was obtained by combining the two nutrients. Thus, application of Ni in association with Mo is a viable alternative in the production of soybean.


We report the clinical and pathological findings of 25 cases of craniopharyngiomas. Fourteen patients were males and 11 were females. The ages ranged between 3 and 64 years, with a mean of 30.52 years. The symptoms reflected the growth and topography of the tumours; visual disorders (72%), headache (68%), vomits (40%) and papilledema (24%) were the most frequent symptoms. Twelve cases were suprasellar; 10 tumours arose from sellar region, from which 8 presented suprasellar extension; frontal lobe (n = 2) and ponto cererebellar angle (n = 1) were also affected. Eleven patients undergone total resection of the tumor and 14 were submitted to partial resection, from which 1 received adjuvant chemotherapy. The overall recurrence rate was 48%. Eight recurrences were observed in the patients submitted to partial resection and 4 in which total resection were performed. These results are similar with the literature, corroborating to the extension of residual tumour after the surgical resection as the main prognostic factor for this neoplasm.


Scaling is one of the most efficient methods for assessing perceptual image quality and its underlying dimensions (sharpness, brightness, colourfulness etc.) [1]. Experiments with simple stimuli such as squares, circles and dot patterns have shown, however, that the outcome of a scaling experiment is susceptible to contextual effects [2, 3]. That is, the response to a stimulus depends not only on the stimulus itself but also on the other stimuli to be judged in a session. Contextual effects due to stimulus spacing or frequency of occurrence of stimuli have been found to have a substantial influence on the results of a single stimulus (or 'direct') scaling experiment [3]. The present study examined whether contextual effects are also present when complex stimuli, in particular images of natural scenes, are evaluated. To this end, two experiments were carried out measuring the possible influence of stimulus spacing on the evaluation of perceived sharpness for the following three scaling techniques: single stimulus scaling, double stimulus scaling and a scaling procedure based on difference judgements. Note that these techniques represent the three kinds of evalu ation methods recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), formerly CCIR [4]. The first experiment concerned the use of three different response scales during single stimulus scaling. The second experiment was a direct comparison between the three above-mentioned scaling techniques using a 10-point numerical category scale only. In both experiments the stimulus set consisted of blurred versions of one static image of a terrace scene.


Climate variation largely impacts migration in with the capacity to worsen conflict and security situations in parts of Africa, Nigeria in particularly, already facing security threats from the activities of sedentary and nomadic pastoral farmer's interaction. Increasing variations in rainfall patterns significantly impact the migration patterns of vulnerable households and constitute a risk factor to their livelihoods. For effective adaptation plan and sustainable livelihood decision that has climate resilient future, there is need for better understanding of the conflict and security implications of climate variation. This paper, therefore, interrogates the nexus between climate variation and migration, as well as the impact of this nexus on conflicts and security of lives and properties in Nigeria. Using critical analysis and qualitative methodology, the study establishes that migration settlement policies that fail to define the rights and duties of settlers and those of indigenes of any particular community, create loopholes for the reification of identities and identity-induced crisis. The conclusion of the paper is that migration issues resulting from climate variation have not been adequately addressed to involve all stakeholders. There is the need to harvest environmental impact assessment data of climate variation to guide the provision of alternative options to climate-related emergencies across Nigeria.


The manual begins with a description of the concept and aims of the shield wire scheme (SWS). The scheme is applicable for minimum cost power supply from the grid to villages, small towns, farms, factories, and water pumping stations located near or at some distance from the route of the high-voltage (HV), 110 to 330 kV, transmission lines (TLs). The SWS is a solution for rural electrification that is not economically justifiable with conventional solutions, which are long medium-voltage (MV) lines routed along the HV TLs or dedicated HV/MV transformer stations. SWSs consist of the following: Insulating the shield wires (SWs) from the towers of the HV TL for MV operation (20 to 34.5 kV). Energizing the SWs at MV from the HV/MV transformer station at one end of the HV TL. Using the earth return of current as an MV distribution conductor. Supplying the loads by means of medium-voltage/low-voltage (MV/LV) distribution transformers connected between the SWs and the ground.


To process natural stone such as marble or granite, saw blades equipped with wear-resistant diamond grinding segments are used, typically joined to the blade by brazing. In case of damage or wear, they must be exchanged. Due to the large energy input during thermal loosening and subsequent brazing, the repair causes extended heat-affected zones with serious microstructure changes, resulting in shape distortions and disadvantageous stress distributions. Consequently, axial run-out deviations and cutting losses increase. In this work, a new near-infrared laser-based process chain is presented to overcome the deficits of conventional brazing-based repair of diamond-tipped steel saw blades. Thus, additional tensioning and straightening steps can be avoided. The process chain starts with thermal debonding of the worn grinding segments, using a continuous-wave laser to heat the segments gently and to exceed the adhesive's decomposition temperature. Afterwards, short-pulsed laser radiation removes remaining adhesive from the blade in order to achieve clean joining surfaces. The third step is roughening and activation of the joining surfaces, again using short-pulsed laser radiation. Finally, the grinding segments are glued onto the blade with a defined adhesive layer, using continuous-wave laser radiation. Here, the adhesive is heated to its curing temperature by irradiating the respective grinding segment, ensuring minimal thermal influence on the blade. For demonstration, a prototype unit was constructed to perform the different steps of the process chain on-site at the saw-blade user's facilities. This unit was used to re-equip a saw blade with a complete set of grinding segments. This saw blade was used successfully to cut different materials, amongst others granite.


We investigate dynamic channel, rate selection and scheduling for wireless systems which exploit the large number of channels available in the White-space spectrum. We first present measurements of radio channel characteristics from an indoor testbed operating in the 500 to 600MHz band and comprising 11 channels. We observe significant and unpredictable (non-stationary) variations in the quality of these channels, and demonstrate the potential benefit in throughput from tracking the best channel and also from optimally adapting the transmission rate. We propose adaptive learning schemes able to efficiently track the best channel and rate for transmission, even in scenarios with non-stationary channel condition variations. We also describe a joint scheduling scheme for providing fairness in an Access Point scenario. Finally, we implement the proposed adaptive scheme in our testbed, and demonstrate that it achieves significant throughput improvement (typically from 40% to 100%) compared to traditional fixed channel selection schemes.