Introduction: Women with exercise-associated amenorrhea (EAA) have impaired pulsatile gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) release that disrupts sufficient estrogen secretion, causing hypoestrogenism. As there is limited research on the influence of hypoestrogenism on cardiovascular health in pre-menopausal women, the purpose of this study is to assess its effect on the concentrations of estrogen and early cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors – nitric oxide (NO), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and E-selectin – in women with EAA. Methods: A total of 90 participants between the ages of 18-35 will be selected based on the inclusion criteria of athleticism status (8 hours of structured physical activity/week) and body mass index (BMI) range of 18.5-24.5. Out of the 90 participants, 45 will have EAA and 45 will have regular menstrual status. Exclusion criteria: Smokers, women on contraceptives and those with pre-existing CVD and respiratory health conditions/family history of these conditions. Baseline data of estrogen and CVD risk factor concentrations will be obtained from all 90 participants through bi-weekly blood draws and serum analysis in the first month of the 7-month study. The amenorrheic, athletes (n=45) will receive 0.025 mg of 17-β estradiol (E2) transdermally via estrogen patches daily for months 2-7 of the study. Blood will be collected bi-weekly from these amenorrheic, athletes (n=45) during months 2-7 to quantify estrogen and CVD risk factor concentrations during the intervention. Statistical analysis: 2-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test to compare the levels of E2 and CVD risk factors prior to and following estrogen treatment of amenorrheic, athletic subjects. Discussion: Although there are many cardiovascular risk factors which can be used as markers to determine the effect of EAA on cardiovascular health, NO, ET-1, and E-selectin may serve to provide more accurate analysis due to less present confounding factors as other markers. Anticipated results include increased NO and decreased ET-1 and E-selectin concentrations following estrogen therapy. Conclusion: Diagnosis and management of menstrual irregularities like EAA is imperative for maintaining good cardiovascular health. Further research to determine whether estrogen therapy can be used as a long-term solution for women with EAA, and whether it should be provided in conjunction with nutritional intervention is recommended.


Abstract Linkages between geology and fish assemblages have been inferred in many regions throughout the world, but no studies have yet investigated whether fish assemblages differ across geologies in Mesoamerica. The goals of our study were to: 1) compare physicochemical conditions and fish-assemblage structure across 2 geologic types in headwaters of the Monkey River Basin, Belize, and 2) describe basin-scale patterns in fish community composition and structure for the benefit of conservation efforts. We censused headwater-pool fishes by direct observation, and assessed habitat size, structure, and water chemistry to compare habitat and fish richness, diversity, evenness, and density between streams in the variably metamorphosed sedimentary geologic type typical of 80% of Belize's Maya Mountains (the Santa Rosa Group), and an anomalous extrusive geologic formation in the same area (the Bladen Volcanic Member). We also collected species-presence data from 20 sites throughout the basin for analyses of compositional patterns from the headwaters to the top of the estuary. Thirty-nine fish species in 21 families were observed. Poeciliids were numerically dominant, making up 39% of individuals captured, followed by characins (25%), and cichlids (20%). Cichlidae was the most species-rich family (7 spp.), followed by Poeciliidae (6 spp.). Habitat size and water chemistry differed strongly between geologic types, but habitat diversity did not. Major fish-assemblage differences also were not obvious between geologies, despite a marked difference in the presence of the aquatic macrophyte, Marathrum oxycarpum (Podostemaceae), which covered 37% of the stream bottom in high-nutrient streams draining the Santa Rosa Group, and did not occur in the low-P streams draining the Bladen Volcanic Member. Correlation analyses suggested that distance from the sea and amount of cover within pools are important to fish-assemblage structure, but that differing abiotic factors may influence assemblage structure within each geologic type. The fauna showed weak compositional zonation into 3 groups (headwaters, coastal plain, and nearshore). Nearly 20% of the fish species collected have migratory life cycles (including Joturuspichardi, Agonostomusmonticola, and Gobiomorusdormitor) that use freshwater and marine habitats. Some of these species probably rely on a natural flow regime and longitudinal connectivity for reproduction and dispersal of young, and natural flow regime and longitudinal connectivity are important factors for maintenance of functional linkages between the uplands and the coast in the ridge-to-reef corridor where the Monkey River is located. Therefore, we suggest that the viability of migratory fish populations may be a good biological indicator of upland-to-estuary connectivity important both to fishes and coastal ecosystem function. We recommend follow-up studies to substantiate the relative strengths of relationships between community structure and abiotic factors in contrasting geologies and to examine potential bottom−up responses of stream biota to the higher nutrient levels that were observed in stream waters draining the Santa Rosa Group geologic type.


The cytoplasmic ribonuclease DICER1 is one of the key enzymes in microRNA (miRNA) processing, essential for the production of mature miRNA. The effect of DICER1 expression in tumor cells on the prognosis of patients with several cancers has been examined with controversial results in various cancer types. In particular, the clinical significance of DICER1 expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients has yet to be determined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the DICER1 mRNA levels and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic significance in CRC patients. Tumor and normal adjacent tumor tissues from 260 patients with CRC (Dukes' stage A: 40 cases, Dukes' B: 68 cases, Dukes' C: 88 cases and Dukes' D: 64 cases) were examined. The DICER1 mRNA levels were measured using the TaqMan real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. The expression levels of DICER1 mRNAs showed a significant decrease in CRC tissues as compared to normal ones (P=0.039). A statistically significant association was observed between DICER1 mRNA expression and tumor size, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic invasion and Dukes' stage. In Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis, overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates of patients with a low DICER1 mRNA expression were significantly worse compared to patients with a high DICER1 mRNA expression (OS P<0.001; DFS P<0.001). In the Cox multivariate analysis, DICER1 mRNA expression in CRC tissues was identified as an independent prognostic factor for OS [hazard ratio (HR), 0.30; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.13-0.64; P=0.001] and DFS (HR, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.10-0.48; P=0.001). This study demonstrated that a reduced DICER1 mRNA expression is associated with poor prognosis in CRC patients.


During 2020 a menacing sense of doom and anxiety proliferated by the Trump administration's shock-and-awe tactics compounded the brutally uneven distribution of exposure, social atomization, precarity, abandonment, and premature death under the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has had especially lethal consequences for those who are impoverished, racially abjected, and deemed violable or disposable within economies of dispossession. For Indigenous peoples under US occupation, the mainstream news coverage of the pandemic's death toll on the Navajo Nation, on Standing Rock, and on other Indigenous nations came and went with little sustained inquiry into the conditions of colonization, critical for understanding the current moment. The obstinate negligence of the CARES Act toward peoples and communities most impacted by the pandemic is only one example of this intensified necropolitics. We focus here on conceptions and mobilizations of care and uncaring, and the catastrophe of the settler-capitalist state at this time. With all the talk about the need for self-care and community care in this period of concentrated epic crises, we ask: How does the discourse of care operate within an imperial social formation? Is an otherwise possible? What are our obligations in kinship and reciprocity? And how do we attend to these obligations in times of imposed distance?


