In multiantenna downlink systems the optimization of the spatial precoding is severely hampered by the amount of feedback. An efficient solution consists in the opportunistic beamforming scheme (OB-MUX) that generates random orthogonal beams and schedules the user with the largest signal-to-interference-and- noise ratio (SINR) over each beam. In this paper we explore the effect of feedback quantization on the performance of OB-MUX scheme. We analytically assess the sum-rate of OB-MUX in terms of quantization strategy, number of users and number of antennas. Since the optimum quantization requires a numerical optimization, we design a practical quantization law that approaches the performance of the optimum scheme at reduced complexity. The proposed strategy permits to extract most of the multiuser diversity gain by using a few (in the limit of one) feedback bits.


The mechanical behavior of oxidized low alloyed steel has been studied at temperatures between 700°C and 900°C. Such a work is carried out to obtain information about the damages which occur in the oxide scales developed on steels during hot rolling process. Actually the mechanical behavior is tested with a four point bending apparatus at high temperature under controlled atmosphere. Some information about mechanical damages have been collected during the mechanical loading thanks to recording of the sample acoustic emission. During this study, two procedures have been used which differ in the thermal scheme used to build the oxide scales. The results obviously show that the procedure has a great influence on the mechanical behavior of the oxidized low alloyed steel. For instance a marked decrease of the stress is observed at constant displacement between the 900°C and 800°C tests of one procedure, as the opposite behavior is observed with the other procedure. Different points are considered to explain such results, as the thermal strains which are only present in one of the two procedures, the phase transformations in the metal and in the oxide.


Previously, we reported that a methanol extract (500 mg/kg x 2/day) of the heartwood of Cassia garrettiana inhibited the tumor growth and metastasis to the lung in Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC)-bearing mice. Furthermore, we isolated the two active substances from the methanol extract of C. garrettiana and identified compound 1 as cassigarol A. In the present study, compound 2 was identified as 3, 3', 4, 5'-tetrahydroxy stilbene (piceatannol) based on the 1H-NMR spectral data and products formed by oxidation with potassium permanganate. We examined the active substance (compound 2, piceatannol) and its acetylated derivative on the tumor growth and lung metastasis in LLC-bearing and carcinectomized mice. Piceatannol (50 mg and 100 mg/kg x 2/day) did not affect the tumor growth, while piceatannol acetate (50 mg and 100 mg/kg x 2/day) significantly inhibited the tumor growth. Piceatannol and its derivative piceatannol acetate inhibited the metastasis to the lung dose-dependently in carcinectomized mice. Moreover, piceatannol and piceatannol acetate prolonged the survival time and increased the survival rate in carcinectomized mice. In addition, piceatannol inhibited the formation of capillary-like networks of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) at the concentrations of 10 to 100 microM, but its acetylated derivative did not. Therefore, it is suggested that the antimetastatic activities of piceatannol might be due to the inhibition of tube formation (angiogenesis) of HUVECs.


Finite thickness interfaces, such as structural adhesives, are often simplified from the modelling point of view by introducing ideal cohesive zone models that do not take into account the finite thickness properties in the evaluation of the interface stiffness and inertia. In the present work, the nonlinear dynamic response of those layered systems is numerically investigated according to the finite element method. The weak form of the dynamic equilibrium is written by including not only the contribution of cohesive interfaces related to the virtual work exerted by the cohesive tractions for the corresponding relative displacements, but also considering the work done by the dynamic forces of the finite thickness interfaces resulting from their inertia properties. A fully implicit solution scheme both in space and in time is exploited and the numerical results for the double cantilever beam test show that the role of finite thickness properties is remarkable as far as the crack growth kinetics and the dynamic strength increase factor are concerned. c © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Structural Engineering.


This paper outlines some of the recent design developments and construction support efforts of the authors and their colleagues that reduce the capital cost and enhance the design integrity and environmental performance of pipelines buried in permafrost.These new design concepts can significantly reduce the expected cost of a major northern gas pipeline relative to historical conceptual costs.Recent North Slope of Alaska oil developments have successfully utilized new design concepts for warm buried crossings of major rivers to achieve certain environmental and economic objectives. The fully buried oil pipeline from Normal Wells, NWT, originally designed as a cold pipeline, has successfully operated in recent years as an ambient temperature system. These developments widen the application and improve the potential cost advantage of buried oil pipelines over above grade pipelines in permafrost.Copyright © 2000 by ASME


Using a Green's function approach, we study phonon-mediated superconducting pairing symmetries that may arise in bilayer graphene where the monolayers are displaced in-plane with respect to each other. We consider a generic coupling potential between the displaced graphene monolayers, which is applicable to both shifted and commensurate twisted graphene layers; study intralayer and interlayer phonon-mediated BCS pairings; and investigate AA and AB(AC) stacking orders. Our findings demonstrate that at the charge neutrality point, the dominant pairings in both AA and AB stackings with intralayer and interlayer electron-electron couplings can have even-parity $s$-wave class and odd-parity $p$-wave class of symmetries with the possibility of invoking equal-pseudospin and odd-frequency pair correlations. At a finite doping, however, the AB (and equivalently AC) stacking can develop pseudospin-singlet and pseudospin-triplet $d$-wave symmetry, in addition to $s$-wave, $p$-wave, $f$-wave, and their combinations, while the AA stacking order, similar to the undoped case, is unable to host the $d$-wave symmetry. When we introduce a generic coupling potential, applicable to commensurate twisted and shifted bilayers of graphene, $d$-wave symmetry can also appear at the charge neutrality point. Inspired by a recent experiment where two phonon modes were observed in a twisted bilayer graphene, we also discuss the possibility of the existence of two-gap superconductivity, where the intralayer and interlayer phonon-mediated BCS picture is responsible for superconductivity. These analyses may provide a useful tool in determining the superconducting pairing symmetries and mechanism in bilayer graphene systems.


The whole principle of levying tolls on certain highway links in the UK has become controversial in recent years. Many of the salient arguments assume particular relevance for the Humber Bridge because of its low traffic volumes and toll charges which are by far-the highest in the country. Nevertheless, it is instructive to begin this section with an overview of the toll issue as a whole.

One of the main government justifications for road investment is to provide benefits for commerce and industry. The underlying principle is thus maximization of user benefits, with the costs being borne by the exchequer. It is argued, however, that estuarial crossings provide exceptionally great benefits to users and at a far higher unit cost than other parts of the highway network. Consequently the direct beneficiaries are required to pay for these facilities. The 'user pays' principle, which is thus given precedence over that of maximizing user benefits, forms the basis for levying tolls on estuarial crossings.

The high capital construction costs are not in themselves necessarily controversial. What is disputed by road users and the freight lobby as exemplified by umbrella organizations such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Freight Transport Association (FTA) and Road Haulage Association (RHA), is the precedence given to the 'user pays' principle on estuarial crossings.

Anomalies currently exist at two levels:

(i) Trunk roads are free of tolls, except where they cross certain estuaries, despite the rapid increase in the capital costs of road construction and maintenance over recent years.

(ii)Government policy is not consistent even with regard to estuarial crossings. As Figure 1 illustrates, there are eleven tolled crossings in Britain, but at least eleven others remain untolled. Several of these are located close to tolled facilities e.g. Clyde Tunnel near the Erskine Bridge and Blackwall Tunnel (and projected East Lnndon River Crossing) near the Dartford Tunnel. They are likely to divert a fair volume of traffic away from the tolled crossings, generating potential congestion at the former while simultaneously undermining toll revenue maximization on the latter. How this anomalous situation in both principle and practice arose is unclear but it is surely self-defeating in the cases just cited, quite apart from the obvious equity considerations involved.

Clearly, then, the status quo requires revision. Two broad alternatives for achieving a consistent policy exist. Either tolls should be abolished so that all trunk roads are toll free; or, if the principle of levying tolls is felt to be valid, the practice should be extended to - all estuarial crossings at the very least, and possibly also to additional categories of road.

Several other factors have relevance to the policy debate, and this analysis now moves to consider briefly the economic theory underlying tolls, and then the economic position of existing tolled estuarial crossings.


: Hyperplastic growth and expression of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase were induced in adult rat hepatocytes using a model of chemical hepatocarcinogenesis. The hyperplastic response was maximal at 10 weeks after initiation of the model, at which time some 20-25% of the cross-sectional area of liver sections showed hepatocyte expression of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase. The altered growth patterns appeared to be independent of carcinoma development since at 12 months after initiation only one of 10 animals showed evidence of hepatocellular carcinoma. A 43,000 dalton protein of isoelectric point 6.9 was solubilized by DNASE I from nuclei derived from livers at 10 weeks after initiation of the regime. This protein was scarcely detectable in the nuclei of control livers or in control and treated livers at other times after initiation of the regime. These observations suggest that alterations to a prominent nonhistone protein associated with the transcriptionally active fraction of chromatin occurred during hyperplastic growth of hepatocytes induced by chemical carcinogens.


