The work researches the role of botanical gardens in biodiversity conservation. It cites the total number of rare and endangered plants in the greenhouse collection of Peter the Great Botanical garden (BIN RAN). The greenhouse collection of Pinaceae representatives has been analysed, provided with a short description of family, genus and certain species, presented in the collection. The article highlights the importance of Pinaceae for various industries, decorative value of plants of this group, the worth of the pinaceous as having environment-improving properties. In the greenhouses there are 37 species of Pinaceae, of 7 geni, all species have a conservation status: CR – 2 species, EN – 3 species, VU- 3 species, NT – 4 species, LC – 25 species. For most species it is indicated what causes depletion. Most often it is the destruction of natural habitats, uncontrolled clearance, insect invasion and diseases.


Despite the great promise that increased industrialization has held for rapid growth and labour absorption in the developing countries, industrialization has produced no such results in many of the LDCs. And, yet, the agriculture sector has generally been relegated to a secondary place in the economic plans of these countries. Pakistan provides an interesting example of one of these developing countries where industrialization and development were considered synonymous at one time and economic poliCies were geared to bringing about rapid industrialization. However, at the commencement of the Sixth Five-Year Plan, Pakistan had achieved an annual growth rate of about 4 percent over the 1955-82 period, yielding a paltry one-percent increase in per capita income, a gain not worth cheering about. What went wrong? Were the policies ill~onceived? Was rapid industrialization really the same as development? Was the promise illusory? These and similar other questions are generally asked. But one is hard put to come up with satisfactory answers, even though there is no dearth of answers.


Real-time reporting systems are now becoming widely available, in order to aid emergency dispatch assistance and traffic control management as being an important part of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Based on the fact that the global system mobile (GSM) standard is widely accepted as being the most comprehensively deployed of all the various second generation digital cellular telephony standards, studies have been focused on using it as a communication link for real-time application reporting. This paper introduces a study made on an integrated system incorporating a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, a control area network (CAN) and the short message service (SMS) of GSM as the transmission media. The goal of the research study conducted, is to measure the end to end delays experienced, and consequently its practicality, when using a CAN bus and the GSM-SMS bearer service for position reporting for use in an ITS environment. The paper initially presents the previous research that has been carried out relevant to this study. Following it outlines the system architecture of the integrated system studied together with its functionality in an ITS environment. The results obtained from the various simulation scenarios are presented as well as an estimation algorithm that aims to diminish the positioning error incorporated from the transmission delays occurred. Concluding this paper discusses the advantages of using this integrated system as a solution for position reporting in ITS as well as proposing further research to be conducted.


As shown by Guimaraes, Figueiredo and Woodward (2003), a particular class of conditional logit models yield identical parameter estimates to a Poisson count data model. In Schmidheiny and Brülhart (2011), we have pointed out that the conditional logit model and the Poisson model can be seen as polar cases of a continuum of intermediate cases which emerge from a random utility nested logit model. Herger and McCorriston (2013) have proposed an alternative nested logit model. In this note, we show that their paper misrepresents our model, that their alternative specification does not in fact nest the Poisson model, and that their analysis contains a number of formal errors. Highlights: • The nested logit model in Schmidheiny and Brülhart (2011) is a random utility model that nests the conditional logit and Poisson models. • The nested logit model in Herger and McCorriston (2013) is a restricted version of Schmidheiny and Brülhart (2011) that does not nest the Poisson model. • The proposed estimation strategy in Herger and McCorriston (2013) is incorrect. JEL Classification: C25, R3


Flavortop' nectarines (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) were either stored for 4 weeks at -0.5C or not subjected to cold storage before being ripened at 15C. The differences in extractable juice, woolliness, composition, and gelling characteristics of extracted pectins between the two treatments were determined during ripening. As ripening pro- gressed, the extractable juice in both treatments decreased to low values after which it increased with further ripening. Woolliness only occurred in fruit that was cold stored. Nectarines became woolly from the 2nd day and peaked on the 6th day of ripening in fruit cold stored for 4 weeks. As fruit firmness decreased, the soluble pectin concentration increased to the same extent in both treatments at the expense of insoluble pectin. In cold-stored fruit, the viscosity of pectin increased gradually until the 6th day of ripening, while in noncold-store d fruit maximum viscosity was higher and occurred between the 4th and 6th day of ripening. From the 6th day, the viscosity decreased in both treatments to levels lower than the initial viscosity. The extractable juice was lowest when the viscosity of soluble pectins and percentage of woolly fruit were highest. Molecular mass distribution of soluble pectins decreased consid- erably during ripening at 15C.


Gas measurements made in the stratospheric plume from the eruption of Mount St. Helens on 18 May 1980 were not consistent with a reported large injection of radon-222 into the atmosphere. No enrichment in the volatile element polonium was found in filter samples, and the ratio of polonium-210 to lead-210 was not different from background values. Data obtained with an experimental impactor, flown shortly after the eruption, showed an increase of 103 in the stratospheric number concentration of submicrometer sulfate particles compared to concentrations before the eruption.


Traditional Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) solutions have been deemed insufficient to address the requirements of freight railroad companies to implement real-time monitoring and control of their trains, tracks and wayside equipment. With only ZigBee-based elements, the transmission capabilities of WSN devices are limited in terms of coverage range and throughput. This leads to severe delay and congestion in the network, particularly in railroad scenarios that usually require the nodes to be arranged in linear chain-like topology. In such a multi-hop topology to communicate from one end of a train to the locomotive — and due to ZigBee's limited communication range — data needs to be transmitted using a very high number of hops and thus generates long delays and congestion problems.To overcome this drawback, we have proposed a heterogeneous multi-hop networking approach called "Hybrid Technology Networking" (HTN). In HTN we combined Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies like WiFi, which provide improved communication range and higher data rates, with low-power communication technologies like ZigBee. This significantly reduces the number of hops required to deliver data across the network and hence solves the issues of delay and congestion, while also achieving superior enery efficiency and network lifetime. The sensor nodes are logically divided into clusters and each cluster has a WiFi "gateway". All intra-cluster communication is achieved via IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee protocols, while all inter-cluster communication utilizes WiFi protocol standards.To implement our proposed technology in railroad networks, we are designing hardware prototypes and simulation models to evaluate the functionality and performance of our HTN solution, which is designed around a dual network stack design governed by the HTN protocol. This ensures full compliance with IEEE and industry communication protocols for interoperability. Since no simulation tools that seamlessly combine both WSN and WLAN technologies in a single module exist, we wrote our own simulation environment using OPNET. In this paper, we have provided information of implementing the HTN protocol in OPNET and the simulation results for different scenarios relevant to railroad operations. These results will demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed system as well as provide the baseline data for testing the hardware devices in live networks. Under simulated traffic and channel conditions and device configurations, we observed a decrease of 77.27% in end-to-end delay and an increase of 69.70% in received data volume when using HTN compared to ZigBee-only multi-hop networks, simulated over 14 railcars in railroad-relevant scenarios.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Fanconi anemia (FA), an inherited syndrome that associates bone marrow failure, cancer predisposition, and genetic instability, is characterized by an overproduction of the myelosuppressive cytokine TNF-a through unknown mechanisms. We demonstrate here that FANC pathway loss-of-function results in the aberrant activation of 2 major stress-signaling pathways: NF-KB and MAPKs. These responses are independent on TNF-a expression. On the contrary, inhibition of the MAPK pathways normalizes TNF-a oversecretion in FA. Moreover, our data show that the overexpression of the matrix metalloproteinase MMP-7 is the key event directly responsible for the high rate of TNF-a shedding and release from the cytoplasmic membrane in FA. TNF-a overproduction is, indeed, normalized by MMP-7 inhibition. Finally, MAPK inhibition impacts on MMP-7 overexpression. Evidence is provided of the existence of a linear pathway in which FANC mutations activate MAPK signaling that induces MMP-7 overexpression leading, in fine, to TNF-a oversecretion. TNF-α may, in turn, sustain or amplify both MAPKs and NF-KB activation. Aberrant expression or activity of NF-KB and/or MAPKs has been already involved in bone marrow failure and leukemia, and their inhibition offered clinical benefit for patients. In conclusion, our data provide a strong rationale for new clinical trials on FA patients.


Thesis (M.P.P.)--Georgetown University, 2009.; Includes bibliographical
 references. With the AIDS endemic still not under control in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a
 need to study the factors that influence people to be tested for HIV. In 2007 there were
 approximately 1.9 million new infections in the sub-Saharan region. "Two thirds (67%)
 of the global total of 32.9 million people with HIV live in this region, and three quarters
 (75%) of all AIDS deaths in 2007 occurred there" (Joint United Nations Programme on
 HIV/AIDS). This study focuses both on the variables that are significant for women in Tanzania
 to have a high level of HIV knowledge, and in turn, how that knowledge affects her decision to
 be tested for HIV. It is found that education and socioeconomic status are significant in both
 determining a woman's level of HIV knowledge, as well predicting if she has been tested for
 HIV, and that HIV knowledge itself is a statistically significant indicator of whether or not
 a person will be tested for HIV. These results will be relevant for future health policy
 programs, especially as they pertain to the most at risk groups in need of HIV education and
 health facilities. This information is also important for international non-profit and
 governmental organizations like USAID and PEPFAR when they are determining how to target their
 budgets in health and education programs.