Load structure method is commonly used in tunnel design; there are two problems for its implementation in Marc software: first, the force cannot be applied directly in Marc; second, the position of the spring around the tunnel is unknown. In view of first problem, by means of force conversion, a subroutine programming with Fortran is adopted to exert the force. For the second problem, iterative algorithm is adopted; the tension spring will exit calculation, and a comparison of the spring position in the two steps will be made, if the position is the same, the computation will finish. The work above realizes the Load structure method in Marc software and enlarges the application of Marc software in underground engineering. The verification example is given to prove the validity of the interface subroutine.


Sewage sludge is a serious problem due to the high treatment costs and the risks to environment and human health. Future sludge treatment will be progressively focused on an improved efficiency and environmental sustainability of the process. In this context a survey is given of the most relevant sludge treatment options and separate treatment steps. Special attention is paid to those processes that are simultaneously focused on the elimination of the risks for environment and human health and on the recovery or beneficial use of the valuable compounds in the sludge such as organic carbon compounds, inorganic non-toxic substances, phosphorus and nitrogen containing compounds. Also, a brief assessment is given of the specific future technological developments regarding the various treatment steps. Furthermore, it is discussed how to assess the various pathways which can lead to the required developments. In such an assessment the technical and economic feasibility, the environmental sustainability, the societal acceptance and the implementation route are important factors. The optimal approach also strongly depends on the local and regional situation of concern and the relevant current and future boundary conditions.


Sickle cell diseases comprise a group of inherited disorders that alter hemoglobin, ultimately causing hemolytic anemia and reoccurring instances of vascular occlusion that produce acute and chronic pain. Many patients with sickle cell disease require surgery for conditions associated with their disease. Painful vaso-occlusive episodes, which can be debilitating and require long hospital stays, are often precipitated by the stress of surgery. Poorly controlled postoperative pain also can worsen an impending painful crisis. Traditional therapy for patients with sickle cell disease undergoing surgery has included preoperative transfusion and postoperative opioid therapy. Recent studies have demonstrated that aggressive preoperative transfusion therapy is not beneficial over a more conservative approach. Postoperative pain control trends include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ketorolac and opioid agonist-antagonist agents such as nalbuphine, as well as epidural analgesia to minimize respiratory depression. New preventive therapy for vaso-occlusive crisis includes hydroxyurea, a chemotherapeutic agent that stimulates the production of fetal hemoglobin. Inhaled nitric oxide is being used in clinical trials with success in slowing the sickling process and unsickling cells. Phase III clinical trials are in progress for 2 drugs that decrease sickling: poloxamer 188 and fructose 1-6 diphosphate. These new therapies should help improve the anesthetic course of the patient with sickle cell disease, reduce postoperative complications, and shorten hospital stays.


Abstract: Julie Tepperman and Mitchell Cushman, co-creators, playwrights, and directors of Brantwood, write about the process of creating the largest site-specific immersive musical in Canada. Originally commissioned by Associate Dean Michael Rubinoff and Sheridan College's Musical Theatre Program, Brantwood was designed for and performed in a 90-year-old school in Oakville, Ontario that had been closed down due to low enrolment. The piece consisted of 40 original songs (composed by Anika Johnson, Britta Johnson, and Bram Gielen) imbedded in 11 one-hour scripted storylines, each set during a different decade in the history of this imaginary high school. The 15 hours of total material unfolded simultaneously over the course of each three-hour performance, and the audience had free rein to roam everywhere in the building and to follow whichever character they chose in the 42 person cast. Julie and Mitchell write about the challenges of creating theatre on such a large scale, and immersing the audience in an environment that gives them freedom to roam and explore, and engage with the show in both direct and indirect ways, and to push the boundaries of intimacy between performer and audience.


When recognizing emotions from speech, we encounter two common problems: how to optimally capture emotion-relevant information from the speech signal and how to best quantify or categorize the noisy subjective emotion labels. Self-supervised pre-trained representations can robustly capture information from speech enabling state-of-the-art results in many downstream tasks including emotion recognition. However, better ways of aggregating the information across time need to be considered as the relevant emotion information is likely to appear piecewise and not uniformly across the signal. For the labels, we need to take into account that there is a substantial degree of noise that comes from the subjective human annotations. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to attentive pooling based on correlations between the representations' coefficients combined with label smoothing, a method aiming to reduce the confidence of the classifier on the training labels. We evaluate our proposed approach on the benchmark dataset IEMOCAP, and demonstrate high performance surpassing that in the literature. The code to reproduce the results is available at github.com/skakouros/s3prl_attentive_correlation.


Introduction Small intestinal contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (SICUS) is an emerging radiological technique for the imaging of patients with Crohn's disease that avoids exposure to diagnostic medical radiation. We have previously demonstrated that SICUS is diagnostically comparable to small bowel barium follow through and computerised tomography in the diagnosis of Crohn's.1 MR enterography (MRE) is becoming the gold standard radiological technique for the diagnosis of complications in patients with Crohn's, but is expensive and access is limited. We aimed to compare the diagnostic sensitivity of SICUS with MRE in routine clinical practice. Methods Patients with established Crohn's disease, who had undergone both SICUS and MRE within 6 months of each other were identified retrospectively from the radiology database at a UK tertiary centre. Imaging and reports were reviewed for both modalities. Kappa coefficient data was calculated for luminal parameters including the presence of strictures, stricture number and location, the presence of abscess/fistulae, mucosal thickening, active mucosal inflammation and fibrotic changes. Reported stricture lengths were compared using paired student's t-test. Inflammatory markers including platelet levels, where available, were recorded within 2 weeks of each of the imaging modalities as a surrogate marker for active inflammation. Results 20 Crohn's patients were identified (10 male), with a mean age of 30.1 years at time of first investigation. Mean time between modalities was 72.3 days (range 2–147). There was no significant difference between mean platelet counts between the 2 radiological tests. Agreement between the 2 modalities was excellent for the presence of stricturing disease (k=0.92, 95% CI 0.71–1.00), stricture number (k=0.91, 95% CI 0.73–1.00) and stricture location (k=0.91, 95% CI 0.71–1.00). Agreement was good for the presence of fistulae (k=0.74, 95% CI 0.40–1.00) and mucosal thickening (k=0.74, 95% CI 0.40–1.00). Agreement was moderate for the presence of abscess (k=0.46 95% CI 0.14–1.00), acute mucosal inflammatory changes (k=0.55, 95% CI 0.19–0.90) and fibrotic changes (k=0.50, 95% CI 0.04–0.95). There was no significant difference in the mean estimated stricture length between MRE and SICUS. Conclusion SICUS compares favourably with MRE in the diagnosis of complications in patients with Crohn's disease. This imaging technique is particularly useful in patients with stricturing (Montreal B2) disease. SICUS is a useful alternative diagnostic technique to MRE, particularly when access to MR may be limited or is poorly tolerated by the patient. Reference Chatu S et al. Diagnostic accuracy of small intestine ultrasonography using an oral contrast agent in Crohn's disease: comparative study from the UK. Clin Radiol. 2012 Jun;67(6):553-9 Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


: Experiments on rats were made to study the action of 7 anticarcinogenic substances administered postnatally for a long time (sodium selenite, retinol acetate, phenformin, amber acid, low-molecular polypeptide factors of the thymus, pineal gland, and bone marrow) on the transplacental carcinogenic effect of N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) The polypeptide factors of the thymus and pineal gland and phenformin inhibited the development of nervous system and renal tumors induced transplacentally by ENU. The rest of the substances did not influence the transplacental carcinogenesis.