Fatigue limit state design check for offshore wind turbines is based on SN curves and the Palmgren–Miner rule approach and focuses normally on stationary processes for which startup and/or shutdown operations induced transient load processes are normally not accounted for. However, large databases of real-time measurements show that the shutdown and startup operations may appear in any operational conditions and the frequency of such operations could be considerable. Although design standards require fatigue design checks for the transient load processes induced by startup and shutdown operations, relevant publications addressing this issue are very limited in particular for floating wind turbines. This paper focuses on analyzing the importance of startup and shutdown induced transient load processes on fatigue damage in the tower of two MW-level horizontal axis semi-submersible wind turbines. The analysis is carried on by comparing short-term fatigue damage in several environmental conditions with and without the startup and shutdown induced transient load processes. It is found that, in many environmental conditions, startup and/or shutdown operations may make an increase in short-term fatigue damage by 10% to 100%, while in some situations, the fatigue damage may be increased by up to 200%. The importance of the transient load processes on long-term fatigue damage is related to the occurrence frequency of startup and shutdown events. Publicly available data indicate that the average time between two consecutive shutdown events might be less than 39 h. However, more data and analysis are needed regarding these issues.


The Norwegian spring spawning herring is assessed each year from acoustic surveys. The age structure in the stock is estimated from trawl samples. Typically, about 10 trawl samples are taken per survey, and 100 fish from each sample are age measured. The uncertainty in the age structure estimate depends both on the number of trawl hauls and the number of fish for which the age is measured within each haul. The same is true for the length structure. Length is much easier to measure than age, and in the Vestfjorden survey in December 2002, more than 6000 fish distributed on 72 trawl samples were length measured, making possible the investigation undertaken in this paper, where the bootstrap is applied to estimate the number of hauls/fish needed to obtain a given precision in the length distribution. It is reasonable to believe that the precision in the age distribution will depend on the number of fish/hauls in the same way. The sampling intensity needed to obtain a given CV for the most abundant length groups was much lower than for the less abundant length groups. In terms of standard errors it was the other way round. A doubling of number of fish measured per haul from 1 to 2 allowed for about 50% decrease in the number of hauls needed to keep the same precision. A doubling from 128 to 256 allowed for about 10% decrease.


Pro/Toolkit is the powerful secondary development provide of Pro/E ,It encapsulates many aimed at Pro/E bottom resources library function and call header files.Using VC++6.0 for integrated development environment and under Windows for development.This paper mainly introduces a graphic design method based on Pro/Toolkit spur gears.Firstly by using Pro/E to establish the spur gears 3d model and realize the 3d model parametric design. Then using VC++6.0 to type VC DLL program, design MFC dialog and for source program's compiles and links, to create dynamic link files(DLL or EXE files), through the registration documents and running applications.Finally realizes input gear parameters to get the corresponding gear effect in the dialog.Completed in VC++6.0 integrated development environment using Pro/Toolkit for forging spur gears graphic design. Got use Pro/Toolkit for straight tooth cylindrical gear and internal gear's secondary development interface.To avoid a lot of labor, meet different repeat and improv product design efficiency.


Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been proven to be a promising and powerful analytical tool in environment monitoring, chemical and biological sensing, disease diagnosing and homeland security checking. This dissertation focuses on the studies on a new SERS substrate platform  – Ag nanorod arrays.
 We have fabricated Ag nanorod array substrates with different length at various deposition angles using oblique angle deposition (OAD) and the detailed structural characterizations have been performed for these samples. Semi-ordered Ag nanorod arrays have also been fabricated using template OAD method combining with electron beam lithography method.
 For Ag nanorod array substrates with a fixed stucture, SERS characterizations related to the excitation configuration have been systematically investigated. The SERS intensity strongly depends on the laser incident angle, polarization states and the reflectance from the underlayer of substrates. In order to understand these unique SERS properties, a modified Greenler's model has been proposed. The theoretical calculations from this model can qualitatively explain these SERS properties. The SERS activity is also strongly dependent on the specific structures, such as length, diameter, and tilted angle of Ag nanorod and so on. For a fixed tilted angle, there exists an optimum length of Ag nanorod for SERS activity. At the same length, larger SERS intensity can be obtained from a larger tilted angle of Ag nanorods. With the increase of the diameter of Ag nanorods, the SERS intensity from template Ag nanorods decreases when the diameter of Ag nanorod is larger than 100 nm.
 To understand the SERS mechanism, the origin of SERS from Ag nanorod array has been investigated. Due to the anisotropic absorbance nature of Ag nanorod layer, our experiments indicate that most of SERS signal come from the molecules adsorbed on the side surface of Ag
nanorods, not from the so called "hot spots" at the corner of between Ag nanorods and Ag film. We believe the Ag nanorod absorbance as a function of the thickness plays a critical role.


Background: Nelumbo nucifera seeds are medicinally important due to the presence of phytochemicals with strong antioxidant potential. Extraction of these phytochemicals has been a major problem faced by the researchers. Objective: The purpose of the study was to optimize the process conditions for extraction of phenolic antioxidants from N. nucifera seed. Methods: Process variables for microwave assisted extraction of phenolic antioxidants from N. nucifera seed flour were optimized by response surface methodology using a multi-factorial central composite design based on five levels of each of four input variables including X1: particle size (in terms of mesh No.), X2: microwave treatment period (MTP), X3: solvent concentration (SC) and X4: extraction period (EP). Total extract yield was calculated as Total extractable components (TEC) and the extracts were analyzed for total phenolic content (TPC) and total antioxidant activity (TAOA). Results: Data analysis showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in TEC, TPC and TAOA in response to increase in the levels of selected factors. Optimum levels of extraction variables to achieve maximum level of response parameters were found to be: 125.96, 2.45 min, 55.21% and 3.87 h for TEC, 61.73, 1.66 min, 80.08% and 4.98 h for TPC and 60.89, 2.37 min, 44.98% and 1.123 h for TAOA. Conclusion: The extraction of phenolic antioxidants from N. nucifera seed flour is significantly increased in response to an increase in mesh No. (decrease in particle size), MTP, SC and EP but up to a certain limit. The decrease in extraction yield and antioxidant activity at higher levels of studied factors may be attributed to the possible decomposition of phenolic compounds due to prolonged duration of microwave heating and prolonged extraction time.


Neuroimaging studies in migraine patients are useful for three important reasons. 1) Brain imaging techniques and primarily CT-scan should be used in every patient with atypical or complicated migraine to rule out a vascular malformation or brain tumor; 2) angiography, which was extensively used in the 1960's and 1970's, discloses a number of arterial anomalies including spasm or occlusion, of unclear pathogenic significance; 3) T2-weighted magnetic resonance images in migraine often show increased signals generated by the white matter; this finding is as yet poorly understood but is undoubtedly related to factors very different from those seen in elderly patients or patients with vascular risk factors.


Objective: It is known that the use of nasal packing has many disadvantages. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of short-term nasal obstruction due to nasal packing on cognitive functions. Methods: The study group consisted of 40 patients who had nasal congestion due to unilateral nasal septal devi-ation and for whom septoplasty was planned with a mer-ocel pack to be used as a nasal pack at the end of surgery. All surgeries were performed under local anesthesia us-ing 10 cc of jetocaine ampoule. Brief Symptom Inventory Test (BSI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Serial Digit Learning Test (SDL), Stroop Test, Visual Aural Digit Span Test (VADS) and P300 test were used to evaluate cognitive functions, symptoms of concentration difficulties and blunted af-fect both preoperatively and peroperatively before nasal pack removal. Results: All symptoms showed significant per-opera-tive (with a nasal pack in place) deterioration in all pa-tients (p<0.001) on the VAS. The mean per-operative SDL (16.34±5.77), Stroop Test (26.67±3.39), BSI (22.25±11.95) and VADS (21.13±3.44) scores showed significant deteri-oration compared with mean preoperative Stroop Test (20.06±3.14), SDL (22.38±4.34), VADS (25.86±2.92) and BSI (32.58±12.49) scores (p<0.001). The peroperative and preoperative P300 latency and amplitude values showed a significant difference (p<0.001). Conclusion: The use of a nasal pack, which closes both nasal passages fully, such as a merocel pack, has negative effects on cognitive functions such as the ability to focus and maintain concentration.


The late 20th century saw a steep rise in published works on gender in South Africa. This article analyses the production of gender research against a backdrop of current interest in southern theory, theory that is produced to analyse and challenge existing global knowledge inequalities. As a domain of research, South African gender writings draw both on global feminist impulses as well as national and local ones. We discuss what this means for understanding the particularity of South Africa's gender scholarship which we trace back to the writings of Olive Schreiner at the beginning of the 20 th century. In this paper we quantitatively identify the trajectory of gender research in South Africa and consider the genealogy of South African feminist writing. We show how the focus of gender research evolved noting that it sometimes was divided on grounds of race, but often was united by opposition to patriarchy which took forms of activist scholarship. We focus on a number of themes to show how feminist scholarship developed out of engagements with questions of inequality, race, class and gender. While gender research featured a strong, almost obsessive, engagement with local, South African issues which serve to give this body of work its cohesion, it also manifested divisions that reflected the very inequalities being researched.


