Results from the first statistically significant study of the causes of cost escalation in transport infrastructure projects are presented. The study is based on a sample of 258 rail, bridge, tunnel and road projects worth US$90 billion. The focus is on the dependence of cost escalation on: (1) the length of the project‐implementation phase, (2) the size of the project and (3) the type of project ownership. First, it was found, with very high statistical significance, that cost escalation was strongly dependent on the length of the implementation phase. The policy implications are clear: decision‐makers and planners should be highly concerned about delays and long implementation phases because they translate into risks of substantial cost escalations. Second, projects have grown larger over time, and for bridges and tunnels larger projects have larger percentage cost escalations. Finally, by comparing the cost escalation for three types of project ownership—private, state‐owned enterprise and other public ownership—it was shown that the oft‐seen claim that public ownership is problematic and private ownership effective in curbing cost escalation is an oversimplification. The type of accountability appears to matter more to cost escalation than type of ownership.


Recently, significantly improved transport properties in Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox/Ag (Bi2212/Ag) multifilamentary round wire (RW) has been achieved by applying 100 atm over-pressure (OP) during partial melt processing (PMP). Despite this significant progress, the microstructural details and phase evolution during the high pressure partial melt processing are poorly understood, and previous studies have focused solely on densification. Here we investigate the processing-microstructure-transport relationships of OP-PMP RWs by comparing the filament microstructure of a PMP wire with that of an OP-PMP wire on multiple length scales. OP affects the microstructure differently in each stage of PMP: it causes grain growth during pre-annealing, increases the peritectic melting temperature in the partial melt, improves oxygen uptake during solidification, and enhances grain connectivity during sintering. It is also found that the increase in transport of OP-PMP wire is related to increase in Bi2212 filament density on multiple length scales. Yet OP-PMP wire shows higher area fraction of filaments with large Bi2201 grains. Thus, to further improve transport, optimization of OP-PMP is essential; in particular the maximum heat treatment temperature should be increased, consistent with the increase in peritectic melt temperature, such that less Bi2201 grains form during processing.


Achieving energy efficiency with thermal control in residential houses is crucial for the reduction in the energy consumption. Timber framing as the main structural component in the building envelope has a big influence on the effective R-value depending on the framing percentage, and this impacts the overall thermal performance of the building. This project, carried out in Canada, measured the typical framing percentages that are achieved in residential construction sites and compares them with code recommendations. It provides framing factors measured for 17 residential units under construction including detached, row-housing, and semi-detach dwelling units in three different locations in the Toronto area. Detailed on site measurements provide data for numerical calculation to evaluate the amount of framing within external walls, ceilings, and exposed floors. The overall framing factor calculated for each dwelling is found to exceed the recommended percentage by Canadian Model National Energy code for dwellings and ASHRAE Handbook- Fundamental. The research considers the impact that additional regular thermal bridging from the increased framing percentage will have on the effective R-value, and consequently, the impact on thermal effectiveness of the envelope leading to an increase in the overall energy above the expectations of the codes and standards.


This paper proposes two novel optical layer schemes for intercommunication between customers in a passive optical network (PON). The proposed schemes use radio frequency (RF) subcarrier multiplexed transmission for intercommunication between customers in conjunction with upstream access to the central office (CO) at baseband. One scheme employs a narrowband fiber Bragg grating (FBG) placed close to the star coupler in the feeder fiber of the PON, while the other uses an additional short-length distribution fiber from the star coupler to each customer unit for the redirection of customer traffic. In both schemes, only one optical transmitter is required at each optical network unit (ONU) for the transmission of customer traffic and upstream access traffic. Moreover, downstream bandwidth is not consumed by customer traffic unlike in previously reported techniques. The authors experimentally verify the feasibility of both schemes with 1.25 Gb/s upstream baseband transmission to the CO and 155 Mb/s customer data transmission on the RF carrier. The experimental results obtained from both schemes are compared, and the power budgets are calculated to analyze the scalability of each scheme. Further, the proposed schemes were discussed in terms of upgradability of the transmission bit rates for the upstream access traffic, bandwidth requirements at the customer premises, dispersion tolerance, and stability issues for the practical implementations of the network.


The use of eLearning is increasing dramatically in Uganda, and most of institutions invest huge amounts in developing and deploying eLearning systems. As far as Learning Management System is concerned, it offers an integrated platform for educational materials, distribution and management of learning as well as accessibility by a range of users including lecturers, students and content makers; however, the focus is still largely on getting the infrastructure and creating the e-learning content. It is necessary to consider the individual factors that play an important role in the adoption of e-learning in Ugandan universities, a case of Muni University. For example, the attitudes and perceptions of students and lecturers towards e-learning may affect their acceptance of the technology in the teaching-learning process.
The study aimed at evaluating the level of user satisfaction, usability issues affecting e-learning adoption and established the factors hindering the Acceptance and Use of teach management Systems by Lecturers and Students in Uganda. Primary research method was cross sectional design using questionnaire survey, and data was collected from 130 students and 10 lecturers of Muni University. The respondents agreed that the functionality of the system is good; the system is reliable, portable, usable, maintainable and efficient. The users also showed a positive Attitude to use the system and also indicated that, there are no specific person available to provide assistance for the users and Lack of Equipments, Course Quality Concerns, Slow Speed of the E-system, Power problems, Accessibility problems, Network Connections Issues, Lack of Usability policy, Legal concerns and Lack of regular training on use Moodle hinder their usage of the system.
Therefore, in order to ensure that all the students and staff can fully embrace the E-Learning Management System, the system should be accessible to the users, there should be a user policy to guide users, more training should be given to both new and old users.


Numerical studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of a line of heating - that is, a thermal fence - on the short-range (less than 1 km from the pollutant source ) dispersion of pollutants under various stable nighttime conditions. The thermal fence was located downwind of a ground-based pollutant source. The heating rate was varied from 10 3 W m -1 (watts per meter length of the fence) to 10 6 W m -1 . Initial numerical results demonstrated that the thermal fence enhanced vertical mixing of pollutants behind the fence and could reduce the downwind ground-level concentration by more than 60%. Estimated fuel cost was $2.50 per hour per meter with a typical heating rate of 10 5 W m -1 . The thermal fence might be a useful means of alleviating odors and reducing exposure to contaminants, from short-term releases especially.


Persons are not just mechanical systems of instinctual animalistic proclivities, but also language-producing, existentially aware creatures, whose experiences and actions are drenched in subjective meaning. To understand a human being as a person is to understand him or her as a rational system that wants, fears, hopes, believes, and in other ways imbues the world with meaning, rather than just a mechanical system that is subject to the same chains of cause and effect as other animals. But contemporary personality psychology has, to a great extent, focused on the behavioral side of personality, while neglecting its meaning side, failing to realize that subjective meanings are part of the very constitution rather than just causes of personality. My overarching purpose with this dissertation is, consequently, to contribute to the establishment of a genuinely non-reductive science of personality that systematically studies the systems of meaning that comprise a person's worldview in their own right, as sources of meaning in personality. I both establish conceptual and theoretical foundations for the psychology of worldviews and present empirical research on worldviews.
 The conceptual and theoretical issues are addressed in the introductory chapters and the first paper. I begin by explicating a non-reductive realist philosophy of personality that steers between reductionism and social constructionism, and by suggesting that we need a more coherent understanding of personality and a richer study of it, rather than a radically new methodology. I continue by discussing the limitations of, and conceptual issues with, previous approaches to personality, and by outlining the conceptual foundations for a psychology of worldviews to remediate their weaknesses, demarcating worldview constructs as referring to presuppositions, concepts, and narrative scripts that, by working as the substrata, or background, for intentional thought, feeling, and action, form the most central sources of meaning. I continue by discussing the structure and dynamics of worldviews in terms of the relationship between innate meaning-making mechanisms and the universal features of the existential condition that they address. I conclude the introductory chapters by describing the background of the empirical research and by discussing limitations with the present thesis and directions for future theory and research. I continue, in the first paper, to argue that the study of traits (objective behavioral regularities) and the study of worldviews (subjective meanings) form mutually irreducible parts of personality psychology and that worldviews are not inherently less universal in terms of structure, or in other ways less basic, than traits. I conclude this paper by emphasizing the need to address coherence not just in behavior, but also within worldviews and between traits and worldviews, and to complement traditional individual differences research with personalistic methodology.
 The empirical research is presented in the second and third papers included in this thesis. This research addresses Humanism and Normativism, which are arguably the two broadest and potentially most important worldview constructs in the research literature today, representing whether human beings are thought of as intrinsically valuable and ontologically important (humanism) or as acquiring value and reality only through the attainment of external norms and ideals (normativism). Although originally thought to be opposites, previous research has suggested that they are uncorrelated. In the first empirical paper, I introduce a hierarchical model of their structure, develop scales to measure their facets, and demonstrate through confirmatory factor analysis that they are, contrary to previous wisdom, negatively related in terms of view of human nature, attitude to affect, and interpersonal attitude, but unrelated in terms of epistemology and political values. I present evidence also of discriminant and predictive validity in relation to other worldview variables, life goals, educational field, political and religious orientation, and the Big Five aspects. In the second empirical paper, I use humanism and normativism to explain the broad systems of meaning that potentially underlie, and intersect with, variables from the most important models of the underpinnings of political ideology today, through path modeling. The results suggest that humanism is related to political ideology through preference for equality, as mediated by moral concern with fairness and the avoidance of harm, emotionality, and honesty-humility, and that normativism is related to political ideology through conservative attitudes in general, as mediated by system justification, moral concern with authority, loyalty, and purity, and low openness. Both of the empirical articles provide ample evidence of broad systems of meaning cutting across different aspects of the worldview and of their explanatory power with regards to other psychological phenomena. These studies thereby help to substantiate the viability of the psychology of worldviews.


