The rise of environmental issues has presented a challenge to decision-making in the area of natural resources policy. This challenge has met with diverse responses, ranging from neo-liberal attempts to incorporate environmental values into economic calculus, through 'ecological rationalist' arguments for the special nature of environmental issues, to radical theories of the state's role in controlling the impact of environmental concerns on capitalist profitability. From this plethora of ideas about how to address environmental concern should emerge some directions that are more promising than others. But which?
The Coronation Hill mine case, presented in this thesis, exemplified the complexities of natural resources decision-making in an environmental era. By analysis of the Resource Assessment Commission's Inquiry into the Coronation Hill proposal, this thesis examines the strengths and weaknesses of the claims of different theoretical approaches. Such use of the single case to explore theory is exemplified by Allison's work Essence of Decision.
The RAC, as a neo-liberal institution, attempted to utilise both Pigouvian and Coasian strategies to address environmental issues. Both types of strategy emerge in the application of contingent valuation to preservation values. Private property rights allocation strategies, derived by public choice theorists from Coase's work, are also in evidence in debate about Aboriginal rights in the Kakadu Conservation Zone (site of the proposed mine). The problems that beset the RAC both in its use of contingent valuation and its attempts to resolve Aboriginal issues exemplify why neo-liberal approaches are of limited use for dealing with the class of policy problem that Coronation Hill represented.
Dryzek, Walker and others argue that ecological problems have a distinctive nature, which necessitates a distinctive policy response. However the evidence from the Coronation Hill case demonstrates the falsity of this premise. Ecological problems are in general similar to other policy problems.
Radical analysis of environmental issues has treated them as potential sources of disruption to capital accumulation. According to the structural dependence thesis as formulated by Block and Przeworski and Wallerstein, the role of the state is to prevent damage to investor confidence. Data from the Coronation Hill case, however, suggests that the 'anti-capital' recommendations of the RAC adopted by the government had none of the detrimental effects predicted by radical theories (and by business actors). This is probably because it is not in fact clear that environmental protection is a goal hostile to capitalism.
Environmental issues have also acted as an impetus to institutional innovation: innovation which the Resource Assessment Commission to some extent exemplified. The Commission's apparent failure (it was shut down two years after the Coronation Hill episode) superficially lends credence to criticism of proposals for institutional reform. Comparative analysis of the Resource Assessment Commission and its established twin the Industry Commission, however, highlights the importance of institutional analysis for revealing that the type of institutional reform must match the type of problem being confronted. The Resource Assessment Commission is shown to be in several ways an inappropriate organisation to deal with issues like Coronation Hill. Thus the fate of the Resource Assessment Commission was largely inevitable, and was determined largely by its nature rather than by political events of the early 1990s.
Theoretically, the Coronation Hill case highlights the limitations of both neo-liberal and ecological approaches to dealing with environmental concerns in the natural resources policy field. It also, however, leads to the conclusion that there is no coherent policy category of 'environmental policy'. Rather, environmental policy issues are similar to other policy issues, and are themselves divided into other more important categories. These categories are defined by the divisions between first, issues in which conflict originates in distributive issues versus those in which that conflict originates in value clashes; and second, those issues in which interests are divided along capital / labour lines, versus those in which they divide in other ways.


Water-Soluble Palm Fruit Extract (WSPFE) obtained from the aqueous vegetation liquor of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) fruit milling demonstrated anti-diabetic effects in Nile rats, but the related mechanisms were unknown. Here, we investigated the potential effects of WSPFE samples on glucose uptake and enzymes involved in carbohydrate hydrolysis and incretin degradation. Glucose uptake assays were performed using spray dried (SD) WSPFE, freeze dried (FD) WSPFE, WSPFE ethyl acetate fraction (EAF) and seven individual WSPFE fractions obtained from WSPFE EAF on everted mouse intestinal sacs ex vivo and Caco-2 cell monolayers in vitro. α-glucosidase, α-amylase and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPPIV) enzymatic assays were performed in vitro. Glucose uptake assays revealed that all the WSPFE samples tested did not inhibit glucose absorption. However, WSPFE EAF consistently had stronger inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase, α-amylase and DPPIV enzymes compared to SD WSPFE and FD WSPFE. SD WSPFE inhibited α-amylase better than FD WSPFE. In terms of individual fractions, F2 demonstrated the strongest inhibitory effects against α-glucosidase and DPPIV. Hence, although WSPFE samples did not inhibit glucose uptake, they showed inhibitory effects on the three enzymes tested, especially WSPFE EAF and F2. Further studies to investigate their effects on carbohydrate digestion and postprandial hyperglycaemia are warranted.


A systematic study has been performed by the influence of Fe doping and FeNi-layer thickness on the giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect of electrodeposited Ni100-xFex/Cu (x = 0-95) composite wires. Results obtained show that there is a correlation between the structure, soft magnetic properties and the GMI effect. Among the compositions investigated, the largest MI ratio is achieved for Ni44Fe56/Cu as a result of it having the softest magnetic property (i.e. the lowest coercivity), which arises from the smallest nanograin size. As the NiFe-layer thickness (t) increases from 1 to 27.4 νm, the GMI ratio initially increases, reaches a maximum of 110% at t = 27.4 νm and then decreases for t > 27.4 νm. Interestingly, GMI curves show a single-peak feature for wires with t < 20 νm, but a double-peak one for wires with t ≥ 20 νm. This indicates that there is a formation of a circular domain structure with a well-defined circumferential anisotropy in the NiFe magnetic layer of the wires with t ≥ 20 νm. This in turn results in a great improvement in the GMI effect of these wires. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd. Index Keywords: Doping (additives); Electric wire; Electrodeposition; Iron; Magnetic properties; Nickel alloys; Thickness measurement; Circumferential anisotropy; Layer thickness; Iron alloys


We present and discuss a mathematical model for the operation of bilayer organic photovoltaic devices. Our model couples drift–diffusion–recombination equations for the charge carriers (specifically, electrons and holes) with a reaction–diffusion equation for the excitons/polaron pairs and Poisson's equation for the self-consistent electrostatic potential. The material difference (i.e. the HOMO/LUMO gap) of the two organic substrates forming the bilayer device is included as a work-function potential. Firstly, we perform an asymptotic analysis of the scaled one-dimensional stationary state system: (i) with focus on the dynamics on the interface and (ii) with the goal of simplifying the bulk dynamics away from the interface. Secondly, we present a two-dimensional hybrid discontinuous Galerkin finite element numerical scheme which is very well suited to resolve: (i) the material changes, (ii) the resulting strong variation over the interface, and (iii) the necessary upwinding in the discretization of drift–diffusion equations. Finally, we compare the numerical results with the approximating asymptotics.


The importance of agronomists in large-scale production of food crops under considerate environmental weather conditions cannot be overemphasized. However, emerging global warming is a threat to food security due to its effect on soil depletion and ecosystem degradation. In this work, the design of the proposed intelligent context is to observe, model and simulate greenhouse control system activity towards the management of the farm crop growth as the affected salient environmental parameters. Characteristically, temperature and humidity are the major factors that determine the crop yield in a greenhouse but the case of a dry air environment or beyond 300C−350C of high air humidity will affect crop growth and productivity. A Mamdani technique of fuzzy logic controller with non-linear consequent is used for intelligent greenhouse design in the LABVIEW virtual environment. This approach is used to mimic the human thought process in the system control by setting some logical rules that guide the greenhouse functions. For the system stabilization achievement, a direct method of Lyapunov functions was proposed. The simulation model result shows that, the average temperature of 18.50C and humidity 65% is achieved for a decent environment of crop growth and development during winter. However, the average temperature and humidity achieved during summer is 27.50C&70% respectively. For every season that is beyond 30.50Cand75% of temperature and humidity will require automation of roof opening and water spilled.


This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-SP4 Slashpine-Rayonier-mid-rot- 12yrs. Site Description - Only active for one year, the Rayonier tract site was shutdown due to a stand replacing wild fire in 1998. The tower was relocated to the Donaldson tract. The characteristics between the two mid-rotation pine plantations are nearly indistinguishable, enabling the integration of measurements made at both towers. The site information provided below follows the convention that the two sites are nearly identical.


Abstract Much of the contemporary literature on populism focuses on its status as a "thin" ideology comprising three key components: people-centrism, anti-elitism, and anti-pluralism. Populist politicians pair this "thin" ideology with extreme positions on policy issues such as immigration or taxation (referred to as "host" or "thick" ideologies). A recent study using German samples leveraged conjoint experiments to disentangle the effects of these appeals on vote choice. The results not only showed that extreme host-ideological positions mattered more than so-called "thin" populist appeals, but also that effects of populist appeals were nearly identical among populist and non-populist voters. Our replication in the US context reaffirms both the importance of host-ideological positions and the lack of heterogeneous effects by voters' "thin" populist attitudes. Furthermore, by uncovering some divergence from the German case (e.g. anti-elite appeals trumping people-centric appeals), we highlight the need to experimentally examine the effects of populism's constituent components across contexts.


Nowadays, digital images are widespread and also easily tampered, which promotes the development of digital image forensics techniques rapidly. A series of forensics techniques have been developed to reveal sophisticated forgeries and intentional manipulations. However, few methods consider multiple operations together and provide a complete description of the processing history of a digital image. Multiple operations detection is a challenging problem in the research field of forensics. In this paper, for tracing such processing history, we propose a two-step approach to estimate the topology and order of the operation chain applied to a digital image. We propose an operation chain topology fingerprint (OCTF) to identify the operation chain which an image has undergone. The operation chain order fingerprint (OCOF) is proposed to discriminate the order of the operations. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of our proposed scheme in two sequential operations scenarios.