Although nutrition therapy is considered a cornerstone of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) treatment, there are a limited number of studies examining whether eating behavior is important in the treatment of T2DM. The goal of this study is to determine the relationships among stress (perceived stress and/or diabetes-related distress), coping strategies (task-, emotion-, and/or avoidance-oriented coping), and eating behavior (restrained-, external-, and/or emotional- eating behavior) in people with T2DM; and to test whether coping strategies mediate the relationships among stress and eating behavior in people with T2DM. This study was based on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping and the theory of stress-induced eating that suggest that the eating behavior of those with T2DM is influenced by stress and coping mechanisms.
A cross-sectional study design provided valuable information about the relationships among stress, coping strategies, and eating behavior in people with T2DM. One hundred eighty three people with T2DM, age 30 to 70 years, were recruited from the Chicago area. Participants completed self-reported administrative questionnaires: the 17-item Questionnaire on Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS), the 14-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the 48-item Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and the 33-item the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). Path analysis was used to test specific direct and indirect relationships among diabetes-related stress, perceived stress, coping strategies, and eating behavior in people with T2DM.
Results of the study indicated that perceived stress and diabetes-related stresses were positively associated with restrained-, external-, and emotional- eating behaviors. In addition, the results of this study suggest that only emotion-oriented coping was a mediator in the relationship between stress and eating behaviors.
The proposed study will be beneficial to providers treating people with T2DM by alerting them to recognize whether patients have restrained-, external-, and/or emotional- eating behavior. Additionally, this will provide the foundation for the development of interventions designed to modify dysfunctional eating behaviors to healthy eating behaviors.


A new way of spreading knowledge and collaborating with each other to achieve specific objectives has been introduced with the rise of social media, which is an effective communication tool. A growing number of people are using social media for the search of information relating to religious learning and practices. The younger generation is one of the major users of social media; therefore, many Islamic scholars are reaching out to Muslim youths using this channel. However, as people assimilate themselves to the use of social media in gaining knowledge, questions begin to emerge on the credibility of the Islamic information discovered. Anyone regardless of their background can post or share information or articles on social media, so such information is not always credible or true. Self-proclaimed Islamic scholars could use social media for their own personal gains such as to support and propagate sentiments, misinform, spread rumors, or start up conspiracies. This could confuse social media users, especially the younger generation, whose main information source is social media. Despite the significant importance of this area, limited research has empirically examined the factors that affect the credibility of social media information particularly relating to the Islamic context. In addressing this gap, this study inspects the factors obtained from the literature and classifies the dimensions of social media information credibility. Based on the established credibility theories of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), Prominence-Interpretation theory, and Social Cognitive theory, a research model is developed to determine Islamic information credibility on social media platforms. It is imperative that the study classifies the credibility dimensions, in order to further validate the factors that influence social media users in confirming the credibility of Islamic information. This study also aims to clear doubts and dispel misinformation regarding the Islamic religion by providing a basis for the society to ascertain Islamic information credibility and authenticity.


Ontology matching is concerned with finding relations between elements of different ontologies. In large-scale settings, some significant challenges arise, such as how to achieve a reduction in the time it takes to perform matching and how to improve the quality of results. Current techniques involve the use of ontology segmentation to overcome having such a large number of elements to compare. However, current methods usually select the most relevant ontology elements based on the number of relationships, which may dismiss some elements should they have fewer or no relationships. Therefore, we propose an algorithm for ontology segmentation based on application requirements, in such a way that the users can specify the concepts that are the most relevant in their application context to generate the segments which will be used as an input for the matching. In the experiments, we found a general reduction in the execution time and some significant quality improvements, depending on what matcher is applied. In order to assess the proposed algorithm, we considered some well-known evaluation measures, such as precision, recall, and F-Measure.


One of the great forerunners of 20th century painting This richly illustrated and expert study follows the artist from the early gloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants and workers in his homeland, through his bright and colourful Parisian period, to the work of his final years, spent under a southern sun in Arles. Here, at last, he found the light that produced the unmistakable Van Gogh style. At Arles, Saint-Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise, in the feverish burst of creative energy that marked his last two-and-a-half years, he produced the 465 paintings on which his immortality rests. Van Gogh craved recognition during his lifetime but was denied it until after his self-inflicted death. Today he is universally seen as one of the great forerunners of painting of the 20th century, and one of the tragic masters of art. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN s Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions "


The ability of Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) and Doppler lidar (DL) wind profile observations to impact short-term forecasts of convection is explored by assimilating retrievals into a partially cycled convection-allowing ensemble analysis and forecast system. AERI and DL retrievals were obtained over 12 days using a mobile platform that was deployed in the preconvective and near-storm environments of thunderstorms during the afternoon in the U.S. Great Plains. The observation locations were guided by real-time ensemble sensitivity analysis (ESA) fields. AERI retrievals of temperature and dewpoint and DL retrievals of the horizontal wind components were assimilated into a control experiment that only assimilated conventional observations. Using the fractions skill score within 25-km neighborhoods, it is found that the assimilation of the AERI and DL retrievals results in far more times when the forecasts are improved than degraded in the 6-h forecast period. However, statistical confidence in the improvements often is not high and little to no relationships between the ESA fields and the actual changes in spread and skill is found. But, the focus on convective initiation and early convective evolution—a challenging forecast problem—and the fact that frequent improvements were seen despite observations from only one system over a limited period, provides encouragement to continue exploring the benefits of ground-based profilers to supplement the current upper-air observing system for severe weather forecasting applications.


Importance Infertility poses a substantial public health problem for women of reproductive age, in the United States and globally. Infertility can be overcome with a variety of emerging assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). In vitro fertilization (IVF) currently represents the most commonly utilized method of ART and is typically associated with the highest clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate compared with other infertility treatment options. However, proper preconception evaluation and counseling is paramount for optimizing IVF and pregnancy outcomes. Objective This article aims to outline current guidelines and recommendations for comprehensive preconception evaluation before initiation of IVF. Evidence Acquisition Articles were obtained from PubMed, ACOG committee opinions 781 and 762, and relevant textbook chapters. Results A variety of recommendations and best practices exist for optimally managing patients seeking IVF. Special attention must be paid to the workup of certain patient populations, such as those with age older than 35 years, uterine abnormalities, comorbidities (especially hypertension, diabetes, and thrombophilias), and obesity. In addition, many lifestyle factors must be addressed before IVF initiation, such as smoking, illicit drug use, and inadequate nutrition. Preconception counseling and expectation management is key to optimizing pregnancy outcome. Conclusions and Relevance A myriad of patient and environmental factors impact the potential success rates of IVF in treating infertility. Providers must be equipped to provide data-driven, patient-centered counseling before initiation of IVF. Target Audience Obstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians. Learning Objectives After completion of this CME article, readers should be better able to explain the importance of IVF in treating infertility for a variety of patient populations; describe current recommendations and best practices for preconception workup and counseling; identify important risk factors and patient-specific comorbidities that warrant additional evaluation or attention before IVF treatment; and recommend patient-centered preconception counseling for their future patients seeking IVF.