This paper reviews various approaches to the measurement of core inflation that have been proposed in recent years. The objective is to determine whether the ECB should pay special attention to one or other of these measures in assessing inflation developments in the euro area. I put particular emphasis on the conceptual and practical problems that arise in the measurement of core inflation, and propose some criteria that could be used by the ECB to choose a core inflation measure. JEL Classification: C8, E0, E31


Strain VN07A0015(T) was isolated from soil collected on Cat Ba Island, Vietnam. The taxonomic position of strain VN07A0015(T) was near Streptomyces aomiensis M24DS4(T) (98.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and Streptomyces scabrisporus NBRC 100760(T) (95.6%), and it clustered within them; however, this cluster was distant from the type strains of other species of the genus Streptomyces. The aerial mycelia of strain VN07A0015(T) were greyish and formed imperfect spiral spore chains (retinaculiaperti type) with smooth-surfaced spores. The morphological features of strain VN07A0015(T) were different from those of the type strains of S. aomiensis and S. scabrisporus. The chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain VN07A0015(T) were typical for all members of the genus Streptomyces, which possessed ll-type diaminopimelic acid, menaquinone MK-9(H6, H8) and the major fatty acids iso-C(16 : 0) and iso-C(15 : 0). DNA-DNA relatedness between strain VN07A0015(T) and S. aomiensis NBRC 106164(T) was less than 30%. In addition, some physiological and biochemical traits differed from those of S. aomiensis. Therefore, we propose that strain VN07A0015(T) be classified in the genus Streptomyces as a representative of Streptomyces catbensis sp. nov. (type strain VN07A0015(T) = VTCC-A-1889(T) = NBRC 107860(T)).


This paper analyzes how competing networks of disaster studies emerged in different national settings, disciplinary contexts, and historical periods. It combines two different but interconnected qualitative and historical pieces of research on the transnationalization of disasters at various scales and places. It shows how seismology and American-centered disaster studies first shaped international understandings of disasters during the Cold War era, with hazard-oriented research projects focused on natural disasters. In the late 1970s, development studies and geography contested the former approaches. This criticism flourished in Latin America in the 1980s, where social scientists promoted notions of root causes and vulnerability. From the 1990s onwards, the social sciences increasingly shaped international disaster policies, rendering disasters less "natural" and more "social." This, in turn, contributed to the development of disaster studies in other parts of the world, such as South Africa. This connected history of disaster studies reveals how disasters were interpreted differently by various disciplines. Furthermore, the comparison between regions enables changes to these configurations according to global political and scientific contexts. Taking into account different scales and places sheds light on the competition between sciences entangled in a conflict over the power to define disasters at different moments (the Cold War, developmentalism, and climate change).


BACKGROUND: Haemorrhage is a major cause of death in severe trauma. Fibrinogen plays a critical role in maintaining haemostasis in traumatic haemorrhage, and early replacement using fibrinogen concentrate (FC) or cryoprecipitate (Cryo) is recommended by several international trauma guidelines. Limited evidence supports one product over the other, with widespread geographic and institutional variation in practice. Two previous trials have investigated the feasibility of rapid FC administration in severely injured trauma patients, with conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: To compare the time to fibrinogen replacement using FC or Cryo in severely injured trauma patients with major haemorrhage and hypofibrinogenaemia. DESIGN, SETTING, PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS: A multicentre controlled pilot trial in which adult trauma patients with haemorrhage were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive FC or Cryo for fibrinogen replacement, guided by FIBTEM A5 (functional fibrinogen assessment at 5 minutes after clot formation, using rotational thromboelastometry). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was time to commencement of fibrinogen replacement. Secondary outcomes included effects of the intervention on plasma fibrinogen levels and clinical outcomes including transfusion requirements and mortality. RESULTS: Of the 100 randomly assigned patients, 62 were hypofibrinogenaemic and received the intervention (n = 37) or Cryo (n = 25). Median (interquartile range [IQR]) time to delivery of FC was 29 min (23–40 min) compared with 60 min (40–80 min) for Cryo (P = 0.0001). All 62 patients were hypofibrinogenaemic before receiving FC or Cryo (FC: median FIBTEM A5, 8 mm [IQR, 7–9 mm]; Cryo: median FIBTEM A5, 9 mm [IQR, 5–10 mm]). In the FC arm patients received a median of 3 g FC (IQR, 2–4 g), and in the Cryo arm patients received a median of 8 units of Cryo (IQR, 8–14 units). Restoration of fibrinogen levels was achieved in both arms after the intervention. Blood product transfusion, fluid resuscitation and thromboembolic complications were similar in both arms. Overall mortality was 15.3%, with more deaths in the FC arm. CONCLUSION: Fibrinogen replacement in severely injured trauma patients with major haemorrhage and hypofibrinogenaemia was achieved substantially faster using FC compared with Cryo. Fibrinogen levels increased appropriately using either product. The optimal method for replacing fibrinogen in traumatic haemorrhage is controversial. Our results will inform the design of a larger trial powered to assess patient-centred outcomes.


Osteoregenerative biomaterials for the treatment of bone defects are under much development, with the aim of favoring osteointegration up to complete bone regeneration. A detailed investigation of bone-biomaterial integration is vital to understand and predict the ability of such materials to promote bone formation, preventing further bone damage and supporting load-bearing regions. This study aims to characterize the ex vivo micromechanics and microdamage evolution of bone-biomaterial systems at the tissue level, combining high-resolution synchrotron microcomputed tomography, in situ mechanics and digital volume correlation. Results showed that the main microfailure events were localized close to or within the newly formed bone tissue, in proximity to the bone-biomaterial interface. The apparent nominal compressive load applied to the composite structures resulted in a complex loading scenario, mainly due to the higher heterogeneity but also to the different biomaterial degradation mechanisms. The full-field strain distribution allowed characterization of microdamage initiation and progression. The findings reported in this study provide a deeper insight into bone-biomaterial integration and micromechanics in relation to the osteoregeneration achieved in vivo for a variety of biomaterials. This could ultimately be used to improve bone tissue regeneration strategies.


System identification--the process of finding a mathematical model of a dynamical black-box system--is a routine and difficult problem faced by engineers in a variety of domains. This dissertation describes the program P scRET, which automates this process by smoothly integrating a collection of highly heterogeneous reasoning modes: qualitative reasoning, qualitative simulation, numerical simulation. geometric reasoning, constraint reasoning, S scLD-based resolution, reasoning with abstraction levels, declarative meta-level control, and a simple form of truth maintenance. Given observations, hypotheses, and specifications, the program constructs an ordinary differential equation (ODE) model of the target system. Unlike other modeling programs that map structural or functional descriptions to model fragments, P scRET combines hypotheses about the mathematics involved into candidate models and then intelligently tests them against observations about the target system.
P scRET's ODE theory is represented declaratively using a logic-based formalism. Typically, in the hierarchy from more-abstract to less-abstract models, the model of choice is the one that is just detailed enough to account for the properties and perspectives that are of interest for the task at hand. A human modeler's reasoning about a candidate model for a given physical system takes place at an abstract level first and resorts to more detailed reasoning later in the modeling process. P scRET's reasoning framework is designed to mimic these strategies. The main goal of the work described in this thesis was to design and implement a knowledge representation and reasoning framework that allows a computer program to reason about physical systems and candidate models in such a way as to quickly find the right model at the right abstraction level. This knowledge representation framework was designed to allow easy formulation of knowledge and meta knowledge relative to various abstraction levels.
When modeling physical systems, human engineers make use of various existing modeling techniques. Likewise, P scRET integrates various heterogeneous reasoning modules. In order to intelligently orchestrate these different reasoning modes, P scRET makes use of abstraction levels and meta-level control techniques that allow P scRET to reason about which techniques are appropriate in which situations. This is a first attempt at dynamically controlling multimodal reasoning systems, a task that has recently been identified as an important open research problem by the multimodal reasoning community.


Tuberculosis (TB) treatment failure compromises its elimination as recommended by Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors associated with pulmonary TB treatment failure in Togo between 2015 and 2016. An unmatched case-control study was conducted on cases of pulmonary TB under treatment at all of 47 TB Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (DTC) in Togo between 2015 and 2016. Treatment failure of TB was defined as any patient whose sputum smear or culture was positive at the fifth month or later during treatment. Controls were patients whose smear sputum was negative at the fifth month of treatment or later. Logistic regression model was performed to identify independently associated factors by calculating Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR). In multivariate analysis, factors associated with treatment failure were: Positive sputum result in second month (AOR = 38.75; 95% CI [10.52-142.76], p≤0.001), occurrence of side effects [AOR=3, 61; 95% CI (1.06-12.22), p=0.038], treatment interruption for at least 14 days [AOR=8.15; 95% CI (2.35-28.28), p≤0.001], absence of family-based Directly Observed Treatment practice (AOR=23.76; 95% CI [5.66-99.64], p≤0.001). The study identified the socio-demographic and clinical factors of TB treatment failure whose inclusion in action plans would contribute to achieve TB elimination in Togo.

 Key words: Tuberculosis, treatment failure, directly observed treatment short-course, Togo.