Review of Guo et al., Heterogeneity and Chemical Reactivity of the Remote Troposphere defined by Aircraft Measurements The manuscript presents the development of a gap-filled database of observations from the Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) aircraft campaign, designed to provide unbiased measurements of the chemical composition of air over the Atlantic and Pacific ocean basins over a large vertical fraction of the troposphere. The paper compares the observed concentrations and 24-hour averaged photochemical fluxes (ozone production, ozone destruction, methane destruction) calculated from six different global chemistry models constrained by the observations with the same quantities sampled from freely-running simulations of these same models. Of particular interest, the comparison of observations and models is done in a statistical sense and aims to address the issue of whether global chemical models run at the resolutions currently used (1 or 2 degrees in the horizontal) are sufficient to resolve the distribution of photochemical reactivity seen in the much higher spatial resolution aircraft observations. The authors find that models should be able to reproduce the distribution of photochemical reactivities, but also find significant biases in the concentration of NOx that results in biases of the distribution of, in particular, ozone production.


We present a linearized phase-modulated analog photonic link that utilizes parallel interferometric demodulation to suppress the third-order intermodulation distortion present in the link. By utilizing two parallel interferometers with different differential delays, we are able to balance the third-order distortion in the output photocurrent and achieve a fifth-order limited link response. We demonstrate shot noise-limited spurious-free dynamic ranges of ~ 130 dB (1-Hz bandwidth) at ~ 1 GHz for a total DC photocurrent Idc~ 8 mA and ~ 131 dB (1-Hz bandwidth) at ~ 5 GHz for a total DC photocurrent Idc ~ 7 mA . These results represent a nearly two order-of-magnitude improvement in dynamic range over conventional intensity- or phase-modulated analog photonic links for a fixed received photocurrent.


In this paper, we propose several modulation techniques for use in military avionics optical fiber data buses, namely, Extended Manchester II Bi-Phase Coding with Beginning-Stopping Flags, Partial Trilevel Manchester II Bi-Phase Coding, Four-ary Pulse Width Modulation, Two-ary Pulse Width Modulation with Amplitude-Distinguished Sync Field, Two-ary Message Pulse Width Modulation and Two-ary Sync Pulse Amplitude Modulation, respectively. Compared with an existing modulation scheme of MIL-STD-1773 avionics data buses, the proposed techniques can be effectively used to overcome the difficulty in recognizing the correct operation states of an active transmitter at the output of optical receivers. The feasibility of proposed modulation schemes are discussed, and their performance is also evaluated.


Larionova Marina - Doctor of Political Science, Vice-rector of the State University - Higher School of Economics, Director of the SU-HSE International Organisations Research Institute The paper presents analysis of the outcomes of the two G20 summits and the EU contribution towards the decisions made. Analysis of the EU input and impact on the two summits' results allows to reveal "containing factors" in the EU institutional architecture constraining the quality and effectiveness of the EU global governance performance through the G20. First, the coherence and impact the institute of permanent Presidency can ensure is much higher than what can be achieved through the coordination efforts of the three rotating presidencies. This continuity and durability is essential not only for forging consensus with the EU partners in the G20, but, most importantly, for building internal consensus in the EU, as a vital factor of effective common foreign policy. The author posits that though in the run up to the Washington summit the Presidency and the European Commission leadership and contribution were very much driving the process, the run up to the London summit presented a different story. The Presidency yielded leadership and the EU institutions and the leaders of the EU-G20 members stepped in. The paper highlights this experience as one more argument in favor of permanent Presidency of the EU. The Lisbon Treaty ratification and the new institutions of Presidency and the Foreign Minister - High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will consolidate the EU institutional foundation for the challenges of the future.


What can account for ideological diversity among MPs from the same parliamentary party? While the main works focusing on party-MP relations have pointed out the role of electoral systems in explaining party cohesion, we propose that MPs' distance to their party can mainly be explained by political parties' organisational characteristics, defined by a series of vertical bargains between the national and the local level. The allocation of power between the different party units affects the legislator's ideological position. Other factors, such as constituency pressure or MPs' personal characteristics, affect intra-party variations among legislators through the mediation of these vertical bargains.


For pt.I see ibid., vol.40, no.3, p.570-6 (March 1993). The fundamental circuit ideas developed by the authors in Part I are applied to practical circuits, and the impact of neuron MOSFET on the implementation of binary-logic circuits is examined. For this purpose, two techniques are presented to simplify the circuit configurations. It is shown that the input-stage D/A converter circuit in the basic configuration can be eliminated without any major problems, resulting in improved noise margins and speed performance. Then a design technique for symmetric functions, which is especially important when the number of input variables increases, is presented. The nu MOS logic design is characterized by a large reduction in the number of transistors as well as of interconnections. However, the decrease in transistor count comes at a cost in process tolerance due to the multivalued nature of the device operation. Test circuits were fabricated by a typical double-polysilicon CMOS process, and the measurement results are presented. >


Tiny particles one-billionth of a meter in size can be loaded with high concentrations of drugs designed to kill brain cancer. What's more, these nanoparticles can be used to image and track tumors as well as destroy them, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Researchers incorporated a drug called Photofrin along with iron oxide into nanoparticles that would target cancerous brain tumors. Photofrin is a type of photodynamic therapy, in which the drug isdrawn through the blood stream to tumor cells; a special type of laser light activates the drug to attack the tumor. Iron oxide is a contrast agent used to enhance magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. "Photofrin goes into tumor blood vessels and collapses the vasculature, which then starves the tumor of the blood flow needed to survive. The problem with free photofrin therapy is that it can causedamage to healthy tissue. In our study, the nanoparticle becomes a vehicle to deliver the drug directly to the tumor," says study author Brian Ross, Ph.D., professor of radiology at the U-M Medical Schooland co-director of Molecular Imaging at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. Photofrin has been used to treat several types of cancer, including esophageal, bladder and skin cancers. It works by traveling through blood vessels until it reaches the vessels supplying blood to the tumor. When activated by light, the Photofrin collapses these blood vessels, starving the tumor of the blood it needs to survive. Results of the study appear in the Nov. 15, 2006 issue of Clinical Cancer Research. The work was supported by a nearly $12-million contract from the National Cancer Institute to study nanoparticle platforms for diagnosing and treating brain tumors. That project is led by RaoulKopelman, Ph.D., Richard Smalley Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, Physics and Applied Physics at U-M, and Martin Philbert, Ph.D., professor of toxicology and senior associate deanfor research at the U-M School of Public Health. "Thinking outside the box is a must for developing brain cancer treatments. Drugs don't get into the brain when delivered in the normal way, which explains in part why some current treatments forbrain tumors are generally not effective. Targeting the tumor vasculature with nanoparticles containing a payload will overcome these issues," says study author Alnawaz Rehemtulla, Ph.D., professor of radiology and radiation oncology at the U-M Medical School and professor of environmental health sciences at the School of Public Health. Treating brain tumors is traditionally difficult because of the blood-brain barrier, which prevents harmful substances from traveling through the bloodstream into the brain. In order for chemotherapy to treat a tumor, it must penetrate this barrier. Researchers tested the nanoparticles in cell cultures and animal models. The studies showed the nanoparticles traveled to the tumor, resulting in less Photofrin exposure throughout the body and enhanced exposure within the tumor. This allowed a larger window for activating the drug with light. It also would eliminate a common side effect of photodynamic therapy, in which healthy skin becomessensitive to light. In rat studies, researchers found those treated traditionally with Photofrin survived 13 days, while rats treated with Photofrin incorporated into a nanoparticle survived an average of 33 days. Forty percent of the rats remained disease-free six months after treatment. The researchers also found twice the amount of the contrast agent at the tumor site when using targeted nanoparticles, suggesting the nanoparticles were attracted to the tumor site. The advantage of this delivery system is the ability to attack the tumor with higher doses of a drug while sparing normal tissue from a drug's toxic side effects. "Our research suggests that you can take a drug that may be toxic to normal tissue - it could be any type of drug, not just photodynamic - and you could deliver higher doses of that drug for a more powerful punch," says Rehemtulla, co-director of Molecular Imaging at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. If nanoparticle delivery proves to be safe in humans, it will allow researchers to re-examine previously developed drugs that were discarded because they caused too many dangerous side effects in patients. By combining the drug with a contrast agent, researchers were able using imaging techniques to determine whether the drug actually got to the tumor. This technique could have potential to diagnosis brain tumors early, as well as to help researchers determine when todeliver a drug or when to administer the next dose. Further lab research is needed before the nanoparticle technology can be tested in clinical trials. More than 18,800 people will be diagnosed with brain cancer this year, and 12,820 will die from it.For information about treatments that are currently available, call U-M's Cancer AnswerLine at 800-865-1125 or visit their web site. In addition to Ross and Rehemtulla, study authors are Mahaveer Bhojani, Bradford Moffat, Daniel Hall, Michael J. Woolliscroft, and James V. Sugai, all from the U-M Center for Molecular Imaging; G.Ramachandra Reddy from Molecular Therapeutics Inc.; Patrick McConville and Jonathan Moody, both from Molecular Imaging Research Inc.; Gwangseong, Yong-Eun Koo and Raoul Kopelman, all from the U-M Department of Chemistry; Timothy D. Johnson from the Department of Biostatistics; and Martin A. Philbert from the Department of Toxicology. Funding for the study was from National Cancer Institute. The University of Michigan has filed for patent protection on this nanoparticle delivery technology and has licensed the commercialization rights to MIRROR Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Molecular Therapeutics Inc. of Ann Arbor. Should this partnership result in products reaching market, the University and the individualinventors of this technology, including Ross and Rehemtulla, stand to benefit financially. Written by Nicole Fawcett


Abstract:In this article, Dylan Robinson, Kanonhsyonne Janice C. Hill, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Selena Couture, and Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen consider the performative and political efficacies of land acknowledgement. The article is an edited transcription of a plenary presentation at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research that took place on 30 May 2018 at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts Concert Hall in the city now called Kingston, in the province now known as Ontario. Each panellist was to think through the performance—the what it is we do—of acknowledgement by responding to a series of questions. Questions posed to the panellists included: Does the acknowledgement of Indigenous lands and waterways elide the acknowledgement of other forms of structural and epistemic violence within the specific contexts we work in as academics and artists? How might acknowledgement be aligned with a politics of recognition that is a continuation of settler colonial logics rather than a break from them? What must occur for acts of acknowledgement to transform into actions that effect Indigenous sovereignty? How might acknowledgement be 'actioned' differently by settler Canadians, 'arrivants,' immigrants, displaced peoples, and visitors? How can standardized forms of acknowledgement give way to context- and site-specific forms of redress?