: In chronic experiments on dogs with models of alimentary and defensive behaviour and with EEG recording in the cortical acoustic area and in the caudat nucleus head (CNH) evidence was obtained of the possible role of the latter in the processes of attention. Special test (CNH stimulation of different strength and frequency) helped to reveal the role of the striatum in this function. Proceeding from facts obtained and from published data, it has been assumed that the involvement of CNH in the process of activation of attention is effected by its inhibitory influences both on the motor systems and on the non-specific afferent input. The electrographic correlate of the CNH inhibitory function consists in the slow-wave high-amplitude component of the caudatogram within the range of two to six osc/sec which is always present in the background and which considerably increases in amplitude in situations requiring activation of attention.


Differentiating types of hematologic malignancies is vital to determine therapeutic strategies for the newly diagnosed patients. Flow cytometry (FC) can be used as diagnostic indicator by measuring the multi-parameter fluorescent markers on thousands of antibody-bound cells, but the manual interpretation of large scale flow cytometry data has long been a time-consuming and complicated task for hematologists and laboratory professionals. Past studies have led to the development of representation learning algorithms to perform sample-level automatic classification. In this work, we propose a chunking-for-pooling strategy to include large-scale FC data into a supervised deep representation learning procedure for automatic hematologic malignancy classification. The use of discriminatively-trained representation learning strategy and the fixed-size chunking and pooling design are key components of this framework. It improves the discriminative power of the FC sample-level embedding and simultaneously addresses the robustness issue due to an inevitable use of down-sampling in conventional distribution based approaches for deriving FC representation. We evaluated our framework on two datasets. Our framework outperformed other baseline methods and achieved 92.3% unweighted average recall (UAR) for four-class recognition on the UPMC dataset and 85.0% UAR for five-class recognition on the hema.to dataset. We further compared the robustness of our proposed framework with that of the traditional downsampling approach. Analysis of the effects of the chunk size and the error cases revealed further insights about different hematologic malignancy characteristics in the FC data.


Hair cells are the sensory receptors in the auditory and vestibular systems of all vertebrates, and in the lateral-line system of aquatic vertebrates. During development, spontaneous activity in hair cells shapes the formation of these sensory systems. In auditory hair cells of mice, coordinated waves of spontaneous activity can be triggered by concomitant activity in nearby supporting cells. But in mammals, developing auditory and vestibular hair cells can also autonomously generate spontaneous events independent of supporting cell activity. To date, significant progress has been made studying spontaneous activity in the auditory and vestibular systems of mammals, in isolated cultures. The purpose of this work is to explore the zebrafish lateral-line system as a model to study and understand spontaneous activity in vivo. Our work applies genetically encoded calcium indicators along with light-sheet fluorescence microscopy to visualize spontaneous calcium activity in the developing lateral-line system. Consistent with our previous work, we show that spontaneous calcium activity is present in developing lateral-line hair cells. We now show that supporting cells that surround hair cells, and cholinergic efferent terminals that directly contact hair cells are also spontaneously active. Using two-color functional imaging we demonstrate that spontaneous activity in hair cells does not correlate with activity in either supporting cells or cholinergic terminals. We find that during lateral-line development, hair cells autonomously generate spontaneous events. Using localized calcium indicators, we show that within hair cells, spontaneous calcium activity occurs in two distinct domains–the mechanosensory bundle and the presynapse. Further, spontaneous activity in the mechanosensory bundle ultimately drives spontaneous calcium influx at the presynapse. Comprehensively, our results indicate that in developing lateral-line hair cells, autonomously generated spontaneous activity originates with spontaneous mechanosensory events. Overall, with robust spontaneous activity three different cell types, the developing lateral line is a rich model to study these activities in an intact sensory organ. Future work studying this model may further our understanding of these activities and their role in sensory system formation, function and regeneration.


The spacer grid assembly, which is an interconnected array of slotted grid straps and welded at the intersections to form an egg crate structure, is one of the main structural components of the nuclear fuel assembly of a Pressurized light Water Reactor (PWR). The spacer grid assembly supports and aligns the fuel rods, guides the fuel assemblies past each other during handling and, if needed, sustains lateral seismic loads. The ability of the spacer grid assembly to resist the lateral loads is usually characterized in terms of its dynamic and static crush strengths, which are acquired from tests. In this study, dynamic buckling tests and finite element analyses on spacer grid assembly specimens are carried out. Comparisons show that the analysis results are in good agreement with the test results to within an 8 % difference range. Therefore, we could predict the crush strength of a spacer grid assembly in advance before performing the dynamic buckling test.


To prepare students for the complex, multidisciplinary problems they will face outside of the classroom, current reform initiatives advocate for the integration of content and practices from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the science classroom. One approach, integrated STEM, uses the engineering design process as a vehicle for learning. However, these lessons can be challenging for students, so it is essential that science educators employ various teaching practices to scaffold student learning. One way to achieve this is through the use of written and oral discourse that promotes meaning-making. The studies in this dissertation utilize Legitimation Code Theory as an analytical framework to create semantic profiles of an integrated STEM unit and middle school teachers' implementation of integrated STEM lessons. Specifically, we analyze the semantic gravity, or the extent to which meaning is rooted within the context it is acquired in, to map and identify semantic patterns that may promote or constrain meaning-making. The results of these studies indicate that Legitimation Code Theory can be a useful tool for developing and examining integrated STEM curricular materials, evaluating teacher discourse during the implementation of integrated STEM lessons, ascertaining how teachers are integrating multiple disciplinary discourses, and identifying areas where teachers may benefit from additional support as they learn to implement integrated STEM. Keywords: integrated STEM, legitimation code theory, discourse.


Abstract I develop a formal logic in which quantified arguments occur in argument positions of predicates. This logic also incorporates negative predication, anaphora and converse relation terms, namely, additional syntactic features of natural language. In these and additional respects, it represents the logic of natural language more adequately than does any version of Frege's Predicate Calculus. I first introduce the system's main ideas and familiarize it by means of translations of natural language sentences. I then develop a formal system built on these principles, the Quantified Argument Calculus or Quarc. I provide a truth-value assignment semantics and a proof system for the Quarc. I next demonstrate the system's power by a variety of proofs; I prove its soundness; and I comment on its completeness. I then extend the system to modal logic, again providing a proof system and a truth-value assignment semantics. I proceed to show how the Quarc versions of the Barcan formulas, of their converses and of necessary existence come out straightforwardly invalid, which I argue is an advantage of the modal Quarc over modal Predicate Logic as a system intended to capture the logic of natural language.


Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) was used in the development of silica layers for use in planar lightwave circuit fabrication. These high-rate (>200 nm/min) processes are tailored specifically for the thick-film (5/spl sim/15 /spl mu/m) films required for these applications A GeH/sub 4/ addition to the process was used to deposit the core layer, controlling the core-clad refractive index (RI) difference in the range of 0.2%-1.65%. Undoped SiO/sub 2/ and Ge-doped SiO/sub 2/ films up to 10 /spl mu/m have been deposited on to 4" Si <100> wafers. The 'as deposited' and 'annealed' film properties: film uniformity, RI, RI uniformity and stress have been compared. The upper cladding layer in an optical planar waveguide is typically formed using boron and phosphorus doped films (BPSG) which provides the necessary reflow characteristics. Refractive index uniformity of /spl plusmn/0.0003 across 4" silicon wafers was achieved on all films after annealing. The core layer was shown to be capable of producing optical losses of <0.1 dB/cm when processed into a waveguide.


Clustering techniques are increasingly being put to use in the analysis of high-throughput biological datasets. Novel computational techniques to analyse high throughput data in the form of sequences, gene and protein expressions, pathways, and images are becoming vital for understanding diseases and future drug discovery. This book details the complete pathway of cluster analysis, from the basics of molecular biology to the generation of biological knowledge. The book also presents the latest clustering methods and clustering validation, thereby offering the reader a comprehensive review of clustering analysis in bioinformatics from the fundamentals through to state-of-the-art techniques and applications. Key Features: * Offers a contemporary review of clustering methods and applications in the field of bioinformatics, with particular emphasis on gene expression analysis * Provides an excellent introduction to molecular biology with computer scientists and information engineering researchers in mind, laying out the basic biological knowledge behind the application of clustering analysis techniques in bioinformatics * Explains the structure and properties of many types of high-throughput datasets commonly found in biological studies * Discusses how clustering methods and their possible successors would be used to enhance the pace of biological discoveries in the future * Includes a companion website hosting a selected collection of codes and links to publicly available datasets


With the proliferation of diverse wireless devices, there is an increasing concern about the security of location information which can be spoofed or disrupted by adversaries. This paper investigates the characterization and detection of location spoofing attacks, specifically those which are attempting to falsify (degrade) the position estimate through signal strength based attacks. Since the physical-layer approach identifies and assesses the security risk of position information based solely on using received signal strength (RSS), it is applicable to nearly any practical wireless network. In this paper, we characterize the impact of signal strength and beamforming attacks on range estimates and the resulting position estimate. It is shown that such attacks can be characterized by a scaling factor that biases the individual range estimators either uniformly or selectively. We then identify the more severe types of attacks, and develop an attack detection approach which does not rely on a priori knowledge (either statistical or environmental). The resulting approach, which exploits the dissimilar behavior of two RSS-based estimators when under attack, is shown to be effective at detecting both types of attacks with the detection rate increasing with the severity of the induced location error.


