Adolescent pregnancies that occur in schools remain a major public concern in Rwanda. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) school based programs are less effective and discussing sexual health with adolescents is considered as taboo in Rwandan societies. Yet, adolescents still seek information about SRHR from their peers and research shows that peers are often incorrectly informed about SRHR topics. One of the effective strategies to reduce adolescent pregnancies in secondary schools is equipping adolescents with accurate and reliable knowledge. In 2019, we conducted our first network event with different stakeholders. The stakeholders included: school directors, head teachers, biology teachers, local political delegates, religious people among others to help gain insights into SRHR. A survey was conducted and administered to in-school adolescents in Kirehe district (S3 - S6 level, n=563) with the aim of examining adolescents' level of knowledge and attitudes regarding SRHR. In addition, six focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to obtain a deeper understanding of the SRHR needs and the possible contributions and content of a peer -to- peer education program (PEP). The lessons learned included: a) engaging parents in the network event and development of PEP; b) constant communication utilizing the different social media platforms, c) enhanced collaboration between the project implementers and stakeholders a facet of bottom-up approaches to expedite this project; and d) the project should have better anticipated on possible and unforeseen external barriers. Implementing a PEP in Kirehe secondary schools resulted in substantive changes such as positively transforming peer educators (PEs) and the elimination of teenage pregnancies in the selected schools. Overall, the number of PEs was not adequate to cover the number of students and anti-bullying training should have been provided to all students before the project implementation.


Labour managed firms face some serious problems with regard to the provision of capital, especially of risk-bearing capital. These difficulties are discussed in the first part of the paper. Subsequently it is argued that these problems are rooted in the fact that the workers are insufficiently committed to the long run well-being of the labour managed firm, i.e. in the lacking of a sufficient commitment mechanism. An interchange of the roles which capital and labour play under capitalism would require tradable job rights, an arrangement which is not feasible. It is concluded therefrom that any workable labour managed economy needs a special commitment mechanism. A high rate of unemployment might serve for this purpose, or, more attractively, a reduction of labour mobility through appropriate incentives like seniority-dependent remuneration schemes.


Tracer studies with avocado tissues indicate that methionine is converted to ethylene at stages of the climacteric rise and the climacteric peak, but not at the preclimacteric stage. The results suggest that the control of ethylene biosynthesis is at a step after methionine is synthesized. The endogenous content of methionine was found to be so low that methionine must be actively turned over for ethylene biosynthesis during the stages when the rate of ethylene production is high. Oxygen was found to be essential for this conversion, indicating that at least one of the steps in conversion of methionine to ethylene is oxygen-dependent. The ability of methionine and its keto analogue (a-keto-,y-methylthiobutyric acid) to serve as ethylene precursors by apple tissues was compared. Chemical and ki- netic evidence support the view that methionine is a closer precursor of ethylene than its keto analogue.


BACKGROUND
Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) are the only drugs marketed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Despite numerous randomized controlled trials, the efficacy and safety of this group of medications has not been quantified. Our objective was to quantitatively summarize data on the efficacy and safety of ChEIs in Alzheimer's disease in a format useful to clinicians.

METHODS
We performed a meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trials of currently marketed ChEIs (donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine), used in therapeutic doses for at least 12 weeks, from which a cognitive outcome was reported. Studies were identified through 3 electronic databases searched to May 2002, pharmaceutical companies and journals. We extracted the proportions of subjects who responded, experienced adverse events, discontinued treatment for any reason or discontinued treatment because of adverse events.

RESULTS
In the 16 identified trials that met the inclusion criteria, 5159 patients were treated with a ChEI and 2795 received a placebo. The pooled mean proportion of global responders to ChEI treatment in excess of that for placebo treatment was 9% (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 6%-12%). The rates of adverse events, dropout for any reason and dropout because of adverse events were also higher among the patients receiving ChEI treatment than among those receiving placebo, the excess proportions being 8% (95% CI 5%-11%), 8% (95% CI 5%-11%) and 7% (95% CI 3%-10%), respectively. The numbers needed to treat for 1 additional patient to benefit were 7 (95% CI 6-9) for stabilization or better, 12 (95% CI 9-16) for minimal improvement or better and 42 (95% CI 26-114) for marked improvement; the number needed to treat for 1 additional patient to experience an adverse event was 12 (95% CI 10-18).

INTERPRETATION
Treatment with ChEIs results in a modest but significant therapeutic effect and modestly but significantly higher rates of adverse events and discontinuation of treatment. The numbers needed to treat to benefit 1 additional patient are small.


Synthesis plays an important role in the phase stabilization of unusual compounds. Of late, preparation of metastable compounds has gained a tremendous momentum due to unusual properties exhibited by them. In this article, we will discuss how by mere change in certain parameters of the reaction a metastable phase can be isolated using a soft chemical route. Surface energy induced stabilization are also observed wherein enhanced stability of the mixed oxides are observed in the nano-regime of the compound.


SIR,-I was distressed that Drs. E. B. Casey and M. J. G. Harrison (11 March, p. 656) made no mention whatever of the peripheral circulation in their patients. In New York 30% or more of patients seen for peripheral arterial insufficiency have diabetes. Varying pictures of muscle wasting, with or without clinically demonstrable neuropathy, are extremely common. As the authors rightly point out, muscle wasting due to ischaemia rarely recovers spontaneously, and I have found it invariably to affect the distal muscles most severely. However, chronic poorly compensated arterial blocks can certainly give rise to pain and muscle wasting. Such arterial insufficiency may often be clinically masked in the diabetic by a relatively warm leg due to an accompanying autosympathectomy. I believe Drs. Casey and Harrison's paper is incomplete with absolutely no reference to the presence of peripheral pulses, colour, temperature, trophic lesions, etc., or possibly even blood flow studies, as they have not excluded impaired circulation as a contributory or primary factor in some of their patients. With much talk of shortened curricula and increasing electives for students, as well as increasing specialization in postgraduate work, it seems a pity that a paper from two such excellent institutions fails to mention an extremely common and very likely relevant clinical association.-I am, etc., ADOLF SINGER Mount Sinai School of Medicine and City Hospital Center at Elmhurst, New York, N.Y., U.S.A.


Abstract- Kernel trick and projection to tangent spaces are two choices for linearizing the data points lying on Riemannian manifolds. These approaches are used to provide the prerequisites for applying standard machine learning methods on Riemannian manifolds. Classical kernels implicitly project data to high dimensional feature space without considering the intrinsic geometry of data points. Projection to tangent spaces truly preserves topology along radial geodesics. In this paper, we propose a method for extrinsic inference on Riemannian manifold using kernel approach while topology of the entire dataset is preserved. We show that computing the Gramian matrix using geodesic distances, on a complete Riemannian manifold with unique minimizing geodesic between each pair of points, provides a feature mapping which preserves the topology of data points in the feature space. The proposed approach is evaluated on real datasets composed of EEG signals of patients with two different mental disorders, texture, visual object classes, and tracking datasets. To assess the effectiveness of our scheme, the extracted features are examined by other state-of-the-art techniques for extrinsic inference over symmetric positive definite (SPD) Riemannian manifold. Experimental results show the superior accuracy of the proposed approach over approaches which use kernel trick to compute similarity on SPD manifolds without considering the topology of dataset or partially preserving topology.


We introduce a multi-token machine for Idealized Parallel Algol (IPA), a higher-order concurrent programming language with shared state and semaphores. Our machine takes the shape of a compositional interpretation of terms as Petri structures, certain coloured Petri nets. For the purely functional fragment of IPA, our machine is conceptually close to Geometry of Interaction token machines, originating from Linear Logic and presenting higher-order computation as the low-level process of a token walking through a graph (a proof net) representing the term. We combine here these ideas with folklore ideas on the representation of first-order imperative concurrent programs as coloured Petri nets. To prove our machine computationally adequate with respect to the reference operational semantics, we follow game semantics and represent types as certain games specifying dependencies and conflict between computational events. Petri strategies are those Petri structures obeying the rules of the game extracted from the type. We show how Petri strategies unfold to concurrent strategies in the sense of concurrent games on event structures. This link with concurrent strategies not only allows us to prove adequacy of our machine, but also lets us generate operationally a causal description of the behaviour of programs at higher-order types, which is shown to coincide with that given denotationally by the interpretation in concurrent games.


A mill scale trial was performed where chips were mechanically pretreated and impregnated with sodium sulfite (<7.2 g/kg). Pretreated chips were refined in two parallel double disc refiners (RGP68DD) using two different conditions: Turbine™ segment at higher production rate (higher intensity) and Low Shive™ segment at normal production rate (lower intensity). By combining the Turbine segments with chip pretreatment using a sodium sulphite charge of 3.6 g/kg it was possible to reduce the specific energy consumption by 15%, while maintaining pulp properties, compared with the lower intensity refining without pretreatment.


Decision support systems are interactive computer-based systems that help decision makers to use data and models to solve unstructured problems. Decision support systems (DSS) combine the intellectual resources of individuals with computer capabilities to improve decision quality.

Nerangi Sarana Karya is a company engaged in the engineering sector, in its daily activities PT. Nerangi Sarana Karya carries out production activities, in support of production activities it requires a lot of tools in the form of tools, if these tools run out it will hamper production activities, the purchasing department is responsible if the tools run out, in this implementation the purchasing part is difficult determine the decision to purchase the product because the tools needed have a large number, different sizes and many more criteria.