Research Summary
Good corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings can increase a firm's legitimacy and reduce its default risk. Yet, the interpretation of CSR varies between different countries. We investigate whether CSR ratings have a risk‐mitigating effect across different institutional contexts. We find that good CSR ratings have a general risk‐mitigating effect. Yet, we also find that the effect decreases when the rating agency is embedded in the institutional context of its home country and the rated firm operates in a country with a different culture or regulatory system. This suggests that a rating agency's country of origin and its embeddedness in that country's context play an important role in the relationship between CSR ratings and default risk.
Managerial Summary
In this article, we investigate to what extent CSR rating agencies signal organizational legitimacy across institutional contexts. Specifically, we evaluate how institutional distance between the rating agency and the rated firm moderates the negative effect of the CSR rating on the firm's default risk. We compare two CSR rating agencies, OEKOM, which is strongly embedded in its institutional context, and ASSET4, which operates across diverse institutional contexts. Based on a panel of 604 firms in 13 countries from 2011 to 2016, we show that CSR ratings from both rating agencies have a risk‐mitigating main effect. Yet, only in the case of OEKOM is the effect negatively moderated by regulatory and cultural distance. Thus, the legitimating effect of institutionally embedded CSR rating agencies decreases with institutional distance.


Disagreement between Khrushchev and Enver Hoxha, leaders of the Soviet Union
 and Albania, had been ripening since the mid-1950s. Until the spring of 1960
 the leadership of the small country did not show readiness to challenge the
 Soviets perceived as the great power at the head of Socialist bloc countries
 and the world Communist movement. But when the Chinese leadership indicated
 their disagreements with official Moscow in the spring of 1960, Albania
 joined them without fearing the inevitability of open confrontation with the
 Soviets. The article reveals the further course of events in chronological
 order during the deepening rift between the two leaders and their entourage,
 and analyses the Soviet decision-making process at the highest level
 consulting newly-declassified documents from the Russian State Archives of
 Contemporary History in Moscow. By the end of 1961, within less than two
 years, relations between the Soviet Union and Albania sank to their lowest.
 The Soviet leadership, presumably Khrushchev himself, failed in their
 attempts to stop another growing conflict in the Soviet bloc by discussing
 controversial issues face to face with the Albanian leadership. Researchers
 have already accumulated considerable knowledge about these processes, but
 substantial gaps are yet to be filled. Many relevant Soviet documents from
 Russian archives are not yet declassified. Nevertheless, the already
 available ones allow researchers to take a broader look on the developing
 Soviet-Albanian rift and to establish how, in parallel with the collapse of
 Soviet-Albanian connections in the early 1960s, Soviet-Yugoslav contacts
 intensified.


A self-propelled rod which is driven by a constant internal force and torque performs circular motion in two spatial dimensions with an "internal" radius governed by the torque-to-force ratio and is referred to as a circle swimmer. Using analytical methods and computer simulations, we study the Brownian dynamics of a circle swimmer in a confining Petri dish- or ring-shaped geometry and compute the mean of the swimmer's position, its steady-state properties and its orientational motion. For small torque-to-force ratios, the confinement inverts the orientational sense of the motion: a clockwise-directional circle swimmer moves counter-clockwise in the confinement. Our results are verifiable for self-propelled colloidal rods, for vibrated granular rods and for motile bacteria in cylindrical confinements.


Despite the numerous solar dryers reported by r esearchers in Nigeria, farmers in Zaria Nigeria continue to dry tomato by traditional open sun drying method, the inherent problems associated with this method notwithstanding. Therefore this research is aimed at investigating suitable solar collector material that is available, affordable and can easily be worked on by rural farmers.  Metal, wood, cement and mud which are commonly available local materials were used to fabricate four types of solar dryers and the dryers were mounted truly facing south.  Sliced tomato samples were used for performance test of the dryers.  Moisture content of the samples, dryer temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and solar radiation were monitored at 2 hours intervals.  From the analysis, the dryers' savings in drying time over the open sun drying for wood, cement, mud and metal dryers were 131.25%, 131.25%, 136.17% and 192.11% respectively.  Average ambient wind speed during the drying period was 0.98 m/s, while that of relative humidity was 23.85%. The metal dryer dried sliced tomato 18 hours ahead of mud dryer, while cement and wood dryers dried the sliced tomato 2 hours longer than the samples dried in the mud dryer. Temperature, energy generation, saving in drying time and  cost effectiveness, of mud dryer when analysed at F-test at 0.01 and 0.05 degree of freedom indicated statistical significant difference when compared with wood and cement dryers. The dryers equally indicated 7.38%, 19.56%, 20.25%, 20.91% and 27. 24% system drying efficiencies, for open sun, wood, cement, mud and metal in that order. This work revealed that mud solar dryer is available, affordable and can easily be worked on by rural farmers.  Results from this work indicated that mud direct mode natural convection solar dryer is best suited for Zaria and Zaria related geographical locations. Keywords: s olar, e nergy, c ollector, c rop, d rying, d rying efficiencies


BACKGROUND: Eosinophilic otitis media (EOM) is a rare middle ear disease that may closely resemble therapy-resistant otitis media with effusion (OME). The diagnosis is made if eosinophil-rich fluid is present with two or more of the following minor criteria: (a) history of nasal polyps or, (b) bronchial asthma, with (c) viscous fluid in the middle-ear, or (d) conventional otitis media treatment has no effect. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 70-year-old male with a history of the ASA triad (bronchial asthma, nasal/ethmoidal polyposis and aspirin intolerance) presented with progressive mixed hearing loss. Otoscopy showed bilateral otitis media with effusion (OME). Conventional treatment of this had no effect. Myringotomy resulted in the evacuation of highly viscous middle-ear effusion containing abundant eosinophils. After treatment with oral corticosteroids his symptoms improved considerably. Following later optimisation of his asthma treatment, corticosteroid treatment was stopped and his hearing remained stable. CONCLUSION: The adequate recognition and treatment of EOM will result in the prevention of permanent hearing loss.


Abstract. Concentrations of leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are two key traits of plants for ecosystem functioning and dynamics. Foliar stoichiometry varies remarkably among life forms. However, previous studies have focused on the stoichiometric patterns of trees and grasses, leaving a significant knowledge gap for shrubs. In this study, we explored the intraspecific and interspecific variations of leaf N and P concentrations in response to the changes in climate, soil property, and evolutionary history. We analysed 1486 samples composed of 163 shrub species from 361 shrubland sites in northern China encompassing 46.1° (86.7–132.8° E) in longitude and 19.8° (32.6–52.4° N) in latitude. Leaf N concentrations decreased with precipitation, while leaf P concentrations decreased with temperature and increased with precipitation and soil total P concentrations. Both leaf N and P concentrations were phylogenetically conserved, but leaf P concentrations were less conserved than leaf N concentrations. At the community level, climate explained more interspecific variation of leaf nutrient concentrations, while soil nutrients explained most of the intraspecific variation. These results suggested that leaf N and P concentrations responded to climate, soil, and phylogeny in different ways. Climate influenced the community chemical traits through the shift in species composition, whereas soil directly influenced the community chemical traits. New patterns were discovered using our observations on specific regions and vegetation types, which improved our knowledge of broad biogeographic patterns of leaf chemical traits.


Solid dispersions (SDs) of dipyridamole (DIP) with a novel carrier copolyvidonum Plasdone ® S-630 (CoPVP) were developed by solvent evaporation method. The solid state of SDs of DIP with CoPVP (SDs CoPVP) was characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and polarizing microscopy, compared with that of SDs of DIP with polyvinylpyrrolidone Plasdone ® K-29/32 (SDs PVP). FT-IR analysis demonstrated the presence of intermolecular hydrogen bonding between DIP and CoPVP or PVP in SDs. DSC and XRD studies indicated that DIP presented in amorphous state in both SDs CoPVP and SDs PVP at higher weight ratios. The dissolution property of SDs CoPVP was significantly improved in comparison of pure DIP and physical mixtures with CoPVP (PM CoPVP). Both SDs CoPVP and SDs PVP powder showed the favorable flowability. However, SDs CoPVP showed better compressibility than SDs PVP. The lower hydroscopicity of SDs CoPVP could be advantageous to the stability to SDs. This study proves the potential of CoPVP as a carrier in the formulations of SDs for poorly soluble drugs.


Vietnam and China is a reality of two authoritarian states under Communism regime. As pesimistic view, both of them judge can not consolidating democracy. But the economic growth growing fastly as the result of Doi Moi policy by Vietnam in 1987 and China's economic reformation in 1978, are the positive signal for democracy. Communist Party (VCP and CCP) challenged to defending their legetimacy by take pragmatism way to changes their economic direction and release from the Communist orthodoxy. Economic reformation is a legetimacy transformacy nased on the performance that come from ideology. The indicator of non‐institutional democracy focus on the income distribution, and the legetimacy of Communist Party used as comparative tool of democracy in China and Vietnam.