This paper puts forward a new method of discretizing continuous attributes. Compared with the traditional approach, the method, proposed in this paper, can make the number of the obtained classes be more moderate, as well as the lost information be fewer. And then a simple attribute reduction algorithm is developed in continuous information systems. Finally, a real example is used to illustrate its feasibility and effectiveness, respectively.


Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) remains the major global health problem, predicted to exceed half a billion people in 2040. One of the major complications was lower extremity neuropathy leading to foot ulcer and amputation. This study aimed to investigate the effect of routine Buerger exercise on the neuropathy index of people with DM. Methods: A pre-and posttest quasi-experimental study between May and August 2018 involving DM patients in primary health centre was conducted. They were prospectively recruited and either be allocated into the intervention group where the monitored routine Buerger exercise was performed or control group with the standard education on DM. Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) with subjective and objective measurement was used to evaluate the neuropathy index. Results: Seventy-seven participants (63 females) with mean age of 58.2±7.2 years completed the study with similar characteristics. Mean pretest MNSI score for intervention and control group were 3.8±1.7 and 3.9±1.6 respectively, and were not different (P = 0.561). At the end of follow up, significant decrease was observed in the intervention group (2.8±2.2, P = 0.011) but not in control group (4.0±1.9, P=0.947). Physical examination according to MNSI guideline showed a significant reduction in the neuropathy score for the intervention group from 1.8±1.4 at the start to 1.3±1.1 at the end of the study (P< 0.001), but this was not seen in the control group. Conclusion: Buerger exercise had a beneficial effect on improving the neuropathy index and symptoms of DM patients with high risk of diabetic foot ulcer.


ABSTRACT
Cadmium is an environmental pollutant that ranked as one of the top toxic substances rampant in many industries such as cement plants and smoke, batteries and others. The present investigation aimed to assess the possible protective effects of Nigella sativa oil (NSO) and Virgin Olive oil (VOO) on rat administrated cadmium chloride (CdCl2). 40 male rats were randomly divided into four groups; 10 rats for each: control group (0.5 ml phosphate-buffered physiological saline orally); Cd-treated group (5mg\kg body weight CdCl2 orally); NSO+Cd-treated group (1 ml\kg body weight of NSO+ 5mg\kg body weight CdCl2 orally); VOO+Cd-treated group (0.5 ml\kg body weight of VOO+ 5mg\kg body weight of CdCl2 orally). All treatments were administered daily for a period of 4 successive weeks, blood and tissue sample were collected at the end of the experimental period. In all groups, potential injuries in brain and kidney were evaluated by using biochemical parameters and histopathological investigations. The current study revealed that the administration of CdCl2 induced significant increase in serum creatinine and urea. It also induced significant increase in CAT, SOD, MDA and DNA fragmentation % in brain and kidneys of rats. In addition serum acetyl cholinesterase activity and tissue GSH content were significantly decreased.. The biochemical results were confirmed by histopathological investigations where many lesions were detected in brain and kidneys treated with cadmium. Administration of each of NSO and VOO with CdCl2 showed a significant improvement in the measured biochemical parameters and histopathological pictures. The present study concluded that the VOO and NSO can be used as potentially effective therapeutic agents for workers in factories that their products are contaminated with cadmium particularly cement factories


: 3-year experience of dispensary-diagnostic department (DDD) working at the Center of emergency surgical care is analyzed. DDD activity consists of 2 types: dispensary-diagnostic and curative-prophylactic. Department has 5 beds where patients with indeterminate diagnosis are hospitalized (2737 patients over 3 years). Diagnostic beds permit to make diagnosis and select patients with parallel therapeutic procedures. 503 patients were discharged from DDD over 3 years. 534 patients were transferred to surgery department, 97 patients--in internal medicine department. 2% patients required 1-3 hours for final diagnosis, 17%--3-6 hours, 29%--12-24 hours, and only 4%--over twenty-four hours. In 1998--30% patients didn't require hospital treatment, in 1999--38.5%, in 2000--48.5%. A significant cost-effect was achieved.


Through support of the National Science Foundation's Department Level Reform program, Engineering Students for the 21st Century (ES21C) has implemented a ten-course sequence designed to help students develop into engineers. Spread across the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) curriculum at Oklahoma State University, these courses were supported by engaging graduate students, building infrastructure to scaffold student development, and self-reflection on what it means to develop as an engineer. Four case studies from the spectrum of courses illustrate the on-going changes. While the project is still in the process of measuring changes in student learn ing and attitudes, preliminary project evaluation results are presented along with how formative evaluation has changed the project direction. From participants' experiences, both expected and unexpected, some of the factors that contribute to project successes and failures are outlined. A key finding is that the journey of reforming undergraduate programs needs to be guided by knowledge of both current location and destination. A taxonomy developed under this project to guide, discuss, and measure reform efforts is introduced that helps faculty map pathways to meaningful reform.


This study constructs and experimentally tests an integrated framework of how political attitudes are affected by political satire. The focus of the study is on the underlying causal mechanisms via perceived funniness and absorption into the message, while also investigating the moderating roles of political preference, age and background information provision. Using an experimental design we, on the one hand, show that political satire affects the attitude toward the satirized subject positively via perceived funniness. This was particularly strong among those who did not perceive the satire as potentially threatening. On the other hand, young adults were found to be more absorbed into the satirical items, which decreased counterarguing, such that the attitude toward the satirized object was affected negatively. The study shows that looking at the underlying and conditional processes of satire is a valuable approach to detecting the mediated mechanisms by which satire may influence attitudes.


In this paper, the scattered and direct neutron fluxes in the line of sight (LOS) of the TOFOR neutron spectrometer at JET are simulated and the simulations compared with measurement results. The Monte Carlo code MCNPX is used in the simulations, with a vessel material composition obtained from the JET drawing office and neutron emission profiles calculated from TRANSP simulations of beam ion density profiles. The MCNPX simulations show that the material composition of the scattering wall has a large effect on the shape of the scattered neutron spectrum. Neutron source profile shapes as well as radial and vertical source displacements in the TOFOR LOS are shown to only marginally affect the scatter, while having a larger impact on the direct neutron flux. A matrix of simulated scatter spectra for mono-energetic source neutrons is created which is folded with an approximation of the source spectrum for each JET pulse studied to obtain a scatter component for use in the data analysis. The scatter components thus obtained are shown to describe the measured data. It is also demonstrated that the scattered flux is approximately constant relative to the total neutron yield as measured with the JET fission chambers, while there is a larger spread in the direct flux, consistent with simulations. The simulated effect on the integrated scattered/direct ratio of an increase with movements outward along the radial direction and a drop at higher values of the vertical plasma position is also reproduced in the measurements. Finally, the quantitative agreement found in scatter/direct ratios between simulations (0.185 ± 0.005) and measurements (0.187 ± 0.050) serves as a solid benchmark of the MCNPX model used.


One of the most interesting sources of gravitational waves (GWs) for LISA is the inspiral of compact objects on to a massive black hole (MBH), commonly referred to as an "extreme-mass ratio inspiral" (EMRI). The small object, typically a stellar black hole (bh), emits significant amounts of GW along each orbit in the detector bandwidth. The slowly, adiabatic inspiral of these sources will allow us to map spacetime around MBHs in detail, as well as to test our current conception of gravitation in the strong regime. The event rate of this kind of source has been addressed many times in the literature and the numbers reported fluctuate by orders of magnitude. On the other hand, recent observations of the Galactic center revealed a dearth of giant stars inside the inner parsec relative to the numbers theoretically expected for a fully relaxed stellar cusp. The possibility of unrelaxed nuclei (or, equivalently, with no or only a very shallow cusp, or core) adds substantial uncertainty to the estimates. Having this timely question in mind, we run a significant number of direct-summation N−body simulations with up to half a million particles to calibrate a much faster orbitaveraged Fokker-Planck code. We show that, under quite generic initial conditions, the time required for the growth of a relaxed, mass segregated stellar cusp is shorter than a Hubble time for MBHs with M• . 5 × 10M⊙ (i.e. nuclei in the range of LISA). We then investigate the regime of strong mass segregation (SMS) for models with two different stellar mass components. Given the most recent stellar mass normalization for the inner parsec of the Galactic center, SMS has the significant impact of boosting the EMRI rates by a factor of ∼ 10 in comparison to what would result from a 7/4−Bahcall & Wolf cusp resulting in ∼ 250 events per Gyr per Milky Way type galaxy. Such intrinsic rate should translate roughly into ∼ 10 − 7 × 10 sbh's EMRIs detected by LISA over a mission lifetime of 2 or 5 years, respectively), depending on the detailed assumptions regarding LISA detection capabilities. Event rate of EMRIs and cusp re-growth 2


Immigration is a growing phenomenon in the recent years with its characteristics on the social groups which are mainly involved and with its impact on the educational level of children also. The life of Roma children is associated with a lot of economic and social problems. They often move inside or outside the country for a more normal life. Frequent changes have their own psycho-social impact on children, as the most sensitive category of the society. They often suffer the long-term consequences which influence the progress of their education and future. Multicultural education and inclusive education are considered to be a good opportunity for marginalised groups offering equal education opportunities in the destination country the same as in their native country, but still they come across some difficulties. This is a qualitative research which aims at giving an analysis about the impact of immigration on the multicultural education and on the inclusion of children within the education system. What happens to these children once in the destination countries and how do they adapt their old experience? What is the impact of this transition on their emotions? The case study was performed through the: theoretical study of the phenomenon, monitoring, students, parents, educators and focus groups' interviews. This study is focused on the primary and low secondary school students. This study introduces some evidence provided by children, educators and parents, proving that returning back to your home country does only enrich their life experience. It does not have a clear positive effect on their education and inclusion to the education process.