This system functions to recommend product purchases by analyzing or calculating several products with several criteria so that they can be ranked in order from top to bottom, the top one has the highest calculation that can be recommended..


In order to improve the bio-corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy Mg-8.0Al-1.0Zn-xGd in the simulated human fluid, different heat treatment procedures were studied. Results showed that annealing treatment lowered the alloy's corrosion resistance and hardness, while T6 treatment (solid solution+ aging) improved the alloy's corrosion resistance and hardness. Microstructure analysis showed that the β phase dissolved into α phase after the annealing treatment. Hence, annealing treatment decreased the alloy's corrosion resistance. However, lots of β-phases were precipitated in the T6 heat treatment, and they impeded the corrosion extending.


The successful in vivo horizontal transfer of mobile genetic elements carrying resistance and virulence determinants have contributed immensely to a global dissemination of virulent and multi-drug resistant pathogens. In addition, the pathogenesis of MRSA infection is enhanced via initial colonization of the skin through the component of the microbial surface antigen recognizing adhesive matrix molecules and by their ability to evade host immune response. Furthermore, it was also observed that the genetic diversity of pathogenic MRSA is due to its' ability to rapidly acquire resistance and virulence determinants. A characteristic feature that made it one of the most important nosocomial pathogen worldwide. Similarly, the expression of virulence gene in MRSA has been observed to be regulated by the accessory gene regulator system (agr). These system is made up of a series of genes whose product build up quorum-sensing regulatory mechanisms that is growth dependent. In addition, at a certain growth stage, the agr systems triggers a pronounced changes in the expression of genes called the quorum sensing. The findings of this review affirms the importance of horizontal gene transfer in the dissemination of resistance and virulence determinants and as well as the genetic diversity of MRSA.


Abstract Wild oat is an economically important annual weed throughout small grain producing regions of the United States and Canada. Timely and more accurate control of wild oat may be developed if there is a better understanding of its emergence patterns. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the emergence pattern of wild oat and determine if emergence could be predicted using soil growing degree days (GDD) and/or hydrothermal time (HTT). Research plots were established at Crookston, MN, and Fargo, ND, in 2002 and 2003. On a weekly basis, naturally emerging seedlings were counted and removed from six 0.37-m2 permanent quadrats randomly distributed in a wild oat–infested area. This process was repeated until no additional emergence was observed. Wild oat emergence began between May 1 and May 15 at both locations and in both years and continued for 4 to 6 wk. Base soil temperature and soil water potential associated with wild oat emergence were determined to be 1 C and −0.6 MPa, respectively. Seedling emergence was correlated with GDD and HTT but not calendar days (P = 0.15). A Weibull function was fitted to cumulative wild oat emergence and GDD and HTT. The models for GDD (n = 22, r2 = 0.93, root mean square error [RMSE] = 10.7) and HTT (n = 22, r2 = 0.92, RMSE = 11.2) closely fit observed emergence patterns. The latter model is the first to use HTT to predict wild oat emergence under field conditions. Both models can aid in the future study of wild oat emergence and assist growers and agricultural professionals with planning timely and more accurate wild oat control. Nomenclature: Wild oat, Avena fatua L. AVEFA


Self-talk is a mental skill athletes use to enhance their sports performance and well-being. Over the last 30 years, more and more researchers have been investigating the role of self-talk in sport. Results from studies of athletes from different sports and competitive levels suggest that self-talk does influence sports performance. However, some ambiguous results demand a review to draw conclusions from current research and find avenues for future research. To serve researchers and stakeholders, this paper presents a critical review of research on self-talk in the psychology of sport in the last 15 years. PsycINFO, SPORTdiscus and Google Scholar were used to identify articles on self-talk published since January 2000. The definition of self-talk, its conceptualization and the methods used to assess it are addressed. The principle findings and limitations of these studies are highlighted. Finally, avenues for future research are proposed.


A paucity of formally described information is available in the scientific literature regarding spinal subdural empyema. Patients presenting with neurological deterioration associated with subdural empyema are rarely identified, and treatment is often based upon anecdotal cases. The authors contribute three cases of primary cervical spinal subdural empyema and review the seven found in the literature. All patients had clinical evidence of neurological compromise, cervical tenderness, cervical pain, and leukocytosis upon admission. Cervical involvement ranged from C-2 to C-7. All patients underwent laminectomy with durotomy and drainage. The authors recommend prompt surgical decompressive laminectomy, copious irrigation, and drainage, followed with appropriate adjunctive antibiotic therapy for treatment of these patients.


The present book is a selection of papers from the 14th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (Paris 2017). The volume is divided thematically into three parts: I. Notions and categories, II. Representations and receptions, III. Learning, codification and the linguistic practices of social actors. The first part is especially concerned with data not easily handled by extant traditions of linguistic analysis, and with constructs and perspectives which proved difficult to establish in the linguist's descriptive apparatus. Part II groups six studies dealing with alternative representations of linguistic data, and matters of interpretation and reception regarding the work of three important linguists (Saussure, Jespersen, Chomsky). The scope of part III embraces social and pedagogical practices as well as the involvement of linguists in questions of national identity.


Cybernetics and artificial intelligence are viewed primarily as being a major part of information science which is considered as we would any other scientific discipline. It is suggested that such a science must be capable of formalization. Language is considered as a major feature of science, where mathematics is a specialized part of language. The analysis of language in the form of semantics and pragmatics is regarded as essential to the understanding of any linguistic usage, particularly when some degree of precision is entailed. Discusses information science and its foundations in philosophy, logic and especially in semantics and pragmatics.


Injection locking of a semiconductor laser can induce major changes in the modulation characteristics of the laser. A small-signal analysis using the lumped element model shows that both the frequency and damping of the characteristic resonances of the coupled complex field and free carriers (gain medium) are modified. The detuning between the injected field and the free-running oscillating field, the amplitude of the injection field relative to the free-running field, the linewidth enhancement factor, the cavity photon and spontaneous carrier decay rates, and the field enhancement of the decay rate are all key parameters in determining the changes to the modulation characteristics. For a broad range of parameters, there is simultaneous enhancement of the modulation bandwidth and stable, locked operation. The enhancement is a cavity phenomena and does not occur in a traveling wave amplifier. It requires that the frequency of the locking field be detuned from the injection-modified frequency of the cavity resonance. This causes a resonant enhancement of the modulation sideband associated with the preferred frequency of the optical cavity. Bandwidth enhancements beyond the free-running laser limit are possible over a range of injection levels and injection frequency detunings.


The main aim of the paper is to research the differences in perception and evaluation impact of the country on macroeconomic business environment on the basis of a sector in which the entrepreneur is running a business. Differences in perception and evaluation of entrepreneurial support from the state on the basis of a sector, in which the company is established, are analyzed using the cases of the Slovak and Czech Republic. Correspondence analysis is applied, while exploratory technique has been designed to examine the data with the aim to reduce dimensionality. Correspondence analysis provides a measure of correspondence between the explored dimensions – the categorical variables. This technique is widely applied incases when graphical output is clearer than Received: April, 2019 1st Revision: September, 2019 Accepted: November, 2019 DOI: 10.14254/20718330.2019/12-4/16 Journal of International Studies S ci en ti fi c P a pe rs © Foundation of International Studies, 2017 © CSR, 2017 Beata Gavurova, Jaroslav Belas, Zdenek Strnad, Zoltan Rozsa Impact of the state on business environment sectoral analysis 245 numeric output. The outcome of correspondence analysis is presented in a form of a two-dimensional diagram. Out of 641 collected questionnaires, 329 were from the Slovak Republic and 312 were from the Czech Republic. The dataset consists of 492 micro companies, 114 small companies and 35 medium-sized companies. The Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic are compared in relation to four statements that form entrepreneurial support from the state's view. The first correspondence map looks for the relation between these dimensions. Generally, the respondents from the Czech Republic demonstrate more agreement than the respondents from the Slovak Republic. The share of total inertia described by individual correspondence maps oscillates about 80%.


The recent surge in wrist-worn devices has stirred an increasing interest in wearable technology, however, reactions to these devices are split and the use-case of these devices is still unclear. This thesis explores affordances and opportunities offered by wrist-worn devices through the design and implementation of DisplaySkin.
We approach the topic of wrist-worn displays by initially presenting a historical analysis of the development of the wristwatch. Based upon this analysis we present a series of design guidelines: we suggest that wrist-worn devices should be designed for non-focal attention, supply the user with contextual information, accommodate glance based interactions and consider the user's body pose.
Implementing these guidelines, we built DisplaySkin, a wrist-worn, pose aware device. DisplaySkin features a large flexible electrophoretic display and advanced sensing capabilities, allowing it to orient content towards the users face, independently of their body-pose. This design approach takes both new technological opportunities, as well as the cultural history of the wristwatch into account.
To evaluate DisplaySkin, we conducted two experimental studies. The first study investigates the effects of display size on a scrolling task, demonstrating that, even if the input area is kept constant, users are able to complete tasks faster using a larger display. In our second experiment we investigate the pose-aware display, demonstrating that using a pose-aware display improves reaction times when acknowledging notifications on a wrist-worn display.


To enrich the shape vocabulary of mechanical CAD systems, we develop techniques that allow defining free-form curves from geometric constraints. An important aspect of this aproach is the ability to obtain all possible instances of curve segments satisfying the constraints of a dimensioned sketch. We illustrate the approach by treating constraints on Tschirnhausen cubics in some detail.