BACKGROUND
Subcutaneous (s.c.) glucose sensors have become a key component in type 1 diabetes management. However, their usability is limited by the impact of foreign body response (FBR) on their duration, reliability, and accuracy. Our study gives the first description of human acute and subacute s.c. response to glucose sensors, showing the changes observed in the sensor surface, the inflammatory cells involved in the FBR and their relationship with sensor performance.

METHODS
Twelve obese patients (seven type 2 diabetes) underwent two abdominal biopsies comprising the surrounding area where they had worn two glucose sensors: the first one inserted 7 days before and the second one 24 h before biopsy procedure. Samples were processed and studied to describe tissue changes by two independent pathologists (blind regarding sensor duration). Macrophages quantification was studied by immunohistochemistry methods in the area surrounding the sensor (CD68, CD163). Sensor surface changes were studied by scanning electron microscopy. Seven-day continuous glucose monitoring records were considered inaccurate when mean absolute relative difference was higher than 10%.

RESULTS
Pathologists were able to correctly classify all the biopsies regarding sensor duration. Acute response (24 h) was characterized by the presence of neutrophils while macrophages were the main cell involved in subacute inflammation. The number of macrophages around the insertion hole was higher for less accurate sensors compared with those performing more accurately (32.6 ± 14 vs. 10.6 ± 1 cells/0.01 mm2; P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The accumulation of macrophages at the sensor-tissue interface is related with decrease in accuracy of the glucose measure.


In e-learning, social software is used for co-existence, communication, coordination, collaboration and networking, and, in a more specific view, supports knowledge sharing. When e-learning initiatives from developed countries expand or establish an initiative in developing countries, knowledge needs to be trans- ferred. This paper shows that developing countries still are lagging behind in the use of social software within learning environments. But this could be easily over- come, nowadays, by implementing open-source tools or simply using Web-based free services and well-directed training on teachers. This paper also points towards benefits and possible barriers of using social software because barriers can limit or even prevent the knowledge sharing process.


The depressed core fiber (DCF), consisting of a low-index solid core, a high-index cladding and air surrounding, is in effect a bridge between the conventional step-index fiber and the tube-type hollow-core fiber from the point of view of the index profile. In this paper the dispersion diagram of a DCF is obtained by solving the full-vector eigenvalue equations and analyzed using the theory of anti-resonant and the inhibited coupling mechanisms. While light propagation in tube-type hollow-core fibers is commonly described by the symmetric planar waveguide model, here we propose an asymmetric planar waveguide for the DCFs in an anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) model. It is found that the anti-resonant core modes in the DCFs have real effective indices, compared to the anti-resonant core modes with complex effective indices in the tube-type hollow-core fibers. The anti-resonant core modes in the DCFs exhibit similar qualitative and quantitative behavior as the core modes in the conventional step-index fibers. The full-vector analytical results for the simple-structure DCFs can contribute to a better understanding of the anti-resonant and inhibited coupling guidance mechanisms in other complex inversed index fibers.


Abstract This article focuses on the relationship between property developers and architects in colonial Hong Kong in the 1920s to 1930s, identifying a successful collaboration within the architectural development company, the Crédit Foncier d'Extrême-Orient (CFEO). Benefiting from new plots of land made available on the Kowloon Peninsula and the opportunity to plan new neighbourhoods for both Western and Chinese clientele, the directors of CFEO negotiated with their in-house architects regarding land speculation and residential typology preferences while targeting the middle-class market. The company's demolished buildings left a crucial gap in the urban history of Hong Kong and China's treaty ports only recently uncovered through archival research by the author. Drawing upon in-depth primary data research and interviews with the architects' descendants, this article probes into early twentieth-century residential development in Hong Kong, revealing how certain Western entrepreneurs and architects experimented with unique adaptations of architectural typologies suited to the local environment in the Chinese urban landscape.


Received: June 7, 2019 Accepted: June 17, 2019 Published: July 31, 2019 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2019.2.4.26 This study is designed to validate the claim that Wole Soyinka, the first African Nobel Laureate in Literature, is a clairvoyant. The work is based on events in The Road and socio-political situation in Ibadan (the largest metropolis in West Africa) between 1999 and 2009. Thus, the thrust of the research is to juxtapose the purposively selected character names in Soyinka's The Road with the actual (nick) names in use in real life. The theoretical framework adopted is relevance theory. The study partly indicated that the playwright uses clipping, coinage, compounding and lexical borrowing as his naming strategies; and partly that the textual names parody certain bearers of such names in the larger society.


Organic matter (OM) in arctic permafrost ground contains about twice as much carbon (C) as is currently present in the atmosphere. Climate change is particularly strong in the Arctic, and could cause a considerable part of the OM in permafrost to thaw out, decompose, and be released as greenhouse gases; further enhancing global warming. The exact size of the northern circumpolar C pool remains unclear, and processes that control decomposition and mineralization rates are even more uncertain. Superimposed on the long-term release of C through microbial decomposition of OM in the gradually deepening active layer, is the rapid release of currently sequestered OM through geomorphological processes. This thesis considers the quantity, quality, and availability of permafrost C, and explores interactions and common controls. To better understand the potential effects of thawing permafrost, it is vital to: i) obtain more accurate size and distribution estimates of permafrost C stocks, and developmethods to accurately and efficiently implement these in models; ii) identify OM characteristics that control decomposition, specifically for permafrost material; and iii) determine and quantify key geomorphological processes that cause large amounts of OM to become available for rapid decomposition. Detailed C quantifications are valuable to increase our fundamental understanding of permafrost soil processes and C sequestration, but including high levels of heterogeneity in models is challenging. Simple upscaling tools based on e.g. elevation parameters (Paper I) can help to bridge the gap between detailed field studies and global C models. Permafrost OM quality is controlled by different factors than those commonly observed in temperate soils (without permafrost). We observed an unexpected (significant) correlation in upper permafrost samples, where material that is generally considered more recalcitrant showed the highest CO2 production rates per g C, indicating high lability (Paper II). In ancient Pleistocene permafrost, labile samples related significantly to OM that was enriched in decomposed microbial remains, whereas less-decomposed plant material was more stable (Paper III). Investigation of multiple incubation datasets revealed that the unusual relationship between %C and CO2 production occurred in contrasting field sites throughout the Arctic, indicating important permafrost-specific controls over OM quality (Paper IV). We discuss several possible explanations for the observed high lability of permafrost OM, such as a pool of labile dissolved organic C in the upper permafrost, or increased lability caused by past decomposition. In order to conclusively identify causal relationships, and to answer the question whether or not the same mechanisms control OM quality in different environments, further investigation of permafrost-specific OM quality is required. Geomorphology plays a key role in C reworking and OM decomposition. Vast amounts of OM can be released abruptly (e.g. in thaw slumps and thermokarst lakes; Paper II), resulting in C turnover that will likely outweigh decomposition through gradual active layer deepening. Climate change could enhance this rapid release of C, and changes in surface hydrology and increased fire activity are expected to become the largest contributors to C loss from permafrost regions. Together with C quantity and quality, availability through gradual and abrupt processes must be parameterized and included in models in order to accurately assess the potential permafrost C climate feedback.


Community engagement and philanthropic learning have gained traction in university settings as a method to help prepare students for both workplace competency and citizenship. Experiential student philanthropy is a learning method that offers students an opportunity to examine community and social issues and nonprofit organizations, while providing them with the unique opportunity to invest funding in nonprofit organizations. This study examined the impact of an experiential student philanthropy project in a graduate level social work course at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) through the use of a pretest and post-test among involved students. The results indicate that incorporation of the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project (MSPP) with this class ultimately strengthened learning outcomes as related to both course engagement and community engagement.


Odour Sensor Technology has increased rapidly, therefore this can be used to detect an odour. Each odour has its own characteristic, this can be used to identify the odour. The purpose of this final project is to detect an odour using fuzzy logic methodology. There were DAT Files which any 15 kinds of odour. The data were created from 4 sensors: TGS 2600, TGS 2610, TGS 2611 and TGS 2620. Each kind of odour had 20 concentrated representing the odour used as the database. The others data would be used as the data testing to detect a kind of odour. The method of recognition was used Fuzzy Logic methodology. This project used 2 types of Fuzzy Logic system. The first Fuzzy Logic system produced accuracy up to 96% and the second Fuzzy Logic system produced accuracy up to 99%.


This bibliography includes major sources of multi-country financial information available at Gelman Library. It does not include sources of financial data for individual countries.


The constitution of electronic dictionaries, i.e., directly usable by a computer, leads to several difficulties both linguistic and computational. The content of such dictionaries (entries and rules) must be defined in a precise and exhaustive way, using linguistic criteria, and must be based on an extensive description of the French language (or at least on a description of a specific domain of French, e.g. sports). Information must be systematic and consistent. When this analysis is done, there remains a problem with the representation of data. Different solutions are considered, such as lists or matrices. The method suggested here for representing compound words uses the simple mathematical model of a finite automaton.