This paper identifies major inconsistencies in the threefold argument that Glaucon presents in defence of Thrasymachus in the second book of Plato's Republic. Specifically, the paper argues for three claims. Firstly, it argues that in his account of the origin of justice Glaucon treats the consequences of justice as necessary, while in the test case he merely emphasizes incidental consequences. Secondly, the paper argues that in setting up the test case of the perfectly unjust man and the perfectly just man Glaucon—despite claiming to be restating Thrasymachus' claims, and also to be presenting the ordinary view of justice — uses some Socratic assumptions about the nature of justice. That is, although Gyges' example follows directly from the first part of the argument and, in particular, from the claim that justice is grounded in convention, the unshakably just man of the test example is supposed to be motivated by justice itself. Finally, it is argued that the test case and Gyges' example are at variance with respect to public recognition: in the test case Glaucon suggests that most people would respect and admire a man who seemed to be perfectly just, while in his discussion of Gyges he intimates that tyrannical power strengthens itself not by the false appearance of perfect justice, but by appealing to a secret and yet widespread admiration for unpunished injustice.


Perhaps unexpectedly, English travel writing during the long eighteenth century reveals a discourse of global civility. By bringing together representations of the then already familiar Ottoman Empire and the largely unknown South Pacific, Sascha Klement adopts a uniquely global perspective and demonstrates how cross-cultural encounters were framed by Enlightenment philosophy, global interconnections, and even-handed exchanges across cultural divides. In so doing, this book shows that both travel and travel-writing from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries were much more complex and multi-layered than reductive Eurocentric histories often suggest.


Data-driven decision making is an integral part of higher education and it needs to be rooted in strong methodological and statistical practices. Key practices include the use and interpretation of effect sizes as well as a correct understanding of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST). Therefore, effect size reporting and interpreting practices in higher education journal articles represent an important area of inquiry. This study examined effect size reporting and interpretation practices of published quantitative studies in three core higher education journals: Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, and Research in Higher Education. The review covered a three-year publication period between 2013 and 2015. Over the three-year span, a total of 249 articles were published by the three journals. The number of articles published across the three years did not vary appreciably. The majority of studies employed quantitative methods (71.1%), about a quarter of them used qualitative methods (25.7%), and the remaining 3.2% used mixed methods. Seventy-three studies were removed from further analysis because they did not feature any quantitative analyses. The remaining 176 quantitative articles represented the sample pool. Overall, 52.8% of the 176 studies in the final analysis reported effect size measures as part of their major findings. Of the 93 articles reporting effect sizes, 91.4% of them interpreted effect sizes for their major findings. The majority of studies that interpreted effect sizes also provided a minimal level of interpretation (60.2% of the 91.4%). Additionally, 26.9% of articles provided average effect size interpretation, and the remaining 4.3% of studies provided strong interpretation and discussed their findings in light of previous studies in their field.


It is now fully appreciated that metrology will play an integral role in the successful development and commercialization of micro- and nanotechnology. To this end, the UK Government, through the National Measurement System, funded several groundbreaking projects in its 2002–2005 Programme for Length. This paper will briefly describe the background of the research, concentrating on the technical details of the projects. The Programme for Length normally only funds work into dimensional metrology but this funding cycle also funded work into low force metrology as this area is crucial to most mechanical probing techniques. The projects described include a traceable areal contacting instrument designed to calibrate areal transfer artefacts and hence offer traceability for industrial areal instruments, the production of the areal transfer artefacts, the development of Internet-based softgauges for profile parameters, a primary low force balance with a force resolution of 50 pN and the development of methods for measuring complex micro-scale structures. Amongst others, the projects involved collaboration with PTB, TNO, Taylor Hobson, AWE, Rubert & Co. and the Universities of Warwick, Huddersfield and Eindhoven.


In a search for possible genetic factors which may influence the immune response to the streptococcal carbohydrates, over 100 rabbits have been immunized with streptococcal vaccines, and representative examples of high and low response pairs mated. The concentration of precipitins to the group—specific carbohydrates has been measured in the antisera following primary intravenous immunization with heat-killed streptococcal vaccines, Group A, Group A-variant, and Group C. For the majority of rabbits, the concentration of precipitins varied between 1 and 10 mg/ml of antiserum; while in the minority, it was between 11 and 32 mg/ml. The offspring of rabbits with high antibody levels had a significantly higher concentration of antibody than was seen in the offspring of rabbits of low response parents. Such data suggest that the magnitude of the immune response to these carbohydrate antigens is under some form of genetic control. Not uncommonly in rabbits with hyper-γ-globulinemia following primary immunization, the group-specific precipitins are the predominant component of the γ-globulin. An unusual feature of such components is that they are electrophoretically monodisperse, and possess individual antigenic specificity. In this respect they resemble the myeloma proteins. When a response of this sort is not seen after primary immunization, it may occur after secondary immunization. Therefore, prior exposure to the same or closely related antigen may also have an influence on the occurrence of high concentrations of such uniform antibodies.


It seems that the combination of teaching practices creates interesting results in several areas of knowledge. The teacher has to always bear in mind that he/she has to present educational contents regarding his discipline always trying to present it an attractive way through new teaching dynamics. The challenge is to not to distance from the curricular content by using a broader educational proposal, intensifying the interaction with the students with the problems related to the professional area with artifacts and tools. Under such circumstances, the computer simulation can be a valuable teaching tool for the necessary contents in the formation of students. Through exploratory research it is possible to exemplify the strategy of using a simulator in the presentation of specific content, in the case presented here the introductory study of the operation of the CPU and data bus in the architecture of a hypothetical processor. The data collection instrument, in relation to the student ́s perception of their learning experience interrelating the theoretical part with the simulator seeking to capture a first impact on the use of the simulator. The quantitative and qualitative data present in the questionnaires were processed using IBM SPSS software. The analysis conducted through descriptive statistics, standard measures of dispersion and percentiles, absolute and relative frequency and Spearman correlation coefficient. The teacher activity in the classroom changes considerably, in the sense of not requiring the various repetitions of the concepts involved that usually occur, requiring an assistance that seeks to facilitate the use of the simulator.


The extension of IT-related change from particular organisational settings of user organisations to a broader, complex, multi-actor socio-economic environment, has shifted the attention of scholars studying IT in Organisations towards the study of the broader IT marketplace. There is however controversy on how choices on technology adoption and implementation as well as choices affecting the formulation of inter-organisational networks are made within such a complex, uncertain and challenging environment. What are the key relationships between players acting at various organisational echelons and in various parts of the networked enterprises? Are they based on formal, discursive criteria or are they a result of tacit knowledge, trust and 'strong ties'? Also, what is the 'logic' or the driving force behind the formulation of such relationships? Is it a collaborative spirit or an antagonistic attitude based on opportunism? Based on the Agora of Techno-Organisational Change concept, which refers to the broader IT marketplace and the way it is shaped, we examine the case of a long-term relationship between an IT firm and a bank in Greece. This case provides some answers to the questions above. Findings suggest that the logic that drives the shaping of the IT marketplace lies with the actor and in that sense there are multiple logics expressed by different actors' viewpoints, while relations of competition, collaboration, long-term or ad hoc are all existing possibilities within the broader IT marketplace. However, there can be shifting configurations of such viewpoints depending on the influence of critical factors shaping products, services, transactions and IS-development practices in the IT-marketplace. Such critical factors observed in the case studied are the tendency towards outsourcing / insourcing or the degree of customisation and/or in-house development as opposed to standardisation and package-oriented solution technologies.


Objective: We explored the antibacterial prescribing patterns of physicians in ear, nose and throat (ENT) outpatient and inpatient departments (OPD, IPD) of a University Hospital, New Delhi, India. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted, with a sample size of 276 patients, who visited the ENT OPD and IPD over a period of 4 months. Results: It was found that 62.68% were males, 26% patients were in the age group 26-35 years, followed by 22.8% belonging to the age group 26–35 years. Maximum number of patients were diagnosed with ear (37.3%) and throat (36.2%) infections. The most frequently prescribed antibacterials were β-lactams (45.52%) followed by quinolones (26.31%). The most commonly used agent in penicillins was amoxicillin and clavulanic acid (21.74%), in cepahalosporins was cefpodoxime proxetil (5.49%) and in quinolones was gemifloxacin (14.41%). Further, 66.67% of the patients received single antibacterial drug and the average number of antibacterial agents prescribed per patient per course was found to be 1.58. It was also observed that 70.71% of the antibacterials were prescribed by oral route. The most concomitant conditions were found to be diabetes (10.5%), hypertension (6.16%) and coronary heart disease (5.07%). All the drugs were prescribed by their brand names and 48.91% patients showed good adherence with the prescribed therapy. Conclusions: The present work is the maiden drug utilization study conducted in ENT department at our university hospital. It highlighted some rational prescription patterns including less utilization of antibiotics in ENT infections, good adherence by patients and prescription by brand names. The data presented here will be useful in future, long-term and more extensive drug utilization studies in the hospital and in promotion of rational prescribing and drug use in hospitals.


Coherent summation of the output of two saturated traveling-wave amplifiers, each injected from a common semiconductor laser and all operated cw, has resulted in a single diffraction-limited beam containing 93% of the power originally contained in the two individual amplified beams. The 372 mW of power in a single diffraction-limited lobe is a 1.5-fold enhancement over the power available from a single amplifier.