The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is an inexorable trend in the development of Internet. However, since IPv4 has been widely deployed for many years, it is mandatory that the existing IPv4 and the newly deployed IPv6 coexist and interoperate seamlessly. With the study of various mechanisms proposed for the interoperability between IPv4 and IPv6, some mobility management protocols are also extended to work in the mixed mobile Internet. In this study, the authors carry out an in-depth analysis of three types of standardised mobility management protocols with dual-stack support. Owing to the difference of underlying basic protocols, their individual dual-stack extensions have different features and thus are suited for deployment in different scenarios and stages in the evolution of the mobile Internet.


From 1950 to 1980, the field of sport psychology made significant strides. The developments were so rapid and so profound that this period can be called the "formative" years of the field. There was a tremendous expansion of the sport psychology literature, some of which constituted sustained contributions on a single research topic. Several textbooks and specialty books were published during this time period. Sport psychology journal articles expanded so much that journals devoted entirely to sport psychology research were created. The first graduate programs and research societies that focused more directly on sport psychology were also established. Applied sport psychology techniques, such as relaxation, imagery, and concentration training, were developed and made available to athletes. In addition to providing a description of the above-mentioned developments, some insights into dominant research methodology trends will be presented for the time periods of 1950 to 1965 and from 1966 to 1980.


There is a critical need for a real-time, nonperturbative probe for monitoring the adulteration of automotive gasoline. Running on adulterated fuel leads to a substantive increase in air pollution, because of increased tailpipe emissions of harmful pollutants, as well as a reduction in engine performance. Consequently, both classification of the gasoline type and quantification of the adulteration content are of great significance for quality control. Gasoline adulteration detection is currently carried out in the laboratory with gas chromatography, which is time-consuming and costly. Here, we propose the application of Raman spectroscopic measurements for on-site rapid detection of gasoline adulteration. In this proof-of-principle report, we demonstrate the effectiveness of Raman spectra, in conjunction with multivariate analysis methods, in classifying the base oil types and simultaneously detecting the adulteration content in a wide range of commercial gasoline mixtures, both in their native states and spiked with different adulterants. In particular, we show that Raman spectra acquired with an inexpensive noncooled detector provides adequate specificity to clearly discriminate between the gasoline samples and simultaneously characterize the specific adulterant content with a limit of detection below 5%. Our promising results in this study illustrate, for the first time, the capability and the potential of Raman spectroscopy, together with multivariate analysis, as a low-cost, powerful tool for on-site rapid detection of gasoline adulteration and opens substantive avenues for applications in related fields of quality control in the oil industry.


Monazite ([LREE]PO 4 , where LREE stands for light rare earth element) and xenotime (Y[HREE]PO 4 , where HREE stands for heavy rare earth element) occur in ore-grade concentrations within the Pinto Gneiss in the Music Valley region of southern California. However, both the age and petrogenesis of this potentially economically significant rare earth element (REE) deposit remain uncertain. New petrologic and geochronologic data enable assessment of the textural and temporal relationships between REE-bearing minerals and the host rock and development of a petrogenetic model for REE mineralization. Ore-forming monazite and xenotime are typically restricted to biotite folia within the host Pinto Gneiss, with greatest modal abundances occurring within a few meters of contacts between the host gneiss and a metadiorite intrusive unit, the latter of which is crosscut by pegmatite veins generated by partial melting of the Pinto Gneiss. Ore-forming monazite and xenotime preserve complex internal elemental zonation defining two distinct textures: (1) oscillatory zoning interpreted to represent primary crystallization, overprinted by (2) irregular embayed textures inferred to be the result of fluid-mediated dissolution re-precipitation reactions. The altered domains in monazite consist of primary monazite replaced by secondary monazite along with xenotime and uranothorite [(U,Th)SiO 4 ] inclusions. Similarly, primary xenotime is replaced by secondary xenotime with monazite and uranothorite inclusions. Localized breakdown of monazite, anorthite, and biotite to apatite and allanite provides further evidence for postmineralization metasomatism of the ore bodies. In situ monazite and xenotime U-Pb geochronology constrains the timing of primary REE mineralization to ca. 1.71 Ga, consistent with zircon dates obtained from the Pinto Gneiss. Based on the similarity in ages of monazite, xenotime, and zircon in the Pinto Gneiss, along with relict "igneous" zoning in the ore-bearing phosphate minerals, REE mineralization is inferred to have occurred during crystallization of the igneous protolith to the Pinto Gneiss. Metadiorite emplacement at ca. 1.4 Ga and pegmatite genesis at ca. 165 Ma both postdate the main phase of REE mineralization but likely played a role in fluid-assisted alteration, breakdown, and partial resetting of monazite and xenotime U-Pb systematics in the Pinto Gneiss.


The ongoing impact of divorce on elementary school-aged children has been associated with lower academic achievement, behavioral problems, relational issues, depression, and risk of developing short-and long-term mental health symptoms. School-based divorce support groups are one way children may receive support to cope with ongoing stressors associated with growing up in divorced or separated families. The purpose of this project was to explore elementary school social workers perspectives regarding what services they are able to provide to children who come from divorced, separated, or never married households and at what frequency. If divorce groups were offered in an elementary school setting questions were asked regarding what makes an effective group, and if groups were not run questions were asked regarding what services school social workers can provide. Using a qualitative design, interviews were conducted with nine elementary school social workers, located in the Twin-Cities area and greater Minnesota. This study found that elementary school social workers indicate the use of engagement activities such as group activities and play helpful components of engaging students in family change groups. Participants also shared benefits elementary school-aged children derive from group such as learning coping skills and normalizing divorce experiences. Another area participants identified is a change in how elementary school social workers provide support with a shift in elementary social work roles and funding. These findings indicate that further study into how elementary school social workers roles and funding may have changed the landscape of social services available to children from divorced, separated or never married families is needed. A larger sample size and nationwide sampling for participants is recommended.


This book argues that marketing is inherent in competitive democracy, explaining how we can make the consumer nature of competitive democracy better and more democratic. Margaret Scammell argues that consumer democracy should not be assumed to be inherently antithetical to "proper" political discourse and debate about the common good. Instead, Scammell argues that we should seek to understand it – to create marketing-literate criticism that can distinguish between democratically good and bad campaigns, and between shallow, cynical packaging and campaigns that at least aspire to be responsive, engender citizen participation, and enable accountability. Further, we can take important lessons from commercial marketing: enjoyment matters; what citizens think and feel matters; and, just as in commercial markets, structure is key – the type of political marketing will be affected by the conditions of competition.


This is the paperback edition of Antony Duff's acclaimed new work on the structures of criminal law and criminal liability. His starting point is a distinction between responsibility (understood as answerability) and liability, and a conception of responsibility as relational and practice-based. This focus on responsibility, as a matter of being answerable to those who have the standing to call one to account, throws new light on a range of questions in criminal law theory: on the question of criminalisation, which can now be cast as the question of what we should have to answer for, and to whom, under the threat of criminal conviction and punishment; on questions about the criminal trial, as a process through which defendants are called to answer, and about the conditions (bars to trial) given which a trial would be illegitimate; on questions about the structure of offences, the distinction between offences and defences, and the phenomena of strict liability and strict responsibility; and on questions about the structures of criminal defences. The net result is not a theory of criminal law; but it is an account of the structure of criminal law as an institution through which a liberal polity defines a realm of public wrongdoing, and calls those who perpetrate (or are accused of perpetrating) such wrongs to account. "For a criminal law theorist, this book is simply a must read. Duff's sweeping coverage of criminal law-ranging from the act requirement to justifications and excuses-offers a structural edifice that is indispensible. Though one may not always agree with Duff, his original analysis and complex rethinking provides significant insights into the most central questions within criminal law theory. One cannot help but learn from Duff. And anyone who wishes to be taken seriously in criminal law theory will have to grapple with his arguments." Kimberley Kessler Ferzan, Criminal Justice Ethics, 2009 "Philosophers who specialize in normative inquiries but find the time to read only one book in criminal theory every few years should immediately place Answering for Crime at the very top of their pile. It is the best book to have appeared in the philosophy of criminal law in the last decade, and the finest book ever to have focused on the structure of criminal responsibility. Answering for Crime cements Antony Duff's reputation as one of the two most important philosophers of criminal law living in the Anglo-American world today...Answering for Crime is an exceedingly original work of legal philosophy written in a refreshingly accessible style...I believe that any future work on the structure of criminal responsibility and liability must begin with Duff's work. No existing book in the philosophy of criminal law can rival the breadth, scope, and sophistication contained in Duff's analysis. I admire Answering for Crime deeply and recommend it strongly not only to criminal theorists, but also to all philosophers interested in how criminal theory sheds light on normative inquiry generally." Douglas Husak, Law and Philosophy, 2009 "...the book is an ambitious one, and has implications for almost every aspect of criminal law theory...As was to be expected from one of the most philosophically sophisticated yet institutionally sensitive writers in the field of criminal law theory, Answering for Crime is a rich book that makes a very substantial contribution to the discipline. ..The argument is complex and, particularly in the early chapters, does not always make for easy reading; but the conception is clear, elegant, and fully worked through..." Nicola Lacey, New Criminal Law Review, 2009 "It covers so many important issues with such clarity and rigour that one review cannot possibly do it justice...What Duff says about crimes, but also his views about a whole range of other issues, are deeply thought out and important...Duff's book does more to articulate a clear and structured view of criminal responsibility than has been achieved to date and his account of criminal responsibility and liability, as well as of the central doctrines and practices of criminal responsibility, will have lasting significance for criminal lawyers and philosophers alike." Victor Tadros, Mind, 2009