This paper analyses the impacts of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries and those of the EU (European Union) in the specific case of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In order to comply with WTO (World Trade Organisation) requirements, the EPAs shift the trade preferences previously enjoyed by the ACP countries to a free trade regime between the EU and regional groupings of ACP countries. EPAs were supposed to fully enter into force at the end of 2007, but many ACP SSA countries have not been ready or have been reluctant to implement them at that date. EPAs are examined in their different contexts, in particular the theoretical underpinnings of trade liberalisation and regionalism respectively, as well as the increasing number of regional arrangements aiming at 'deep' regional integration in all parts of the world, which ensued from the disappointment with multilateralism of many developed and developing countries. EPAs are then investigated in the specific context of SSA, i.e. that of a distorted trade structure, an excessive dependence on commodity exports, fragile industrial bases, as well as by a disputed effectiveness of its many intra-SSA regional agreements. EPAs co-exist with other North-South preferential trade agreements, in particular the EU GSP (Generalised System of Preferences), including the EBA (Everything But Arms) initiative, and the US AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act).It is shown that EPAs will have very different outcomes depending on countries and their particular initial conditions, economic structures and regional context. It is also revealed that these outcomes depend on many variables: global factors, international prices, domestic market structures, trade policies conducted by the EU, the governments and various trade agreements to which they belong. EPA outcomes are therefore uncertain and can be assessed only on a case by case basis, at the level of countries, sectors and products. In addition, many impact assessments rely on simulations, which cannot be considered as 'hard facts'.EPAs may have beneficial effects on SSA countries and enhance their exports and competiveness. They may constitute a mode of integration that is more efficient than multilateral liberalisation, and in fine may be a more manageable step towards multilateralisation, especially in poor countries. However, EPAs exhibit several risks, e.g. diverting trade, augmenting the complexity of the already complex 'spaghetti bowl' of trade arrangements, creating fiscal losses in countries that suffer from narrow fiscal bases and rely on trade taxes, eroding the existing industrial bases - which are fragile, threatened by more competitive developing countries, especially China, and often depend on the previous EU unilateral preferences - and benefiting EU firms more than those of SSA.EPAs have the ambition to foster trade, improve regional relationships, deepen north-south integration and enhance development. These are numerous objectives, and moreover countries may strongly differ: they can be reached if EPAs help countries to reinforce their capacity to conduct their policies - the 'policy space' - control the effects of trade diversion and displacements of industrial activities that often accompany free trade agreements, and strengthen their industrial sectors, as high-growth Asian countries.


National poverty lines vary greatly across the world, from under $1 per person per day to over $40 (at 2005 purchasing power parity). What accounts for these huge differences, and can they be understood within a common global definition of poverty? For all except the poorest countries, the absolute, nutrition-based, poverty lines found in practice tend to behave more like relative lines, in that they are higher for richer countries. Prevailing methods of setting absolute lines allow ample scope for such relativity, even when nutritional norms are common across countries. Both macro data on poverty lines across the world and micro data on subjective perceptions of poverty are consistent with a weak form of relativity that combines absolute consumption needs with social-inclusion needs that are positive for the poorest but rise with a country's mean consumption. The strong form of relativism favored by some developed countries -- whereby the line is set at a fixed proportion of the mean -- emerges as the limiting case for very rich countries.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Transplantation of neural stem/precursor cells (NPCs) has been proposed as a promising therapeutic strategy in almost all neurological disorders characterized by the failure of central nervous system (CNS) endogenous repair mechanisms in restoring the tissue damage and rescuing the lost function. Nevertheless, recent evidence consistently challenges the limited view that transplantation of these cells is solely aimed at protecting the CNS from inflammatory and neurodegenerative damage through cell replacement.

RECENT FINDINGS
Recent preclinical data confirmed that transplanted NPCs may also exert a 'bystander' neuroprotective effect and identified a series of molecules - for example, immunomodulatory substances, neurotrophic growth factors, stem cell regulators as well as guidance molecules - whose in-situ secretion by NPCs is temporally and spatially orchestrated by environmental needs. A better understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms sustaining this 'therapeutic plasticity' is of pivotal importance for defining crucial aspects of the bench-to-beside translation of neural stem cell therapy, that is route and timing of administration as well as the best cellular source. Further insight into those latter issues is eagerly expected from the ongoing phase I/II clinical trials, while, on the other hand, new cellular sources are being developed, mainly by exploiting the new possibilities offered by cellular reprogramming.

SUMMARY
Nowadays, the research on NPC transplantation in neurological disorders is advancing on two different fronts: on one hand, recent preclinical data are uncovering the molecular basis of NPC therapeutic plasticity, offering a more solid rational framework for the design of clinical studies. On the other hand, pilot trials are highlighting the safety and feasibility issues of neural stem cell transplantation that need to be addressed before efficacy could be properly evaluated.


1. In vivo injections of rhodamine beads into the superior colliculus of 4‐9 postnatal day rat pups label a population of layer 5 cells in the primary visual cortex that can be identified in tissue sections or dissociated cell cultures. 2. Under voltage clamp, hyperpolarizations of isolated superior colliculus‐projecting (SCP) neurons from rest elicit an instantaneous inward current (Iinst) with nearly linear current‐voltage properties that is not blocked by extracellular application of 3 mM CsCl. 3. Voltage clamp steps to potentials more negative than ‐60 mV evoke a slowly activating, non‐inactivating inward current that is not blocked by 1 microM TTX, 1 mM 4‐aminopyridine (4‐AP), 5 mM Co2+, or 25 mM TEA, but is potently blocked by extracellular application of 3 mM CsCl. This current is similar to Ih described in other systems. 4. Ih, the time‐dependent inward current in SCP neurons, begins to activate near the resting membrane potential and reaches full activation at ‐110 mV. The voltage dependence of activation is well fitted by a Boltzmann distribution with the membrane potential at half‐maximal activation (V1/2) = ‐81.0 mV and s (steepness of the curve parameter) = 7.2 mV. Thus, Ih may contribute to setting the resting membrane potential and resting input resistance of SCP neurons. 5. The inward rectification of the whole‐cell current vs. voltage relation is accounted for by the voltage dependence of Ih activation. Current through the activated h‐conductance shows slight outward rectification that is accounted for by constant field considerations. 6. The h‐conductance is substantially permeable only to sodium and potassium and, under normal physiological conditions, is expected to reverse at approximately ‐22 mV at 20 degrees C. For [K+]o < or = 20 mM and 120 mM > or = [Na+]o > or = 70 mM, Ih obeys independence with a PNa/PK (ratio of Na+ to K+ permeability) of 0.40. 7. Extracellular potassium increases gh. If this effect is modelled as the result of potassium binding to an extracellular conductance‐permitting site, potassium has an apparent dissociation constant (Kapp) of 25.7 mM and the ability to maximally increase gh in the order of 10‐fold over basal levels. 8. Ih underlies the depolarizing 'sag' and 'overshoot' observed in SCP neurons following the onset and offset, respectively, of hyperpolarizing current injections. In addition, Ih appears to control the duration and the frequency of repetitive firing following the cessation of sustained hyperpolarizing current injections.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


This book explains how corporate social responsibility is linked to long-term sustainability of an economy and that the activities of an organization should not be only for its self-interest, but must also be honed for the benefit of common good. A major approach the book advocates is corporate decision-makers in an organization should work towards earning the trust of stakeholders rather than focus on short-term profitability. It also emphasizes the importance of recognizing and rewarding the contribution and commitment by participants of an organization.


The gold(I)‐catalyzed retro‐Buchner (decarbenation, retrocyclopropanation) reaction of 7‐substituted cycloheptatrienes has emerged as a safe and powerful alternative for the generation of gold(I) carbenes. These carbenes can cyclopropanate alkenes, take part in intramolecular reactions, or engage in higher cycloadditions with different partners, giving rise to a wide range of relevant structures. This review covers the developments made on the generation of gold(I) carbenes via decarbenation reactions, and the applications of these reactions in organic synthesis.


We consider an elastic model for a curved rod with arbitrary threedimensional geometry, incorporating shear and membrane as well as bending and torsion effects. We define an approximation procedure based on a discretization by linear Timoshenko beam elements. Introducing an equivalent mixed problem, we establish optimal error estimates independent of the thickness, thereby proving that shear and membrane locking is avoided. The approximation scheme is tested on specific examples and the numerical results confirm the estimates obtained by theory.


Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a document image analysis method that involves the mechanical or electronic transformation of scanned or photographed images of typewritten or printed text into text that can be easily read by the computer. OCR has been become a very widespread area of interest and research because of its ability to narrow the reading ability gap between computers and humans and because it improves human machine interaction in many applications. Example applications include cheque verification, and a large variety of banking, business and data entry applications. The project involved skew correction of odia documents, line segmentation and eventual segmentation of odia characters. The project involved segmentation of a document into its constituent lines, then treating the line as one entity, it segmented the words. Now, once the words are segmented, the characters are extracted one by one. The algorithms used here stand true for all the devnagri scripts. Hence examples of telgu word segmentation is also done just to show as an proof of the applied algorithm.


The hydroperoxide-supported N-demethylation reactions catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase have been characterized in detail. The ethyl hydroperoxide-supported N-demethylation of N,N-dimethylaniline by horseradish peroxidase resulted in the formation of equimolar amounts of N-methylaniline and formaldehyde with no other products detectable by high performance liquid chromatography analysis of the reaction mixture. One molecule of ethyl hydroperoxide was consumed for each molecule of formaldehyde formed in the reaction. Similar results were obtained for the hydrogen peroxide-supported N-demethylation of N,N-dimethylaniline. The horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed N-demethylation reaction could be supported by a variety of hydroperoxides, peroxides, and peracids. The turnover number for the hydrogen peroxidesupported demethylation reaction (7061) was larger than that for the ethyl hydroperoxide-supported reaction (5382) or for chloroperoxidaseor cytochrome P450-catalyzed dealkylations. The demethylation reaction exhibited normal Michaelis-Menten saturation kinetics with respect to N,N-dimethylaniline (K , = 0.34 mM) and ethyl hydroperoxide (K, = 0.020 mM), as well as hydrogen peroxide (K , = 0.016 mM). The horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed N-demethylation reaction was not significantly inhibited by reagents which react with the superoxide anion, the hydroxyl radical, or singlet oxygen, suggesting that these activated oxygen species are not free intermediates in the reaction. There was no significant inhibition of the reaction by a-phenyl-t-butylnitrone, 5,5-dimethylpyrroline-N-oxide, or  other  free  radical  trapping agents. Substitution of D,O for H20 resulted in an inhibition of the reaction with a solvent isotope effect ( u ~ . ~ / u ~ ~ ) of 1.6. Horseradish peroxidase did not catalyze the demethylation of N,N-dimethylaniline-N-oxide, indicating that the reaction does not proceed via N-oxidation of the amine. When the concentrations of both N,N-dimethylaniline and ethyl hydroperoxide were varied in a constant ratio a linear double reciprocal plot was obtained, which is consistent with a ping-pong kinetic mechanism for the horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed demethylation reaction.