. Measuring the performance of business processes is already a main concern for both faculty and enterprise players, since organizations are motivated to reach the productivity stage. Employing a performance achievement framework for the relationship between business incubator success factors will guarantee connection with commercial schemes, which support a high level of performance indicators in successful business incubator models. This research employs a quantitative approach, with the data analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 23 and Smart PLS version 3 statistical software packages. Employing a sample of 95 incubator managers from 19 universities which geographically located in Indonesia, it is shown that the image of business incubator factors has a positive effect on incubator performance. The study investigates the relationship between incubator performance and business incubator success factors in Indonesia. It was found that IT, as part of the business incubators' facets/abilities, partially supports their performance; that the entry criteria directly support the performance of the incubators; that mentoring networks also support the performance, with good infrastructure systems as a moderating factor; that funding supports the performance of business incubators, also with good infrastructure systems as a moderating factor; and that university regulations and government support and protection enhance the performance of business incubators, with credits and rewards as a moderating factor. In addition, a variety of indicators from the local context affiliate positively to promote a community that highlighted the incubators' strategies.


Abstract We compared the distribution of migrant bird species between two islands in the Gulf of Maine to examine if differences in habitat resulted in differences in avian species composition and relative abundance during stopover. Ninety-one species were captured on both islands and those species captured on only one island were either breeding species or rare visitors to the islands. Differences in bird species distribution between islands were species-specific and consistent among sampling periods for nearly all species. Twelve species were captured more frequently on Star Island and 11 species more frequently on Appledore Island. Stopover species distribution appeared to be related to habitat structure, vegetation, diet, and habitat area. Scrub-shrub/open habitat breeding species and forest breeding species were not evenly distributed between islands. Island use was most closely associated with breeding habitat. All but two of the eight species that breed in scrub-shrub or open habitat were captured more frequently on Star Island. Ten of the species more common on Appledore Island breed in forested habitat. Nine of the 11 species more common on Appledore Island are area-sensitive in breeding areas, suggesting potential area sensitivity during migration. Differential habitat use indicates a large number of stopover sites in a wide variety of habitats are necessary to meet migration needs of passerine species.


After superplastic deformation of Al-7475 and some other aluminium alloys, straininduced cavities are seen to be associated with long fibres parallel to the tensile direction. These fibres, whiskers or filaments are also observed on the fracture surface. This effect has become known as microsuperplasticity. The whisker characteristics are affected by the deformation conditions, particularly temperature and strain rate. To study the effect of these variables more fully, tensile samples of Al 7475 have been strained to failure at temperatures ranging from 480OC to 530OC and strain rates from 1.0E- 04s-1 to 5.0E-03s-1. Additional samples were deformed at 450OC and 420OC and a single strain rate. Some whiskering was observed under all testing conditions. The longest whiskers were generally seen at high temperatures and low strain rates. A TEM study of macroscopic whiskers produced under conditions of around 540OC and 1.0E-04 /s showed an amorphous structure. Annealing prior to deformation was shown to have little effect on whisker formation. EDX analysis showed the whole surface of the alloy to be enriched in alloying elements compared with the bulk alloy. The high levels of Mg detected were connected with the formation of magnesia as the surface oxide verified using Cr3+ fluorescence microscopy. Use of the differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) showed no conclusive evidence of partial melting below the testing temperatures. Considerations of capillarity and the DSC analysis suggest whiskering did not occur by a mechanism of viscous flow.


Narrative therapy is introduced as a postmodernform of practice suitable for the integration of contrasting orientations of guidance and discipline practices in Hong Kong schools, where guidance and counseling programs and activities under the whole school approach are suggested as viable means to promote student whole-person development. While the narrative approach as a mode of school counseling might have a direct impact, more importantly, the approach as an attitude and a way of life in the school setting could offer new ways of providing psychoeducational services and promoting student growth and development. The need for research in narrative practice in Hong Kong schools is emphasized and discussed.


The goal of this master thesis is to develop a mobile, distributed monitoring system for outdoor cardiovascular training, based on Bluetooth sensors, mobile handsets with Java Micro Edition (Java ME) and XML Web Services technologies. A Java ME MIDlet will be specified, implemented and tested, which communicates with a heart rate sensor and a GPS module using a wireless Bluetooth link. The MIDlet will display the pulses received from the sensor, with the duration of training and a graph that shows the instantaneous course of training. The GPS module is used for geographical positioning, velocity measurements and recording of the altitude profile for the duration of the exercise. The results from the sensors will be recorded both in a local database on the handset as well as on a server, whereto the results are transmitted using XML Web Services technologies. The system will also include a Web-based interface for accessing the stored information about previous exercise sets.


Angiogenesis is required for the development and biologic progression of infiltrative astrocytomas and takes the form of "microvascular hyperplasia" in glioblastoma multiforme, the most malignant astrocytoma. This pathologic term refers to an abnormal vascular proliferation that is often associated with necrosis and likely originates in hypoxic zones. Both the physiologic response to hypoxia and genetic alterations contribute to this process. The presence of hypoxic regions within an expanding tumor mass leads to upregulation of pro-angiogenic factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), through increased activity of the transcriptional complex HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor-1). HIF-1 mediated gene expression may be directly or indirectly modulated by alterations in oncogenes/tumor suppressor genes that occur during astrocytoma development, including PTEN, TP53, p16(CDKN2A), p14ARF, EGFR, and PDGFR. Genetic alterations are also believed to influence the HIF-independent expression of pro- and anti- angiogenic factors, such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), respectively. Thus, genetic events that occur during the progression of infiltrating astrocytomas promote angiogenesis, both by modulating hypoxia induced gene expression and by regulating of pro- and anti- angiogenic factors.


"For the last many decades, the EU's intensified agriculture model has shown a significant trend to reinforce the economy while feeding the world. The Netherlands is one of the EU's member follow neoliberalism in agriculture by importing cheap animal feed & fertilisers and exports meat & dairy products. The intensification of Dutch agriculture results from solid collaborations among the Agriculture Innovation System actors (AIS). Nitrogen (N), being one of the essential elements of building blocks of life, is a vital nutrient, an indicator for global food security, and supports agriculture's intensification. N in fertilisers and feedstock's intensive use comes with the consequences of wicked problems such as ammonia (NH3) emissions in the air and nitrates (NOX) leaching in the soil. Around two-thirds of the Dutch farmlands and 80% of the crop, fertiliser is used for livestock cultivation. The Netherlands is famous for technological innovations worldwide (in terms of niche innovation); however, digitalisation is still an 'alien' term for Dutch farmers. A lack of landscapelevel technology implementation, weak policy infrastruture for monitoring pollution dynamics is one of the leading causes of the nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands. The N-crisis is causing distress in farmers, and the government is struggling for effective policy implementation. Therefore, there is a need for state-of-art initiatives which utilise maximum involvement of technology and the environment with minimum (government) efforts. This holistic and explorative cast-study research highlights the challenges and consequences of the Digitalisation of Agriculture Innovation System (DAIS) to resolve the Dutch N-crisis. Different aspects of research covered are 1) to address associates knowledge gaps, 2) analyse the cause of complex N-crisis in the Netherlands, 3) to analyse the current state of Dutch policy infrastructure & challenges and 4) to analyse present & future trend of DAIS transformations. This will ultimately lead to technology and policy recommendation supporting multi- stakeholders collaboration, creating a market of Nitrogen Trading System (NTS) at multiple levels and using digitalisation as a key for establishing Sustainable System Transformation (SST)."


We present transport measurements on quantum dots of sizes 45, 60 and 80 nm etched with an Ar/O2-plasma into a single graphene sheet, allowing a size comparison avoiding effects from different graphene flakes. The transport gaps and addition energies increase with decreasing dot size, as expected, and display a strong correlation, suggesting the same physical origin for both, i.e. disorderinduced localization in presence of a small confinement gap. Gate capacitance measurements indicate that the dot charges are located in the narrow device region as intended. A dominant role of disorder is further substantiated by the gate dependence and the magnetic field behavior, allowing only approximate identification of the electron-hole crossover and spin filling sequences. Finally, we extract a g-factor consistent with g = 2 within the error bars.


Dielectric-lens antennas are effective at producing highly shaped beams that can enhance the performance of wireless broadband communication systems. Beam shaping is used to reduce multipath interference, which causes fading and decay spread, and to enhance gain, so that the received power level is compatible with the requirements of high-data-rate transmission. This paper presents an overview of the design and measured performance of some examples of dielectric lenses that can be used in typical scenarios of wireless broadband communication systems. The paper also addresses the radio coverage produced by these antennas. The lenses are based on a single basic configuration where the feed is embedded in the lens body. This antenna configuration is flexible enough to accommodate different target beam-shaping specifications.