Defamation, Libel Tourism, and the SPEECH Act of 2010: The First Amendment Colliding with the Common Law. Harry Melkonian. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2011. 367 pp. $119.99 hbk.These days the global influence of the U.S. Constitution is declining. But it is not entirely clear whether this applies to the real and perceived impact of U.S. free speech law abroad. For example, "actual malice," the uniquely American libel doctrine that is decidedly media friendly, has been adopted by Argentina, Hungary, and other countries. As a recent U.S. law review article noted, "actual malice" has led many countries "to engage in a judicial conversation with American law about what freedom of speech and the press should mean in an open democracy."Defamation, Libel Tourism, and the SPEECH Act of 2010 centers on a proposition by Australian lawyer Harry Melkonian that American and English libel laws are converging, and thus Congress passed the SPEECH (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage) Act to address "libel tourism"-in which libel plaintiffs avoid speech-friendly American law to sue in foreign countries- as a nonissue. The SPEECH Act bars enforcement of foreign libel judgments in the United States if they violate the First Amendment.This book offers a detailed, albeit occasionally repetitive, study of U.S. and U.K. libel law, based on the author's doctoral dissertation at an Australian university. It argues that America and England are increasingly similar to each other in balancing freedom of speech with reputational interest. Melkonian claims that English law has expanded freedom of the press since Reynolds v. Times Newspapers Ltd. (1999) through "responsible journalism" as a libel defense, which he maintains substantially parallels the U.S. Supreme Court's "watered down" application of "actual malice" in Harte-Hanks Communications v. Connaughton (1989). No doubt this is a provocative argument. In support of his claim, the author draws on the "doctrinal law" of the United States and England.Melkonian extensively examines the American "actual malice" rule and the English "reasonable journalism" defense. But his analysis of the Harte-Hanks impact on American law might have been more comprehensive and in-depth. This is all the more compelling, given that the his central argument revolves around the Harte-Hanks-induced "erosion" of First Amendment protection of press freedom in favor of reputation. As "a special case of convergence" of Anglo-American defamation law, Melkonian justifiably gives considerable attention to "reportage," for both U.S. and U.K. law recognize it as a defense for libel claims against the media in republishing a defamatory newsworthy statement about a matter of public interest. It is surprising, however, that there is little mention of the direct impact of the American "neutral reportage" doctrine on the English "reportage" defense.A lengthy overview of the "defamation privilege" in U.S. and U.K. law is framed by the comparative law principle of functionality: "[T]he legal system of every society faces essentially the same problems, and solves these problems by quite different means though very often with similar results." Melkonian's discussion of the New York Times "actual malice" rule vis-a-vis the Reynolds "reasonable journalism" defense is contextually informative.In explaining U.S. and U.K. standards on defamation versus freedom of speech, he turns to various free speech theories (i.e., self-government, marketplace of ideas, and discovery of truth). His discussion is not limited to England and the United States, however, as he considers Canada, Australia, and New Zealand for a comparative look at how other Commonwealth countries address libel law issues-whether similarly or differently from Anglo-American law.For those who wonder about the principle of comity's relevance to American law on foreign libel judgments, the "Reynolds Defence" chapter is an excellent read. …


We study stability and Hopf bifurcation analysis of a model that refers to the competition between the immune system and an aggressive host such as a tumor. The model which describes this competition is governed by a reaction-diffusion system including time delay under the Neumann boundary conditions, and is based on Kuznetsov-Taylor's model. Choosing the delay parameter as a bifurcation parameter, we first show that Hopf bifurcation occurs. Second, we determine two properties of the periodic solution, namely its direction and stability, by applying the normal form theory and the center manifold reduction for partial functional differential equations. Furthermore, we discuss the effects of diffusion on the dynamics by analyzing a model with constant coefficients and perform some numerical simulations to support the analytical results. The results show that diffusion has an important effects on the dynamics of a mathematical model.


This study investigated the effects of using modified items in achievement tests to enhance accessibility. An experiment determined whether tests composed of modified items would reduce the performance gap between students eligible for an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) and students not eligible, and the impact on student proficiency levels. Three groups of eighth-grade students (N = 755) from four states took original and modified versions of reading and mathematics tests. Findings indicate modified item conditions were significantly easier for all students and modifications would result in more AA-MAS eligible students meeting proficiency status. Study limitations and follow-up research on item modifications and the performance of students with disabilities are discussed.


Since the end of the Cold War, scholars have increasingly tumed their attention to examining the link between depletion of renewable resources and conflict. Within this environmental security literature, academic opinion varies across a wide spectrum with some predicting a dark future of environmental "resource wars" both between and within nations, while others question the extent to which environmental variables play any role in inducing conflict. This paper builds on the findings of previous case and statistical studies and presents a cross-national, time-series multivariate analysis of the relationship between militarized international disputes and the environmental variables most commonly cited in the qualitative literature-freshwater, soil, fish, and population. These environmental variables are tested individually and in combination, while controlling for other conflict-generating factors. The general finding is that states suffering from greater levels of environmental scarcity are more likely to be involved in a militarized international dispute.


With the outcome to demonstrate the efficacy of calcium to prevent the incidence of fractures many randomized controlled trials have been performed in the past two decades, with conflicting results. A RR of 0.86 for non-vertebral fractures and a RR of 0.91 for hip fractures on eight trials were demonstrated. Calcium supplementation is considered particularly important when baseline calcium intake is low. More recently WHI CaD Study indicated that calcium supplements with or without vitamin D represent a factor risk for cardiovascular events. On the other hand the beneficial effect of a correct calcium intake in attaining and maintaining bone mass across the life is largely demonstrated. There is an urgent need for more research to gain insight into the mechanisms of the adverse vascular effect of calcium. Moreover, more extensive data about the incidence of cardiovascular adverse events coming from randomized controlled intervention trials in osteoporosis, in which calcium plus Vitamin D were utilized, might be achieved.


This paper introduces an adaptive Higher Order Neural Network (HONN) and applies it in data mining such as Australian credit card assessment. The proposed adaptive HONN model offers significant advantages over conventional Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models such as more accurate predictions and the ability in handling incomplete/missing values in a dataset. A new approach for determining the best number of hidden neurons is also proposed.


This study looks at the difference between the fundamental value and the market value of firms during the merger and acquisition process, and investigates the role of that difference on the method of payments (cash vs. stock) and on the subsequent stock performance around the merger and acquisition (M&A) announcement date. The number of M&A transactions has dramatically increased since the stock swap and stock transfer schemes were introduced in 1999. We investigate the scenario that managers who specialize in analyzing the corporate value of the firms possibly shorten the value correction time and partially reduce misvaluation in the capital market. The Means of Payment hypothesis suggests that the managers should choose stock payment over cash payment when the acquiror is over-valued in the market. However, we found that Japanese managers more positively use cash payment when the firm has sufficient financial slack (is cash rich). The Misvaluation hypothesis suggests that positive excess returns of the acquiror could be detected around the announcement day of M&A transactions, when the acquiror and/or the target is/are under-valued in the market. We found strong evidence which supports the Misvaluation hypothesis. In calculating the fundamental value of the firms, we employed the Residual Income Model, using financial analysts forecast value of future profits, after controlling the book-to-market ratio. We found strong evidence which supports the Misvaluation hypothesis. In particular, the hedging portfolio strategy supports the long position of the acquiring firms (M&A transactions are categorized as high acquiror' s valuation-high target' s valuation group) and simultaneously holds the short position of the acquiring firms (M&A transactions are conversely categorized as low acquiror' s valuation-low target' s valuation group). This combination shows more persistent and more positive abnormal returns than the long position strategy of simply holding acquired stock after all M&A transactions. However, the simple long position strategy in Japan is still positive, when compared to the US.


Nowadays, transmission and distribution lines provide to transport energy from production area to usage area. However, the reactive power balance on the long transmission lines do not provide, the quality of the power transmission and the efficiency of power line is low. To achieve this situation, reactive power compensation is needed and we provide that to use shunt reactors. The design state of shunt reactor is important to achieve this mission. It's important to define the parameters of shunt reactor such as yoke heights and air-gap length to set inductance value of reactor. In this study, the important parameters of reactor is calculated and use this parameters to design a reactor. Modeled reactor isanalyzed with Finite Element Method (FEM). Shunt reactor core's air-gap is distributed for examine the effect of fringing by leakage flux lines and inductance values. Shunt reactor's main values which are used by Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS) is selected. 3 and 5-legged core design reactors simulation results are discussed considering the TEIAS specifications.


The gorse pod moth, Cydia succedana, was released in New Zealand from Europe in 1992 as a biological control for gorse (Ulex europaeusi). In this study, the behavioural responses of the moth to lures containing different blends of plant volatiles identified from their host plants and through singlesensillum recordings were tested in a field trial at Chaney's Forest, Canterbury. Volatiles were placed on cotton wicks, with or without the female sex pheromone of C. succedana, on rubber septa in delta traps. Two different blends elicited behavioural responses, indicated by trap catches. Cydia succedana catches with the four-component "Blend 6"+pheromone lure were lower than with the pheromone alone. The 10-component "Blend 4" lure caught more C. succedana than any other blend when tested without the pheromone. These results indicate the behavioural significance of host- and non-host plant volatiles, and the relationship between the behaviourally active compounds and the profile of olfactory receptor neurons in C. succedana.