Wearable electronics have revolutionized the way physiological parameters are sensed, detected, and monitored. In recent years, advances in flexible and stretchable hybrid electronics have created emergent properties that enhance the compliance of devices to our skin. With their unobtrusive attributes, skin conformable sensors enable applications toward real‐time disease diagnosis and continuous healthcare monitoring. Herein, critical perspectives of flexible hybrid electronics toward the future of digital health monitoring are provided, emphasizing its role in physiological sensing. In particular, the strategies within the sensor composition to render flexibility and stretchability while maintaining excellent sensing performance are considered. Next, novel approaches to the functionalization of the sensor for physical or biochemical stimuli are extensively covered. Subsequently, wearable sensors measuring physical parameters such as strain, pressure, temperature, as well as biological changes in metabolites and electrolytes are reported. Finally, their implications toward early disease detection and monitoring are discussed, concluding with a future perspective into the challenges and opportunities in emerging wearable sensor designs for the next few years.


In Wistar rats with different forepaw preference trained to get food spheres from a narrow horizontal tube feeder, the duration of the paw extension phase was studied in both preliminary and final (successful) food-procuring movements. In left-handed rats, the paw extension was fastly in both preliminary and final movements than in right-handed animals. In right-handed animals, the extension phase of the final successful movements was much slower than that of preliminary movements, whereas in left-handed rats the slowing of the final extension was poorly expressed. The prolongation of the extension phase suggests a possibility of correction of the extension phase of the goal-directed movements


Conservative therapy is typically recommended for patients with spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD). However, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may have to be pursued in cases of ongoing ischemia or hemodynamic instability. There is early and increasing interest in using cutting balloon (CB) angioplasty to fenestrate the false lumen to allow communication and back-bleed of intramural hematoma into the true lumen. We report a successful case of CB angioplasty for SCAD without the need for stenting, and provide a review of the published experience and recommendation for technical approaches with this strategy.


This study is to investigate the implementation of the evaluation program of quality assurance State Islamic High School Curup. This study design is evaluative survey. In this study, the level of implementation of the evaluation results are divided into five categories, namely: excellent, good, average, less, much less. The results of the evaluation study the implementation of quality assurance programs included in both categories. Program quality assurance Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri Curup necessary to repair all fronts, this can be illustrated as follows: (1) Basic policy program quality assurance, (2) resource program quality assurance, (3) implementation of the guarantee program, (4) Results the achievement of a quality assurance program. The results of the study suggested the central quality assurance to be able to follow up on some of the findings, especially concerning the quality assurance program resources, training and dissemination of quality, and implement improved quality assurance program so that the process of quality assurance programs to be more effective.


Computer vision tasks such as object detection and semantic/instance segmentation rely on the painstaking annotation of large training datasets. In this paper, we propose LocTex that takes advantage of the low-cost localized textual annotations (i.e., captions and synchronized mouse-over gestures) to reduce the annotation effort. We introduce a contrastive pre-training framework between images and captions, and propose to supervise the cross-modal attention map with rendered mouse traces to provide coarse localization signals. Our learned visual features capture rich semantics (from free-form captions) and accurate localization (from mouse traces), which are very effective when transferred to various downstream vision tasks. Compared with ImageNet supervised pre-training, LocTex can reduce the size of the pre-training dataset by 10× or the target dataset by 2× while achieving comparable or even improved performance on COCO instance segmentation. When provided with the same amount of annotations, LocTex achieves around 4% higher accuracy than the previous state-of-the-art "vision+language" pre-training approach on the task of PASCAL VOC image classification.


Non-contact laser and EMAT ultrasound systems have been developed for ultrasound measurements on hot steel. The pulsed lasers are capable of generating wide bandwidth ultrasound pulses and the transduction is entirely remote. The EMATs operate in close vicinity to the metal testpiece and can be used for both generation and detection of ultrasound. EMATs require no special surface preparation of the steel samples and the performance may even be enhanced by the presence of oxides on the surface. The EMAT can be operated either using a permanent magnet (P-EMAT) or a pulsed field electromagnet (E-EMAT); the latter is capable of producing a magnetic field over 1Tesla and would allow the easy removal of the ferromagnetic debris from the EMAT face. The EMATs were water cooled to allow operation at elevated temperatures. The EMATs were used to generate shear waves and as the detector they were sensitive to both the shear and longitudinal waves. Both types of EMAT are capable of making ultrasound measurements on steel up to a temperature of about 800°C in pulse echo mode when the same EMAT was used for both generation and detection.

A water cooled E-EMAT was used as the receiver of laser generated ultrasound. The system operated in send-receive arrangement where the EMAT is positioned on the generation side and measurement can be made from a single side has been made up to a temperature of lOOO°C. The measurement was carried out by using a Nd: VAG laser as the generator. The E-EMAT also has been used to receive ultrasound generated by a pulsed CO2 laser and could make ultrasound measurements up to a temperature of about 800°C. Besides; the laser-EMAT system was also used for epicentral measurements at elevated temperatures.

Ultrasound measurements by a shear wave EMAT on ferromagnetic steel have been made using the shear wave arrivals in a range of temperature up to about 750°C where the EMAT is sensitive to both shear and longitudinal wave. Above this temperature however, ultrasound measurement was based on longitudinal wave arrivals as the EMAT is no longer sensitive to shear wave. At a temperature close to the Curie point, Te, of the sample, enhancement of longitudinal wave occurs. This may correspond to the reorientation and redistribution of the magnetic flux in a thin ferromagnetic layer on the bulk paramagnetic sample due to the cooling effect caused by the water-cooled EMAT or may be due to volume magnetostriction. We have monitored the magnetisation of the sample at elevated temperature and noted that the magnetisation of the sample reduces rapidly to zero as the temperature increases and approaches the Te' The cooling effect on hot samples caused by momentary contact with the water cooled EMATs was measured and shown to be minimal and superficial.

The laser-EMAT ultrasound system could be used for thickness measurement on hot steels provided the velocity is known as a function of temperature. A series of measurements was carried out on steel samples in the laboratory to determine this data. The technique produces no significant damage to steel and has the potential of being rapidly scanned to test hot moving metals on the production line.


Information asymmetry makes accurate valuation of assets and companies challenging in emerging markets. Tunneling and other transfer mechanisms complicate things further. Governments can employ taxation to help identify and even discourage tunneling and eventually help investors in evaluating assets and firms confidently.


Although there has been much research into corporate governance generally, little attention has been focused specifically on issues in media companies. The question is further complicated by the increasing frequency with which media enterprises that have traditionally operated within the industrial context of a specific medium are becoming business lines for media conglomerates and must compete for resources and strategic attention from a board more concerned with bottom-line profitability than with traditional media industry norms. This study examines board compositions of 21 firms with leadership positions in 1 or more traditional mass media industries and compares governance structure and results for those firms that are concentrated in 1 media segment to those that operate multiple media segments. Relations between skills sets associated with different categories of board members (legal, finance, consumer/marketing, service, academic, and other), management influence, and other board demographics to the creation of shareholder value were identified based on financial measures of market value, earnings per share, and dividend levels. The relations between board characteristics and strategic measures of capital reinvestment, asset sales, and acquisitions were also examined. A number of significant differences were identified between single-industry and conglomerate firms in these dimensions.


Existing models and field and laboratory data which describe the distribution of longshore sediment transport across the surf zone are identified and briefly discussed. Most of the models rely on some formulation of the cross-shore distribution of longshore current. Most models are poorly suited to describe transport above the still-water shoreline in the swash zone, and when evaluated for a planar beach, predict local longshore transport maxima in the outer-mid surf zone. The field and laboratory data suggest that significant transport may occur above the still-water shoreline and indicate a variety of longshore transport distribution profiles.


This article explores mid-Georgian debates about the nature of citizenship by focusing on a key political scandal that has hitherto been overlooked by modern historians. In 1756, one of the many Hanoverian soldiers who were stationed in England was arrested for theft in Maidstone. The subsequent efforts to release him on the part of his military superiors and the British government created a political controversy that highlighted issues such as legal liberty, the abuse of executive power, home defence policy, and the moral state of the nation. In particular, this article argues that the furore gave weight to contemporary calls to reform the militia, not so much for instrumental military reasons, but for the supposed social and political benefits of an organization that relied upon the patriotic zeal and masculine virtue of the indigenous citizen. This article is therefore a contribution to the new cultural histories of politics that emphasize the roles of nation and gender in conceptions of citizenship, and argues that the Seven Years War was in this respect a moment of crucial importance.