A small rural school district in the southwestern part of the United States required teachers to provide highly effective literacy instruction by implementing an evidence-based reading program called Journeys. With consistently low reading achievement, it was unclear whether teachers were implementing Journeys as prescribed. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore teacher implementation of the Journeys program for students at an elementary school in the district. The theoretical framework used to guide the study was Clay's emergent literacy theory. The conceptual framework included five strands of the Journeys reading curriculum, which was derived from Clay's theory. A modified formative program evaluation case study was conducted. Nine teachers who had taught reading and two administrators who supervised reading teachers were purposefully selected for semi-structured interviews. Coding and analysis of interview data indicated that more than half of the teachers were not implementing Journeys with fidelity. Themes that emerged from the interviews were; inconsistent understanding of evidence-based literacy instruction, lack of collaborative planning, teacher's use of an alternate phonics-based resource, focus on technology integration, lack of teacher buy-in, and lack of teacher training in implementation of the Journeys program. Based on findings, a 3-day professional development training was developed to provide training in implementing Journeys' underlying evidence-based strategies. In regard to social change, the study findings could assist school leaders in determining guidelines for the implementation of evidence-based reading curricula. The study findings could assist school leaders and teachers in effective implementation of Journeys and providing quality literacy instruction to enhance student learning in the district. Keywords: Journeys, evidence-based reading, fidelity, reading achievement, reading levels DOI : 10.7176/JEP/11-2-09 Publication date: January 31 st 2020


AIM
To evaluate a one year training scheme for Macmillan Nurses.

BACKGROUND
The role of the clinical nurse specialist has evolved and expanded greatly over the past few years so that it now encompasses components far beyond the traditional nursing remit of direct clinical practice. While several studies have looked at the barriers and facilitators to this process for clinical nurse specialists in particular, none has looked at the benefits of a structured training scheme which involves both a theoretical and clinical component.

METHODS
Tape recorded, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a purposive sample of trainees who undertook the scheme, their practice-based facilitators and another person(s) involved in the trainee's support.

ANALYSIS
Tapes were transcribed verbatim and each transcript anonymized to prevent identification of participants. Data were analysed thematically using the main headings of expectations, experience and impact and the structured prompts from the aide-memoir within these headings.

RESULTS
Results showed that the majority of respondents felt the scheme had been successful with one of the main achievements being that trainees were perceived to be adequately prepared to take on the role of a CNS on completion of the scheme. While the Role Development Programme was thought to provide a good academic structure for the scheme some participants thought that more theory on symptom control and communication skills and a placement in a specialist palliative care centre should also be included.

CONCLUSION
The Macmillan Trainee Scheme has succeeded in its objectives to facilitate the transition from generalist to specialist nursing. It should be extended to include an induction and consolidation period and more theoretical input on communication skills and symptom control.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
With these improvements, the scheme could be used as a standard model for training specialist practitioners and a means to address the current issues of workforce planning.


Objective. To evaluate the measurement properties of 21-numbered circle visual analog scales (VAS) and traditional 10-cm horizontal line VAS for physician and parent subjective ratings in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Methods. We studied 2 patient samples in whom physician global rating of overall disease activity, parent global rating of the child's overall well-being, and parent rating of intensity of child's pain were performed using traditional 10-cm horizontal line VAS (n = 397) or 21-numbered circle VAS (n = 471). The measurement performances of the 2 VAS formats were examined by assessing construct validity, score distribution, responsiveness to change over time, and minimal clinically important difference (MCID). Results. Most Spearman correlations with other JIA outcome measures yielded by 21-numbered circle VAS were greater than those obtained with 10-cm horizontal line VAS, revealing that the circle VAS format has better construct validity. Ceiling effects (i.e., score = 0) for physician and parent global ratings were 43.7% and 32.9%, respectively, on 21-numbered circle VAS, and 31.6% and 35.3%, respectively, on 10-cm horizontal line VAS. Responsiveness of 21-numbered circle VAS was good (standardized response mean > 0.8) or moderate (standardized response mean > 0.6) among patients classified as improved or worsened, respectively, by the physician or the parent. Overall, MCID values for 21-numbered circle VAS tended to be greater for worsening than for improvement. Conclusion. The 21-numbered circle VAS are a suitable alternative to the 10-cm horizontal line VAS and may facilitate incorporation of physician and parent subjective ratings in standard clinical practice.


The fractional Poisson field (fPf) is constructed by considering the number of balls falling down on each point of $\mathbb R^D$, when the centers and the radii of the balls are thrown at random following a Poisson point process in $\mathbb R^D\times \mathbb R^+$ with an appropriate intensity measure. It provides a simple description for a non Gaussian random field that is centered, has stationary increments and has the same covariance function as the fractional Brownian field (fBf). The present paper is concerned with specific properties of the fPf, comparing them to their analogues for the fBf. On the one hand, we concentrate on the finite-dimensional distributions which reveal strong differences between the Gaussian world of the fBf and the Poissonnian world of the fPf. We provide two different representations for the marginal distributions of the fPf: as a Chentsov field, and on a regular grid in $\mathbb R^D$ with a numerical procedure for simulations. On the other hand, we prove that the Hurst index estimator based on quadratic variations which is commonly used for the fBf is still strongly consistent for the fPf. However the computations for the proof are very different from the usual ones.


Background: There are limited studies available that examine the epidemiology of children and adolescents admitted with orthopaedic injuries in developing countries. Several unique factors in South Africa, such as a large socio-economic divide and a public health sector with limited resources, are suggested to influence injury patterns and fracture management. The data emanating from this study may play a role in identifying potential preventative measures. The aims of the study were to determine the age, sex, duration of admission, aetiology and management regimen of paediatric and adolescent patients admitted with fractures in a South African provincial hospital.
Patients and methods: We did a cross-sectional review of medical records for the period 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2017 at a South African provincial hospital. Convenience sampling was done, and demographic and clinical data was collected from patient records. All patients younger than 18 years at the time of injury who were admitted with fractures of the limbs, pelvis or spine were included. Patients with incomplete clinical records were excluded.
Results: A total of 731 patients were admitted during this period. After excluding patients with incomplete records, 526 (72%) were included in the study. From these records we found a higher percentage of males admitted (73%) and the average age was 7.72 years. The average duration of admission was 8.59 days. A fall on ground level was the most common mechanism of injury (70.0%), followed by pedestrian vehicle accidents (12.2%). The most frequently fractured regions were the forearm (36.4%), humerus (26.5%) and femur (18.9%). Multiple fractures were sustained by 2.4% and additional non-skeletal injuries were sustained by 2.9%. There was one fatality: a patient who presented with gunshot trauma.
Conclusion: Despite fall-related injuries being the most common cause for admission, pedestrian vehicle accident prevention can have the greatest effect on admissions. They require significantly longer hospitalisation and present more frequently with additional injuries. By implementing safety strategies and improving road infrastructure, we can theoretically decrease the number of serious paediatric admissions.
Level of evidence: Level 4


3 ABSTRACT: An improved RF-dc converter based on a class-E rectifier with wide-dynamic-range input matching is presented. The input impedance is controlled by two varactor diodes to compensate for impedance changes with RF input power and dc loading conditions. The RF-dc converter achieved a peak efficiency of 60% and an S11 less than −20 dB over an input RF power range of 12 dB and an operating battery voltage of 2.5-4.2 V at 800 MHz. An analytical model for input impedance and efficiency was developed and shown to match simulation and measurement results.


The combination of time-dependent d. functional theory (TDDFT) for the description of excited states with a hybrid quantum mechanics/mol. mechanics (QM/MM) approach enables the study of photochem. processes in complex environments. Here, we present a short overview of recent applications of TDDFT/MM approaches to a variety of systems including studies of the optical properties of prototypical org. and inorg. mols. in gas phase and soln., photoinduced electron transfer reactions in donor-bridge-acceptor complexes, and in situ investigations of the mol. mechanisms of photoactive proteins. The application of TDDFT/MM techniques to a wide range of systems enables an assessment of the current performance and limitations of these methods for the characterization of photochem. processes in complex systems. [on SciFinder (R)]


Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder and cause of functional disability. ET is known as a monosymptomatic, pure motor system disease. This interpretation of ET has been questioned in the last decade. Non-motor symptoms have added to the definition of the disease. In autopsy studies, it has been reported that Lewy bodies are common in the locus coeruleus, which is known to have an active role in sleep. Previous research about sleep in ET has studied older patients. Sleep disturbances are common in older adults. Our study focused on younger patients who had the disease for a shorter period of time. 40 patients (24.9 ± 7.0 years old) and 28 controls were recruited for the study. Sleep quality was evaluated with the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) was evaluated with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). For assessing the possible impact of depression and anxiety on sleep we used the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Beck Anxiety Scale (BAS). We ruled out other possible causes of tremor. Tremor was evaluated using the Fahn Tolosa Marin Tremor Rating Scale (FTM-TRS). We concluded that although ET patients had bad sleep quality, this might be associated with increased anxiety levels. Mean ESS scores were higher in the patient group, but this was not statistically significant.


Promotion of physical activity must be a priority in all modern societies, but there are some persons with medical conditions that can develop serious symptoms associated with sports, that can even be fatal, such as sudden death (SD). Adolescents are the age groups with the higher level of participation in recreation or competitive sports. International studies have demonstrated that approximately 1:250.000 adolescents die during the practice of sports. Of these, 50% had a prodrome 24 hours before the event and 75% had an underlying cardiovascular disease. Therefore, adolescents should be screened for cardiovascular diseases prior to their engagement in sports. This review gives a scientific approach to this issue, usually oversized by mass media. It also analyzes and reports international governmental strategies and practical tools for the clinician that must perform this type of screening.