Single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films are ideal components for thin, flexible, and durable electronic devices. Here, we use a variety of processing approaches to fabricate SWCNT-silicon heterojunctions from both unsorted and chirality-enriched SWCNTs. Through measured structure/processing/property relationships, we quantify the influence of SWCNT purity, alignment and residual doping on device performance and diode characteristics. Our results show that mixed-type unaligned SWCNTs processed in super-acid solvents can achieve state-of-the-art performance. The devices perform comparably to those fabricated from type or chiral-purified SWCNTs, despite what appear to be significant deviations from ideal diode behavior. Our results clarify a direct route for processing nanotube-silicon heterojunctions while providing additional insight into the underlying nature of these devices.


James Baldwin writes within and against the testimonial tradition emerging from the Black Church, challenging the institution's refusal to acknowledge the voices and experiences of black queer men. Baldwin's autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain , creates a space for Baldwin's testimony to be expressed, and also lays the foundation for a tradition of black queer artists to follow. In the contemporary moment, poet Danez Smith inhabits Baldwin's legacy, offering continuing critiques of the rigidity of conservative Christian ideologies, while publishing and performing poetry that gives voice to their own experiences, and those of the black queer community at large. These testimonies ultimately function as a means of rhetorical resistance, which not only articulates black queer lives and identities, but affirms them.


An innovative new control method using guided ultrasonic waves generated and detected by array probes was developed as part of a collaborative project between I2M and CETIM. This method allows to excite and receive various types of guided waves (with a pilot of modal and directional selectivity) to test large structures, and more particularly difficult access areas. It consists in associating guided ultrasonic waves to a system of detection / generation of phased matrix array type, which, so far, has been used to produce wave volume and to control areas in the immediate vicinity of the probes. Compared to existing methods exploiting the guided waves, this new method has an advantage in terms of speed, simplicity and flexibility in the implementation, providing opportunities for the control of metallic and composite structures.


Schematic drawings are very important for the visualization and recognition of analog circuits and their working-principles. There have been different methodologies reported to enhance the common two-dimensional (2D) schematics into three-dimensional (3D) views, which include visualization of circuit properties. This work builds on a previously published display-methodology with the ability to back annotate results of transient SPICE simulations into the 3D-schematic. It is shown how this technique can be used to create one single view for both easy design entry and meaningful simulation analysis. The integration of the latter two into one editor significantly improves the perception of the circuit's behavior especially for students.


Roads have been widely studied as sources of runoff and sediment and identified as pollutant production sources to receiving waters. Despite the wealth of research on logging roads in forested, upland settings, little work has been conducted to examine the role of extensive networks of rural, low‐volume, unpaved roads on water quality degradation at the catchment scale. We studied a network of municipal unpaved roads in the northeastern US to identify the type and spatial extent of 'hydro‐geomorphic impairments' to water quality. We mapped erosional and depositional features on roads to develop an estimate of pollutant production. We also mapped the type and location of design interventions or best management practices (BMPs) used to improve road drainage and mitigate water quality impairment. We used statistical analyses to identify key controls on the frequency and magnitude of erosional features on the road network, and GIS to scale up from the survey results to the catchment scale to identify the likely importance of unpaved roads as a pollutant source in this setting. An average of 21 hydro‐geomorphic impairments were mapped per kilometer of road, averaging 0.3 m3 in volume. Road gradient and slope position were key controls on the occurrence of these features. The presence of BMPs effectively reduced erosion frequency. Scaled up to the watershed and using a conservative estimate of road–stream connectivity, our results for the Winooski River watershed in the northeastern US suggest that roughly 16% and 6% of the average annual sediment and phosphorus flux, respectively, of the Winooski River may be derived from unpaved roads. Our study identifies an under‐appreciated source of water quality degradation in rural watersheds, provides insights into identifying 'hot spots' of pollutant production associated with these networks, and points to effectiveness of design interventions in mitigating these adverse impacts on water quality. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Libraries have been digitizing old stock for several years now – mostly for a specific and restricted scientific user group. But what about the social obligation to preserve, and therefore call to mind digital cultural heritage in a contemporary manner? Flora Graeca is a large format masterpiece of printing, engraving, color and design of almost thousand plants of the Mediterranean area in the late 18th century comprising ten volumes. It was discovered in Darmstadt's University and State Library three years ago. Encouraged by the overall good condition and the finely crafted, hand-colored illustrations, the library conducted a high-quality digitization of the whole work in order to make it digitally available to the public. The key question of the work presented here was how to reach a circle beyond scientific users, i.e. botanists and historians, and draw the general public's interest to this wonderful masterpiece. The offer should address in particular young student library patrons, who use the library in hundreds as a place of work and communication. Why not making them curious in the libraries treasures while coming here every day? So, the idea was to enrich the illustrations by further information about the botanic illustrations by linked open data from the semantic web, such that entities could be linked semantically, and the digital copies could be connected to additional information. In combination with a presentation platform developed in a former project particularly for mobile usage, a virtual edition of Flora Graeca was formed, implemented as an edutainment application with responsive design and exploratory search for an intuitive and ludic handling. It breaks fresh ground by leaving the classic search and find paradigm towards digital strolling: just like a physical visit to a library or a museum, it allows strolling through a collection, discovering and comparing objects, and getting inspired.


Background : Environmental conditions in edges of vegetation fragments affect life cycle characteristics of the native biota (edge effect). We evaluated the edge effect on two Bursera species, which are representative of the mature community of the tropical deciduous forest (TDF) in Mexico. Hypothesis . We expected a population structure reflecting the affectation to reproduction, survival and growth in the edges of TDF fragments. Studied species: Bursera fagaroides , B. Palmeri. Study site and years of study: Queretaro (Qro.), Apaseo el Grande (Gto.), Mexico. Field survey: May-September 2012. Methods: Within each of nine TDF fragments, we drew plots in two environmental contrasting conditions (edge and interior), between which we compared the density, population structure and reproductive success of the two Bursera species, as well as estimators of the solar radiation and soil compaction. Results: Solar radiation and soil compaction were not different between environmental conditions. In both species density of individuals was larger in the edge, where individuals with middle and large sizes were predominant. Reproductive potential of individuals, and the viability and germination of their seeds were similar between edge and core environments. Conclusions: Density and population structure showed a congruent variation with higher rates of recruitment, growth and survival in the edge environment, which could have been present under initial conditions of greater incidence of radiation in the edges. The similarity currently observed in the solar radiation between edge and core areas of fragments, could be a result of the fast recovery of the canopy under conditions of higher light incidence in edges.


The design and development of functional materials with real-life applications are highly demanding. Understanding and controlling inter- and intra-molecular interactions provide opportunities to design new materials. A judicious manipulation of the molecular structure significantly alters such interactions and can boost selected properties and functions of the material. There is burgeoning evidence of the beneficial effects of non-covalent interactions (NCIs), showing that manipulating NCIs may generate functional materials with a wide variety of physical properties leading to applications in catalysis, drug delivery, crystal engineering, etc. This prompted us to review the implications of NCIs on the molecular packing, optical properties, and applications of functional π-conjugated materials. To this end, this tutorial review will cover different types of interactions (electrostatic, π-interactions, metallophilic, etc.) and their impact on π-conjugated materials. Attempts have also been made to delineate the effects of weak interactions on opto-electronic (O-E) applications.


A 23-year-old left-handed female developed progressive right arm weakness and expressive dysphasia. She had papilloedema and right-sided UMN facial palsy, arm weakness and positive Babinski reflex. MRI brain demonstrated a 7.7 cm diameter heterogeneously enhancing mass lesion with surrounding vasogenic oedema lying within the left posterior frontal lobe with associated midline shift. CSF contained unmatched oligoclonal bands, consistent with a diagnosis of tumefactive multiple sclerosis. She was treated with IV methylprednisolone with complete recovery. Three years later she presented with dizziness, visual disturbance and cognitive deficits. On examination, she had a left homonymous hemianopia and a Gerstmann-like syndrome. She rapidly deteriorated with left-sided weakness, neglect, hemisensory loss, aphasia and dysphagia. MRI demonstrated an acute, demyelinating plaque of 7.2 cm involving the right parieto-occipital white matter and posterior frontal white matter with mass effect. Repeat CSF examination showed unmatched oligoclonal bands. She was treated with intravenous methylprednisolone and plasma exchange and dramatically improved. She is continuing her inpatient rehabilitation. Tumefactive lesions in MS usually convert to typical relapsing-remitting disease on recurrence. Here we present a rare case of relapsing-remitting tumefactive disease which has only previously been reported once in the literature. We have demonstrated a good response to immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory therapy.


Abstract One of the ways of human parasitic infection is the accidental ingestion of vegetables contaminated with parasites, which represents a major human health hazard. This non-exhaustive review aims to evaluate studies carried out on five types of vegetables (lettuce, parsley, coriander, carrot and radish) since 2000, particularly the methods used for recovery, concentration, detection and identification of protozoan parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii, Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp., and the results of each work. Various studies have determined the presence of pathogenic parasites in fresh vegetables with different rates; this variation in rate depends particularly on the detection method used which is related to each parasite and each vegetable type. The variation in parasitic prevalence in food could be due to different factors such as the geographical location, the size of analysed samples and the methods used for parasite detection.