Cyanobacteria can be used to remove nitrogenous compounds from wastewater, but a major bottleneck in the process is the separation of cyanobacterial biomass from the treated water discharge, which may cause eutrophication. The current study assessed the suitability of three periphytic cyanobacteria (Geitlerinema sp., Gloeotrichia sp., and Lyngbya sp.) isolated from shrimp ponds. These cyanobacteria were immobilized by self-adhesion to polyvinyl chloride sheets, forming mats, and were screened for their efficacy to reduce nitrogenous compounds and phosphorus. Among the three isolates, Geitlerinema sp. showed the highest reduction rate (98%) and was further tested using shrimp pond wastewater. The results showed that initial wastewater concentrations (mg L-1) of total ammonia nitrogen (5.0), nitrite nitrogen (2.9), and soluble reactive phosphorus (2.5) were significantly (P < 0.05) reduced within 7 days in tanks containing wastewater + Geitlerinema sp. mats (0.1, 0.2, and 0.8) compared to wastewater + substrate only (4.3, 2.7, and 2.3) or wastewater only (4.4, 2.8, and 2.4). In addition, Geitlerinema sp. was found to be nontoxic to Artemia. Fast and effective sequestration of nutrients from wastewater by the Geitlerinema mats, as well as ease of harvesting from the mats, make this treatment an attractive alternative for wastewater treatment.


Recent technological advances have led to a rapid progress in endocrine surgery. With the advent of minimally invasive techniques in thyroid surgery, robot-assisted transaxillary thyroid surgery (RATS) has emerged as one of the most promising approaches. Its main advantages are improved cosmetic outcome, avoiding cervical incisions, increased patient satisfaction, improved visualization, arms articulations, eliminating surgeon's natural tremor, thereby increasing precision. The main disadvantages are longer operative time, and increased cost compared to conventional thyroidectomy, as well as potential injuries to the brachial plexus, skin flap, esophagus, and trachea. Large-scale studies, mainly from South-Korea, have proved that in skilled hands, RATS is a safe alternative to conservative thyroidectomy and should be presented to patients with aesthetic concerns. As with any new emerging technique, careful patient selection is crucial, and further evidence must be sought to confirm its indications.


The field of odonatology has developed considerably during the past century. Three figures, namely E. Selys‐Longchamps, R.J. Tillyard and P.S. Corbet, have undisputedly founded our current knowledge of odonatology and contributed massively to the understanding of systematics, biology, ecology and behaviour of odonates. The year 2017 will mark the 100th anniversary of Tillyard's The Biology of Dragonflies. We review the book and the author's life and contributions to Australian odonatology. We present an updated history of odonatology and highlight prominent advances in the field. The influence of the book on non‐scientists is described. Future research in odonatology on aspects that have not been studied and others that need further investigations are discussed.


An improved genetic algorithm is proposed in which a diffusing operator is designed. Gaussian mutation method is applied in diffusing operator and its task is mainly to perform local search. Connection weights of an artificial neural network are trained on standard XOR problem by using the proposed genetic algorithm. The results show that the proposed genetic algorithm can perform both global search and local search efficiently, therefore, it can be used to train artificial neural networks alone rather than incorporate other local search algorithms, such as BP to improve local search of training algorithm, so the proposed genetic algorithm is significant to simplify training algorithm of artificial neural networks and improve training efficiency


The motors of a robot produce ego-motion noise that degrades the quality of recorded sounds. This paper describes an architecture that enhances the capability of a robot to perform automatic speech recognition (ASR) even as the entire body of the robot moves. The architecture consists of three blocks: (i) a multichannel noise reduction block, consisting of microphone-array-based sound localization, geometric source separation and post-filtering, (ii) a single-channel template subtraction block and (iii) an ASR block. As the first step of our analysis strategy, we divided the whole-body motion noise problem into three subdomains of arm, leg and head motion noise, according to their intensity levels and spatial location. Subsequently, by following a synthesis-by-analysis approach, we determined the best method for suppressing each type of ego-motion noise. Finally, we proposed to utilize a control module in our ASR framework; this module was designed to make decisions based on instantaneously detected motions, allowing it to switch to the most appropriate method for the current type of noise. This proposed system resulted in improvements of up to 50 points in word correct rates compared with results obtained by single microphone recognition of arm, leg and head motions.


We explore the use of polymers as a conducting interlayer within silicon–carbon nanotube heterojunction photovoltaics. Three types of devices have been fabricated and characterized including silicon–carbon nanotube, silicon–conducting polymer and silicon–conducting polymer–carbon nanotube. The conducting polymers studied were polyaniline, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate). A thin conducting polymer interlayer significantly improves photovoltaic performance by creating a better depletion layer within the underlying silicon. With the addition of a top antireflection layer, a photovoltaic device, silicon-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate)–carbon nanotube–poly(styrene) has been fabricated with a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 8.7 %.


Gradient-index lens arrays that make reduced or enlarged images have been invented at Xerox Corp. An important optical property of these lens arrays is their radiometric speed. Thus a general procedure for the radiometric analysis of arbitrary magnification gradient-index lens arrays has been developed. The analysis has been applied to a particular array which was fabricated by Nippon Sheet Glass Co. and tested at Xerox.


Chronic illnesses such as epilepsy, have been shown to have detrimental effects on both psychological adjustment and coping behaviour. Using the process model of coping, these effects were investigated in a patient group of 36, 16-21 year olds with epilepsy. The patient group were compared with a control group of 31 of their peers with regard to both their psychological adjustment and how they coped with making the transition to adulthood. In order to further test the process theory, a comparison was made between how the patient group coped with making the transition to adulthood and how they coped with epilepsy. The relative importance of the perception of illness and condition characteristics to psychological adjustment and coping was also considered in the patient group. Participants completed a postal questionnaire which contained measures of psychological adjustment (self esteem, affect, self efficacy) and an adolescent coping questionnaire. Results showed that the patient group exhibited significantly more non productive coping than the control group. The control group exhibited significantly more problem solving coping and displayed a significantly more problem solving bias than the patient group. No differences were found between the patient and control group on measures of psychological adjustment. However, psychological adjustment was found to be associated with coping response in the patient and not the control group. Some differences were found in the cross-situational coping response within the patient group. Perception of illness, in particular, acceptance of illness, had more influence on the psychological adjustment and coping behaviour of the patient group than condition characteristics. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed and the limitations of the study acknowledged.


OBJECTIVE
Anticoagulation clinics (ACCs) can improve anticoagulation control and prevent adverse events. However, ACCs vary widely in their performance on anticoagulation control. Our objective was to compare the organization and management of top-performing with that of bottom-performing ACCs.

DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING
Three high outlier and three low outlier ACCs in the Veterans Health Administration (VA).

STUDY DESIGN
Site visits with qualitative data collection and analysis.

DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS
We conducted semi-structured interviews with ACC staff regarding work flow, staffing, organization, and quality assurance efforts. We also observed ACC operations and collected documents, such as the clinic protocol. We used grounded thematic analysis to examine site-level factors associated with high and low outlier status.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
High outlier sites were characterized by (1) adequate (pharmacist) staffing and effective use of (nonpharmacist) support personnel; (2) innovation to standardize clinical practice around evidence-based guidelines; (3) the presence of a quality champion for the ACC; (4) higher staff qualifications; (5) a climate of ongoing group learning; and (6) internal efforts to measure performance. Although high outliers had all of these features, no low outlier had more than two of them.

CONCLUSIONS
The top-performing ACCs in the VA system shared six relatively recognizable characteristics. Efforts to improve performance should focus on these domains.


In response to Resolution 195 (A-87), the medical literature on the adverse health effects of formaldehyde was reviewed, and the potential cancer risk to anatomists and other related health professionals from exposure to the chemical is described. Though the evidence in humans is limited and controversial, both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in their consideration of available epidemiologic and toxicological studies, now regard formaldehyde as a possible human carcinogen and will regulate it accordingly.


Virus-infectious diseases are permanent threats and cause serious lost for chicken industry of our country. Thus, the development of a bio-product enhancing the immune system against viral-caused diseases on chicken is highly necessary. Aims of this study were to clone, to express and to investigate anti-viral activity of recombinant chicken interferon-α and interferon-γ (ChIFN) produced from yeast Pichia pastoris . Gene fragments encoding ChIFN-α and ChIFN-γ were obtained by PCR and PCR/SOE (Splicing Overlapping Extension) based on the chicken genome DNA. Expressing vectors pPIC9K bearing gene-encoding ChINF-α or ChIFN-γ were cloned and two clones of P. pastoris stably expressing ChIFN-α and ChIFN-γ were generated.  The expression of ChIFN-α and ChIFN-γ in P. pastoris culture supernatant was identified by Tricine SDS-PAGE. The biological activity of recombinant ChIFN-α was investigated on the model of chicken embryo fibroblast infected with IBDV and NDV. In case of IBDV-infected cells, the survival rate of cells treated by 1.6 µg/ml ChIFN-α was 79-88%, significantly higher than that of cells treated by PBS which was 33-34%. With NDV-infected cells, the survival rate of cells treated by 1.6 µg/ml ChIFN-α was 81-90%, also obviously higher than that of cells treated by PBS which was 27-32%. In conclusion, recombinant ChIFN-α and ChIFN-γ were expressed successfully on yeast P. pastoris and ChIFN-α was functional to stimulate anti- IBDV and NDV activities of cells.