Abstract. The present paper concentrates on the use of remote sensing by satellite imagery for detecting ancient tracks and roads in the area between Palmyra and the Euphrates in Syria. The Syrian desert was traversed by caravans already in the Bronze Age, and during the Greco-Roman period the traffic increased with the Silk Road and trade as well as with military missions annexing the areas into empires. SYGIS - the Finnish archaeological survey and mapping project traced, recorded and documented ancient sites and roads in the region of Jebel Bishri in Central Syria in 2000-2010 before the outbreak of the civil war in Syria. Captured data of ancient roads and bridge points bring new light to the study of ancient communication framework in the area. Archaeological research carried out by the project on the ground confirmed the authenticity of many road alignments, new military and water harvesting sites as well as civilian settlements, showing that the desert-steppe area was actively used and developed probably from the second century AD. The studies further demonstrated that the area between Palmyra and the Euphrates was militarily more organised already in the second and third centuries AD than earlier believed. Chronologically, the start of this coincided with the "golden age" of the Palmyrene caravans in the second century AD. Topography and landscape were integral parts of the construction of graves/tumuli as sign-posts guiding in the desert, as well as roads and all kinds of settlements whether military or civilian.


A few years ago I presented a paper exploring ways that Newton's method for solving equations could be used to create or modify images. I was very pleased with the images so produced [1]. I decided to write a software framework that would allow me to explore various systems of attractors and repellors. This year is the 350th anniversary of the apple falling on Newton's head. I thought it appropriate, therefore, to base my first experiment on rocket science. The earliest rockets were probably developed in China during the 13th century for warfare and celebration. The beginnings of the mathematical treatment of rocket science began in 1666. A young Isaac Newton had returned to Lincolnshire from Cambridge University because of the great plague. He speculated that the force attracting the apple to fall to earth was the same force that kept the moon orbiting the earth. This paper explores ways of applying Newton's laws of motion and gravity to the creation and modification of pictures. The chaotic nature of such pictures is also explored.


Feathers perceived by humans to be vividly colorful are often presumed to be equally conspicuous to other mammals, and thus to present an enhanced predation risk. However, many mammals that prey on adult birds have dichromatic visual systems with only two types of color-sensitive visual receptors (one sensitive to ultraviolet light), rather than the three characteristic of humans and four of most birds. Thus, understanding how these predators perceive color requires quantitative visual modeling. Here, we use a combination of reflectance spectroscopy, multispectral imaging, color vision modelling and visual texture analysis to compare the visual signals available to conspecifics and to mammalian predators for multicolored feathers from the Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus) as well as red and yellow parrot feathers; we also take into account the effects of distance-dependent blurring due to visual acuity. When viewed by tetrachromatic birds against a background of green vegetation, most of the feathers studied had color and brightness contrasts similar to values previously found for ripe fruit. By contrast, when viewed by dichromat mammalian predators, the color and brightness contrasts of these feathers were only weakly detectable and often did not reach detection thresholds for typical viewing distances. We furthermore show that the peacock's erect train has undetectable color and brightness contrasts and visual textures when photographed against various foliage backgrounds. Given the similarity of photoreceptor sensitivities and feather reflectance properties across relevant species, these findings are consistent with many feathers of similar hue being inconspicuous, and in some cases potentially cryptic, in the eyes of their mammalian predators. These results suggest that many types of colorful feathers are likely to be cryptic to mammals while providing a communication channel perceptible to birds, while emphasizing the importance of understanding diverse sensory receivers in the evolution of animal coloration.


With the increase in globalization, the study of English has become common in Saudi Arabia, but students' experiences of foreign language anxiety (FLA) have been underexamined. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are culturally distinct from the Western world, where the most popular assessments of FLA were developed. Through a qualitative and then quantitative study, the current research examined the suitability of the most popular existing FLA questionnaire, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), for use with students of English in Saudi Arabia. In Study 1, Arab women studying in an English preparatory program at an English medium college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, responded to a single-item, open-ended questionnaire prompting them to list the situations in which they experience anxiety while trying to learn English. A new questionnaire drawing on the women's responses and the FLCAS and incorporating new items pertinent to the context was then created. In Study 2, the AFLAQ questionnaire was administered to a new sample of Arab women studying in the English medium college, and their responses were analyzed to determine whether the situations described were actually common causes of anxiety, and to identify the most common causes of anxiety. The new questionnaire, called the Arabic Foreign Language Anxiety Questionnaire (AFLAQ), presents a modified version of the FLCAS that was designed to identify and understand specifically what the female Arab students studying in Saudi Arabia experience. A particular emphasis on concerns about self-presentation and embarrassment is fundamental to the AFLAQ due to the importance of honor and respect in Saudi Arabian culture, a concern that does not play as significant of a role in the FLCAS or in Western culture.


Abstract Mg substituted cobalt ferrite spinel powder samples with the general formula MgxCO1-xFe2O4(x = 0 to 0.25) were synthesized chemically through sol-gel method and annealed at 1100 °C for 2 h. They were initially screened for the structural and morphological properties by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Vibrational properties of the samples were studied by Raman and infrared spectroscopies. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of single pure or near-pure phase with cubic spinel structure for all the samples with expected occupancy values. The field emission scanning electron microscopy revealed a decrease in the particle size with an increase in Mg concentration. Both structural and magnetic properties of the samples were characterized using Mössbauer spectroscopy while the magnetic properties were studied using vibrating sample magnetometry. The changes in magnetic moment of ions, their coupling with neighboring ions and cation exchange interactions were confirmed from the Mössbauer spectroscopy analysis. Saturation magnetization and coercivity values can be explained based on the Slater-Pauling curve. The magnetometry results showed a decrease in saturation magnetization of the samples with increase in Mg concentration


Abstract. The cultivation of bioenergy plants in fertile, arable lands
increasingly results in new land use conflicts with food production and cannot be
considered as sustainable. Marginal lands have been frequently considered as potential
alternatives for producing bioenergy from biomass. However, clear definitions and
assessment methods for selecting marginal lands and for calculating potentials are still
widely missing. The project "SEEMLA" aims at triggering the exploitation of currently underused
marginal lands for biomass production for energy purposes. Study sites have been selected
in different European countries: Germany, Greece, and Ukraine. The selected sites
represent a wide variety of different types of marginal lands. Based on a soil assessment
set given by the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (SQR) system potentially "marginal"
sites have been investigated. The SQR system allows for clearly distinguishing between
soils of higher and lower quality. Soils with SQR scores below 40 are regarded as
"marginal". They can be classified into different groups with regard to the importance
of soil hazard indicators as evaluated by the SQR approach. The calculated SQR scores
correlate significantly with biomass yields of bioenergy plants. Further, the SQR method was adapted for use in a GIS study on marginal-land potentials in
Europe. Thus, 46 % of the investigated European area could be classified as
"marginal" with SQR scores below 40. From that area 22.6 % can be considered as
potentially suitable for producing renewable resources after eliminating protected sites
or other places not suitable for any kind of land use. Taking the ecological demands of
selected bioenergy plants into account it is possible to give first preliminary
recommendations for regional crop cultivation. It can be concluded that Europe offers a large potential for renewable resources from
marginal sites. However, the implementation into practice is often impeded by missing or
varying policies and regulations. A proper implementation needs clear regulations and
also incentives for farmers at the European level.