A broadband circularly polarized patch antenna is proposed for universal ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RF identification (RFID) applications. The antenna is composed of two corner-truncated patches and a suspended microstrip line with open-circuited termination. The main patch is fed by four probes which are sequentially connected to the suspended microstrip feed line. The measurement shows that the antenna achieves a return loss of -15 dB, gain of 8.3 dBic, axial ratio (AR) of 3 dB, and 3-dB AR beamwidth of 75deg over the UHF band of 818-964 MHz or 16.4%. Therefore, the proposed antenna is universal for UHF RFID applications worldwide at the UHF band of 840-960 MHz. In addition, a parametric study is conducted to facilitate the design and optimization processes for engineers.


This paper describes Freescale company's DSP device MC56F8013 implementation of a fridge compressor control system about BLDC motors without position sensors, which includes motor starting and back EMF running. The motor start-up detects the variation of rotor position according to inductance of stator core. Then when the rotor is accelerated to a certain speed, EMF mode is switched. The EMF mode estimates the rotor position by back EMF zero-crossing detection method. The experiment results prove that the proposed system based on MC56F8013 can work normally and efficiently, and guarantee the demand of domestic refrigerator.


The 78th Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association will be held at University of Wisconsin, Madison, June 2 6 June 29, 1983. All members of the Association are encouraged to present papers. Abstracts must be received by division or section chairperson no later than March 1. Abstracts of papers for s tudent competi t ion should be accompanied by a letter of intent. Type the abstract on the form supplied by the ADSA Executive Secretary according to directions on the form; submit original and one copy to the chairperson of the division or section. Follow style of the Journal; refer to abstracts published in the May 1975 Journal for guidance. Indicate clearly in the title the nature of the research and in the abstract objectives, design, and major results. Make the data meaningful with brief essential statistics. Papers must have sufficient substance to justify presentation, but the author(s) should also exercise care not to try to present too much factual material for the audience to comprehend. Only 12 minutes are allotted to develop and communicate the ideas to the audience. If critical data are to be exposed fully, only one, two, or possibly three major points can be developed fully. Presentation of material in 12 minutes that is of such scope as to require 30 minutes for its full revelation is a disservice to the audience. More at tention should be given to providing an oppor tuni ty for discussion and questions following paper presentations. Abstracts of research accepted for publication by a scientific joui'nal before the annual meeting are not acceptable. The Program Committee favors the general policy that a person present only one paper. If the total number of papers submitted by the membership is too great to include in the program, the Committee will assign some papers to be read by title only. Stimulating the highest quality of applied and fundamental research is the goal of the Committee. Mathematical and statistical units should be rechecked to avoid costly corrections in final printing. Careful experimental design and interpretat ion of results are necessary prerequisites. Compliance with the instructions for preparation of abstracts will simplify tasks of the Program Committee and of the Editors ' offices. Careful editing of abstracts before submission is essential. Mimeographed copies (200) of pert inent details and data are desirable for distribution at the time of presentation. Projected material, such as 2 × 2 slides, should include large lettering for easy reading. Names and addresses of the chairperson to whom abstracts should be sent are given below. If acknowledgment of the receipt of the abstract is not received by March 15, the appropriate chairman should be contacted.


In situ soil moisture data from 122 stations across the United States are used to evaluate the impact of a new bare ground evaporation formulation at ECMWF. In November 2010, the bare ground evaporation used in ECMWF's operational Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) was enhanced by adopting a lower stress threshold than for the vegetation, allowing a higher evaporation. It results in more realistic soil moisture values when compared to in situ data, particularly over dry areas. Use was made of the operational IFS and offline experiments for the evaluation. The latter are based on a fixed version of the IFS and make it possible to assess the impact of a single modification, while the operational analysis is based on a continuous effort to improve the analysis and modelling systems, resulting in frequent updates (a few times a year). Considering the field sites with a fraction of bare ground greater than 0.2, the root mean square difference (RMSD) of soil moisture is shown to decrease from 0.118 m 3 m −3 to 0.087 m 3 m −3 when using the new formulation in offline experiments, and from 0.110 m 3 m −3 to 0.088 m 3 m −3 in operations. It also improves correlations. Additionally, the impact of the new formulation on the terrestrial microwave emission at a global scale is investigated. Realistic and dynamically consistent fields of brightness temperature as a function of the land surface conditions are required for the assimilation of the SMOS data. Brightness temperature simulated from surface fields from two offline experiments with the Community Microwave Emission Modelling (CMEM) platform present monthly mean differences up to 7 K. Offline experiments with the new formulation present drier soil moisture, hence simulated brightness temperature with its surface fields are larger. They are also closer to SMOS remotely sensed brightness temperature.


The antimicrobial activity of the ethanol, acetone, ethyl acetate and chloroform extracts from Centaurea persica Boiss., C. polyclada DC. and C. consanguinea DC. (Asteraceae) were investigated by agar-well diffusion assay. All of the extracts exhibited an antimicrobial effect against most of the bacteria and all of the yeasts tested. The plant extracts were also screened for radical scavenging potential using a 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) in vitro model system for antioxidant activity. Ethyl acetate extracts showed the most significant inhibitory activity. Therefore, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of only ethyl acetate extracts of the samples was determined and C. consanguinea showed the highest antimicrobial effect. However, the ethanol extract of C. polyclada at 0.5 mg/mL concentration displayed the highest antioxidant activity. This activity was followed by ethanol extracts of. C. persica , ethyl acetate extracts of C. polclada , C. persica and C. consanguinea respectively.


This study examined the relationship, for nonprofit employees of the Regional Center system of the state of California, between unionization, on the one hand, and morale, salary, and relationship with management, on the other. It was conducted by means of a survey of twenty questions. Responses from one hundred seventy-two nonprofit social workers from three representative centers in the California system were received. The results of the study supported a causal link between unionization and most of the hypothesized associations. The study found that unionization did have a positive impact on morale, salary, and relationship with management. Those working in unionized offices were more positive in regard to the income benefits achieved through unions, to their relationship and effective communication with management, and to equitable wages and increases. The only negative association was that those working in nonunion offices reported having more independence in carrying out their job tasks.


In this paper, we propose a new dynamic resource allocation (DRA) scheme to support the constantly increasing online video stream traffic, especially high definition (HD) video streams. Our DRA scheme is based on online traffic prediction using seasonal time analysis. Our scheme seeks to provide accurate traffic prediction, to minimize the resource negotiation frequency, and to increase the utilization of the network resources while meeting maximum delay requirements. We validate our approach using various video traces, including our video collection of more than 50 HD video traces. We show through our results that our proposed scheme achieve up to 19.8% improvement in allocating bandwidth for short-length video traces, and up to 25% for long traces compared to the variable step-size adaptive (VSA) algorithm.


Summary: Back-stress is the equilibrium stress and represents conditions under which relaxation events in the material stop and the material can carry an applied load indefinitely without a change in strain. In most models for glassy polymers, back-stress plays a central role since relaxation in materials is closely related to the distance of the current conditions from equilibrium. A number of these models that are commonly used for modeling glassy polymers use a modeling structure similar to large deformation plasticity. The flow rule for the plastic strain in these models are directly connected to the ''over-stress,'' a properly invariant difference between the stress and the back-stress. The importance of correctly evaluating the back-stress to use in these models is clear. For this class of models, the authors have recently developed a method for directly calculating the back-stress under shear deformations. This method is based on evaluating the slope of the stress-strain response under conditions of similar elastic and plastic strain, but different strain rates. Since plastic flow goes to zero at equilibrium, the back-stress can be found by locating points of zero plastic strain rate. Using the proposed method, the back-stress in glassy polycarbonate has been evaluated under shear in isothermal tests going from room temperature to 1208C, just below the glass transition temperature for polycarbonate. The proposed method provided a full map of the back-stress for polycarbonate over a large range of shear strain and temperature.


This study highlights the potential impact of the gender orientation of the product design task on the performance of design teams with different gender compositions. It then summarizes the methodology and results of a preliminary study conducted at The Pennsylvania State University during fall 2002 using two sections of an Introduction to Engineering Design course. The pilot study used 16 engineering design teams that completed two design projects. The first design project is a guided project and the second one is an open-ended, industry-sponsored project. The data collection was done during the second design project, which lasts about 8 weeks of the semester. Preliminary results indicate that design experience affects the performance of design teams. In addition, despite the fact that the gender orientation of the design task is not found to be significant—as it is quantified for this preliminary study—the increase of female students in design teams result in lower design performance. However, the data set included does not warrant a conclusion on the effect of the gender orientation of the design task on design team performance. Therefore, further experimentation is recommended.


Ureteral injury is a rare but potential serious complication that can occur during a variety of general surgical procedures. Knowledge of the course of the ureter is the first step toward preventing ureteral injuries. While some injuries are noticed intraoperatively, most are missed and present later with pain, sepsis, urinary drainage or renal loss. The choice of treatment is based on the location, type and extend of ureteral injury. For injuries recognized during open surgery, when involving the distal 5 cm of the ureter, an antireflux ureterocystostomy such as the Politano-Leadbetter procedure or a vesicopsoas hitch can be performed. For the middle ureter, an ureteroureterostomy is satisfactory and for the proximal ureter, most injuries can be managed by transureteroureterostomy. In complex situations intestinal interposition, autotransplantation or even nephrectomy can be considered. The majority of patients with delayed diagnosed ureteral injuries should be managed by an initial endo-urologic approach. © 2005 Publié par Elsevier SAS. Mots clés : Plaies urétérales ; Réparation ; Chirurgie ; Endoscopie


Branch-and-Bound (B&B) algorithms are time-intensive tree-based exploration methods for solving to optimality combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we investigate the use of GPU computing as a major complementary way to speed up those methods. The focus is put on the bounding mechanism of B&B algorithms, which is the most time consuming part of their exploration process. We propose a parallel B&B algorithm based on a GPU-accelerated bounding model. The proposed approach concentrate on optimizing data access management to further improve the performance of the bounding mechanism which uses large and intermediate data sets that do not completely fit in GPU memory. Extensive experiments of the contribution have been carried out on well-known FSP benchmarks using an Nvidia Tesla C2050 GPU card. We compared the obtained performances to a single and a multithreaded CPU-based execution. Accelerations up to X100 are achieved for large problem instances.