The search for higher spatial resolution and better sensitivity stimulates the development of high-field (3 T) and ultrahigh field (>3 T) MRI scanners. Gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents, commercial ones used in clinics, as well as recently developed more efficient ones, become less and less effective as the magnetic field is increased above 3 T and, therefore, special contrast agents for ultrahigh-field MRI have to be developed. As the relaxivity, defined as relaxation enhancement per Gd-ion, is rather limited, marked boosts in performance can only be achieved by creating systems transporting many paramagnetic centers to the desired site. To obtain maximum efficiency gadolinium chelates with more than one water molecule in the first coordination sphere must be used. The rotational correlation time should be in the range of 0.5-1 ns and the residence time of first sphere water molecules should be short (<10 ns).


Aim: Serum uric acid is a risk factor for cardiovascular and renal diseases. The role of uric acid as a renal and cardiac risk factor is more prominent in subjects with diabetes mellitus and hypertension. In present retrospective analyze, we aimed to compare serum uric acid levels of subjects with well and poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and healthy population.
Methods: Patients with T2DM, who admitted to outpatient clinics of our institution between April 2017 and January 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Diabetic subjects grouped into well or poorly regulated T2DM groups according to the HbA1c level (patients with an HbA1c lower than 7% were grouped as well regulated while others grouped as poorly regulated T2DM). Control subjects were healthy individuals whom asked for a routine check-up in our institution. Clinical and laboratory parameters of the study groups compared.
Results: Serum uric acid levels of well-controlled T2DM, poorly controlled T2DM and control groups were 5.9±1, 6.7±1.8 and 4.3±1 mg/dL, respectively (p<0.001). Post Hoc analysis revealed that uric acid levels of well controlled diabetics were significantly lower than the uric acid levels of poorly controlled diabetics (p=0.04) and significantly higher than that of the control subjects (p<0.001).
Conclusion: We suggest that elevated uric acid indicates a cellular level of damage and can be used as a prognostic indicator of pre-diabetes and T2DM.


When sheets of high-strength (HS) and ultra-high-strength (UHS) steels are bent by a press brake the process suffers from large bending forces, considerable springback, and eventual cracks. Additionally, some unpredictable effects, such as lost contact to the punch, caused by strain hardening may occur producing a bend with erroneous radii. The strain hardening of the bending line may make further processes, such as forming or welding, more complex. One solution to these problems is to anneal the bending line with a laser in advance. Of course, it is also possible to utilise other types of heat sources, but the laser can offer the most precisely controlled heat treatment. The proper process parameters depend on the material, and it has been noticed that inadequate process parameters may harden the material instead of annealing. In this work some experiments on bending sheet metal samples of HS or UHS steel with previously laser-annealed bending lines have been carried out and the outcome analysed. The results show that the annealing produces better bending results compared to the conventional procedure. This includes lower springback, less hardening in the bending line and more precise geometry of the bend. It can be even suggested that proper annealing with strain hardening in bending will produce the original material structure. Obviously, more theoretical and experimental work is required to optimise the process parameters including the laser power and speed for each pair of material strength and thickness.


Steels with high amounts of silicon are used in electrical applications due to their low mangectoestriction, high electrical resistivity and reduced energy losses, but they exhibit poor formability. A fundamental study of the workability of such materials using torsion testing may help to understand and to optimise its production. Single deformation torsion tests were carried out on a steel containing 2 wt.-% Si in a temperature range of 800 to 1100°C and strain rates in the range of 0.01 to 2 s-1. A value of 299 kJ/mol was found for the apparent activation energy for hot working after applying the hyperbolic-sine equation to the mean flow stress (MFS) values computed from the test. Multiple deformation torsion tests under continuous cooling conditions were carried out in the same temperature range at strain rates from 0.2 to 1 s-1, the strain per pass and interpass time (determining the cooling rate) were varied. Different critical temperatures, which are of importance for processing this alloy, can be calculated from the dependence of MFS with the inverse absolute temperature; such a method was used to determine the temperature at which recrystallisation stops (Tnr). It was found that this temperature depends on strain rate, pass strain and interpass time. Results of the microstructure analysis of quenched samples are in good agreement with the values of Tnr.


Membrane receptor dimerization is a well-established event for initiation of signaling at growth factor receptors and has been postulated to exist for G protein-coupled receptors, based on correction of nonfunctional truncated, mutant, or chimeric constructs by coexpression of appropriate normal complementary receptor domains. In this work, we have directly explored the molecular composition of the minimal functional unit of an agonist ligand and the wild-type G protein-coupled cholecystokinin (CCK) receptor, using photoaffinity labeling with a CCK analogue probe incorporating dual photolabile benzoylphenylalanine (Bpa) residues as sites of covalent attachment. This probe, 125I-D-Tyr-Gly-[(Nle28, 31, Bpa29,33)CCK-26-33], was shown to represent a full agonist and to specifically label the CCK receptor. Like probes incorporating individual photolabile residues in these positions,1,2 the two Bpa residues in the dual photoprobe covalently labeled receptor domains in the amino-terminal tail outside TM1 and in the third extracellular loop outside TM7. Absence of demonstrable receptor dimerization after the establishment of dual sites of covalent attachment supports the presence of these two domains within a single receptor molecule. Demonstration of the covalent adduct of a single probe molecule with the two cyanogen bromide fragments of the CCK receptor representing the expected domains further supports this interpretation. Thus, while domain-swapped dimerization of G protein-coupled receptors may be possible as a mechanism of rescue for nonfunctional molecules, it is not necessary for ligand binding and initiation of signaling at a wild-type receptor in this superfamily. The functional unit for CCK action is normally a ligand-receptor monomer.


The problem of transmit-receive noise leakage is known as one of the most severe problems facing the FMCW radar designer. The FM sidebands at a deviation of ωm like AM (amplitude modulation) noise sidebands at the same frequency give rise to noise also, but only at an IF of ωm. There is thus a simple relationship between the transmitter's noise spectra and the spectrum of the detected noise in the receiver's IF. Moreover, in the case where the frequency deviation is independent of frequency, that is, it is the same at all frequencies of interest, then it will be shown that the detected noise is the same at all IF frequencies, which is the same as the case for white AM noise. This derivation is based on the paper by Stove.


Brazilian sugarcane has been shown to obtain part of its nitrogen via biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). Recent reports, based on the culture independent sequencing of bacterial nifH complementary DNA (cDNA) from sugarcane tissues, have suggested that members of the Bradyrhizobium genus could play a role in sugarcane-associated BNF. Here we report on the isolation of Bradyrhizobium spp. isolates and a few other species from roots of sugarcane cultivar RB867515 by two cultivation strategies: direct isolation on culture media and capture of Bradyrhizobium spp. using the promiscuous legume Vigna unguiculata as trap-plant. Both strategies permitted the isolation of genetically diverse Bradyrhizobium spp. isolates, as concluded from enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fingerprinting and 16S ribosomal RNA, nifH and nodC sequence analyses. Several isolates presented nifH phylotypes highly similar to nifH cDNA phylotypes detected in field-grown sugarcane by a culture-independent approach. Four isolates obtained by direct plate cultivation were unable to nodulate V. unguiculata and, based on PCR analysis, lacked a nodC gene homologue. Acetylene reduction assay showed in vitro nitrogenase activity for some Bradyrhizobium spp. isolates, suggesting that these bacteria do not require a nodule environment for BNF. Therefore, this study brings further evidence that Bradyrhizobium spp. may play a role in sugarcane-associated BNF under field conditions.


Abstract This article reports on the performance of a bismuth‐coated carbon microdisk electrode (BiFμE) for the determination of trace heavy metals by anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV). The BiFμE was prepared by electrodeposition of a metallic bismuth film onto the microdisk, by applying an in‐situ electroplating procedure. To test the performance of the BiFμE, ASV measurements were performed on synthetic solutions containing Cd2+, Pb2+, and Cu2+ as target ions. The results indicated that cadmium and lead gave well‐defined ASV peaks with no interference, and their quantitative determination could be carried out straightforwardly. In particular, linear calibration curves over the range 5.0 × 10−8–1.0 × 10−6 M for both ions, and detection limits of 7.8 and 2.9 nM, for cadmium and lead, respectively, after applying a 60 sec preconcentration step, were obtained. The reproducibility was also satisfactory, the relative standard deviation (RSD) being within 2.5% for both ions. Copper, instead, gave an ASV response that, in most experimental conditions, overlapped with that of bismuth. This circumstance made the determination of copper at the BiFμE difficult. Since the latter element could be detected reliably at the uncoated carbon microdisk electrode (CμE), both BiFμE and CμE were employed, respectively, for the determination of lead and copper ions in drinking water, wine, and tomato sauce.


MOTIVATION
Exact-match overlap graphs have been broadly used in the context of DNA assembly and the shortest super string problem where the number of strings n ranges from thousands to billions. The length ℓ of the strings is from 25 to 1000, depending on the DNA sequencing technologies. However, many DNA assemblers using overlap graphs suffer from the need for too much time and space in constructing the graphs. It is nearly impossible for these DNA assemblers to handle the huge amount of data produced by the next-generation sequencing technologies where the number n of strings could be several billions. If the overlap graph is explicitly stored, it would require Ω(n(2)) memory, which could be prohibitive in practice when n is greater than a hundred million. In this article, we propose a novel data structure using which the overlap graph can be compactly stored. This data structure requires only linear time to construct and and linear memory to store.