A great deal of research has investigated listeners' ability to compensate for degraded speech signals such as noise-vocoded speech (a signal with reduced spectral structure but intact amplitude envelope information) and sine-wave analogs to speech (a signal that maintains the global dynamic spectral structure of the signal at the expense of amplitude envelope information). Nittrouer and colleagues found developmental changes in the ability to comprehend such signals, reporting that while adults perform more accurately with sine-wave analogs than with noise-vocoded speech, school-aged children show the opposite pattern (e.g., Nittrouer Lowenstein & Packer, 2009). In a series of studies, we tested toddler's comprehension of these degraded signals. 27-month-old children saw two images on each trial (e.g., cat, dog), and heard a voice instructing them which image to look at ("Find the cat!"). Sentences were presented either in full speech or were degraded. Toddlers looked at the appropriate object equally long with vocoded speech of 24 channels (60.2%) or 8 channels (62.4%) as with full speech (62.6%), but performed barely above chance with 4 channels (53.6%) and at chance for 2 channels (49.8%). Preliminary results suggest that performance with sine-wave analogs is poorer than 8-channel vocoded speech (56.1%), but testing is ongoing.


[1] Joule heating by high-latitude electric fields is thought to be underestimated by electric field models, and it has been conjectured that the source of the underestimation is "electric field variability," although the interpretation of this term is not necessarily straightforward. We perform a classification of source terms in estimating the squared magnitude of electric field from an electric field model, and find that the phenomenon summarily referred to as electric field variability canonically decomposes into two distinct components: small-scale electric field variability, and resolved-scale model uncertainty. The latter contribution is a statistical estimation uncertainty, and not related to physical small-scale fluctuations. We argue that the two sources should be characterized separately. An illustration is given in a comparison of the Joule heating measured by the Sondrestrom incoherent scatter radar during a 40-h period containing a storm, with the Joule heating modeled by the Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (AMIE) procedure, after removing the Sondrestrom data from the AMIE assimilation. A quantitative assessment of the relative importance of the two sources is drawn from a recent satellite study.


The Pilatte hut is located at 2572 m a.s.l. at Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans (south of the Ecrins Massif, France), ata 3-hours-walk from La Berarde hamlet. Its capacity is 120 beds for hikers and climbers who are engaged in theascent of Les Bans (3669 m a.s.l.).Built on a rocky ledge on the right side of the Pilatte Glacier (A = 2.64 km2; L = 2.6 km), it currently dominatesthe glacier by about 150 m. This relief results from the retreat of the glacier since the end of the Little Ice Age, asthe till around the hut was deposited during this stage. The glacier has lost about 1.8 km in length during the sameperiod.A first wooden hut was built in 1925 and presently serves as a winter refuge. In 1954, the growth of mountainactivities led to the construction of a larger hut made of cemented stones. An extension to the west made ofreinforced concrete was built in 1994. But in the late 1980s, severe damages to the 1954 part of the building werealready recognized: vertical cracks lining the north and south facades, ,subsidence (c. 10 cm downstream) of theground floor, cracked interior walls.


This chapter gives a short review of the structure and some properties of magnetic substances that depend mainly on the symmetry of these substances. Aspects related to the magnetic symmetry receive the most emphasis. The magnetic symmetry takes into account the fact that it is necessary to consider time inversion in addition to the usual spatial transformations in order to describe the invariance of the thermodynamic equilibrium states of a body. The first part of the chapter is devoted to a brief classification of disordered and ordered magnetics. The classification of ferromagnets according to the type of the magnetic structure is given in Section 188.8.131.52.1. In Section 220.127.116.11.2, the antiferromagnets are classified by the types of their magnetic structures: collinear, weakly non-collinear and strongly non-collinear antiferromagnets. Incommensurate structures are briefly mentioned in Section 184.108.40.206.3. Section 1.5.2 is devoted to magnetic symmetry. Different types of magnetic point (Section 220.127.116.11) and magnetic space (Section 18.104.22.168) groups are defined. The 22 magnetic Bravais lattices are displayed in Section 184.108.40.206. The transition from the paramagnetic state into the magnetically ordered state entails a transition from one magnetic group into another. These transitions are considered in Section 1.5.3. The domain structure of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets is considered in Section 1.5.4, where 180° and T-domains are described. Non-collinear antiferromagnetic structures (weakly ferromagnetic, non-collinear and non-coplanar antiferromagnetic structures) are described in Section 1.5.5. Besides the magnetic phase transition from the disordered into the ordered state, there exist transitions from one magnetic structure into another. Those of these that are obtained by a rotation of the ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic vector relative to the crystallographic axis are called reorientation transitions and are analysed in Section 1.5.6. Sections 1.5.7 and 1.5.8 are devoted to phenomena that can be (and were) predicted only on the basis of magnetic symmetry. These are piezomagnetism (Section 1.5.7) and the magnetoelectric effect (Section 1.5.8). In Section 1.5.9, the magnetostriction in ferromagnets is briefly discussed.

Keywords:

Bravais lattices;
Gaussian system of units;
Landau theory;
S-domains;
SI units;
angular phase;
anisotropy energy;
antiferromagnetic ferroelectrics;
antiferromagnetic helical structures;
antiferromagnetic phases;
antiferromagnetic structures;
antiferromagnetic vectors;
antiferromagnets;
diamagnets;
domains;
easy-axis magnetics;
easy-plane magnetics;
exchange energy;
exchange symmetry;
ferrimagnets;
ferroelectric antiferromagnets;
ferroelectric materials;
ferroic domains;
ferromagnetic ferroelectrics;
ferromagnetic materials;
ferromagnetic vectors;
ferromagnetism;
ferromagnets;
helical structures;
incommensurate structures;
magnetic Bravais lattices;
magnetic anisotropy energy;
magnetic birefringence;
magnetic fields;
magnetic induction;
magnetic lattices;
magnetic point groups;
magnetic space groups;
magnetic susceptibility;
magnetic symmetry;
magnetoelastic energy;
magnetoelectric effect;
magnetostriction;
paramagnets;
phase transitions;
piezomagnetic effect;
relativistic interactions;
reorientation transitions;
spin flip;
spin flop;
spontaneous magnetization;
spontaneous magnetostriction;
time inversion;
twin domains;
uniaxial antiferromagnets;
uniaxial ferromagnets