The presumption of innocence explicitly forbids jurors from using official suspicion or indictment as evidence of guilt in a criminal trial. A behavioral experiment tested whether jurors follow this prescription. It revealed that, compared to when a suspect had been merely named, jurors thought that the individual was significantly more likely to be guilty after a detective referred the case to the district attorney and when he was formally charged and thus a criminal defendant. A judicial instruction to presume innocence reduced jurors' beliefs in the defendant's guilt. Regression analyses indicate that jurors' prior beliefs predicted their posterior beliefs and further that their prior beliefs were predictive of verdicts even after accounting for their posterior beliefs. The findings suggest that jurors make different assumptions about the guilt of a criminal defendant before the introduction of evidence and that these assumptions influence their overall evaluation of the case and their verdict.


Etoxazole is a new organofluorine pesticide that has been used worldwide as acaricide and insecticide since 1998. Almost no previous attempt has been made to evaluate the toxic effects of etoxazole in vertebrates. Using fish (Oreochromis niloticus) as a suitable model organism, the aim of this study was to indicate whether etoxazole affects acetylcholinesterase and sodium potassium–activated adenosine triphosphatase activities in the brain tissue in order to evaluate the impacts on neurotoxicity and ion transportation. Enzyme activities were determined using spectrophotometric methods. At the sublethal concentrations (0.27, 0.54, 0.81, 1.08, 1.35 mg/L) and exposure durations (1, 7, 15 days) tested, etoxazole has no inhibitory effect on the brain acetylcholinesterase and sodium potassium–activated adenosine triphosphatase activities. Our results suggest that etoxazole and/or its metabolites may not reach or penetrate the blood–brain barrier; therefore, they do not essentially alter the functions of these two important enzymes for the brain.


An emerging question in business education is whether all students would benefit from distance learning and if student performance can be predicted prior to enrollment in an online course based on student characteristics. In this paper, the role of student characteristics on academic performance is examined in the context two different online courses. Empirical test of a selfassessment tool on 272 students across 9 course sections, using a logistic regression framework demonstrates that end-of-semester student grades can be predicted by students' own self-reports of their learning preferences at the onset of the course. However systematic differences are found between the two courses in terms of the drivers of student performance, demonstrating the importance of a customized approach to the predictive framework presented.


In Reply. —We described the recent "epidemic" of DCIS, a breast lesion for which detection has increased with increased mammography utilization. Most reporters grasped the essential message that the increased detection of DCIS poses a clinical enigma and has probably resulted in considerable overtreatment. (Headlines ranged from "Ability to Find a Tiny Tumor Poses a Dilemma" in the New York Times to "Some Breast Cancer May Be Overtreated" in USA Today .) There are no good data on the extent to which DCIS in young women leads to invasive cancer in older women. We did not suggest that "these lesions are best left undetected" but did say that, "if a large proportion of cases of DCIS never become clinically apparent or life-threatening, it may be that many if not most women with mammographically detected DCIS will not benefit from treatment." Assuming that some women with DCIS eventually have their tumors progress to invasive


A mild Pd/C-catalyzed hydrogenolysis of the C–O bond of model compounds representing the dibenzodioxocin motif in lignin using polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) and water as hydrogen sources was developed. The efficiency of the reaction is highly dependent on both water concentration and the addition of a base. The results from mechanistic studies showed that the benzylic C–O bond is cleaved faster than the terminal C–O bond, which only cleaves upon the presence of the neighboring phenol. We propose a hydrogen bond formation between an oxygen atom of an ether group and a proton of a neighboring phenol under the employed mild reaction conditions, which facilitates cleavage of the C–O bond.


Strong ionospheric scintillation due to electron density irregularities inside the ionosphere is commonly observed in the equatorial region during solar maxima. Strong amplitude scintillation causes deep and frequent Global Positioning System (GPS) signal fading. Since GPS receivers lose carrier tracking lock at deep signal fading and the lost channel cannot be used for the position solution until reacquired, ionospheric scintillation is a major concern for GPS aviation in the equatorial area. Frequent signal fading also causes frequent reset of the carrier smoothing filter in aviation receivers. This leads to higher noise levels on the pseudo-range measurements. Aviation availability during a severe scintillation period observed using data from the previous solar maximum is analyzed. The effects from satellite loss due to deep fading and shortened carrier smoothing time are considered. Availability results for both vertical and horizontal navigation during the severe scintillation are illustrated. Finally, a modification to the upper bound of the allowed reacquisition time for the current Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) is recommended based on the availability analysis results and observed performance of a certified WAAS receiver.


There has been extensive research conducted on recidivism among serious juvenile offenders. This study examines juvenile recidivism through the lenses of General Strain Theory (GST). GST has been used in previous studies to explain recidivism, however, secure placement and its effect on juvenile mental health, has not been studied. The purpose of this study is to test for a relationship between emotional responses like anger and hostility and secure placement, utilizing the Pathways to Desistance data. I will also examine if anger and hostility act as a mediator between secure placement and recidivism. Pathways to Desistance was a prospective study of serious juvenile offenders in Phoenix, Arizona (N = 654) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (N = 700). Specifically, I examined if secure placement, as measured by length of time spent in a secure facility (i.e., detention center), affects self-reported offending and criminal history. Anger and hostility were measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis and Melisaratos, 1983). If results suggested that assigning juveniles to a secure placement does evoke negative emotional responses which in turn increase the likelihood of recidivism, policy reflecting a more constructive deterrent and rehabilitation for juveniles would need to be created.


Fatal injury of bacteria opens transmembrane ion pathways that create temporary ion clouds around the cells. This ion release transiently charges bacteria yielding spatiotemporal fluctuations of the electrical field which show up like a "fatal scream" in thermal noise. The effect has recently been demonstrated with the specific injuries caused by bacteriophage infections (King, et al, in press) and suggested for identification of bacteria with extraordinary speed and selectivity. Calculations indicate that the detection and identification of a single bacterium can be achieved with natural (wild) phages with reasonable efforts within a time window of 10 minutes. However the potential applicability of the agent-triggered ion cascade reaches much beyond that, including other kinds of injuries, such as those induced by antibiotics, ageing, poisoning, etc. Considerations and open questions about the physical aspects of the fluctuations and their detectability are discussed in this talk.


The cement powder materials are evaluated by fractal theory. Fractal characteristic parameters are analysed and evaluated by the method of laser particle size analyzer, microscope, transmission electron microscope. In this paper, cement powder materials has good self-similarity. Fractal dimension of grading is tested and evaluated by laser particle size analyzer, fractal dimension of cluster is tested by microscope, fractal characteristic of particle distribution is tested by transmission electron microscope. Compared with traditional weight of screen residue and specific surface area, those methods are more careful. Fineness fractal parameters and activity of ultra fine fly ash and pulverized slag have good linear dependence relation that is evaluated by fractal dimensions. Fractal characteristics provide an important basis to further explore the inherent relation of cement powder materials and concrete material density effect.


Intelligent Transportation Systems provide ubiquitous communication for the driving users through heterogeneous interconnections. The heterogeneous interconnections are required for uninterrupted resource sharing. Spontaneous resource availability due to vehicle speed and infrastructure connectivity disturb prompt service utilization. In this manuscript, a Permissible Service Selection and Allocation (PSSA) method is proposed to address spontaneous issues in vehicular communication and connection. This method considers vehicle displacement and minimum interconnection factors in accessing a cloud service. Both factors and their balancing impact are analyzed throughout the vehicle's service requesting interval. In this process, random forest learning is induced to identify the balancing factors' adjustments. The service access is probed through the active infrastructure based on the balancing factor. The ordering process of the learning intervals provides ease of service selection and allocation. In this process, reallocation is not preferred due to the random displacement of the vehicles. Therefore, the interval dropouts are reduced in both handoff and non-handoff communication scenarios. Further metrics such as service ratio, delay, and connectivity are used in validating the proposed method's performance.


High-intensity trains of electron bunches with tunable picosecond spacing are produced and measured experimentally with the goal of generating terahertz (THz) radiation. By imposing an initial density modulation on a relativistic electron beam and controlling the charge density over the beam propagation, density spikes of several-hundred-ampere peak current in the temporal profile, which are several times higher than the initial amplitudes, have been observed for the first time. We also demonstrate that the periodic spacing of the bunch train can be varied continuously either by tuning launching phase of a radio-frequency gun or by tuning the compression of a downstream magnetic chicane. Narrow-band coherent THz radiation from the bunch train was also measured with μJ-level energies and tunable central frequency of the spectrum in the range of ∼0.5 to 1.6 THz. Our results pave the way towards generating mJ-level narrow-band coherent THz radiation and driving high-gradient wakefield-based acceleration.