RESULTS
For a given set of input strings (also called reads), we can informally define an exact-match overlap graph as follows. Each read is represented as a node in the graph and there is an edge between two nodes if the corresponding reads overlap sufficiently. A formal description follows. The maximal exact-match overlap of two strings x and y, denoted by ov(max)(x, y), is the longest string which is a suffix of x and a prefix of y. The exact-match overlap graph of n given strings of length ℓ is an edge-weighted graph in which each vertex is associated with a string and there is an edge (x, y) of weight ω=ℓ-|ov(max)(x, y)| if and only if ω ≤ λ, where |ov(max)(x, y)| is the length of ov(max)(x, y) and λ is a given threshold. In this article, we show that the exact-match overlap graphs can be represented by a compact data structure that can be stored using at most (2λ-1)(2⌈logn⌉+⌈logλ⌉)n bits with a guarantee that the basic operation of accessing an edge takes O(log λ) time. We also propose two algorithms for constructing the data structure for the exact-match overlap graph. The first algorithm runs in O(λℓnlogn) worse-case time and requires O(λ) extra memory. The second one runs in O(λℓn) time and requires O(n) extra memory. Our experimental results on a huge amount of simulated data from sequence assembly show that the data structure can be constructed efficiently in time and memory.

AVAILABILITY
Our DNA sequence assembler that incorporates the data structure is freely available on the web at http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~htd06001/assembler/leap.zip


Microbubble enhanced High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is of great interest to tissue ablation for tumor treatment such as in liver and brain cancers, in which ultrasonic contrast agent microbubbles are injected to the targeted region to promote local heating while reducing pre-focal damage. To accurately characterize the acoustic and thermal fields during this process, a compressible Euler-Lagrange model is used. The non-linear ultrasound field is modeled using compressible N-S equations on an Eulerian grid, while the microbubbles are tracked as discrete singularities in a Lagrangian fashion with their dynamics computed. Their intimate coupling is realized through the local void fraction, which is computed from the instantaneous bubble volumes and locations, and then fed to the fluid continuum model.
 Owing to demanding computational cost in real applications, schemes for significant speedup are highly desirable. We present here a MPI parallelization scheme based on domain decomposition for both the continuum fluid and the discrete bubbles. The Eulerian computational domain is subdivided into several subdomains having each the same number of grids, while the bubbles are subdivided based on their locations corresponding to each subdomain. During each computation time step, MPI processors, each handling one subdomain, are 1) first used to execute the fluid computation, and 2) then to execute the bubble computations, 3) followed by the coupling procedure, which maps the void fraction from the Lagrangian bubble solutions into the Eulerian grids.
 Steps 1) and 2) are relatively straightforward by routinely following regular MPI procedures. However, step 3) becomes challenging as the effect of the bubbles through the void fraction at an Eulerian point near a subdomain border will require information from bubbles located in different subdomains. Similarly, a bubble near a border between subdomains will spread its contribution to the void fraction of different subdomains. This is addressed by a special utilization of ghost cells surrounding each fluid subdomain, which allows bubbles to spread their void fraction effects across subdomain edges without the need of exchanging directly bubble information between subdomains and significantly increasing overhead. This void fraction implementation is verified by gas volume conservation before and after spreading the bubble effects. Other bubble effects such as thermal effects are handled in a similar way.
 This parallelization scheme is validated and illustrated on a typical microbubble enhanced HIFU problem, followed by parallelization scaling tests and efficiency analysis.


The mechanical behavior of fibrous structures depends on the inter-fiber friction. In the scientific literature, many researchers have studied this kind of friction, however all of them focused on the inter-fiber friction in only two directions: longitudinal-to-longitudinal (l-l) and longitudinal-to-transversal (l-t). Hence, there are no studies, up to now, focusing on transversal-to-transversal (t-t) direction. For this reason, an experimental device was developed to evaluate the transversal inter-fiber friction. The obtained results would allow characterizing and modelling this type of friction.


Haematological studies in helminthiasis reveal drastic alterations in the white blood cells (leucocytes), and its various components like neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes and eosinophils. The use of proper anthelmintic agent, restores normalcy in the infected host. These variations during helminth infections reflect the host defense status in combating the parasitic attack. The present study involves the evaluation of these total and differential haematological alterations, induced in the laboratory mouse Mus musculus, infested with the intestinal helminth, Hymenolepis nana (dwarf tapeworm), and treated with the praziquantel, using an automatic Coulter Counter.


Using analytical arguments and the numerical renormalization group method we investigate the spin-thermopower of a quantum dot in a magnetic field. In the particle-hole symmetric situation the temperature difference applied across the dot drives a pure spin current without accompanying charge current. For temperatures and fields at or above the Kondo temperature, but of the same order of magnitude, the spin-Seebeck coefficient is large, of the order of k_B/e. Via a mapping, we relate the spin-Seebeck coefficient to the charge-Seebeck coefficient of a negative-U quantum dot where the corresponding result was recently reported by Andergassen et al. in Phys. Rev. B 84, 241107 (2011). For several regimes we provide simplified analytical expressions. In the Kondo regime, the dependence of the spin-Seebeck coefficient on the temperature and the magnetic field is explained in terms of the shift of the Kondo resonance due to the field and its broadening with the temperature and the field. We also consider the influence of breaking the particle-hole symmetry and show that a pure spin current can still be realized provided a suitable electric voltage is applied across the dot. Then, except for large asymmetries, the behavior of the spin-Seebeck coefficient remains similar to that found in the particle-hole symmetric point.


The conventional grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverter is controlled by a dual-loop control strategy in synchronous reference frame, and the controllers are designed for steady-state operating point based on the small signal model by neglecting the high-order and coupling terms. However, in an LCL filter, the coupling terms are complicated due to the dq transformation which will affect the dynamic performance. In this paper, an innovative simplified feedback linearization (SFL) control strategy is proposed for the PV inverter with the LCL filter, which offers satisfactory performance, particularly, in decoupling the control system, improving the dynamic performance, and enhancing the adaptability. Furthermore, the SFL controllers are simpler than the high-order tracking controllers used in conventional feedback linearization control. The detailed simplification process and accurate transfer functions for SFL control strategy have been presented, and the performance comparisons between the proposed SFL control strategy and the classical dual-loop method are carried out to show the characteristics of the proposed control algorithm. Finally, a laboratory prototype of a 150-kW PV inverter with the LCL filter has been implemented to test the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The proposed SFL control strategy can also be applied to a higher order system or other power converters.


Item leakage has been a serious issue in continuous, computer-based testing, especially computerized adaptive testing (CAT), as compromised items jeopardize the fairness and validity of the test. Strategies to detect and address the problem of compromised items have been proposed and investigated, but many solutions are computationally intensive and thus difficult to apply in real-time monitoring. Recently, researchers have proposed several sequential methods aimed at fast detection of compromised items, but applications of these methods have not considered various scenarios of item leakage. In this paper, we introduce a model with a leakage parameter to better characterize the item leaking process and develop a more generalized detection method on its basis. The new model achieves a high level of detection accuracy while maintaining the type-I error at the nominal level, for both fast and slow leakage scenarios. The proposed model also estimates the time point at which an item becomes compromised, thus providing additional useful information for testing practitioners.


Abstract. Lack of real-time information on nutrient availability in
cultivated soils inherently leads to excess application of fertilizers in
agriculture. As a result, nitrate, which is a soluble, stable, and mobile
component of fertilizers, leaches below the root zone through the
unsaturated zone and eventually pollutes the groundwater and other related
water resources. Rising nitrate concentration in aquifers is recognized as a
worldwide environmental problem that contributes to water scarcity. The
development of technologies for continuous in situ measurement of nitrate
concentration in soils is essential for optimizing fertilizer application
and preventing water resource pollution by nitrate. Here we present a
conceptual approach for a monitoring system that enables in situ and
continuous measurement of nitrate concentration in soil. The monitoring
system is based on absorbance spectroscopy techniques for direct
determination of nitrate concentration in soil porewater without
pretreatment, such as filtration, dilution, or reagent supplementation. A
new analytical procedure was developed to improve measurement accuracy while
eliminating the typical measurement interference caused by soil dissolved
organic carbon. The analytical procedure was tested at four field sites over
2 years and proved to be an effective tool for nitrate analysis when
directly applied on untreated soil solution samples. A soil
nitrate-monitoring apparatus, combining specially designed optical flow
cells with soil porewater-sampling units, enabled, for the first time,
real-time continuous measurement of nitrate concentration in soils.
Real-time, high-resolution measurement of nitrate concentration in the soil
has revealed the complex variations in soil nitrate concentrations in
response to fertigation pattern. Such data are crucial for optimizing
fertilizer application and reducing pollution potential of groundwater.


Abstract. Alpha-Fe2O3 (α-Fe2O3) is cheap and abundant and has potential to be a highly efficient photocatalyst for water splitting. According to the report, there are a huge amount of disposable heating pads being created every year, and the pads are used one time then thrown away. We found that the main product of used heating pads is α-Fe2O3. Here, we collect and purify the α-Fe2O3 powder in the used heating pads using low power consumption processes. It is shown that the recycled heating pads can be used as a cost-effective photocatalyst for H2 energy and for decomposition of organic pollutants as well. Additionally, the plasmonic enhanced photocatalysis reaction of α-Fe2O3 is also investigated. It is found that H2 evolution rate can be enhanced 15% using α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles coated with a thin Au layer. The degradation of methylene blue can also enhance 12% compared to photocatalyst α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles coated without Au layer.