1. The initiation of adult development in the pupa of the Cecropia silkworm is accompanied by a retraction of the hypodermis from the pupal cuticle; the exuvial space is simultaneously flooded with the moulting fluid. 2. During the first two-thirds of adult development the moulting fluid is a dilute, aqueous, proteinaceous gel resembling egg albumen; at this time it is without effects on the pupal cuticle. 3. On approximately the fourteenth day of adult development the gel is converted into a sol and shows a considerable increase in chitinase activity and the first demonstrable proteolytic activity. 4. The late, active moulting fluid then begins to hydrolyse the protein and chitin in the overlying pupal endocuticle. 5. By the twentieth day the old endocuticle has disappeared. The tanned protein-chitin complex of the sclerotized exocuticle is not attacked. 6. Finally, the moulting fluid is completely resorbed into the underlying insect. The residual pupal exocuticle forms the bulk of the exuviae. 7. Moulting fluid and blood are compared in respect to the following properties: consistency, cellular content, solubility, refractive index, water content, chemical composition, total nitrogen, protein nitrogen, pH, redox potential, and enzymatic content. 8. The moulting fluid shows numerous quantitative and qualitative differences from the blood. The fluid is, evidently, a distinctive secretory product of the underlying integument--presumably of the hypodermis itself. 9. A dynamic state exists between the moulting fluid and the underlying insect. Radioactive glycine, injected into the moulting fluid, was promptly resorbed and incorporated into the protein of the adult moth. 10. Several lines of evidence suggest that the secretion or activation of the moulting fluid enzymes are synchronized with the sclerotization of the underlying new cuticle. This synchronization, it is suggested, may serve to protect the new cuticle from the hydrolytic action of the moulting fluid.


Content Based Inlage Retrieval (CBIR) intends to objectively and efficiently retrieve interested images or image segnlcnts (pixel blocks) from a large-volume image database based on the content similarity between a query icon (or sample image) and database images (or image segments). CBIR was originated from computer vision and database community (Flickner et al., 1995; Pentland et al.,1996; Smith and Chang, 1996) and has been gradually accepted by GIScientists for geographic image database applications (Ma and Manjunath, 1996; Bruns and Egenhofer, 1996; Sheikholeslamli et al.,1999; Agouris et al., 1999; Stefanidis et al., 2002; Bian, 2003; Bian and Xie, 2004).


Existing risk simulations make the assumption that when a free tin whisker has bridged two adjacent exposed electrical conductors, the result is an electrical short circuit. This conservative assumption is made because shorting is a random event that has an unknown probability associated with it. Note however that due to contact resistance, electrical shorts may not occur at lower voltage levels. In our first paper, we developed an empirical probability model for tin whisker shorting. In this paper, we develop a more comprehensive empirical model using a refined experiment with a larger sample size, in which we studied the effect of varying voltage on the breakdown of the contact resistance which leads to a short circuit. From the resulting data, we estimated the probability distribution of an electrical short, as a function of voltage. In addition, the unexpected polycrystalline structure seen in the focused ion beam (FIB) cross section in the first experiment was confirmed in this experiment using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The FIB was also used to cross section two card guides to facilitate the measurement of the grain size of each card guide's tin plating to determine its finish.


This study starts from the assumption that intercultural training with literary texts should have a clearly defined position in foreign language teaching and learning, and that this could facilitate the deconstruction of orientalist perspectives in contemporary political and media discourse. However, the marginalisation of intercultural objectives, methodology and methods in curricula, teacher training and course books that themselves reveal orientalist features demonstrate a long-lasting practical negligence in an area that has been at the forefront of foreign language research in the last two decades. In the short and medium term, this enormous gap between theory and practice could partially be addressed by replacing inadequate sections in course books with literary work, using texts such as The Persian Dinner that have been successfully brought into a foreign language environment at Higher Education level in Cambridge. However, intercultural training in other subject areas than foreign languages will have to support this temporary solution until substantially revised curricula and teacher training programmes start guiding authors and publishers to develop more adequate teaching and learning material.


The determination of the shear modulus G as a function of depth is of primary importance to civil engineers. For instance it is an important parameter for the assessment of seismic risk and for the characterisation of the mechanical properties of soils. For concrete, it can be used to quantify the extent of surface damage. It is presently not very common to use surface waves to calculate shear velocity profiles, which are necessary to calculate G profiles. The aim of this paper is to show how surface wave analysis has some advantages as compared to the direct measurement of shear wave propagation. To characterise the efficiency of surface waves to solve such civil engineering problems, we have undertaken tests on concrete slabs. The concrete slabs are considered here as reduced scale physical models. On top of three 3mx4mx0,8m concrete slabs, a layer of light weight concrete with three different thicknesses (0.05m, 0.1m and 0.2m) has been added. As the geometry, densities and velocities are known, different measuring set-ups and processing techniques can be tested and compared. In this paper we focus on two common set-ups. The first one is the SASW method (Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves). The second one is multiple filter and phase velocity analysis as used in Earth physics and here applied to a large number of sensors. As opposed to the SASW set-up, it is applied on surface waves in the far field. The two methods are applied both to seismograms obtained on the three concrete slabs and on synthetic seismograms in models equivalent to the concrete slabs. This multiple filter and phase velocity analysis has been successfully combined to seimic refraction during a sub-surface survey in the civil engineering depth range (0-10m).


To determine whether massive gene activation occurs in rat liver following partial hepatectomy, DNA-RNA hybridization-saturation and RNA depletion experiments were performed. RNA was extracted from whole cells, nuclei, post-mitochondrial extracts, and polysomes obtained from livers of normal, sham-operated, and partially hepatectomized rats. The purified RNA was labeled with [3H]dimethyl sulfate in vitro and hybridized with nuclera DNA under conditions in which only repetitive sequence transcripts form hybrids with DNA. For comparative purposes, experiments were also performed with nuclear RNA labeled with [32P3phosphoric acid in vivo. The following observations were made: (a) for whole-cell RNA the saturation levels obtained in the hybrization reaction are the same regardless of the source of RNA USED (NORMAL, SHAM-OPERATED, OR PARTIALLY HEPATECTOMIZED RATS); (B) NO DIFFERENCES IN THE SATURATION LEVELS WERE FOUND WHEN LIVER NUCLEAR RNA from these three groups of animals were used; (c) the concentration of nuclear RNA from 6-hr regenerating liver necessary to saturate the DNA is slightly higher than that of nuclear RNA obtained from normal rat liver; (d) cytoplasmic RNA from 6-hr regenerating liver saturates the DNA at a much lower concentration than that required for RNA from normal or sham-operated rats. Our results suggest that for repetitive sequence transcripts, massive "derepression" of the genome does not occur at the early stages of liver regeneration. The alterations detected reflect primarily changes in RNA concentrations rather than qualitative alterations in gene expression. Increased transport of repetitive sequence transcripts from nucleus to cytoplasm appears to take place in regenerating liver.