Fault-tolerant control of networked control systems (NCSs) with random actuator failure is studied. An innovative model is presented for this problem. It includes three sources of uncertainties, namely uncertainties in the plant model, uncertainties in networked communications and uncertainties in possible actuator failure/malfunction. Other main features are: (i) the fault statistics of each actuator is individually quantified, and (ii) a united framework is proposed to have logic zero-order-holders embedded in the NCS. The latter enables actuators - when in normal operation - to use the latest actuating signals available to them. Based on the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, three theorems are proved in the study for the system stability and controller design. Theorem 1 gives a matrix inequality for the system asymptotical stability in the mean-square and is the foundation of the other two theorems. Theorem 2 shows a stability condition regarding the design of a robust state-feedback control for the system under study. Finally, Theorem 3 gives a modified stability condition that can be employed for actual design. A numerical example is presented to show how such a robust controller can be designed.


Networking is generally seen as an important mechanism for small scale and rural enterprises to overcome their relative disadvantage by leveraging knowledge and resources. Communities of practice (CoP) are a type of network where close relationships develop around a shared identity and understanding. However, a commonly occurring critique of the CoP literature is that little attention is paid to asymmetric and unequal relationships and knowledge access among members. Thus, a gap remains regarding differences in the ability and willingness of members to engage with and develop the CoP, and, as a result, the different networking roles that emerge. In order to address this research gap, we present a full population, country-level study set in the Irish artisan cheese sector. We adopted a two-stage research design consisting of social network analysis (SNA) and 51 in-depth qualitative interviews. In this particular CoP, we find that membership is not negotiated in a uniform manner and that differences in participation can be identified and categorised by a focus on the intersection of owner-managers' participation identity and firm network positions. Building on this, we develop an original role typology depicting five distinct networking roles and examine how these different network identities relate to firm network positions and roles. It is posited that this typology can act as a sense-making tool for researchers and practitioners by which to diagnose and understand variation in small firm horizontal peer networking behaviour, particularly within the artisan based agri-food sector.


The five chapters of family instruction "Announcement to the Prince of Kang", "Announcement about Drunkenness", "Timber of the Rottlera", "Against Luxurious Ease" and "Establishment of Government" attributed to Ji Dan in the Book of Documents are studied with reference to the political and social context of the Western Zhou period. In these chapters, Prince Kang and King Cheng of Zhou are reminded by Ji Dan to develop personal quality such as cultivation of virtue, modelling of exemplar Shang kings and observance of clan seniors' instructions as well as rule the people by education, law and punishment, virtuous officials, and caring strategies. These family instructions which may be updated or created in the late Western Zhou are based on the beliefs "observe the will of Heaven" and "love the people" aiming to sustain and pass on the family-held sovereignty. A framework of family sustainability is constructed accordingly with reference to ethical concepts of filial piety and paternal concern. This framework can be extended from the royal family instruction to other social classes as sustainability of family is the major responsibility of Chinese while cultivation of virtue and development of administrative skills are still two key areas of education for Chinese.


Breast cancer is a result of the uncontrolled cells division. These cells may spread from the breast to other parts of the body through blood vessels. Many symptoms were associated to the breast cancer, such as change in color, skin, and shape. In this work, the breast tumor will detect according to its geometric, texture, and gradient features. Firstly, region of interest (ROI) will detected by using the Hough transform. After the location of breast tumor was determined, these locations will cropping from the original mammogram image to detect the actual tumor, then twenty two features will be computed for the ROIs using predefined equations. These features are used to classify the infected tissues from the normal one. A comparison was made between system results of the breast features and reading of an expert's radiologist to ensure the feasibility and algorithm efficiency.


Design of low frequency high pass filters using pseudo resistors is discussed in this paper. The pseudo resistor, which is biased in the sub-threshold region, is capable of achieving very large value resistance while keeping silicon area very small. Designs of first and second order high pass filters with cut off frequency of 0.01 Hz are presented. This work discusses the challenges faced while designing the high pass filter, the concept of pseudo resistors to overcome theses problems and finally the completed design of the filter with smallest silicon area.


The contemporary model of economical production and consumption is not sustainable; if the pattern continues, humankind will need to scramble for resources. Currently, resource extraction from the earth is 1.7 times higher than her actual capacity (Watts, 2018). This paper stresses the importance of the shift from the current linear (take, make and dispose) modality to a circular (take, make and reutilize) model to maximize the value from a product by keeping it in the loop of circularity. In pursuit of this change in model, reverse logistics, performance economy, and sharing economy all need to be integrated in order to facilitate regenerative and restorative techniques which enable reusing, recycling, remanufacturing and refurbishing of resources. Businesses need to redesign and restructure their current processes so that they can reduce the consumption of resources, thus developing a competitive edge. Incineration and dumping of resources should be the last option. The assets that are able to sense, record and communicate information are referred to as "intelligent assets" which innovates "smart solutions" to enable a circular economy (MacArthur, 2016). But this paradigm shift is not possible alone through the effort of a single entity. Involvement and commitments from individual, regional, governmental and intra-governmental levels are mandatory as it helps to create a synergist effect.


My thesis explores the family album as an indivisible object within a museum's collection. Family albums hold both private and public importance for their ability to share collective memories and are valuable resources for scholars and the general public. To realize the inherent value of albums, I argue that we need to treat them as singular objects. Most institutions – such as museums, libraries or archives – treat family albums merely as a group of individual images. In this thesis, I propose an alternative approach: viewing and digitizing the albums as whole objects that are inseparable, lest we distort the narrative shaped in the album. The digitization process advances three services: first, digitization increases access to the album; second, digitization often enables the public to see and understand the album as a whole, maintaining the vision that the album's maker sought to construct; third, digitization helps preserve the albums. My thesis investigates best practices for family album digitization so that the public can see albums as whole objects. A case study will focus on the Evans family collection from the FamCam at the ROM (accession numbers: 2018.24.1-21), a family collection which comes from a Canadian family that lived in China from 1888, for nearly a 100 years.
Twenty-one family albums comprise the collection. The collection portrays the lives of a Western family in China, and provides insight into a century of photography and history. My thesis discusses the methodology, tools, and specific techniques for digitization, while highlighting the complexity of family albums. Though this digitization process may differ from the typical protocols for artifacts, the uniqueness of family albums necessitates genre-specific procedures. My thesis contributes to the emerging literature on family photography in public institutions, and develops an original method for preserving and archiving them digitally.


This study investigates perceptions of and attitudes towards English second language [L2] acquisition among primary school pupils in rural and urban areas in Sweden. Sixteen children facing their first year of English L2 education took part in the study and all participants had been settled in the target area for more than 5 years. Data was collected through individual interviews with the children (Patton, 2002) and a parental questionnaire that was constructed for their respective parents. The interview questions were designed to elicit children's perceptions of English L2 education and to allow expression of their attitudes towards learning the language. The questionnaire was constructed to attain information about each child's linguistic background and language exposure, and to identify patterns of external factors which could be traced in each child's personal perception and attitude. The interviews provided information that confirmed a slight difference between the urban and rural children; the urban participants had a higher ability to picture a future English speaking self and showed evidence of a more positive attitude towards the importance of acquiring English. These results did not correspond with results from the questionnaire. However, parents' level of education in correlation with their own views of the importance of English proficiency revealed a potential link with differing results found between the children. Overall, the majority of participants expressed awareness of the establishment of English as a lingua franca and emphasised its usefulness in Swedish society. Nevertheless, due to the nature of the study and working with children of a young age the results must be treated with caution.


A high-resolution imaging system based on the combination of ultrawideband (UWB) transmission, multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) array, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is suggested and studied. Starting from the resolution requirements, spatial sampling criteria for nonmonochromatic waves are investigated. Exploring the decisive influence of the system's fractional bandwidth (instead of previously claimed aperture sparsity) on the imaging capabilities of sparse aperture arrays, a MIMO linear array is designed based on the principle of effective aperture. For the antenna array, an optimized UWB antenna is designed allowing for distortionless impulse radiation with more than 150% fractional bandwidth. By combining the digital beamforming in the MIMO array with the SAR in the orthogonal direction, a high-resolution 3-D volumetric imaging system with a significantly reduced number of antenna elements is proposed. The proposed imaging system is experimentally verified against the conventional 2-D SAR under different conditions, including a typical concealed-weapon-detection scenario. The imaging results confirm the correctness of the proposed system design and show a strong potential of the MIMO-SAR-based UWB system for security applications.


Intracellular recordings were made from outer hair cells in the third turn of the guinea pig cochlea, and the electrical characteristics of the cells were compared to those of inner hair cells, supporting cells, and extracellular spaces from the same recording region. Outer hair cells have higher membrane potentials than do inner hair cells, but they produce smaller a-c receptor potentials. The frequency response characteristics of both types of hair cells are probably not significantly different. In the frequency region where tuning is optimal, both cell types produce depolarizing d-c receptor potentials, but outer hair cells also generate hyperpolarizing responses at low frequencies.