Background: The anterolateral ligament (ALL) has been proposed as a primary restraint for knee rotational stability. However, the data remain inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the ALL and the iliotibial band (ITB) on knee rotational stability. Methods: A 6-degrees-of-freedom robotic simulator was used to test 14 fresh-frozen cadaveric knee specimens. There were 4 testing conditions: intact, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-sectioned, ACL and ALL or ITB-sectioned (determined at random), and ACL and both ALL and ITB-sectioned. Lateral, central, and medial tibiofemoral compartment translations and internal tibial rotations were measured under 100-N anterior drawer (Lachman), 5-Nm internal rotation torque, and 2 pivot-shift simulations (Pivot Shift 1 was 5 Nm of internal rotation torque, and Pivot Shift 2 was 1 Nm of internal rotation torque). Statistical equivalence within 2 mm and 2° was defined as p < 0.05. Results: Sectioning the ACL alone produced increased pivot shift and Lachman compartment translations (p > 0.05). Further sectioning of either the ALL or the ITB separately produced minor added increases in pivot-shift compartment translations and tibial internal rotations (<2 mm or <3°) in the ACL-deficient knee. Sectioning both the ALL and ITB produced increases not equivalent to the ACL-deficient knee in pivot-shift lateral compartment translations (4.4 mm; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7 to 6.1 mm [p = 0.99] for Pivot Shift 1 and 4.3 mm; 95% CI, 2.6 to 6.0 mm [p = 0.99] for Pivot Shift 2), with 10 of 14 knees being converted to a corresponding Grade-3 pivot-shift (>20 mm of lateral translation). Increases in internal rotation after ALL and ITB sectioning occurred at 25°, 60°, and 90° (p = 0.99 for all) and ranged from 1° to 12°, with 21% of the knees having 8° to 12° increases. Conclusions: With ACL sectioning, a positive pivot-shift anterior subluxation occurred even with intact ALL and ITB structures, which indicates that the latter are not primary restraints but function together as anterolateral secondary restraints. With ACL deficiency, concurrent loss of the ALL and ITB resulted in conversion in a majority of knees (71%) to a Grade-3 pivot-shift subluxation, along with major increases of internal rotation in select knees. Clinical Relevance: With ACL rupture, major increases in rotational instability are not adequately resisted by native ALL or ITB structures. Therefore, anatomic ALL or ITB surgical reconstruction would not block a positive pivot shift. The potential protective effects of ACL graft-unloading from these structures require further study.


Dissertation
Submitted to the University of Gezira in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in Community Health Nursing Department of Nursing Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences 2016


Aim: To present the report of a female patient, 10 years old, referred for treatment in the Dentistry Clinic of a Brazilian public university. Case report: The patient's oral health condition was unfavorable with biofilm accumulation, pain report and chewing difficulty. After anamnesis, clinical and radiographic examination, the treatment plan included removal of infectious foci (54, 55, 64, 65, 74, 75, 85, 16, 36 and 46) followed by prosthetic rehabilitation. At this stage, the functional restoration of the lower arch was restricted by the imminent eruption of the premolars. In the upper arch, the maintenance of the mesio-distal diameters aims to guarantee the chronological sequence of successors irruption and establishment of normal occlusion. During the monthly follow-up consultations the patient presents a more spontaneous smile, although she still needs constant reinforcement in oral hygiene habits. Conclusions: The rehabilitation of patients with loss of permanent teeth during the mixed dentition phase should consider the peculiarities of this period for the restoration of health without altering the normal pattern of occlusal development.


Readers of A Rhetoric of Motives often acknowledge Burke's anti-feminist blind spots, but argue that these blind spots need not negate his larger contributions to rhetorical theory. While true, this claim is also dangerous because it assumes that identifying an argumentative blind spot is tantamount to having worked through all its complexities. This article attempts to work through these complexities via a method of mythic historiography grounded in Burke's concept of the almost universal. This article demonstrates that Burke organizes his philosophy of modern rhetoric and his concept of identification around a deceitful Woman trope in ways that claim a universality that is actually gendered male. By reimagining the relation of identification and myth in A Rhetoric of Motives this article refigures the deceitful Woman trope in terms of its unassimilability within Burke's modern philosophy of rhetoric and discusses implications for rhetorical studies.


The rise in global cases of emergencies as a result of man-made and natural disaster, necessitates the need for a robust and reliable means of communication networks. The partial or complete, disruption of telecommunications infrastructure as a result of disaster has caused delays in emergency response and disaster relief efforts, leading to loss of lives and damage to properties. Although, modern telecommunications networks have reliability and resiliency to physical damage, however, the risks associated with communications failures remain a major issue as the severity of the damages may depend on the underlying technologies and architecture used. It is however important to also note that each technology option available for public safety network has its own unique characteristics. Some of these options are widely deployed for commercial purposes in Nigeria, while others are still in the developmental stages. This paper therefore outlines some of the existing, new and affordable technological options, available today that can be deployed for public safety and disaster telecommunications networks in Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper recommends that the national broadband network plan needs to be aligned to the current commercial deployments of the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless services, this is to ensure that the pace is maintained with the changes in the technology and leveraging cost efficiencies for the public safety networks.


Abstract The helium-cooled plate-type divertor can reduce the number of divertor modules while accommodating heat fluxes q" up to 10 MW/m2 incident on tungsten-alloy armor. Dynamically similar experimental studies were performed to evaluate the thermal performance of variants of this divertor design at conditions that spanned the prototypical operating Reynolds number Re of 3.3 × 104. In the studies, a jet of air issuing from 0.5 mm and 2 mm wide slots impinged on and cooled a heated planar surface 2 mm away from the slot, then flowed through either a 2 mm wide channel or an array of cylindrical pin fins. The studies indicate that the fins, which increase the cooled surface area by a factor of 3.76, increase the effective heat transfer coefficient (HTC) by as much as 160% at a relatively modest increase in pressure drop of less than 40%. These experimental results were used to determine the thermal performance of the actual plate design with helium cooling under prototypical conditions. Although the benefit of the fins is reduced because the fin efficiency decreases as the HTC increases, the predictions suggest that the fins could increase the maximum q" that can be accommodated by this design to ˜18 MW/m2. Alternatively, for a given heat flux (e.g. 10 MW/m2), adding fins could allow operation of the divertor at lower coolant flow rates, and hence pumping powers.


The adoption and use of information communication technologies (JCT) by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a major step towards value creation in any economy. It has a major strategic impact on the SMEs. The purpose of this study was to investigate determinants of lCT adoption and use by SMEs in Kenya. This study was guided by the following three specific objectives. First is to establish organizational characteristics that determine the adoption of lCT by SMEs. Secondly it is to investigate organizational environment that influence adoption of lCT by SMEs. Thirdly to investigate lCT characteristics that influence adoption of lCT by SMEs in Kenya. The research design which was adopted in order to meet the objectives of the study was descriptive in nature focusing on SMEs in Kenya. A sample of one hundred SMEs drawn from Thika Municipality was involved in the study. Stratified random sampling technique was used in this study. The study data was collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher and administered with the help of a trained research assistant. The data was analyzed through descriptive, relational, inferential statistics with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 17.0). This included calculating measures of central tendency and standard deviations. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe and summarize the data. Finally the researcher conducted a multiple regression analysis to determine the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable. This study will make pertinent contribution to the existing literature and inspire managers/owners of SMEs, donors, government and policy makers to come up 'with appropriate strategies on how to adopt ICT in SMEs. The adoption of lCT in Kenya is relatively low hence there are still many factors that I' , need to be considered other than the one investigated in this study. This includes benefits ofICT adoption by SMEs which influence adoption and other environmental factors such as politics, economic and cultural factors that influence lCT adoption by SMEs.


In the sustainable organic waste management context, this study was carried out to explore the potential of easily available composts and organic by-products for Pinus halepensis forestry in Mediterranean areas. The study consisted in four experiments using locally abundant organic waste: experiments I and IV evaluated their suitability as fertilizers for nurseries and pine replanting respectively; experiment II considered vermicompost efficiency as a root-growth promoter; experiment III assessed the aptitude of organic waste as a component of forestry substrates. Different plant measurements, morphological attributes and analytical determinations were used to assess seedling quality and to evaluate substrates and fertilizers' aptitude. Fertilization experiments run under nursery conditions showed that organic waste produced plantlets with similar morphological and nutritional states to mineral products with good quality standards. In pine replanting, organic fertilization clearly increased soil organic matter levels, enhancing soil nutritional and structural conditions. When evaluating different mixtures as substrate, no large differences appeared among treatments, except for the seedlings grown in virgin or recycled coconut fiber, where greater aerial development was achieved. Further research is needed to comprehend why the use of vermicompost as a root-growth promoter did not produce the expected effects. The obtained results indicate that organic by-products and composts can substitute the mineral fertilizers and substrates usually employed in the Mediterranean Region in P. halepensis forestry to contribute to develop a local circular economy.