It is shown that acetylcholine, noradrenaline and serotonin have no effect on the lactate (LDG) and malate dehydrogenase (MDG) activities in mitochondria, mitoblasts and supernatant fluid of the rat brain tissue. A combined effect of noradrenaline and serotonin with acetylcholine increases the activity of MDG in the mitochondria but does not change that of LDG. In the mitoblast MDG was less active. After treatment with some detergents noradrenaline reduces that LDG activity in the mitochondria and supernatant fluid and did not change the MDG one. Serotonin enhances the LDG and decreased the MDG activity. In the presence of Mg2+ an increase in the LDG activity in supernatant fluid is accompanied by a decrease in the mitochondria while the MDG activity is unchanged. Ca2+ activates MDG in the mitochondria and did not affect the LDG activity.


This project involved the comparison of horizontal winds from three different techniques in the upper mesosphere, lower thermosphere region at SO-105 km and the characterization of the ability of the Fabry-Perot technique to observe gravity waves in the airlow layers. The wind measurements for the comparison were obtained by three independent ground-based techniques, a meteor radar (MR) , a medium frequency radar (MF) and an optical FabryPerot spectrometer (FPS). All three instruments are located on the South Island of New Zealand. The optical winds were derived from night-time observations of the Doppler shifts in the mesospheric S40 nm hydroxyl emission near S7 km and the lower thermospheric 557.7 nm atomic oxygen emission at about 95 km height. The radar winds were obtained using a partial reflection medium frequency radar operating at 2.4 MHz and a meteor radar operating at 26.2 MHz with a pulse repetion rate of 379 Hz. The initial comparisons were made for 5 consecutive nights during May 1997. As a consequence of the results obtained the comparison of the FPSjMR combination were extended to SO nights in the period encompassing May 1997 to April 1995. Dates considered suitable were those exhibiting no cloud and low magnetic activity. A very good correlation was observed between the FPS and MR winds for the 5 consecutive days and, albeit to a lesser degree, in the complete data set of SO days. The good correlation between the FPS and the MR was used to determine the monthly mean height of the hydroxyl and the atomic oxygen layer over the period between May 1997 to April 1995. The result shows an annual variation in the height of the hydroxyl layer with the lower height during early summer and little variation in the height of the atomic oxygen layer. The study of the detectability of the gravity waves in the FPS wind measurements reveals that waves from the part of the gravity wave spectrum which shows the most activity can only, if at all, be detected with a strongly attenuated amplitude. With knowledge of the gravity wave detect ability of the FPS, signatures of very long wavelength gravity waves were sought in the available data set. On many nights signatures of wave activity which could be related to gravity waves were found. The attempt to use the MR data set to aid in the determination of the wavelength of those waves was of limited success.


'Christianity is an idealistic insanity, quite unworkable in a sane, practical world ...'

'As a young man I was having a crisis of faith. I was very fond of Jesus, but I thought that God was rough, harsh, capricious and vindictive.'

'I hear sermons in which the diagnosis of the world's ills is excellent. I wait anxiously for the cure. But from being factual and detailed and down to earth, the preachers become vague and general, and tell me what I already know . . . 'Christ is the answer'. Sure he is, but how?'

'Let us stop peddling simplistic solutions to complex problems. Let us accept the fact that in a complex world there are no easy Christian answers.'

So writes Gordon Stirling in this collection of fragments on human life and Christian faith. Stirling addresses themes including ethical relationality, religious language, biblical hermeneutics, political engagement, and Restoration movement heritage and ethos. This engagement is fuelled by his conviction that the good news of Christian faith can and must speak deeply into the most pressing issues and concerns of human life.

This audiobook is arranged as a collection of fragments, selected and edited by Sarah Bacaller, and organised by year. These fragments are taken from Stirling's original series of full articles, provocatively titled 'Page 13'. 'Page 13' was published on page 13 of the Australian Churches of Christ's national fortnightly publication, the Australian Christian, between 1979 and 1987. The issues in focus remain strikingly contemporary to the challenges of our time.

Produced in collaboration with Voices of Today.


A simple and all-optical Doppler frequency shift (DFS) measurement system is presented. It is based on a dual-drive Mach Zehnder modulator (DDMZM) driven by a transmitted signal and an echo signal received by an antenna. A low-frequency sawtooth wave is applied to the DDMZM DC port to frequency shift the carrier and sidebands generated by the transmitted signal. Beating of a frequency-shifted transmitted signal sideband and an echo signal sideband at the photodetector produces a low-frequency electrical signal. The DFS, and consequently the speed and moving direction of a target, can be obtained from the frequency of this low-frequency electrical signal. The DDMZM used in the proposed DFS measurement system does not need to be operated at a specific point in the transfer function and hence it has no bias drift problem. The proposed DFS measurement technique can be used in both CW and pulsed radar systems. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed DFS measurement system has a wide operating frequency range of 10 GHz to 19.95 GHz, small DFS measurement error of less than ±0.6 Hz and long-term stable performance. Results also demonstrate, for the first time, DFS measurement of a pulsed signal using a microwave photonic technique.


Mammalian Cryptochromes, CRY1 and CRY2, function as principal regulators of a transcription-translation-based negative feedback loop underlying the mammalian circadian clockwork. An F-box protein, FBXL3, promotes ubiquitination and degradation of CRYs, while FBXL21, the closest paralog of FBXL3, ubiquitinates CRYs but leads to stabilization of CRYs. Fbxl3 knockout extremely lengthened the circadian period, and deletion of Fbxl21 gene in Fbxl3-deficient mice partially rescued the period-lengthening phenotype, suggesting a key role of CRY protein stability for maintenance of the circadian periodicity. Here, we employed a proteomics strategy to explore regulators for the protein stability of CRYs. We found that ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7 also known as HAUSP) associates with CRY1 and CRY2 and stabilizes CRYs through deubiquitination. Treatment with USP7-specific inhibitor or Usp7 knockdown shortened the circadian period of the cellular rhythm. We identified another CRYs-interacting protein, TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43), an RNA-binding protein. TDP-43 stabilized CRY1 and CRY2, and its knockdown also shortened the circadian period in cultured cells. The present study identified USP7 and TDP-43 as the regulators of CRY1 and CRY2, underscoring the significance of the stability control process of CRY proteins for period determination in the mammalian circadian clockwork.


In December of 2007, the Southwestern Writers Collection, part of the Wittliff Collection of the Alkek Library at Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas, acquired Cormac McCarthy's literary papers. The collection contains early drafts, correspondence, and notes. Access to the archives makes possible scholarly investigations into influences on McCarthy's work, a subject that, given the author's reticence about discussing other writers, has been largely relegated to informed speculation. The following study moves scholarly interest in McCarthy's influences away from speculation and toward a more solid foundation based on detailed manuscript research. By chronicling McCarthy's references to writers, books, and thinkers in his correspondence, in working notes, and in marginalia found in early drafts, I have provided a reference guide that will serve other scholars engaged in the study of Cormac McCarthy's influences. The work is composed primarily of alphabetized entries corresponding to the names of writers, artists, and thinkers found in the archives. For instance, the first entry is Edward Abbey, the last the ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes. Each entry describes the location of the reference in the archives by identifying the box and folder in which it is contained, and describes the context of its appearance. For instance, the reference to Edward Abbey appears in Box 19, Folder 14, which contains McCarthy's notes for Suttree. It refers to a specific passage in Abbey's book Desert Solitaire. Having identified the location of the reference, I then describe the passage from Abbey's book and explain the way in which McCarthy used ideas and images from it in a scene from Suttree. Some entries are relatively short, while others, if the influence of the writer on McCarthy is significant, are long essays. In addition to the descriptions of the archival material and the relationship of that material to McCarthy's published works, I draw conclusions about McCarthy's methods of composition, arguing that he is less interested in the thematic possibilities inherent in his sources than he is in the aesthetic possibilities they provide as raw material to be incorporated into his own work.


This thesis focuses on two important considerations when solving short term scheduling problems for multipurpose facilities: deciding when rescheduling should be performed and choosing efficient time representations for the scheduling problems. This class of scheduling problems is of practical importance as it may be used for scheduling chemical production facilities, flexible manufacturing systems, and analytical services facilities, among others. In these cases, improving the efficiency of scheduling operations may lead to increased yield, or reduced makespan, resulting in greater profits or customer satisfaction. Therefore, efficiently solving these problems is of great practical interest. One aspect of real world implementations of these problems is the presence of uncertainty, such as in the form of new jobs arriving, or a machine breaking down. In these cases, one may want or need to reschedule operations subject to the new disturbance. An investigation into how often to perform these reschedulings is addressed in the first part of the thesis. When formulating these problems, one must also choose a time representation for executing scheduling operations over. A dynamic approach is proposed in the second part of the thesis which we show can potentially yield substantial computational savings when scheduling over large instances. The first part of this thesis addresses the question of when to reschedule operations for a facility that receives new jobs on a daily basis. Through computational experiments that vary plant parameters, such as the load and the capacity of a facility, we investigate the effects these parameters have on plant performance under periodic rescheduling. These experiments are carried out using real data from an industrial-scale facility. The results show that choosing a suitable rescheduling policy depends on some key plant parameters. In particular, by modifying various parameters of the facility, the performance ranking of the various rescheduling policies may be reversed compared to the results obtained with nominal parameter values. This highlights the need to consider both facility characteristics and what the crucial objective of the facility is when selecting a rescheduling policy. The second part of this thesis deals with the issue of deciding which timepoints to include in our model formulations. In general, adding more timepoints to the model will offer more flexibility to the solver and hence result in more accurate schedules. However, these extra timepoints will also increase the size of the model and accordingly the computational cost of solving the model. We propose an iterative framework to refine an initial coarse uniform discretization, by adding key timepoints that may be most beneficial, and removing timepoints which are unnecessary from the model. This framework is compared against existing static discretizations using computational experiments on an analytical services facility. The results of these experiments demonstrate that when problems are sufficiently


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the various factors affecting the usage of internet banking. Furthermore, the study tries to find out the relation between factors affecting usage of internet banking and demographic variables of the respondents residing in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR). A questionnaire with five-point Likert scale consisting of 58 statements related to the various factors affecting internet banking is designed. Primary data have been gathered from 450 respondents using random sampling method. The results of the study indicate that the factors namely accuracy, user friendly websites, efficient transaction management, responsiveness and promised service delivery affect the usage of internet banking. Also these factors show significant relation with different groups of demographic variables like gender, place of residence, occupation and category of bank. The results are suitable to provide a practical contribution in the area of internet banking and in understanding consumer behaviour.