Self-attention based Transformer has demonstrated the state-of-the-art performances in a number of natural language processing tasks. Self-attention is able to model long-term dependencies, but it may suffer from the extraction of irrelevant information in the context. To tackle the problem, we propose a novel model called \textbf{Explicit Sparse Transformer}. Explicit Sparse Transformer is able to improve the concentration of attention on the global context through an explicit selection of the most relevant segments. Extensive experimental results on a series of natural language processing and computer vision tasks, including neural machine translation, image captioning, and language modeling, all demonstrate the advantages of Explicit Sparse Transformer in model performance. We also show that our proposed sparse attention method achieves comparable or better results than the previous sparse attention method, but significantly reduces training and testing time. For example, the inference speed is twice that of sparsemax in Transformer model. Code will be available at \url{this https URL}


Flexible and stretchable conductors are crucial components for next‐generation flexible devices. Wrinkled structures often have been created on such conductors by depositing conductive materials on the pre‐stretched or organic solvent swollen samples. Herein, water swelling is first proposed to generate the wrinkled structures on silicone elastomers. By immersing silicone/sugar hybrid in water, a significant amount of swelling occurs as a result of osmosis and capillary interactions with the sugar and silicone matrix. Considering the drastic swelling effect and controllable swelling ratio, water swelling is used to replace the conventional pre‐stretching and organic solvent swelling to fabricate stretchable conductors. In situ growing of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is carried out on the swollen silicone elastomers. Wrinkled conductive silicone elastomers are successfully constructed after removing the residual water. The conductive elastomer has a sheet resistance of less than 1 Ω sq‐1 at zero strain and also shows high sensitivity when subjected to external deformation up to 100% strain. The silicone/sugar composite also possesses good 3D printability with the desired shear‐thinning property. Human motion detection is demonstrated using the 3D printed sensors. This work provides a facile and environment‐friendly strategy to fabricate superior flexible and stretchable sensing devices.


Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 3–8% of adolescents. It is characterized by hyperandrogenism and oligoovulation/anovulation. PCOS has a negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, the extents to which factors influence total HRQoL of adolescents are not known. Adult PCOS patients have a higher incidence of binge eating than the general reproductiveage female population. Limited data on binge eating in adolescents with PCOS are available. Aim of this study was to investigate how PCOS and its associated factors, including binge eating, affect the HRQoL of adolescent girls. Methods: This case-control study recruited 63 adolescent girls 13–18 years of age with PCOS and 66 age-matched healthy controls. The PCOS health-related quality of life questionnaire (PCOSQ) and Binge Eating Scale (BES) were used. Multiple linear regression was executed to establish exact predictors and their effect on total HRQoL. Results: HRQoL was significantly lower in adolescents with PCOS than controls (4.9 (interquartile range (IQR) 1.5) vs. 5.8 (IQR 0.9) points). The lowest scores were found in the body hair and weight domains. BES results were not significantly higher in the PCOS group than in the control group (p = 0.727). The main predictors for total HRQoL were PCOS diagnosis per se (β = –1.002; p < 0.001), BES score (β = –0.27; p = 0.004) and body mass index (BMI) percentile (β = –0.007; p = 0.013). Conclusions: The lower HRQoL in adolescents with PCOS is attributable to the diagnosis of PCOS, BES score and BMI percentile, confirming the importance of tailoring clinical interventions and counselling to address the domains (i.e., symptoms of hirsutism and weight concerns) causing distress and lowering HRQoL. Further implementation research is required to evaluate the impact of targeted interventions on the HRQoL of adolescent girls with PCOS.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the buildup of plaques and tangles in the brain. Tangles are formed when the stabilizing protein, tau, becomes hyperphosphorylated and clumps together. There are limited treatments for AD; therefore, the exploration of new treatments is warranted. Previous research showed that plasma transfusion from young donor mice improved spatial memory and increased synaptic proteins in old transgenic APP/PS1 mice, suggesting a remediation of memory and synaptic function. In the current study, plasma was transfused from 2–3-month-old young wildtype mice (WT) to 8-month-old rTg4510 mice expressing human tau (Tau). One week after the transfusions, behavior and tau pathology were examined. We found that Tau mice injected with plasma had lower expression of phosphorylated tau (ptau) in the brain, accompanied by fewer tau tangles in the cortex and CA1 region of the hippocampus and smaller tau tangles in the cortex, when compared to Tau mice injected with saline. Despite no improvement in behavior, the decreased level of ptau and tangles open the door to future studies involving plasma transfusions.


Abstract. The ice thickness distribution (ITD) is one of the core constituents of modern sea ice models. The ITD accounts for the unresolved spatial variability of sea ice thickness within each model grid cell. While there is a general consensus on the added physical realism brought by the ITD, how to discretize it remains an open question. Here, we use the ocean–sea ice general circulation model, Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) version 3.6 and Louvain-la-Neuve sea Ice Model (LIM) version 3 (NEMO3.6-LIM3), forced by atmospheric reanalyses to test how the ITD discretization (number of ice thickness categories, positions of the category boundaries) impacts the simulated mean Arctic and Antarctic sea ice states. We find that winter ice volumes in both hemispheres increase with the number of categories and attribute that increase to a net enhancement of basal ice growth rates. The range of simulated mean winter volumes in the various experiments amounts to ∼30 % and ∼10 % of the reference values (run with five categories) in the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively. This suggests that the way the ITD is discretized has a significant influence on the model mean state, all other things being equal. We also find that the existence of a thick category with lower bounds at ∼4 and ∼2 m for the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively, is a prerequisite for allowing the storage of deformed ice and therefore for fostering thermodynamic growth in thinner categories. Our analysis finally suggests that increasing the resolution of the ITD without changing the lower limit of the upper category results in small but not negligible variations of ice volume and extent. Our study proposes for the first time a bi-polar process-based explanation of the origin of mean sea ice state changes when the ITD discretization is modified. The sensitivity experiments conducted in this study, based on one model, emphasize that the choice of category positions, especially of thickest categories, has a primary influence on the simulated mean sea ice states while the number of categories and resolution have only a secondary influence. It is also found that the current default discretization of the NEMO3.6-LIM3 model is sufficient for large-scale present-day climate applications. In all cases, the role of the ITD discretization on the simulated mean sea ice state has to be appreciated relative to other influences (parameter uncertainty, forcing uncertainty, internal climate variability).


This study is designed to examine the color characteristic of Versace and show a new method of research in color analysis. Color trends and characteristics of color were analyzed for Versace`s 14 collections, from 2000 S/S to 2006 F/W. Using the eyedropper tool in Photoshop(Ver.7.0) the main colors from the Versace Collection were picked and converted to color chips. The resulting RGB color codes were then converted into HV/C color codes by the Munsell Conversion System(Ver. 7.0.1). The results of this study are as follows. First, in Versace`s collection, R group and P group were the most frequently used. This seems to be somewhat affected by both Versace`s preference for the red color, also by the early 2000s color trend. The proportion of R group is the highest in whole seasons. And the P group and the G group were high in S/S season, whereas Y group was high in F/W season. Second, in general color tones, Vivid & Strong of bright and strong color groups most often used. However, the proportion has decreased since 2005 and only few cases were shown in 2006 because of the affection of the 2006 color trend-black and Gray. Third, Versace`s color trends were analyzed with an understanding of the importance of color and with a consideration for Versace`s characteristics of color. The vivid colors that Gianni used represents his spirit of adventure and challenge and is helpful in planning today`s color of fashion design. Succession of his original intention will affect the progression of the fashion industry.


Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an inflammatory intestinal disorder affecting preterm infants. Intestinal bacteria have an important function; however no causative pathogen has been identified. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are differences in microbial patterns that may be critical to the development of this disease. Fecal samples from 20 preterm infants, 10 with NEC and 10 matched controls (including 4 twin pairs) were obtained from patients in a single site level III neonatal intensive care unit. Bacterial DNA from individual fecal samples was PCR-amplified and subjected to terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and library sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to characterize diversity and structure of the enteric microbiota. The distribution of samples from NEC patients distinctly clustered separately from controls. Intestinal bacterial colonization in all preterm infants was notable for low diversity. Patients with NEC had even less diversity, an increase in abundance of Gammaproteobacteria , a decrease in other bacteria species, and had received a higher mean number of previous days of antibiotics. Our results suggest that NEC is associated with severe lack of microbiota diversity that may accentuate the impact of single dominant microorganisms favored by empiric and widespread use of antibiotics.


In this paper, we focus on optimization and enhancement of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) with respect to professional applications. In most of the professional video applications, noise dominates the compression performance. We therefore theoretically and practically analyze the denoising performance of an HEVC codec and show that, especially for low to medium quantization parameters (QPs), the source noise is still present in the reconstructed frame. This motivates us to use an explicit in-loop reference frame denoising filter for this quality range. We show how the noise, which badly influences the prediction, can be modeled and estimated. Two approaches are introduced, in which either the noise is calculated from prior knowledge or estimated automatically without prior knowledge. A denoising filter that exploits the HEVC core transform is introduced. Finally, a coding mode adaptive scheme for motion compensation using the noise-filtered reference frame is described. The compression results show that especially for low to medium QP settings as well as lossless compression considerable bitrate savings can be achieved using the proposed schemes.