In this article, Goodwin offers an alternative view of judicial minimalism. She emphasizes that minimalism or low-level signaling by the court is nonetheless expressive. In the realm of biotechnology, Goodwin argues, judicial minimalism might be driven by three factors: limited information; ambivalence; or an expectation that Congress will demarcate the appropriate boundaries and conduct for biotech actors. Goodwin urges an understanding of expressive minimalism as a form of judicial action as it has communicative force, even if it becomes misunderstood as ambivalence. The author hypothesizes that rather than motivating legislative action, or imbuing the bench with greater wisdom or information, expressive minimalism in the context of biotechnology will likely send fuzzy signals that will not be clear messages to the legislature. If this is correct, expressive minimalism will not result in legislative action. Goodwin is doubtful that fuzzy signals from the judiciary will promote the development of responsive public policy in contemporary biotechnology cases or those to come. Courts have the capacity to articulate principles that acknowledge minority interest when the legislature is captured by majoritarian interests. Therefore, expressive minimalism in the courts will undermine the legitimacy of timely, equitable claims initiated by plaintiffs. By that, the article suggests that expressive minimalism will be understood as denying the ripeness of some claims, or as implying that current law does not fit the futuristic-type problems common in biotech cases. Instead, defaults will be created whereby fuzzy messages will tend to absolve - or at least give a pass to - rogue biotech actors.


This chapter provides an overview of an aspect of a large research study conducted on the subject of learning transfer from an education institution to a mental health service in the English National Health Service (NHS). From a population of 64 trained staff, nurses and other workers, managers and supervisors were interviewed to gain a detailed understanding of how they sought to maintain and develop the new skills and knowledge they had acquired from an education programme delivered from an approved university provider. A total of 45 interviews were conducted using 1:1 or focus group approaches as part of a larger longitudinal study using a mixed methods design. This chapter provides an overview of the qualitative element of the study. Results indicated that whilst aspects of new learning and skill were maintained, many services were subject to pressure to change from the external political, economic and social environment that influenced the delivery of services such as that provided by the one within this study. This complex interaction between the 'external' and 'internal' healthcare environment is an issue that all educators should acknowledge when developing new and innovative education programmes for nurses and other professionals.


Objectives: Tethered cord is most commonly associated with open neural tube defects but is also seen in isolation or in association with other spinal anomalies. The level of the conus can be identified with ultrasound but is not routinely imaged. We report five cases of tethered cord in fetuses without open neural tube defects. Methods: Fetuses with tethered cord were examined by ultrasound. Results: Two cases had myelocystocele (skin covered myelocele), one fetus had VACTERL association, and one fetus had a clubfoot and lower back fatty tail (skin lipoma). The low conus was seen with ultrasound in these five cases. Three-dimensional ultrasound was helpful in identifying lumbar and sacral spine levels. Threedimensional ultrasound of the lipomatous 'tail' was also performed. Postnatal MRI confirmed the diagnosis in all five cases. All cases were repaired surgically. Conclusions: Tethered cord is associated with childhood morbidity and its prenatal diagnosis is rarely reported in fetuses without open spina bifida. With these five cases, we show that this diagnosis can be made with accuracy and visualization of the conus should be performed in fetuses with other spinal abnormalities or clubfoot.


Background. Blood pressure (BP) control immediately after renal transplantation is poorly understood, with patients experiencing both high and low BP levels. Donor kidneys lack the ability to autoregulate their blood flow, meaning high pressures are directly translated to the graft endothelium, whereas reduced perfusion may augment ischemic injury. We hypothesize that early BP control may therefore influence the early alloimmune response. Methods. A total of 276 patients undergoing primary cadaveric renal transplantation who received cyclosporine-based therapy were followed; standard transplant variables were identified. BP was serially recorded before, during, and after reperfusion until 50 hr after surgery. Variables predicting acute rejection and delayed graft function were identified using Cox and logistic regression models. Results. The mean (SD) BP after surgery was 161(19) mm Hg systolic and 73(12) mm Hg diastolic. Forty-two percent had perioperative hypertension defined by conventional parameters. Increasing postoperative systolic BP, measured as standardized area-under-the-curve, was associated with an increased risk for acute rejection (hazard ratio [per mm Hg]=1.008), independent of other covariables including the preoperative BP level. Diastolic BP was inversely associated with the risk of delayed graft function (odds ratio [per mm Hg]=0.956). Conclusions. Early hypertension is common after renal transplantation. Early BP control has the potential to influence the risk of allograft rejection and delayed graft function.


Abstract Personalized point-of-interest (POI) recommendation is important to location-based social networks (LBSNs) for helping users to explore new places and for helping third-party services to launch targeted advertisements. Discovering effective features or representations from check-in data is the key to POI recommendation. Deep learning is a representation-learning method with multiple levels for discovering intrinsic features to better represent user preferences. We analyzed users' check-in behavior in detail and developed a deep learning model to integrate geographical and social influences for POI recommendation tasks. We used a semi-restricted Boltzmann machine to model the geographical similarity and a conditional layer to model the social influence. Experiments with real-world LBSNs showed that our method performed better than other state-of-the-art methods. Theoretically, our study contributes to the effective usage of data science and analytics for social recommender system design. In practice, our results can be used to improve the quality of personalized POI recommendation services for websites and applications.


Purpose: To perform an integrative review of studies on liquid sequential swallowing, by characterizing the methodology of the studies and the most important findings in young and elderly adults. Research strategy: Review of the literature written in English and Portuguese on PubMed, LILACS, SciELO and MEDLINE databases, within the past twenty years, available fully, using the following uniterms: sequential swallowing, swallowing, dysphagia, cup, straw, in various combinations. Selection criteria: Research articles with a methodological approach on the characterization of liquid sequential swallowing by young and/or elderly adults, regardless of health condition, excluding studies involving only the esophageal phase. Data analysis: The following research indicators were applied: objectives, number and gender of participants; age group; amount of liquid offered; intake instruction; utensil used, methods and main findings. Results: 18 studies met the established criteria. The articles were categorized according to the sample characterization and the methodology on volume intake, utensil used and types of exams. Most studies investigated only healthy individuals, with no swallowing complaints. Subjects were given different instructions as to the intake of all the volume: usual manner, continually, as rapidly as possible. The findings about the characterization of sequential swallowing were varied and described in accordance with the objectives of each study. Conclusion: It found great variability in the methodology employed to characterize the sequential swallowing. Some findings are not comparable, and sequential swallowing is not studied in most swallowing protocols, without consensus on the influence of the utensil.


Sexual selection is one of the main processes involved in the emergence and maintenance of heritable color polymorphisms in a variety of taxa. Here, we test whether the intensity of sexual selection, estimated from population sex ratio, predicts morph diversity in Podarcis muralis, a color polymorphic lizard with discrete white, yellow, orange, white‐orange, and yellow‐orange male and female phenotypes (i.e., morphs). In a sample of 116 Pyrenean populations and 5421 lizards, sex ratios (m/f) vary from 0.29 to 2.5, with the number of morphs for each sex ranging from 2 to 5. Male‐biased sex ratios are associated with increased morph diversity as measured with Shannon's diversity index. The main factor accounting for this relationship is male morph richness (i.e., the number of morphs). In contrast, female morph diversity is not related to sex ratio. These results suggest a relationship between the intensity of male intrasexual competition and male morph diversity. While other selective forces may interact with sexual selection in maintaining the color polymorphisms in P. muralis, this evidence suggests a complex evolutionary scenario possibly involving frequency‐dependent selection of alternative reproductive tactics and/or complex balancing selection.


In order to increase solubility while maintaining conductivity, polymers incorporating periodic ortho-substituted units in the backbone of the classic para-polyaniline were prepared. The geometry of the ortho-substituted unit was postulated to allow for property enhancing substitution without the disruption -conjugation. Crucial to this goal was the protection of the ortho-diamine unit during synthetic procedures. Of the many motifs that were explored, the urea protection scheme proved to be the most amenable to the coupling reactions required to prepare segmer units with a para-ortho-para sequence. Trimeric segmers bearing 0-2 methyl substituents on the ortho-substituted unit were prepared. The substituentless and monomethyl segmers were combined with BOC-protected dimers para-aniline to yield polymers with modest molecular weights by GPC vs. polystyrene standards (Mn = 4-10 x 103, PDI ~1.5). Poor film properties prevented characterization of the conductivity properties. In an effort to identify a protecting group that would be either practically removable or more compatible with high conductivity, several motifs were explored: sulfonamides, amides, diazaboroles, diazaphosphole oxides and carbamates. All of these motifs proved unreactive to the conditions necessary to prepare the trimeric segmers analogous to those prepared from the urea. Quinoxaline and phenazine derivatives of the basic ortho-substituted unit were also prepared. While these derivatives were also difficult to incorporate into trimeric segmers, copolymers were prepared by direct coupling of phenazine units to dimeric para-substituted units. Molecular weights of these copolymers were modest, and the conductivity was found to be within one order of magnitude compared to para-polyaniline.