The variation with altitude of the infrared solar spectrum in the 4.5-µm region was observed with a balloon-borne spectrometer. Line-by-line–layer-by-layer analysis of the N2O absorption lines in this region yields a detailed N2O mixing-ratio altitude profile up to ~20 km. The results show a nearly constant mixing ratio of ~0.33 ppm from 3 to 12 km followed by a gradual decrease to ~0.15 ppm near 19 km. The mixing ratio is estimated to be <0.01 ppm above 20 km.


The objective of this dissertation is to develop speech processing methods that enable the modification of a speaker's accent without altering their identity. We envision accent conversion primarily as a tool for pronunciation training, allowing non-native speakers to hear their native-accented selves. With this application in mind, we present two methods of accent conversion. The first assumes that the voice quality/identity of speech resides in the glottal excitation, while the linguistic content is contained in the vocal tract transfer function. Accent conversion is achieved by convolving the glottal excitation of a non-native speaker with the vocal tract transfer function of a native speaker. The result is perceived as 60% less accented, but it is no longer identified as the same individual. The second method of accent conversion selects segments of speech from a corpus of non-native speech based on their acoustic or articulatory similarity to segments from a native speaker. We predict that articulatory features provide a more speaker-independent representation of speech and are therefore better gauges of linguistic similarity across speakers. To test this hypothesis, we collected a custom database containing simultaneous recordings of speech and the positions of important articulators (e.g. lips, jaw, tongue) for a native and non-native speaker. Resequencing speech from a non-native speaker based on articulatory similarity with a native speaker achieved a 20% reduction in accent. The approach is particularly appealing for applications in pronunciation training because it modifies speech in a way that produces realistically achievable changes in accent (i.e., since the technique uses sounds already produced by the non-native speaker).
A second contribution of this dissertation is the development of subjective and objective measures to assess the performance of accent conversion systems. This is a difficult problem because, in most cases, no ground truth exists. Subjective evaluation is further complicated by the interconnected relationship between accent and identity, but modifications of the stimuli (i.e. reverse speech and voice disguises) allow the two components to be separated. Algorithms to measure objectively accent, quality, and identity are shown to correlate well with their subjective counterparts.


In causal analyses, conditioning on a collider generally results in selection bias. Conditioning on a prognostic factor that is independent of the exposure—and therefore is not a collider—can also result in selection bias when 1) the exposure has a non-null effect on the outcome and 2) the association between the noncollider and the outcome is heterogenous across levels of the exposure. This result was empirically demonstrated by Greenland in 1977 (Am J Epidemiol. 1977;106(3):184–187).


The thermoplastic polymer components are used in new domains and the evaluation of their characteristics in specific conditions represents a new actuality domain. The experimental program realized on polyethylene sample pipes type PE 80, SDR 11 GAS, Æ160x15.5 mm had the objective to present the imperfection noxiousness of the geometric configuration, respectively the different dimensions and to define the influence of those to the safety in exploitation of the transport networks and to the industrial distribution of the fluids under pressure (water, natural gases, etc). A hybrid TT-IRT test method is used, combining the tensile test (TT) and the Infrared Thermography (IRT) method. The temperature distribution of the material is monitored under loading conditions with different rates. The noxiousness of the geometric discontinuity is analyzed by the local losses of resistance following the local heating in the imperfection areas. The results obtained are used in design calculus for the materials quality levels in specified safety conditions for the fluids transport networks.


Good governance is a desire for all parties, either bureaucrats or the public. The governance quality served by the bureaucrats strongly determines the public satisfaction which will directly influence the institution. One of the important factors to give a good and more maximum service to the public is the easy acces for the public to the Central Government as well as connectivity to the other city/area. The location determination of District Capital candidate broadly influences the development of the city itself even to its district development.
Based on the same cases of the determination of new capital location in some districts in Indonesia, after the choosing of District Capital relocation, not all processes run successfully. Some have successful urban and regional development as well as its function as the center of governance, center of service and growth. Yet some other areas face the contrary. For this reason, evaluation and research upon the criteria indicator of determining candidates of District Capital to support the successfulness of District Capital needed, which is seen through urban activity system, urban development, regional development, as well as its ability to be well functioned as center of governance, center of service, and center of growth.
This research aims to evaluate the indicators of the criteria of District Capital as well as how to apply the indicators to the candidate of North Sukabumi Capital Districts at Cibadak Sub-District, Sukabumi District. The goal to reach in order to realize this study is by conducting evaluation and research upon the criteria to determine a new Capital District in some districts after the determination of Capital District relocation. Then, identify and analyze the indicator of the criteria of the candidate of Capital District at Cibadak Sub-District as a candidate of the Capital District for North Sukabumi District. After that, it is to formulate recommendations leading to a further preparedness of Cibadak Sub-District.
The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative analysis method by using constant comparative method and case study. The analysis conducted is evaluating new Capital in some districts after determining Capital District relocation. The constant comparative method is used to then formulate it as the indicators of criteria for candidate of Capital District to be applied in Cibadak Sub-District, Sukabumi District as a candidate for new Capital District.
The conclusion drawn from the research is that the determination of Capital District location is vital to a district successfulness. Furthermore, the aspects included in the indicators of the criteria of Capital District candidate are important to determine the candidate of Capital District. From the conducted analysis, Cibadak Sub-District, Sukabumi District has been qualified enough as a candidate of new District Capital.
Main recommendation given based on the research is for Central Government to formulate guidelines in determining Capital District location to avoid different perception from the Lokal Government in implementing its Regional Assesment as the realization of PP. No. 78 (2007). Furthermore, this research can be used as a guideline to determine a District Capital Candidate.

Keywords: evaluation, indicator criteria for candidate Capital District.


We propose a generative model for text and other collections of discrete data that generalizes or improves on several previous models including naive Bayes/unigram, mixture of unigrams [6], and Hofmann's aspect model , also known as probabilistic latent semantic indexing (pLSI) [3]. In the context of text modeling, our model posits that each document is generated as a mixture of topics, where the continuous-valued mixture proportions are distributed as a latent Dirichlet random variable. Inference and learning are carried out efficiently via variational algorithms. We present empirical results on applications of this model to problems in text modeling, collaborative filtering, and text classification.


A study measured the drill resistances of larch and Scotch pine by a drill resistance technique and compared the densities of the same specimens measured with a traditional volumetric method. The drill resistance technique was found to be a good measure of the density profile of wood to reflect tree rings and defects (knots, decay and hollows). The drill resistance technique as applied to pines uses a linear relationship between the wood density and the average drill resistance. This technique has the applicability and possibility as a possible method for the density measurement and the defects detection. The technique is rapid, inexpensive, safe, portable and has the potential to be adopted as an on-line density profile method.


: The female adolescent period rivals the menopausal years as a most tumultuous interval. Hormonal changes account for many dermatoses not seen in older women. Vulvar problems that commonly affect the adolescent are discussed in reference to the pathophysiology which may induce these changes. The hormonal milium at this time period is emphasized. A concise grouping of disease processes, as well as a description, clue to diagnosis, and treatment of each entity is presented.


Recently, it has been observed an increasing popularization of video sharing environments. Part of such success is due to the change on the user perspective from content consumer to content creator, basic principle of the Web 2.0. Thus, video service providers are dealing with different challenges, such as content storage, performance and scalability of servers, personalization, and service differentiation.  In this context, it is crucial to understand the characteristics of requests that arrive on these servers and the patterns of user navigation on these interactive systems. This work addresses these aspects. Through the analysis of a video service workload from UOL, the largest content provider of Latin America, we present a complete characterization of user sessions, their requests to the server, and their navigation profile. Such analyses are important not only to generate synthetic workload, but also to project and create new infra-structures to video sharing systems. Our results show that there are different users profiles and also provide a better understanding of the user access pattern on video sharing systems.


In this paper, inflation dynamics in the United Kingdom are re-examined. Standard specifications of traditional Phillips curves have tended to overpredict inflation in the recent low inflation, low unemployment era in the United States, the United Kingdom and the euro area. This has stimulated the 'New Phillips Curve' approach, which has had success for the United States and the euro area, both less open economies than the United Kingdom. The paper is divided into two parts. First, the overprediction problem is documented for the United Kingdom, and an attempt is made to solve it in a traditional Phillips curve framework by introducing external shocks (terms of trade shocks or domestically generated inflation). This does not fully solve the problem. It is argued that there is a further misspecification problem with traditional Phillips curve estimates, due to the presence of the regime changes and structural change in the UK economy. Second, 'New Phillips Curve' estimates are examined. They perform badly; real marginal cost is not significant in the baseline specification. The relationship between marginal cost and inflation disappears in the mid-1980s. When a labour share measure is used, real marginal cost becomes significant, but goodness of fit based on fundamental inflation remains poor. The 'New Phillips Curve' model is then extended to allow for open economy influences, taking into account imported intermediate goods. This is found to mitigate substantially the breakdown of the relationship between inflation and marginal cost. Fit improves, but a tendency to underpredict and then overpredict inflation remains. Finally, the open-economy measure of marginal cost is decomposed. The wage mark-up component is important and highly countercyclical. Relative price movements, of taxes relative to overall prices and of imported intermediate goods relative to wages, are found to have been a negative influence on marginal costs over the 1990s. Understanding likely future developments in these relative prices could contribute to the assessment of prospects for marginal costs and the pressures on inflation.