This study proposes a novel analysis system for printed fabrics that can automatically make color separation and identify repeat patterns. The system uses a scanner to obtain red, green and blue (RGB) color images of printed fabrics and then convert them into hue, saturation, intensity (HSI) color images. In order to obtain color separation, a genetic algorithm is used to search for a smaller sub-image with the same color distribution, and then the color separation is conducted by use of the recursive region splitting method. Then carry out another Fuzzy C-means (FCM) calculation on the HSI image using the color clusters (cluster number) and values (cluster centers) obtained from separating the colors of sub-images to quickly classify colors for the pixels. Pixels of different color categories are marked with different gray levels. In this way, a polychromatic pattern image is formed. For identifying repeat patterns, first, a template matching method is applied to discover distributions of same pattern elements. Then, the Hough transform method is used to obtain the cutting positions and dimensions of the repeat patterns in the polychromatic pattern image. Next, the images of the repeat patterns are extracted out from the polychromatic images. Finally, the repeat units of the black pictures are generated based on the color categories and they are expanded to become black pictures that can be used to make plates. According to the experimental results, this system can rapidly and automatically separate colors and identify repeat patterns of images on printed fabrics.


Cinematography of perestroika (and the early post-Soviet period) entails mixed terra-in, often described as a socially-critical "black wave" chernukha; the period saw an unprecedented number of works by female directors, which remain to be addressed by film scholarship. This article examines the cinematic opus of Olga Zhukova (1954-) who produced five feature films in the period 1990–1994. This article discusses her films, which were not well received by critics and accused of being pretentious and artificial, alongside another Soviet director, Iskra Babich (1938–2001). I re-examine the formation of Zhukova's cinematic speech, focusing on the interplay of the audio-visual and corporeal, to argue that her works create specific times paces which defy the immediate socio-political references provided by the seemingly formative linear narratives, and bypass the patriarchal dichotomies underpinning the latter.


Gametogenesis in Drosophila requires sex-specific interactions between the soma and germline to control germ cell viability, proliferation, and differentiation. To determine what genetic components are involved in this interaction, we examined whether changes in the sexual identity of the soma affected the function of the ovarian tumor (otu) and ovo genes. These genes are required cell autonomously in the female germline for germ cell proliferation and differentiation. Mutations in otu and ovo cause a range of ovarian defects, including agametic ovaries and tumorous egg cysts, but do not affect spermatogenesis. We demonstrate that XY germ cells do not require otu when developing in testes, but become dependent on otu function for proliferation when placed in an ovary. This soma-induced requirement can be satisfied by the induced expression of the 98 x 10(3) M(r) OTU product, one of two isoforms produced by differential RNA splicing. These results indicate that the female somatic gonad can induce XY germ cells to become 'female-like' because they require an oogenesis-specific gene. In contrast, the requirement for ovo is dependent on a cell autonomous signal derived from the X:A ratio. We propose that differential regulation of the otu and ovo genes provides a mechanism for the female germline to incorporate both somatic and cell autonomous inputs required for oogenesis.


To obtain accurate results, evaluating the Fresnel diffraction integral numerically requires some care. Therefore, this chapter rst deals with two simpler topics: diffraction with the Fraunhofer approximation and diffraction with lenses. This allows some optical examples of FTs to be demonstrated without the signicant algorithm
development and sampling analysis required for simulating Fresnel diffraction. Vacuum propagation algorithms and sampling analysis for Fresnel propagation are the subjects Chs. 6-8. Computing diffracted fields in the Fraunhofer approximation or when a lens is present does not require quite so much analysis up front. Additionally, these simple computations involve only a single DFT for each pattern. Chapter 2 provides the requisite background. Consequently, readers may notice that the MATLAB code listings in this chapter are quite simple. 4.1 Fraunhofer Diffraction When light propagates very far from its source aperture, the optical field in the observation plane is very closely approximated by the Fraunhofer diffraction integral, given in Ch. 1 and repeated here for convenience: (4.1) According to Goodman,5 "very far" is defined by the inequality (4.2) where Δz is the propagation distance, D is the diameter of the source aperture, and λ is the optical wavelength. This is a good approximation because the quadratic phase is nearly flat over the source.


Substitution Boxes (S-Boxes) play an important role in many modern-day cryptographic algorithms, more commonly known as ciphers. Without carefully chosen S-Boxes, such ciphers would be easier to break. Therefore, it is not surprising that the design of suitable S-Boxes attracts a lot of attention in the cryptography community. The evolutionary computation (EC) community also had several attempts using evolutionary paradigms to evolve S-Boxes with good cryptographic properties. This article focuses on a fitness function one should use when evolving highly nonlinear S-Boxes. After an extensive experimental analysis of the current state-of-the-art fitness functions, we present a new one that offers higher speed and better results when compared with the aforementioned fitness functions.


Endoscopic sphincterotomy has become the first line treatment for patients with common bile duct (CBD) stones. This technique may fail, however, due to difficult anatomy, previous surgery, periampullary diverticula or the presence of a large stone. The importance of stone size to the success of endoscopic sphincterotomy has not been fully assessed. A prospective study was carried out over the period January 1987 to December 1989 on 100 patients (45 male, 55 female, median age 69 years, range 19-97) with CBD stones in which a policy of early duct clearance was followed. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) was performed and the stone size and number recorded from the cholangiograms and corrected for magnification. Sphincterotomy was performed using a diathermy unit with a cutting current and stones were extracted using a balloon catheter or a Dormia basket. Of the 100 patients with CBD stones receiving ERCP, successful clearance of the biliary tree was possible in seven without endoscopic sphincterotomy and five were felt to be unsuitable for endoscopic sphincterotomy. Of the remaining 88 patients endoscopic sphincterotomy was successful in 75 (85%). Of the 75 patients having endoscopic sphincterotomy stone clearance was successful in 44 (59%). There were no deaths and only four complications, which rapidly resolved on conservative treatment (two acute pancreatitis, two bleeding). The number of CBD stones present was similar in those patients with successful endoscopic sphincterotomy and duct clearance (median 1, range 1-10, n = 44) as in those in whom it failed (median 2, range 1-6, n = 31). In contrast there was a highly significant difference when stone size was analysed (successful clearance median stone size 10 mm, range 3-27 mm; unsuccessful: median 18 mm, range 10-42, p<0.001). Stones less than 10 mm in diameter (n=21) were all removed successfully whereas in patients with stones over 15 mm (n=25) only three were removed endoscopically (12%). All patients with evidence of residual stones had additional treatment. Of these 31 patients, 10 had surgery, 11 had insertion of an endoprosthesis, and 10 had dissolution treatment with methyl-tert-butyl ether through a nasobiliary catheter. This study shows the importance of stone size to the success rate of endoscopic removal of bile duct stones.


With respect to the News & Comment article "Ionosphere research lab sparks fears in Alaska" by Lisa Busch (21 Feb., p. 1060), I would like to make two points. First, the anti-HAARP (High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) activists overestimated the power of the Gakona, Alaska, facility by a factor of more than a million and then used statements in patents (1) to fuel speculations on the part of the public about possible effects such as weather manipulations, mind warping, and communication disruptions. This incorrect information has been refuted in hearings in the Alaska legislature, in a video prepared by Senator Frank H. Murkowski (R-AK) for airing in Alaska, and at open-house sessions at the site for interested visitors. Second, the Gakona site is now intended to be a world-class facility for studying the upper atmosphere, although the function has evolved from an over-the-horizon radar (never constructed), to a high-frequency facility (under construction) to generate ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) radio waves in the ionosphere, to a major center for upper atmosphere studies using a variety of diagnostics (some in place) with a powerful incoherent scatter radar (ISR) as the core instrument (to be constructed). The core instrument will join with existing ISRs at Svalbard and Tromsø in Norway; Sondrestrom, Greenland; and Boston, Massachusetts, and with the proposed ISR at Resolute Bay, Canada, to form an Arctic network of radars to observe virtually the whole Polar Cap and to track disturbances produced by solar inputs in the form of waves and particles. The network will be a remarkable additon to the tools available to the atmospheric science community with applications to space weather, Arctic and satellite communications, and electric power-grid problems. In the early days of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico there were concerns expressed about the facility, but these have long since been replaced by satisfaction with the scientific outcomes and the benefits to the local economy. The residents of Alaska will find similar benefits.


A model for measuring software modifiability is presented. In this model, the key to the modifiability of a program module is attributed to its localization property, which can be interpreted as indicating whether changes made to the module would have only a localized effect or not. The localization property of a module can be further broken down into intramodular localization and intermodular localization. Corresponding to the localization property are the dependences among program code entities. A data-interdependency metric for measuring the dependencies among primitive statements in a module is developed. The metric is then extended to incorporate intermodular localization property to measure the modifiability of program modules. A number of software maintenance experiments were designed and conducted for validating the software modifiability metric. The details of the experimentation as well as the results are presented.<<ETX>>


Due to a changing retirement landscape, many baby boomers are likely to have insufficient resources for a secure retirement. One potential source that could improve their situation is inheritances. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and the Health and Retirement Study, this study quantifies how much boomers can expect to inherit. Our best estimate is that boomers' will inherit $8.4 trillion. Of this amount, $2.4 trillion has already been received, while the remaining $6.0 trillion is anticipated. We estimate that two-thirds of boomer households will receive some inheritance over their lifetime, with a median amount of $64,000. The estimates are based on data obtained before the economic crisis, so our analysis explores how the collapse in the stock and housing markets might affect the picture. Evidence from the previous economic crisis in the early 2000s suggests only a temporary reduction in prospective inheritances, which will be reversed as the economy recovers. However, given the severity of the recent crisis, we also considered a scenario in which inheritances fall proportionately with the decline in housing and stock values between 2007 and 2010. In this case, anticipated inheritances would fall 13 percent – from 6.0 trillion to $5.2 trillion. In any case, any prospective inheritance is uncertain. Parents or grandparents who expect to leave a bequest may revise their plans based on fluctuations in their asset values. Or they may exhaust their wealth due to medical costs or long lifespans. In short, boomers should not count on an anticipated inheritance to eliminate the need for increased retirement saving.