The study was carried out since June, 2020. The major objective was to see the credit impacts on agriculture production in rural area of Pakistan. Secondary data was used and total 32 articles were downloaded from the net and read many times and draw the result. The result indicates that without credit agriculture development in Pakistan is impossible. Therefore the government has established different banks in rural area of Pakistan. Among these the ZTBL, HBL, UBL, Cooperative, Alfalah, Khyber banks, Muslim commercial banks are the well known banks in Pakistan which provide credits to farmers in rural area of Pakistan. The Pakistani farmers are very poor and they have no money for purchasing inputs in the country because of this, the per acre production is very less than the developed countries. In developed countries the government provide multiple loan on easy term to the farmers and they also give subsidy and support price to farmer in the countries and there the marketing system is also developed while these facilities in the developing countries are poor and they sell their products to middle men on very low price and the targeted price they do not achieve, So in developing countries the farmers always poor and they never capable to purchase inputs in proper time for their agriculture activity. The agriculture credit impact on the agriculture production was found positive in Pakistan while in Pakistan the influential farmer get the loan very easily while the poor and small farmer have no access to these facilities in the country. The loan share in Punjab is 85 percent while the remaining part of the country get only 15% loan in the whole amount of agriculture credit. The process of the loan is very complicated and in time the loan is not available to farmer for their inputs purchasing. Some farmers get the loan while the interest rate is very high and the return of the loan is very difficult and sometime sell their land for returning the loan. The bank staff behaved very badly with the farmer in getting the loan. Similarly the loan amount is very less than the requirement while in some area the religious people do not allow the loan from the bank and tell that it is interest which is prohibited in Islam. On the basis of problems the study recommend that to provide huge amount loan to farmer in Pakistan for enhancing agriculture production; Support price should be imposed on agriculture output in the country; Subsidies price should be put on the inputs in the country; Free based education should be provided to farmer children in the country; Free based hospital should be constructed for health services to farmers in the country; Market facilities should be developed for farmer in the country; High quality varieties of all crop should be provided to farmers in the country; All farmers should be exempted from the tax in the country; Bank number should be increased for provision of loan to farmer in the country; Monitoring set up should be developed for the monitoring of farmer where they utilized the given credit. Diesel price should be provides on low rate to farmer in the country; Electricity facilities should be provided on low rate to farmers in the country for enhancing agriculture production. The developed farmer only developed the country very well because they purchase inputs in time for their farming activities. Therefore it is requested to government of Pakistan to provide sufficient credit to farmer in the country for enhancing agriculture production in Pakistan. ZTB should supply credit timely during the sowing season of crop and must be ensured proper utilization of the credit. Also, the technical guidance should be provided by banks through training workshop and program related to get maximum crop productivity in Pakistan. Expansion in livestock sector could help to absorb the unemployed and untrained rural labor at their door steps which could help to mitigate the migration process of untrained rural labor towards cities. The credit investment in livestock sector give 100% more benefit than the crop sector, so give more credit to livestock owner in the study area. The procedure for getting credit should be made simple and flexible so that small farmers may benefit it; Electronic and print media should be used for farmers awareness for the importance of agricultural credit; The government of Pakistan should set up new Village Township Banks (VTBs) in rural areas, which will be a useful financial mechanism to solve the problem of small farmers; The government of Pakistan should introduce new types of credit schemes such as in kind through Khushhali Bank Limited on low interest rates as it will be easy to access small farmers to increase agricultural productivity. Agriculture research and extension system of the country should be developed for accelerating diffusion and adoption of latest agriculture technologies in the country. Good quality seed should be provided to farmer in the country for more production. Modern irrigation system should be developed in the country for enhancing of agriculture production in Pakistan.


Background: Surgical treatment of adult lumbar spinal disorders is associated with a substantial risk of intraoperative and perioperative complications. There is no clearly defined medical literature on complication in lumbar spine surgery. Purpose of the study is to retrospectively evaluate intraoperative and perioperative complications who underwent various lumbar surgical procedures and to study the possible predisposing role of advanced age in increasing this rate. Materials and Methods: From 2007 to 2011 the number and type of complications were recorded and both univariate, (considering the patients'age) and a multivariate statistical analysis was conducted in orderto establish a possible predisposing role. 133 were lumbar disc hernia treated with microdiscetomy, 88 were lumbar stenosis, treated in 36 cases with only decompression, 52 with decompression and instrumentation with a maximum of 2 levels. 26 patients showed a lumbar fracture treated with percutaneous or open screw fixation. 12 showed a scoliotic or kyphotic deformity treated with decompression, fusion and osteotomies with a maximum of 7.3 levels of fusion (range 5–14). 70 were spondylolisthesis treated with 1 or more level of fusion. In 34 cases a fusion till S1 was performed. Results: Of the 338 patients who underwent surgery, 55 showed one or more complications. Type of surgical treatment ( P = 0.004), open surgical approach (open P = 0.001) and operative time ( P = 0.001) increased the relative risk (RR) of complication occurrence of 2.3, 3.8 and 5.1 respectively. Major complications are more often seen in complex surgical treatment for severe deformities, in revision surgery and in anterior approaches with an occurrence of 58.3%. Age greater than 65 years, despite an increased RR of perioperative complications (1.5), does not represent a predisposing risk factor to complications ( P = 0.006). Conclusion: Surgical decision-making and exclusion of patients is not justified only by due to age. A systematic preoperative evaluation should always be performed in order to stratify risks and to guide decision-making for obtaining the best possible clinical results at lower risk, even for elderly patients.


2 Abstract: Many of optical components and semiconductors coated with thin films, so study of thin film coating is very important for industries. This work uses transfer-matrix method for calculating the radiative properties. Lightly doped silicon is used and the incoherent formulation is applied. The empirical expressions for the optical constants of lightly doped silicon are employed. Silicon dioxide and silicon nitride are used as thin film coatings. It is possible to choose the suitable coating for maximum emittance, minimum transmittance and or minimum reflectance. It depends on industrial usages. This paper considered effects of thin films' number with various compositions of coating materials (9 cases). High emittance is needed for suitable thermal balance of the thin- film solar cells for space applications. Optical coatings that provide high emittance must be formed on the solar cells to overcome that problem by increasing number of thin film layers. Radiative properties are complex function of wavelength. Increasing number of thin film layers lead to more complexity and dependency on wavelength regard to wavelength interferences. Results showed that increasing number of thin film coating is more effective on radiative properties than increasing thickness. For example in the constant total thickness, it is possible to reach greater emittance by increasing layers' numbers. From results, the average emittance for bare silicon from 0.0499 reaches to 0.1725 with coatings in case number 9.


Becoming an elite official of any sport takes time and experience. Fortunately, an opportunity exists for learning the role of a referee at an earlier time. The role of a referee may be taught to students in physical education classes through the sport education pedagogical model. Previous research of sport education has shown that young students enjoy taking officiating roles, but only one has served to quantify the quality of their performance. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to examine the officiating ability of students participating in a sport education season for the first time as they learn the role of a referee. Forty fourth grade students participated in the study. An evaluation of students' attentiveness and involvement in the role as a referee and an examination of the accuracy of calls the referees made were completed. A one-way ANOVA with two levels was used to analyze the percentage of involvement of referees and the percentage of referee success and referee opportunities. Results indicated a significant increase with active involvement, F(1, 5) = 39.85, p = .001, I· 2 = .889, and referee success, F(1, 5) = 26.39, p = .004, I· 2 = .841, as students progressed from the formal competition to the postseason. No significant difference was found with referee opportunities, F(1, 5) = 0.01, p = .913, I· 2 = .003. The increase in active involvement and officiating success and the consistency in referee opportunities indicates that over time the ability to officiate games accurately may increase.


This thesis is concerned with monk shi poetry within the context of the political, intellectual and literary history focusing on the Middle and Late Tang. Buddhist monks engaged in non-Buddhist studies as external learning (waixue) to assist their interactions with non-Buddhists. Shi poetry was one of these non-Buddhist studies. This thesis introduces the rise of poet-monks from the Middle Tang period (from 785 onwards) as a literary and social phenomenon. One focus is to investigate why the Buddhist clergy tolerated the poet-monks' prolific unreligious poetry writing. The monastic code Shisong lu (Sarvastivada-vinaya) as well as the teachings of Southern Chan Buddhism are examined as Buddhist teachings relevant to the monks' shi poetry writing. It is argued that these teachings facilitated the monks' external learning, however, without directly inspiring the rise of poet-monks. The function of external learning is examined in the context of the clergy's position in the socio-political environment and their political relationship with Confucian orientated scholar-officials. It is concluded that the rise of poet-monks was mainly inspired by the Buddhist monks' political desire to maintain a peaceful relationship with non-Buddhists. Furthermore, the poet-monks wrote poetiy to advance their personal career prospect and as an artistic self-expression. The lives and poems of two poet-monks, Guanxiu (832-912) and Qiji (864-c. 943) are examined as a case study. It is demonstrated that their religious careers and the stylistic characteristics of their poetry were shaped by the function of external learning. Their poetry is analysed and compared to their contemporary literati poetry. It is concluded that, although the motivation for monks to write shi poetry may have been pragmatic, their distinct background allowed them to nevertheless make an independent contribution to the greater shi poetry tradition in its own right.