The specificity, the potency, and the duration of action of [1-(beta-mercapto-beta, beta-cyclopentamethylenepropionic acid) 2-(O-methyl)tyrosine]arginine-vasopressin[d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)AVP] to antagonize pressor responses to arginine vasopressin (AVP) was examined in pentobarbital-anaesthetized rats. Injection of the compound (4 micrograms.kg-1 i.v.) prevented pressor responses to i.v. infusions of supramaximal doses of AVP, but not to i.v. infusions of another peptide, angiotensin II (Ag II). The antagonism of AVP persisted for at least 3 h. Since i.v. injection of the compound in the absence of exogenous administration of AVP did not cause any change in the arterial pressure of rats, it appears that the compound is devoid of agonistic pressor activity. The results show that d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)AVP is a potent and a specific antagonist of pressor responses to AVP.


Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) have been heretofore implicated in the induction of osteoblast differentiation from uncommitted progenitors during embryonic skeletogenesis and fracture healing. We have tested the hypothesis that BMPs are also involved in the osteoblastogenesis that takes place in the bone marrow in postnatal life. To do this, we took advantage of the properties of noggin, a recently discovered protein that binds BMP‐2 and −4 and blocks their action. Addition of human recombinant noggin to bone marrow cell cultures from normal adult mice inhibited both osteoblast and osteoclast formation; these effects were reversed by exogenous BMP‐2. Consistent with these findings, BMP‐2 and −4 and BMP‐2/4 receptor transcripts and proteins were detected in these primary cultures, in a bone marrow–derived stromal/osteoblastic cell line, as well as in murine adult whole bone; noggin expression was also documented in all these preparations. Moreover, addition of antinoggin antibody caused an increase in osteoblast progenitor formation. These findings suggest that BMP‐2 and −4 are expressed in the bone marrow in postnatal life and serve to maintain the continuous supply of osteoblasts and osteoclasts; and that, in fact, BMP‐2/4‐induced commitment to the osteoblastic lineage is a prerequisite for osteoclast development. Hence, BMPs, perhaps in balance with noggin and possibly other antagonists, may provide the tonic baseline control of the rate of bone remodeling on which other inputs (e.g., hormonal, biomechanical, etc.) operate.


Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR) is a semantic representation for naturalMeaning Representation (AMR) is a semantic representation for natural language that embeds annotations related to traditional tasks such as named entity recognition, semantic role labeling, word sense disambiguation and co-reference resolution. We describe a transition-based parser for AMR that parses sentences leftto-right, in linear time. We further propose a test-suite that assesses specific subtasks that are helpful in comparing AMR parsers, and show that our parser is competitive with the state of the art on the LDC2015E86 dataset and that it outperforms state-of-the-art parsers for recovering named entities and handling polarity.


A significant amount of research effort has been dedicated to learning prediction models that allow project managers to efficiently allocate resources to those parts of a software system that most likely are bug-prone and therefore critical. Prominent measures for building bug prediction models are product measures, e.g., complexity or process measures, such as code churn. Code churn in terms of lines modified (LM) and past changes turned out to be significant indicators of bugs. However, these measures are rather imprecise and do not reflect all the detailed changes of particular source code entities during maintenance activities. In this paper, we explore the advantage of using fine-grained source code changes (SCC) for bug prediction. SCC captures the exact code changes and their semantics down to statement level. We present a series of experiments using different machine learning algorithms with a dataset from the Eclipse platform to empirically evaluate the performance of SCC and LM. The results show that SCC outperforms LM for learning bug prediction models.


Background: The risk to dentists, dental assistants, and patients of infectious diseases through aerosols has long been recognized. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of commercially available preprocedural mouthrinses containing 0.2% chlorhexidine (CHX) gluconate, chlorine dioxide (ClO 2 ) mouthwash, and water in reducing the levels of viable bacteria in aerosols. Materials and Methods: This single-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled, three-group parallel-designed study was conducted over a period of 4 months. One hundred twenty patients with chronic periodontitis were divided randomly into three groups (A, B, and C) of 40 patients each to receive the ClO 2 mouthwash, water, and 0.2% CHX gluconate respectively as preprocedural rinse. The aerosol produced by the ultrasonic unit was collected at five standardized locations with respect to the reference point, i.e., the mouth of the patient. The blood agar plates were incubated at 37°C for 48 h, and the total number of colony-forming units (CFUs) was counted and statistically analyzed. Results: The results showed that CFUs in groups A and C were significantly reduced compared to group B, and P 0.05). The numbers of CFUs were the highest at the patient's chest area and lowest at the patient's front i.e., the 6 o'clock position. Conclusion: This study proves that a regular preprocedural mouthrinse could significantly eliminate the majority of aerosols generated by the use of an ultrasonic unit, and that ClO 2 mouthrinse was found to be statistically equally effective in reducing the aerosol contamination to 0.2% CHX gluconate.


Nucleotides, released from cells during inflammation and by mechanical stimulation, act through the P2 family of nucleotide receptors. Previous studies have demonstrated the expression of P2Y1 and P2Y2 receptors in osteoclasts. The aim of this study was to determine whether osteoclast P2Y receptors signal through NF-κB, a key transcription factor regulating osteoclastogenesis. Immunofluorescence was used to detect the p65 subunit of NF-κB, which upon activation translocates from the cytosol to nuclei. Low levels of NF-κB activation were observed in untreated rabbit osteoclasts and in those exposed to 2-methylthio ADP (P2Y1 agonist) or ATP or UTP (P2Y2 agonists). In contrast, UDP or INS48823 (P2Y6 agonists) induced a significant increase in the number of cells exhibiting NF-κB activation, a process sensitive to the proteasome inhibitor lactacystin. In osteoclasts purified by micromanipulation, reverse transcription-PCR revealed the presence of P2Y1, P2Y2, and P2Y6 receptor transcripts, and application of agonists for these receptors induced the transient rise of cytosolic calcium. Treatment of rat osteoclasts with UDP or INS48823, but not 2-methylthio ADP or UTP, increased osteoclast survival. Osteoprotegerin (a decoy receptor for RANK ligand) did not significantly alter the effects of UDP on NF-κB localization or osteoclast survival, consistent with a direct action. Moreover, SN50 (cell-permeable peptide inhibitor of NF-κB) suppressed the enhancement of cell survival induced by UDP and INS48823. Our findings demonstrate the presence of functional P2Y6 receptors in osteoclasts. Thus, nucleotides, following their release at sites of inflammation and mechanical stimulation, can act through P2Y6 receptors to initiate NF-κB signaling and enhance osteoclast survival.


This article examines Welsh young people's "performance" and construction of their bilingualism with the help of empirically grounded conversation analysis (CA) and performativity theory grounded in poststructuralism. Some of the incompatibilities, particularly conversation analysts' narrow conception of context are resolved with reference to dialogical theory. It is argued with the help of video-recorded empirical data that a fine-grained analysis using CA is able to trace the emergence of varying bilingual identities as well as the negotiation of meaning in situ. To take the analysis beyond single situated actions, however, it is argued that we need recourse to the broader situation-transcending constructs offered, for example, by dialogical and performativity theory.


Political theory of European union, through an engagement between political concepts and theoretical understandings, provides a means of identifying the EU as a political object. It is argued that understanding the projects, processes and products of European union, based on 'sharing' or 'communion', provides a better means of perceiving the EU as a political object rather than terms such as 'integration' or 'co-operation'. The concept of 'European communion' is defined as the 'subjective sharing of relationships', understood as the extent to which individuals or groups believe themselves to be sharing relations (or not), and the consequences of these beliefs for European political projects, processes and products. By exploring European communion through an engagement with contemporary political theory, using very brief illustrations from the Treaty of Lisbon, the article also suggests that European communion embraces three different readings of the EU as a political object – the EU as a constellation of communities; as a cosmopolitan space; and as an example of cosmopolitical co-existence. In other words, the political object of European union may be identified as sharing 'European communion'.


It is demonstrated theoretically that the quantum well (QW) semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) with high differential gain will show fast gain recovery dynamic characteristics. Based on the calculation of energy band structure, the effects of compressive strain and p-type modulation doping on the gain, the differential gain, and linewidth enhancement factor (a-factor) are investigated. The peak of the differential gain spectrum shifts to longer wavelength, and the peak value is significantly enhanced by increasing compressive strain. Meanwhile the gain is obviously increased by increasing the p-type modulation doping concentration. By comparing the gain and phase recovery dynamics in three different types of SOA samples, it is shown that the QW SOA with highest differential gain has the shortest gain recovery time among the three samples.


In this paper, I attempt to amalgamate the study of leverage-ratio performance with the monitoring decisions of a profit-maximizing bank. Applying tools used in studying the industrial organization of banking, my paper serves as a first step to tying the performance differences between the leverage and risk-based constraints to the more fundamental issue of monitoring. Does a bank faced with a leveragebased capital constraint monitor its loans better than a bank under a risk-based capital constraint? In a market that is characterized by a dominant bank and fringe banks, I seek to understand if the dominant bank monitors its loan when faced with a Basel III–style leverage ratio. The results show that under certain parameter ranges, the dominant bank will monitor its portfolio when faced with a leverage-based capital constraint. The results also show that the dominant bank will not monitor its portfolio when faced with a risk-based capital constraint.