Abstract : The report presents a quantitative measure of the effects of energy absorber stroke length upon cumulative probability of injury. The response of a seated subject to a vertical deceleration pulse representing a helicopter crash was calculated for a given seat and clothing weight. The seat-man system was analytically supported by a 'square wave' energy absorber selected to generate no greater than 23 G for a 5th percentile man. The calculated response, DRI, provides a probability of spinal injury for the seated occupant. Since all parameters necessary for response computations had known statistical properties, it was possible to calculate the joint probability of injury for a particular deceleration pulse and subject weight. By calculating the statistical values for many deceleration and weight combinations, sufficient to represent the total population of both, a cumulative probability of injury was generated. Stroke length of the energy absorber required for each combination of deceleration and weight was calculated. By examining the effects of a limited stroke length, it was possible to generate a curve of stroke length available versus cumulative probability of injury. The curve indicates that for a realistic stroke length (12 inches), the cumulative probability of injury is 0.119. By doubling the stroke available or by halving it, the cumulative probability is decreased or increased by 7 percent. Comparisons with previously reported data indicate that the injury potential of the square wave is significantly higher than is theoretically achievable.


Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess medicines information sources accessed by clinicians, if sources differed in theory and practice and to find out the barriers and facilitators to effective guideline adoption. Design/methodology/approach In all, 183 doctors were surveyed. Barriers and facilitators were classified as: communication; potential adopters; innovation; organization characteristics and environmental/social/economic context. Findings Most of the clinicians accessed multiple information sources including standard treatment guidelines, but also consulted seniors/colleagues in practice. The top three factors influencing clinical practice guideline adoption were innovation characteristics, environmental context and individual characteristics. The respondents differed in the following areas: concerns about flexibility offered by the guideline; denying patients' individuality; professional autonomy; insights into gaps in current practice and evidence-based practice; changing practices with little or no benefit. Barriers included negative staff attitudes/beliefs, guideline integration into organizational structures/processes, time/resource constraints. Fearing third parties (government and insurance companies) restricting medicines reimbursement and poor liability protection offered by the guidelines emerged as the barriers. Facilitators include aligning organizational structures/processes with the innovation; providing leadership support to guide diffusion; increasing awareness and enabling early innovation during pre/in-service training, with regular feedback on outcomes and use. Practical implications Guideline adoption in clinical practice is partly within doctors' control. There are other key prevailing factors in the local context such as environmental, social context, professional and organizational culture affecting its adoption. Organizational policy and accreditation standards necessitating adherence can serve as a driver. Originality/value This survey among clinicians, despite limitations, gives helpful insights. While favourable attitudes may be helpful, clinical adoption could be improved more effectively by targeting barriers.


The use of central venous catheters (CVC) is associated with a risk of microbial colonization and subsequent potentially severe infection. Microbial contamination of the catheter leads to the development of a microbial consortia associated with the CVC surface and embedded in an extracellular matrix, named biofilm. This biofilm provides bacterial cells the ability to survive antimicrobial agents and the host immune system and to disseminate to other sites of the body. The best preventive strategy is to avoid any unnecessary catheterization or to reduce indwelling duration when a CVC is required. Beside aseptic care and antibiotic‐impregnated catheters (like minocycline/rifampin), preventive locks can be proposed in some cases, whereas non‐biocidal approaches are under active research like anti‐adhesive or competitive interactions strategies. When the diagnosis of catheter‐related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) is suspected on clinical symptoms, it requires a microbiological confirmation by paired blood cultures in order to avoid unnecessary catheter removal. The treatment of CRBSI relies on catheter removal and systemic antimicrobials. However, antibiotic lock technique (ALT) can be used as an attempt to eradicate biofilm formed on the inside lumen of the catheter in case of uncomplicated long‐term catheter‐related BSI caused by coagulase‐negative staphylococci (CoNS) or Enterobacteriaceae. Recently, promising strategies have been developed to improve biofilm eradication; they rely on matrix degradation or destabilization or the development of anti‐persister compounds, targeting the most tolerant bacterial cells inside the biofilm. Understanding biofilm formation at the molecular level may help us to develop new approaches to prevent or treat these frequent infections.


We introduce a new geometric flow called the chord shortening flow which is the negative gradient flow for the length functional on the space of chords with end points lying on a fixed submanifold in Euclidean space. As an application, we give a simplified proof of a classical theorem of Lusternik and Schnirelmann (and a generalization by Riede and Hayashi) on the existence of multiple orthogonal geodesic chords. For a compact convex planar domain, we show that any convex chord which is not orthogonal to the boundary would shrink to a point in finite time under the flow.


More than three decades after the introduction of prosopis species in the drylands of
Kenya there is now increasing concern about the negative impacts of the plant on the
livelihoods of dryland communities and on the ecological integrity of the fragile arid
and semiarid lands. The extent of the species coverage in the arid and semiarid lands
has, however, not been fully mapped owing in part to the recent nature of the
problem. As such the aim of this study was to map out the extent of the spread of the
species and propose community-friendly management options for this invasive plant.
Geographic information system methodology and satellite imageries (Landsat images
from 2000 and 2006), maps and GPS points were the main tools used for this work.
Standard spatial statistical analysis procedures were employed using the software
Erdas Imagine 8.4 and ESRI ArcView to generate land cover changes associated with
prosopis species. The study found that a total of 440 square kilometres were newly
colonised between the years 2000 and 2006, with Bura division having the highest
area of land colonised at 143km² (33% of total land area). The study also noted that
the riverine land use/land cover system was the most infested, with 631km2 colonised.
This automatically puts the livelihoods of thousands of pastoralists who depend on the
River Tana ecosystem at risk. The study also employed a socio-economic survey that
involved the use questionnaires and interviews to ascertain the perceptions of the local
community regarding origin, impact and uses of the species. Eighty four per cent of
the respondents indicated that prosopis' presence has had negative effect on the
indigenous biodiversity of Garissa through loss of native vegetation. The three major
local uses of prosopis were charcoal, fuelwood and animal fodder. The study shows
that prosopis is a major environmental problem in the study area through its swift
colonisation of strategic grazing reserves and is rapidly colonising new lands. The
findings of this study call for commercialising production of prosopis for charcoal
burning as a strategic management strategy for the plant. This should be accompanied
with the use of efficient kilning technologies. In addition deliberate and pro-active
policy changes should be put in place to delineate land specifically for this
environmental business. Spread of the plant outside designated areas should be
controlled by use of environment-friendly mechanical approaches. This further calls
for community capacity building in partnership with key stakeholders like Kenya
Forest Service. In this way, prosopis will cease to be a liability and instead contribute
to community development through wealth creation.


Abstract Optical absorption spectra of flux-grown single crystals in the spinel s.s.-magnesiochromite and gahnite-zincochromite solid solutions were recorded with the aim of exploring variations in local Cr-O bond distance as a function of composition. With increasing Cr contents, the crystals vary in color from pale red to intensely red to dark greenish. These variations are reflected in the optical spectra by the position and intensity of the two spin-allowed electronic d-d transitions in six-coordinated Cr3+ at ~18 000 (ν1) and 25 000 cm-1 (ν2). From the shift of the ν1 band position, a decrease in crystal field splitting, 10Dq, for six-coordinated Cr3+ with increasing Cr contents is evident in both solid-solution series. Based on published Cr-O bond distances for the CrO6 polyhedra in magnesiochromite and zincochromite of 1.995 and 1.991 Å, respectively, and applying the ligand field relationships, local Cr-O bond distances in gahnite and spinel with Cr contents at trace levels are determined to be 1.974(2) and 1.960(3) Å, respectively. These local Cr-O distances result in relaxation parameters (ε) equal to 0.69(2) and 0.60(3) for Cr-O bonds in the Mg(Al1-xCrx)2O4 and Zn(Al1-xCrx)2O4 series, respectively. However, the presently obtained Racah B values indicate increasing Cr-O bond covalency with increasing Cr3+ contents. This suggests that color changes and accompanying 10Dq variations may be due to variations in Cr-O bond covalency along the two solid-solution series, without or with very minor local Cr-O bond distance variation. Consequently, the ε values obtained from the present optical absorption spectra should be regarded as minimum values.