Objective: To gain experience with 'Ness Handmaster Orthosis' treatment in chronic stroke patients, to identify suitable patients, and to study the effects of treatment. Design: Exploratory, uncontrolled trial with measurement of motor functions and muscle tone of the upper extremity prior to, during, upon completion, and six weeks after a treatment period. Setting: A rehabilitation centre in the Netherlands. Subjects: Eighteen chronic stroke patients (more than six months post stroke), who exhibited upper extremity dysfunction due to spastic paresis. Intervention: A 10-week therapy programme of functional electrical stimulation by means of the 'Ness Handmaster Orthosis'. Results: The results of 15 patients were available for analysis. The differences in motor score and muscle tone before and at the end of treatment were statistically significant (p = 0.008 and 0.021, respectively). The follow-up measurements showed that the effects on motor functions and muscle tone decreased after therapy completion. Stratification of the patients in two subgroups indicated that patients with initial high motor scores benefited most during the intervention period. Conclusion: The present study suggests that Handmaster treatment possesses therapeutic opportunities in chronic stroke patients with spastic paresis of the upper extremity.


Wheat is a staple crop that is grown across the world due to its substantial contribution to human nutrition. Its significance is evident as it provides almost 20% of calories and protein required for daily human consumption. However, wheat yield is affected by rust disease that can reduce 30% of wheat production which is a serious threat to food security. In order to minimize the loss, it is crucial to identify precisely and localize the wheat rust disease and its infection types. For this purpose, several classification and segmentation techniques are used which are based on machine/deep learning models. This paper provides a realistic analysis and evaluation of various segmentation techniques including Watershed, Grab Cut, and U2-Net. These techniques are applied to the wheat stripe rust data to generate multiple datasets such as Watershed segmented data, GrabCut segmented data, and U2-Net segmented data. Subsequently, a pre-trained deep learning model, ResNet-18 is applied to these datasets to assess the impact of segmentation on classification accuracy. The highest classification accuracy (96.196%) is achieved on the dataset segmented by U2-Net. This research collates several state-of-the-art segmentation techniques in terms of correctness and their direct impact on classification accuracy which gives a pragmatic analysis for researchers to choose optimal segmentation technique. The research primarily focuses on the direct impact of segmentation on classification accuracy of wheat stripe rust, which has not been given sufficient focus in earlier researches.


There has been increasing concern about the environmental release and dispersal of emerging contaminants (ECs) and their potential risks to human and ecosystem health. The in situ passive sampling tool, diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT), has been developed as a promising alternative to traditional grab sampling in environmental research of ECs, such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and some types of flame retardants. This thesis explored the role of DGT in determining ECs and understanding their sources, fate and impact in aquatic environments. The property range of organic compounds which can be routinely sampled with the present design of DGT device (PTFE membrane filter, agarose gel diffusion layer, and HLB binding layer) was investigated. Sorption experiments and DGT deployment with 9 model chemicals [organophosphate esters (OPEs) with a wide range of log KOW (0.8−9.5), molecular weight (182−435 Da)] and different functional groups showed compounds with high hydrophobicity and aromatic rings are prone to retention on membrane filters, which slows the transport of chemical to the binding resin of the sampler. The limitation of the current DGT device for some trace organics is adsorption in the diffusion layer, mainly in the membrane filter. However, it is possible to extend the DGT technique for a wider range of chemicals, for example, by replacing the current DGT membrane filter with a new type of membrane filter which does not interact with target analytes. The potential effects of biofouling and post-deployment sample storage on DGT measurements were systematically investigated. Biofilms generated at the surface of DGT devices (8-day and 15-day) in summer and winter from a typical urban wastewater treatment plant were tested with 13 ECs; this study showed no effect on DGT measurements for most compounds. Four storage methods up to 2-month were evaluated; this study showed that intact samplers can be kept for up to 2-months at refrigerated temperature (4 °C) without significant effect on the measured concentration of the compounds, but if no refrigerators were available, keeping binding gels in elution solvent at room temperature would achieve comparable results. DGT and grab sampling were used together to study sources and environmental fate of ECs in a dynamic river catchment, the River Thames in the United Kingdom. For chemicals that were relatively stable in the rivers, DGT and grab sampling provided equally good representativeness. For chemicals that showed high dynamic variation in water bodies, the DGT provided a better integral of loadings and exposure than grab sampling. It took a similar time to set up and collect the DGT passive sampling system and to collect grab samples. However, for later storage and sample treatment, DGT is much more space-, cost- and time-effective. DGT, for the first time, was combined with a water quality model (LF2000-WQX) to study sources and environmental fate of ECs, taking trimethoprim as a case study. The model needs the following key input information for the EC: per capita emission, WWTPs and in-river removal rates. DGT measurements in the River Thames network were used to assess the ability of the model to predict reasonable concentrations. This study showed that LF2000-WQX is suitable for predicting point-source ECs; predicted concentrations agreed very well with DGT measurements in winter and the model performance can be improved by improving in-river removal rate, i.e., using different in-river removal rates considering local environmental conditions such as DOC in different river reaches. The work in this thesis is a step forward to understand the current performance of the DGT sampler and to explore its role in studying organic contaminants. It has shown that DGT is an effective tool for studying environmental issues of trace organic contaminants.


Combining food, entrepreneurship, and economic development, Nuestra Culinary Ventures (NCV) appeals to people's hearts and stomachs. Operated by Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, NCV is a nonprofit small business kitchen incubator located in Boston. NCV provides culinary entrepreneurs (CEs) with a low-cost, shared-use, commercial kitchen facility and a source of technical assistance. While more than 100 CEs have started food businesses at NCV, success is elusive for most. In addition, NCV has proven unsustainable, never generating enough income from kitchen rental to cover its costs. After surveying 20 CEs about their business activities from January 1 to August 31, 2007, I concluded that NCV's economic impact does not justify its high operating costs. A majority of the businesses created unstable, part-time jobs and hardly generated enough sales to sustain a part-time employee, let alone a full-time worker. This indicates that kitchen incubators are not the way to create full-time job opportunities for the underserved. None of the survey respondents had taken out small business loans during the time period studied, suggesting minimal future business growth. If Nuestra Comunidad keeps NCV open, they need to seriously restructure the program. NCV fails to provide a replicable and sustainable model for economic development and job creation. Culinary entrepreneurs must tackle the same challenges that every entrepreneur faces, and the provision of affordable kitchen space is only one ingredient in the recipe of creating financially viable food businesses.


The selection of the classifier architecture is a very important step in the recognition process. This paper presents a new algorithm for the HMMs architectures optimization: Multi-Models Evolvement using PSO (MME-PSO). The proposed algorithm is applied to an Arabic handwriting recognition system. The recognizer is based on character Hidden Markov Models which can have different architectures. This algorithm is evaluated using the IfN/ENIT database. The performance of the resulting system is compared to the participating systems at the 2005 competition organized on Arabic handwriting recognition on the International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR). The final system (IfN-REGIM-2) performs an absolute improvement of 6% of word recognition rate with about 81% comparing to the baseline system (ARAB-IfN). The proposed recognizer outperforms also most of the known state-of-the-art systems.