In existing dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) systems, each node arbitrates channel access independently based on carrier-sensing mechanisms such as the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. Owing to the uncoordinated channel access between all nodes, the channel is occupied in a random pattern. This makes it difficult to reduce the mismatch in channel quality indicator (CQI) while increasing the spatial reuse gain between the different nodes; therefore, the areal capacity gain obtained by adding nodes is much lower in existing DSS systems than in the cellular system. In this paper, we propose a different means of improving the areal capacity for downlink DSS systems. It is a group-wise DSS approach that ensures full frequency reuse in each group of base stations (BSs) by performing LBT only between the representative BSs, each of them selected by each group. Once a channel is secured by each group, all its member BSs share a channel simultaneously. This approach makes closed-loop feedback-based link adaptation practical while boosting spatial reuse gain even in the DSS environment. To implement the group-wise DSS, we propose a single unified framework that employs elementary algorithms for BS grouping and carrier-sensing threshold adjustment. Our system-level simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework boosts the areal capacity gain by approximately 4.42 times as much as the conventional approach.


A Simple, selective, rapid, precise and economical reverse phase HPLC method has been developed and validated for the Quantitative Estimation of Rimonabant in pharmaceutical preparation. Isocratic separation was accomplished using C18 column (250 mn x 4.6 mm, 5 μm particle size) with mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile: 0.1% Formic acid (90:10, v/v), flow rate was 1.0 ml/min. and the detection wavelength was 268 nm. The proposed method has permitted the quantification of Rimonabant in the linearity range of 10- 50μg/ml .The column was maintained at ambient temperature and analytical run time of approximately 10 min and it was eluting at approximately 6.4 min.The percentage recovery was found to be in between 96.30 to 99.12 and the % RSD of system and method precision was found to be 1.27. The percentage amount of marketed commercial brand of Rimonabant was found to be 99.63. The method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, specificity, Robustness, Ruggedness, solution stability, the assay may be applied to a routine analysis in industries.


Abstract—Background: Hypertensive response during maximal exercise test provides important information on the level of blood pressure control and evaluation of treatment. Method: A single center retrospective descriptive study was conducted among 117 young (aged 20 to 40) and middle age (aged 40 to 65) hypertensive patients, who underwent treadmill stress test. Currently on maintenance frontline medication either monotherapy (Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/Angiotensin receptor blocker [ACEi/ARB], Calcium channel blocker [CCB], Diuretic Hydrochlorthiazide [HCTZ]) or combination therapy (ARB+CCB, ARB+HCTZ), who attained a maximal exercise on treadmill stress test (TMST) with hypertensive response (systolic blood pressure: male >210 mm Hg, female >190 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure >100 mmHg, or increase of >10 mm Hg at any time during the test), on Bruce and Modified Bruce protocol. Exaggerated blood pressure response during exercise (systolic [SBP] and diastolic [DBP]), peak exercise blood pressure (SBP and DBP), recovery period (SBP and DBP) and test for ischemia and their antihypertensive medication/s were investigated. Analysis of variance and chi-square test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Hypertensive responses on maximal exercise test were seen mostly among female population (P < 0.000) and middle age (P < 0.000) patients. Exaggerated diastolic blood pressure responses were significantly lower in patients who were taking CCB (P < 0.004). A longer recovery period that showed a delayed decline in SBP was observed in patients taking ARB+HCTZ (P < 0.036). There were no significant differences in the level of exaggerated systolic blood pressure response and during peak exercise (both systolic and diastolic) in patients using either monotherapy or combination antihypertensives. Conclusion: Calcium channel blockers provided lower exaggerated diastolic BP response during maximal exercise test in hypertensive middle age patients. Patients on combination therapy using ARB+HCTZ exhibited a longer recovery period of systolic blood pressure.


Our concept of risk continues to broaden and now includes instances in which representatives of a company make statements, actions, or decisions that damage the firm by inviting public scrutiny, sparking a reaction among customers, employees, regulators, or the public. This risk, which we describe as "social risk," is more amorphous than the standard risks included in a company's risk-management framework—and harder to plan for. We use proprietary data from Marketing Scenario Analytica (MSA) to examine how social risk manifests itself and what actions boards and companies can take to mitigate its impact.

We ask:
Given the sheer diversity of social risk, how can boards of directors prioritize their focus?
How can a company gauge at the onset whether a social risk will be major or minor?
What actions can senior officers take to mitigate the life of social risk?
How can social risk be incorporated into risk management frameworks?
What roles do management, audit, legal, and human resources play in this process?
How can boards evaluate how company culture and leadership influence the risk profile of the company?
What actions should they take if culture and leadership are deemed to increase risk?


The best asymptotic bounds presently known on free distance for convolutional codes are presented from a unified point of view. Upper and lower bounds for both time-varying and fixed codes are obtained. A comparison is made between bounds for nonsystematic and systematic codes which shows that more free distance is available with nonsystematic codes. This result is important when selecting codes for use with sequential or maximum-likelihood (Viterbi) decoding since the probability of decoding error is closely related to the free distance of the code. An ancillary result, used in proving the lower bound on free distance for time-varying nonsystematic codes, furnishes a generalization of two earlier bounds on the definite decoding minimum distance of convolutional codes.


The fluoride removal from synthetic water by pumice was studied at batch experiments in this study. The effect of pH, contact time, fluoride concentration and adsorbent dose on the fluoride sequestration was investigated. The optimum conditions were studied on Kuhbonan water as a case study. The results showed that with increasing of the absorbent amount; contact time and pH improve the efficiency of fluoride removal. The maximum fluoride uptake was obtained in pH and contact time 7.0 and 180 min, respectively. Also, with increasing initial concentration of fluoride in water, the efficiency of fluoride removal decreased. The obtained results in this study were matched with freundlich isotherm and pseudo second order kinetic. The maximum adsorption capacity (Q m ) and constant rate were found 0.31 (mg/g) and 0.21 (mg/g.min), respectively. This study also showed that in the optimum conditions, the fluoride removal efficiency from Kuhbonan water by 2.8 mg/L fluoride was 74.64%. Eventually, pumice is recommended as a suitable and low cost absorbent to fluoride removal from aqueous solutions. Key words: Adsorption, Freundlich isotherm, Langmuir isotherm, Kuhbonan water.


The Southern California Bight (SCB), an eastern boundary upwelling system, is impacted by global warming, acidification, and oxygen loss and receives anthropogenic nutrients from a coastal population of 20 million people. We describe the configuration, forcing, and validation of a realistic, submesoscale‐resolving ocean model as a tool to investigate coastal eutrophication. This modeling system represents an important achievement because it strikes a balance of capturing the forcing by U.S. Pacific Coast‐wide phenomena, while representing the bathymetric features and submesoscale circulation that affect the transport of nutrients from natural and human sources. Moreover, the model allows simulations at time scales that approach the interannual frequencies of ocean variability. The model simulation is evaluated against a broad suite of observational data throughout the SCB, showing realistic depiction of the mean state and its variability with satellite and in situ measurements of state variables and biogeochemical rates. The simulation reproduces the main structure of the seasonal upwelling front, the mean current patterns, the dispersion of wastewater plumes, as well as their seasonal variability. Furthermore, it reproduces the mean distributions of key biogeochemical and ecosystem properties and their variability. Biogeochemical rates reproduced by the model, such as primary production and nitrification, are also consistent with measured rates. This validation exercise demonstrates the utility of using fine‐scale resolution modeling and local observations to identify, investigate, and communicate uncertainty to stakeholders to support management decisions on local anthropogenic nutrient discharges to coastal zones.


The point in issue is where to set the standard for the ECJ in private law cases: should the Court be urged towards self-restraint, or should it be encouraged actively to contribute to the harmonisation of European private law through its case law? A two-way track is argued for in this paper. On the one hand, it is thought that in the general field of private law, the ECJ should take heed of its limitations and aim for a restrained approach towards the interpretation of substantive legal matters. A wider systemisation of concepts and doctrines is achieved better at the level of individual Member States by national judges familiar with the workings of private law in those systems. From another perspective, however, the ECJ may - and should even, it is submitted - take an active role in the interpretation of private law concepts. This second track focuses on the development of harmonising rules at European level. The ECJ may contribute to the consistency and clarity of concepts contained in European legislation by interpreting each instrument in light of the wider context of European rules. With the current focus of harmonisation being on a review of the consumer acquis, examples will be given of how the ECJ may aid the legislator, and has done so in some instances already, by creating a tighter framework of European consumer law through interpretation of directives in their wider legislative context, as well as through a comparative interpretation of similar concepts found in different directives, so-called 'cross-directive' interpretation. Suggestions are made, with this in mind, as to the ways in which the ECJ may contribute still further to the creation of a more coherent framework for consumer law in Europe.


During the past decade every year the Punjab government has
 faced an awkward situation at wheat harvest. It must buy millions of
 tons of wheat at an above-market price despite massive carry-forward
 stocks already lying in its granaries. Cost of procuring such huge
 quantities and subsidising sales to flour mills is enormous and is met
 with commercial borrowing. In recent years, the government has struggled
 to balance its accounts for wheat operations; its outstanding liability
 to commercial banks stood at Rs. 444.7 billion in June 2018, viz. 22
 percent of the total budget of the province in 2017-18. Clearly, the
 government procures more wheat annually than it needs with borrowed
 money that it cannot pay back. Ostensibly, wheat procurement aims to
 benefit small farmers, but its procedures exclude, rather than include
 them. Conversely, consumers end up buying expensive wheat-flour. A
 significant beneficiary of the procurement regime appears to be
 commercial banks finance the procurement and earn interest thereupon.
 Keywords: Food Subsidy, Wheat Procurement, Subsidy Reform