Most of the previous microwave near-field probes and imaging techniques focused on surface imaging, providing ultrahigh lateral resolution. Few microwave near-field probes were developed for subsurface detection, offering both high lateral and depth resolution with varying degrees of effectiveness. In this work, a novel microwave near-field probe using a single split-ring resonator is introduced with the primary focus of subsurface detection. The design is simple, compact, inexpensive, and easy to fabricate using printed circuit board technology. Fourier spatial analysis of the field of the new probe reveals a substantial enhancement of the evanescent field, thus making a significant difference in subsurface detection. Experimental results illustrate that a small 3.24-mm aluminum block immersed in 1% sodium chloride (NaCl) solution and positioned 4 mm away from the surface was successfully detected using a probe operating at 1.218 GHz. For this particular experiment, where the size of the object was λ/74 , the detection ability of the new probe was tested using 2% and 3% NaCl solution as well. The phase changes due to the depth of the object demonstrate that the new probe is able to sense the presence of the same object in very lossy medium (3% NaCl whose loss tangent is approximately unity) with depth of 1-2 mm in spite of a standoff distance of 1-mm air and a container thickness of 6.35 mm.


Objectives: SS 321 is an austenitic stainless steel material which finds application in many fields. The coating on SS 321 by Graphene and SiC are used to improve the thermal resistance and strength of SS 321. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Coating of Graphene and SiC on SS 321 was done by spin coating and drop casting. The coated samples were subject to laser ablation followed by flame treatment. Then treated and untreated samples were characterized by SEM, EDX and Surface roughness measurement. Findings: From the SEM images the coating was found to be uniform and from the EDX measurement, the composition of the samples has been calculated and no observable impurities found. From the surface roughness measurement, it is evident that the roughness parameter changes from untreated to treated samples but there were no sign of cracks, which proves that the coating by Graphene and SiC on SS 321 is viable and increases the strength of the material. Application/Improvement: By doing Atomic Force Microscopy and thermal resistance and strength measurements on Graphene SiC coated SS 321 can give further authentic result or by choosing CNT like materials for coating, may improve the performance of SS 321.


We agree with Elbers et al. (1) that there are a number of limitations to genome-wide association (GWA) study pathway-based approaches as currently implemented. Not least of which are the incomplete knowledge and characterization of human genes and pathways and the statistical difficulties in assessing the significance of a pathway. We would, however, like to address some of their specific criticisms. First, we would like to respond to the concern that few of the type 2 diabetes loci genes are represented in the pathways tested. Our study used three different pathway datasets: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), BioCarta, and Gene Ontology (GO; level 4 annotations in Biological Process and Molecular Function). These three datasets combined include 20 of the 23 genes from 18 known loci opposed to the 5 found in BioCarta and KEGG alone. Second, it is true that many of the genes identified from GWA studies appear to influence -cell function (2) but that -cell function is not a defined pathway in any of the pathway databases. However, whereas it is accepted that -cell dysfunction is important in type 2 diabetes development, it is a very broad category defined more by physiology than by molecular biology. More interesting would be to identify the molecular pathways that influence -cell dysfunction. Third, it is true that many pathway-based approaches suffer from distortion of individual pathway test statistics due to varying linkage disequilibrium patterns and gene/ pathway sizes. However, this particular problem was overcome in our analysis using a case-control label-swapping permutation approach. Using the gene set enrichment analysis–implemented algorithm, each permutation cycle swaps the case-control label in the GWA dataset, finds the new single nucleotide polymorphism with the highest test statistic for each gene, and then calculates a new pathway statistic (formulae described in Wang et al. [3]). Over all permutations, the permuted pathway statistics are compared with the observed statistic to generate a nominal P value. Larger genes will have by chance lower observed P values in the dataset; however, each permutation will also find new lower P values through label swapping than the smaller genes. Therefore, the algorithm corrects for pathway size, gene size, and single nucleotide polymorphism coverage, and there is no bias to the overall results. Indeed, this was observed in our results with no significant association between test statistic and pathway size (Spearman's rank correlation: P 0.85, n 439 pathways). Finally, we would also like to point out that pathwaybased efforts may be met with varying degrees of success depending on the underlying genetic architecture of the studied disease. For example, Wang et al. recently used the same algorithm to investigate the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium Crohn's disease dataset (4). Here, they find and replicate association between the interleukin-12/IL-23 pathway and Crohn's disease. This 20-gene pathway contained two genes recently identified through meta-analysis of multiple studies as being associated with Crohn's disease, neither of which were genome-wide significant in any individual study. The pathway association also remained significant when these two genes were removed. In conclusion, whereas we agree with Elbers et al. that there are limitations of pathway-based analyses, we stand by our conclusion that type 2 diabetes genes are likely to fall in many molecular pathways.


Energy supply in agri-food value chains is challenging in several African countries, where the supply is weak and relies mostly on fossil fuels. Nowadays, there are different renewable energy solutions which could cover the energy demand at different levels of the agri-food chains. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and solar thermal devices are the leading solar technologies used for applications like solar PV pumps for irrigation systems, solar dryers, solar cooling systems, solar mills, and solar cooking, among others. Moreover, researchers are continuously working on the development of different energy sources or on the optimisation of the existing solutions to improve the efficiency of various machines on several value chains. Nevertheless, the implementation of solar energy systems throughout Africa is limited, mainly due to the lack of information on new research related to solar energy applications in agriculture, the energy demand of various machinery utilised along the value chain and lack of performance evaluation of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system. It is for this reason that farmers, producers, stakeholders, policy makers, governmental and nongovernment agencies require rapid analytical tools to support the decision-making process for advising proper implementation. Therefore, a decision-making tool was developed using a graphical interface designed in MATLAB R ©/Simulink R ©. Taking as a baseline example the rice value chain in Benin, it was assessed two potential scenarios. The first scenario the partial substitution of fossil fuels by simulating the energy supply of a hybrid design (PV systems plus diesel generator-system) and the second scenario is the total replacement of fossil fuel by simulating the energy supply of solar PV systems. This tool evaluates the optimum PV system taking into consideration many factors, such as local weather data, baseline information of the energy consumption of different machines operated in the rice value chain, machine capacity, and the economic data in terms of the payback period. At the same time, this tool offers information on the potential mitigation of greenhouse emissions, due to the reduction of fossil fuel consumption by the integration of solar PV systems in the value chain.


Preparations for Exascale computing have led to the realization that future computing environments will be significantly different from those that provide Petascale capabilities. This change is driven by energy constraints, which is compelling architects to design systems that will require a significant re-thinking of how algorithms are developed and implemented. Co-design has been proposed as a methodology for scientific application, software and hardware communities to work together. This chapter gives an overview of co-design and discusses the early application of this methodology to High Performance Computing.


ABSTRACT Second language (L2) learners must not only acquire L2 knowledge (i.e. vocabulary and grammar), but they must also rapidly access this knowledge. In monolinguals, efficient spoken word recognition is accomplished via lexical competition, by which listeners activate a range of candidates that compete for recognition as the signal unfolds. We examined this in adult L2 learners, investigating lexical competition both amongst words of the L2, and between L2 and native language (L1) words. Adult L2 learners (N = 33) in their third semester of college Spanish completed a cross-linguistic Visual World Paradigm task to assess lexical activation, along with a proficiency assessment (LexTALE-Esp). L2 learners showed typical incremental processing activating both within-L2 and cross-linguistic competitors, similar to fluent bilinguals. Proficiency correlated with both the speed of activating the target (which prior work links to the developmental progression in L1) and the degree to which competition ultimately resolves (linked to robustness of the lexicon).


Biliary stents play an important role in the treatment of jaundice due to malignant and/or benign diseases of the bile duct. Biliary stents are primarily introduced endoscopically whereas the percutaneous transhepatic technique is employed after endoscopic failure. Proximal and distal displacement or migration is a rare complication, but there is a risk of considerable morbidity and mortality, so that the extraction of the prosthesis is recommended in these cases. Again, endoscopic removal is the approach of choice. For stent retrieval multiple techniques have been described, including Dormia basket, special forceps, Fogarty balloon catheter, ball tip catheter and loop catheter. Endoscopic recovery often uses a combination of these techniques reaching a success rate of 90%. However, in patients following hepaticojejunostomy or Bilroth II procedure an endoscopic retrieval cannot be performed for obvious technical reasons. Consequently, percutaneous transhepatic stent removal must be considered. Ensuring a correct technique transhepatic removal is equally successful and safe, thus eliminating the risks of a surgical procedure.


Abstract The influence of shipping on air quality over the Southern Baltic Sea was investigated by characterizing the horizontal and vertical distribution of aerosols and trace gases using airborne measurements in the summer of 2015. Generally, continental and anthropogenic emissions affected the vertical distribution of atmospheric pollutants, leading to pronounced stratification in and above the marine boundary layer and controlling the aerosol extinction. Marine traffic along the shipping corridor "Kadet Fairway" in the Arkona Basin is shown to influence the presence and properties of both trace gases and aerosol particles in the lowest atmospheric layer. Total particle number concentration and NOy mixing ratio increased in the corridor plumes, relative to background, by a factor 1.55 and 3.45, respectively. Titration, triggered by the enhanced presence of nitrogen compounds, led to a median ozone depletion of 19% in the corridor plumes. The enforcement of the Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA) might be responsible for the minor sulphur dioxide increase (20%) in the corridor plumes. Ship traffic caused a minor enhancement of black carbon mass concentration, estimated to be around 10%. The study of individual ship plumes indicated that ship emitted aerosol was substantially different from background aerosol: fresh ship exhaust was preferentially enriched in aerosol particles with diameters below 100 nm and in black carbon particles with core diameters above 300-400 nm. With the present work the impact of marine traffic on the concentration and properties of atmospheric components within the marine boundary layer over the open water of the Southern Baltic Sea is assessed with airborne observations for the first time. Due to the high uncertainty affecting the estimations of ship emissions, this dataset represents a valuable reference for the assessment of ship emission inventories and related environmental-climatic impacts on the Southern Baltic Sea.