Stability is indispensable to haptic interfaces for the simulation of a large variety of virtual environments. On a multi-degree of freedom (multi-DOF) haptic device, the passivity condition must be satisfied in both end-effector and joint space to achieve stable interaction. In this study, a conservative passivity condition is utilized for the stability such that guaranteeing the passivity at all joints is a sufficient condition for the passivity and then stability of the whole haptic system. An optimal posture control algorithm is developed to satisfy this passivity condition and maximize the stability performance of a redundant haptic device. The algorithm optimally adjusts the device postures, which are estimated by a Golden Section Search algorithm. The proposed control algorithm was experimentally implemented on a virtual sphere by using a 7-DOF redundant haptic device. Z-width stability metric was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results show that the optimal posture control approach significantly improves the stability of the redundant haptic devices.


ABSTRACT Brittle deformation, together with grain rearrangement and ductile grain deformation, is a key mechanism of compaction in sandstones. Quartz cementation, by virtue of its impact on sandstone mechanical properties, is expected to affect the compaction progress by these various mechanisms. Sandstone samples of different ages and compositions, taken from two basins with contrasting burial histories, are used to quantify the relationship between brittle deformation and quartz cementation in the context of burial compaction. Exponential trends of increasing deformation by microfracturing are observed in both the lithic-rich Frio Formation from the Gulf of Mexico basin (r2 = 0.81) and in the quartz-rich Mount Simon Formation from the Illinois basin (r2 = 0.78). The two formations contrast in terms of the observed rate of grain fracture increase with depth. A larger number of quartz grains in the Mount Simon Formation undergo fracturing at shallow burial ( 3 km) a larger number of quartz grains are fractured in the Frio sandstones. Cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging conducted on an SEM shows that grain fracturing and subsequent cementation of fractures by quartz can occur before, during, and after normal quartz overgrowth precipitation, although fracturing is generally concurrent with cementation. The intensity of brittle deformation for a single fractured grain is independent of depth, as illustrated by plotting the ratio of the number of particles in fractured grains versus depth (r2 = 0.21 for Frio and 0.03 for Mount Simon), suggesting that, once fractured, grains do not tend to become the locus of subsequent fracturing. Apparent fracture apertures in the Frio grains are slightly wider (average 5 µm) than in Mount Simon grains (average measurable aperture width 4 µm). Quartz grains in the Frio have a variety of fracture morphologies, including wedge-shaped apertures, intense comminution at grain contacts, and grains with exploded fabrics. Apparent fracture apertures in Mount Simon grains are thinner and transect grains as straight, uniform traces. Differences in fracture intensity and pattern are attributed to the fact that cementation in the Frio began at greater depth than cementation in the Mount Simon. Combining information on the degree of brittle deformation and the amount of quartz cement localized within microfractures (here referred to as Cf or volume of intragranular cement) allows calculation of the amount that brittle deformation influences compaction. In the Frio Formation, 0.12 to 8.37% of porosity loss due to compaction can be attributed to brittle deformation, whereas the values for the Mount Simon Formation lie between 0.25 to 2.16%. The larger values within both formations are affiliated with deeper samples in which a majority of grains manifest fracturing.


The addition of a constriction in the melt flow path of high pressure die castings is discussed in terms of its influence on modifications to mechanical properties. It is shown through experimentation that the ultimate tensile strength and elongation to fracture of as-cast tensile specimens increased when the melt flowed through a constricted path. It is proposed that defect-forming inclusions were disintegrated more efficiently in the constricted runner through increased strain rates and turbulent dissipation rates. Increased turbulence is also presumed to be the cause for the greater dispersion of defects. The suggestions are supported with calculations aided by computational fluid dynamics simulations.


Summary: Purpose: Investigators have shown that the presence of ictal spiking (IS) recorded from temporal depth electrodes is associated with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). We investigated the relation of IS to seizure control and pathology after anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL). Methods: All patients undergoing intracranial ictal monitoring from a single institution since 1989 were identified. Those who did not undergo ATL or had postoperative follow-up of <I year were excluded. All received at a minimum bilateral temporal depth electrodes. Ictal recordings were reviewed for the presence of IS, and the proportion of seizures with IS was determined for each patient. Outcome was determined by using Engel's classification. Surgical specimens were reviewed for pathology. Statistics used were x2, Fisher exact test, and Wilcoxon rank sum. Results: Forty patients with 571 seizures were reviewed. In 292 seizures from 32 patients, IS was seen. Outcomes were 24 class I (22 with IS), five class I1 (four with IS), three class 111 (one with IS), seven class IV (four with IS), and one lost to follow-up (with IS). Pathologic review revealed 25 with MTS, 22 of whom had IS. The presence of IS was associated with class I outcomes (p = 0.04), but not MTS (p = 0.06). Patients with class I outcomes had a significantly greater proportion of seizures with IS (mean, 0.58 & 0.3) compared with other outcomes (mean, 0.30 +. 0.3, p = 0.02). Conclusions: The presence of IS and higher proportion of seizures with IS correlated with good seizure outcome after ATL. This information may be used in preoperative counseling.


A novel nanocomposite films was prepared by dispersing SiO2 nanoparticles in aqueous konjac glucomanan (KGM) solution. The structure and miscibility of the nanocomposite materials were determined finely by viscosimetry, Fourier transformed infrared spectra (FTIR), micropolariscope (POM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (UV-Vis). The results indicated that there was a strong interaction between KGM and SiO2 in ethanolamine. The miscibility and ultraviolet-absorption properties of KGM/SiO2 nanoparticles blend film were improved by ball milling treatment. Moreover, the ultraviolet absorption and tensile strength of the nanocomposite films rapidly increase with the increase of SiO2, while breaking elongation of the nanocomposite films slightly decreased.


When a computational task tolerates a relaxation of its specification or when an algorithm tolerates the effects of noise in its execution, hardware, system software, and programming language compilers or their runtime systems can trade deviations from correct behavior for lower resource usage. We present, for the first time, a synthesis of research results on computing systems that only make as many errors as their end-to-end applications can tolerate. The results span the disciplines of computer-aided design of circuits, digital system design, computer architecture, programming languages, operating systems, and information theory. Rather than over-provisioning the resources controlled by each of these layers of abstraction to avoid errors, it can be more efficient to exploit the masking of errors occurring at one layer and thereby prevent those errors from propagating to a higher layer. We demonstrate the potential benefits of end-to-end approaches using two illustrative examples. We introduce a formalization of terminology that allows us to present a coherent view across the techniques traditionally used by different research communities in their individual layer of focus. Using this formalization, we survey tradeoffs for individual layers of computing systems at the circuit, architecture, operating system, and programming language levels as well as fundamental information-theoretic limits to tradeoffs between resource usage and correctness.


This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1111/gcb.12585 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Received Date : 17-Dec-2013 Revised Date : 07-Feb-2014 Accepted Date : 20-Mar-2014 Article type : Primary Research Articles


In this work the generation of shock-waves and short electrical pulses on nonlinear transmission lines (NLTL) showing transients down to 3.6 ps and amplitudes of 1V - are presented. Special emphasis is layed upon the development of monolithic integration of planar schottky-diodes and coplanar waveguide structures based on InP-semiconductor material. The methods of simulating nonliear propagation effects on NLTL, designing and technology of NLTL and at last the experimental investigations in order to measure the generatred transients both in the time domain and frequency domain are shown in detail.


The 26 December 2004 tsunami caused widespread destruction and contamination of coastal aquifers across southern Asia. Seawater filled domestic open dug wells and also entered the aquifers via direct infiltration during the first flooding waves and later as ponded seawater infiltrated through the permeable sands that are typical of coastal aquifers. In Sri Lanka alone, it is estimated that over 40,000 drinking water wells were either destroyed or contaminated. From February through September 2005, a team of United States, Sri Lankan, and Danish water resource scientists and engineers surveyed the coastal groundwater resources of Sri Lanka to develop an understanding of the impacts of the tsunami and to provide recommendations for the future of coastal water resources in south Asia. In the tsunami‐affected areas, seawater was found to have infiltrated and mixed with fresh groundwater lenses as indicated by the elevated groundwater salinity levels. Seawater infiltrated through the shallow vadose zone as well as entered aquifers directly through flooded open wells. Our preliminary transport analysis demonstrates that the intruded seawater has vertically mixed in the aquifers because of both forced and free convection. Widespread pumping of wells to remove seawater was effective in some areas, but overpumping has led to upconing of the saltwater interface and rising salinity. We estimate that groundwater recharge from several monsoon seasons will reduce salinity of many sandy Sri Lankan coastal aquifers. However, the continued sustainability of these small and fragile aquifers for potable water will be difficult because of the rapid growth of human activities that results in more intensive groundwater pumping and increased pollution. Long‐term sustainability of coastal aquifers is also impacted by the decrease in sand replenishment of the beaches due to sand mining and erosion.