Introduction: Supramalleolar osteotomy is an alternative surgical procedure for the management of asymmetric early arthritis of the ankle. The main goal of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical and radiological benefits of supramalleolar osteotomy. The secondary goal was to identify prognostic factors to help decide upon this therapeutic indication. Materials and methods: Eighty-three patients, mean age 45 years old (17–79), presenting with posttraumatic asymmetric early arthritis of the ankle were followed up for a mean 3.5 years (1–14 years). Sixty-two patients presented with a varus deformity (mean: 13◦), and 21 with a valgus deformity (mean: 17.5◦). The presence of a preoperative clinical 'sidewalk sign' was looked for and it was considered positive if pain improved when the patient walked on a surface slope that was tilted in the opposite direction of their deformity. A functional preoperative evaluation and at the final follow-up were performed using the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hind foot scale. The frontal deformity was measured by the Meary angle on a weight-bearing X-ray. Varus deformities were treated by a lateral closing wedge supramalleolar osteotomy or a medial opening wedge supramalleolar osteotomy. Valgus deformities were treated by a lateral opening wedge or a medial closing wedge supramalleolar osteotomy. Results: At last follow-up, the mechanical axis in the varus group was 1.3◦ and 7.5◦ in the valgus group. The AOFAS score significantly improved (P < 0.001) by 15 points in patients with a varus deformity and 13 points in patients with a valgus deformity. A positive sidewalk sign (disappearance of pain) was correlated with a good outcome and had a positive predictive value of 0.88 (CI: 0.77–0.95) (P < 0.001). Discussion: The supramalleolar osteotomy is a conservative therapeutic surgical option for the management of arthritis of the ankle associated with varus or valgus deformities. The results are satisfactory for indications of arthritis with varus and valgus deformities and a positive 'sidewalk' sign (pain relief on a slope surface tilted in the opposite direction of the deformity). Level of evidence: Level IV: retrospective case series. © 2014 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.


Driving simulators are a useful research tool in studies of vehicle and transport-related human machine interface. A vital part of the driving simulator is the vehicle dynamics model. In the present paper, such a model is developed. The model implements basic first order phenomena, but is yet complete in the terms of modelled parts of the vehicle. A major challenge is the trade-off between simplicity and accuracy imposed by the capabilities of the driving simulators motion platform. The modelling language Modelica was used for readability reasons. The model has been validated toward both measurements of a real car and subjectively in a driving simulator. It is shown that the model is well capable of fulfilling the imposed requirements, despite its simplicity. The model is open and available upon request.


Low rank representation of binary matrix is powerful in disentangling sparse individual-attribute associations, and has received wide applications. Existing binary matrix factorization (BMF) or co-clustering (CC) methods often assume i.i.d background noise. However, this assumption could be easily violated in real data, where heterogeneous row- or column-wise probability of binary entries results in disparate element-wise background distribution, and paralyzes the rationality of existing methods. We propose a binary data denoising framework, namely BIND, which optimizes the detection of true patterns by estimating the row- or column-wise mixture distribution of patterns and disparate background, and eliminating the binary attributes that are more likely from the background. BIND is supported by thoroughly derived mathematical property of the row- and column-wise mixture distributions. Our experiment on synthetic and real-world data demonstrated BIND effectively removes background noise and drastically increases the fairness and accuracy of state-of-the arts BMF and CC methods.


The microstructure of directionally solidified (DS) NiAl-28Cr-5Mo-1Hf eutectic alloy was investigated by SEM and TEM. The eutectic alloy is composed of NiAl matrix , Cr (Mo) phase and a small amount of Heusler phase. Tensile testing of this alloy was performed from room temperature to 1373K. The brittle-to-ductile transition temperature (BDTT) is dependent on strain rate, with two orders of increase on strain rate resulting in a100K increase in transition temperature. The observation of fracture surface showed that at temperature above BDTT, the fractograph changes from NiAl cleavage and debonding along NiAl/Cr(Mo) interface boundary to ductile in nature.


Abstract Dowry refers to marriage gifts that are instrumental to the negotiation of the marriage contract. Historically, the dowry gift was constituted by law across the Roman empire. While dowry has become largely irrelevant in Europe in contemporary times, it is still pervasive across the Brahmanical Hindu societies of South Asia. Moreover, what was traditionally token gifts from friends and well-wishers has taken on the form of "new dowry" since the colonial period. "New dowry" is heavily composed of cash and market goods, including land and is frequently accompanied by violence against new brides when their families fail to make larger dowry gifts with higher market value. This article examines the evolution of "new dowry" through a Polanyian lens. Unlike the neoclassical Beckerian approach which takes an ahistorical outlook to marriage as a "market" for matching partners and dowry as a market price, the substantivist lens à la Polanyi investigates the historical evolution of "new dowry" through the advent of market processes in the colonial period and the countermovement of legal reform in the post-colonial period.


This paper involves the computation of 3-D magnetic fields in high-performance, long-lifetime solenoid actuators by finite-element (FE) modeling. Operating at frequencies between 150 and 300 Hz, these actuators are unique in terms of the large force they produce (8-15 N) and their very long lifetime (over five billion continuous duty cycles). Their magnetic circuit typically operates at saturation and, because of the compact dimensions, the 3-D nature of the field distribution needs to be taken into account for their design. Results are presented in terms of the effects of design parameters on saturation and force calculation


1. The metabolism of KBH-A40, a novel δ-lactam-based histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, was investigated in vitro using human liver microsomes and serum. After 60-min incubation in human liver microsomes with β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) or uridine diphosphate glucuronic acid (UDPGA), the residual KBH-A40 was 90.6% ± 5.1% and 28.9% ± 2.0% (t1/2 = 26 min), respectively, suggesting that KBH-A40 is likely predominantly metabolized by glucuronidation, rather than by cytochrome P450 (CYP)-mediated oxidation. Consistently, KBH-A40 glucuronide was the only metabolite identified following incubations of KBH-A40 with human liver microsomes in the presence of both NADPH and UDPGA. 2. KBH-A40 was not notably degraded when incubated with human serum for 60 min. In contrast, KBH-A40 was rapidly hydrolysed to its carboxylic acid form in rat serum (t1/2 = 13 min). 3. Taken collectively, the results suggest that KBH-A40 is likely metabolized in man predominantly by glucuronidation of its hydroxamic acid moiety, with negligible biotransformation elsewhere in the molecule.


Effective software engineering demands a coordinated effort. Unfortunately, a comprehensive view on developer coordination is rarely available to support software-engineering decisions, despite the significant implications on software quality, software architecture, and developer productivity. We present a fine-grained, verifiable, and fully automated approach to capture a view on developer coordination, based on commit information and source-code structure, mined from version-control systems. We apply methodology from network analysis and machine learning to identify developer communities automatically. Compared to previous work, our approach is fine-grained, and identifies statistically significant communities using order-statistics and a community-verification technique based on graph conductance. To demonstrate the scalability and generality of our approach, we analyze ten open-source projects with complex and active histories, written in various programming languages. By surveying 53 open-source developers from the ten projects, we validate the authenticity of inferred community structure with respect to reality. Our results indicate that developers of open-source projects form statistically significant community structures and this particular view on collaboration largely coincides with developers' perceptions of real-world collaboration.


During the first seven years of the research effort on high-temperature superconductors, the average publication rate has been approximately 5000 papers per year. As may be expected, this published literature has an abundance of seemingly conflicting results, and there are major concerns about the consistency and the comparability of the reported property values. This paper discusses an evaluation methodology that addresses those issues using a structured evaluation procedure. The procedure applies to each set of data and leads to the assignment of one of seven well-defined data evaluation levels. The general procedure and criteria are discussed first, and then special relations that may result in data of higher quality are discussed. The latter relations consider the roles of material structure, composition, energy levels, and materials property relations. The methodology is illustrated by an evaluation of data for YBa 2 Cu 3 O x for which there is an especially important dependence on composition and crystallographic structure.


Using noise spectroscopy, we studied the correlations between two light beams with opposite circular polarization, coupling the transition F=2 -> F'=2 in Λ EIT configuration, with cold atoms of Rubidium-85. In the spectrum of correlation we observed the transition from correlation to anti-correlation, off-resonance, when raising the potency of the beams.This transition is a consequence of the competition between four-wave mixing, which is responsible for the correlation regime, and the Stark effect that produces anti-correlation in the beams.In the spectra of mean signal of intensity and correlation, we observed that the EIT peak is free of potency broadening, which makes possible that the measure of coherence time be more precise in the condition of EIT. Using a EIT's model for a system in Λ configuration, we observed that the theoretical correlation spectra are in good accordance with the experimental data, considering the degenerescence of the hyperfine levels. Besides that, the model predicts the non-broadening of the correlation peak, showing the correlation as a characterization property more accurated than the mean signal of intensity.