This paper surveys the empirical literature on the association between growth on inequality in less developed countries, with a particular emphasis on labor market inequality. Cross-country studies failed to find a clear link from growth to inequality. Country-specific studies that focused on labor market inequality have shown that, with a few exceptions, wage inequality increases with growth. The paper argues that the methodologies used in many of the empirical applications, designed to investigate changes in labor market inequality in developed economies, should be adjusted to account for the unique properties of labor markets in LDCs.


Data management support to enable effective and efficient information sharing in collaborative environments is critical, especially in semantics based search and retrieval. In this paper, a novel spectrum perturbation-based subspace classification is proposed to mine semantics and other useful information from a large-scale dataset by utilizing a lower-dimensional subspace to discriminate different classes of the dataset. Among the existing subspace-based approaches, the principal component (PC) subspace is the most prevailing one and has been well studied. After investigating previous work related to PC subspace, we found that none of them had considered the perturbation on spectrum when building the subspace learning models. However, such perturbation is of certain importance and is able to provide discriminant information that helps improve classification performance by measuring the closeness of each testing data instance towards a subspace model by a closeness score based on the spectrum perturbation. Each testing data instance is assigned to its closest class by searching the smallest closeness score. Experiments are conducted to evaluate our proposed subspace classifier using data sets from three different sources, and the experimental results show that it achieves promising results and outperforms comparative subspace classifiers as well as some other commonly used classifiers.


A typical battery is a set of nominally identical voltaic cells in series and/or parallel. We consider the discharge of a single voltaic cell. As the cell discharges due to current-carrying chemical reactions, the densities of the chemical components decrease, which leads to an increase in the internal resistance of the voltaic cell and, upon discharge, a decrease in its terminal voltage and current. A simple model yields behavior similar to what is observed, although accurate battery models are more complex. © 2008 American Association of Physics Teachers. DOI: 10.1119/1.2826658


We studied regulation by c-Src tyrosine kinase (Src) of KCNQ1–5 channels heterologously expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and of native M current in rat sympathetic neurons. Using whole-cell patch clamp, we found that Src modulates currents from KCNQ3, KCNQ4, and KCNQ5 homomultimers, KCNQ2/3 heteromultimers and native M current, but not currents from KCNQ1 or KCNQ2 homomultimers. Src overexpression had two effects: a decrease of current amplitude (4- to 15-fold for cloned channels and ∼3-fold for M current) and a slowing of activation kinetics by 2-fold. Both Src actions were mostly reversed by bath application of the Src inhibitors erbstatin (20 μm) and PP2 (200 nm), and mimicked by the tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor sodium vanadate (100 μm). Immunoprecipitation and immunoblot analysis showed Src-dependent phosphotyrosine signals associated with KCNQ3, KCNQ4, and KCNQ5 but not with KCNQ1 or KCNQ2 that may be tyrosine phosphorylation of the channel subunits. Expression of a dominant negative Src that cannot phosphorylate substrates had no effect on the current and did not induce phosphotyrosine signals associated with KCNQ3–5 subunits, further indicating that Src actions on KCNQ currents are mediated by tyrosine phosphorylation. Immunostaining and confocal analysis showed no effect of Src overexpression on the abundance of KCNQ3 protein in CHO cells. Finally, experiments using cloned KCNQ2/3 channels, Src and M1 muscarinic receptors, and sympathetic neurons demonstrated that the actions on KCNQ channels by Src and by muscarinic agonists use distinct mechanisms.


Information models are seen as an important tool within the information systems discipline as well as in non-IS domains. However, modeling is a highly manual task and causes extensive effort. Modeling methods focus only on the creation of models, without giving concrete instructions of an appropriate use of them. An increased efficiency could be achieved if the necessary tasks are solved completely model based. Then algorithms, based on a set of rules, perform model operations. Once a model of the business problem has been created, the problem solving is carried out in the model space. However, several shortcomings prevent semi-formal models from being a suitable resource of an automated solution process. Problems result from a multitude of modelling aims, objects and procedures. In this paper an approach for a model-driven management is presented that aims at the specific problem of identifying service candidates in a service-oriented architecture.


The aim of the present work is the chemical and microstructural characterisation of a reliquary fi gure, stylistically consistent with the art of the Kota population, which lived in the eastern part of Gabon (Africa). The artefact was subjected to preliminary observation by stereomicroscopy, and then Optical Microscopy (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses are carried out on a fragment and on surface compounds. Lastly, AMS radiocarbon dating of the wooden support allowed further information about the production period to be obtained. The results show that the artefact was produced by a Cu-Zn alloy and contains non-metallic impurities made up of S and Se. The greenish and whitish surface compounds, which are mainly collected near the nails and in proximity to the overlaid sheets, are probably only partly related to natural corrosive processes. Finally, radiocarbon dating established that the wooden support certainly dates after 1950.


Abstract The sequential determination of 14 trace metals, Al, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Mo, Cd, Sb and Pb, in rain and river water samples has been investigated using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with a graphite rod electrothermal vaporizer (ETV) in the presence of the mixed modifier of palladium nitrate and magnesium nitrate. The sensitivity enhancements due to the presence of the modifier were observed for all analyte elements. Detection limits as high as 0.52, 0.13, 0.89, 0.35, 1.76, 0.5, 0.9, 0.5, 0.04, 1.03, 0.28, 0.07, 0.1 and 3.78 pg, respectively, for Al, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Mo, Cd, Sb and Pb have been achieved. For the determination of trace metals in both rain and river water samples by this method, the repeatibility of sample solution were very good, i.e. from 1% to 7% (as a coefficient variation) and the recoveries of elements were good enough, i.e. from 81% to 106%, by using a standard addition method. There was no difference between the res...


The WHDB (Welthandels Datenbank — World Trade Database) of the BWK (Austrian Federal Economic Chamber) is a specialised information service which provides Austrian firms, companies and governmental institutions with information and data about worldwide commodity trade statistics. Its second function is to be a leading source for introducing new information media into the department, such as developing a company profile CD‐ROM. Only a few parameters are of crucial significance in describing a request for information in the field of import and export statistics. Nevertheless the process of choosing the right source to satisfy the user's demand is often rather tricky and very dependent on experience and skill. In the process of reorganising this information service from a rigid, programmed, host‐oriented inhouse data service of the early 1980s to a customer‐oriented information service for the 1990s, using online and CD‐ROM sources, a number of investigations were made to locate the relevant sources and to evaluate their significance for this service. As a result, a survey of sources of statistical import and export data will be presented. Another result is the perception that attributes like accuracy, precision and individual tuning have priority over offering large amounts of data, automation and sophisticated statistical methods. We concluded with a model of a combined system using internal sources for automatic explorations and external sources for accuracy and flexibility.


The fractions of non-prompt (i.e. originating from beauty-hadron decays) D$^0$ and D$^+$ mesons with respect to the inclusive yield are measured as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity in proton$-$proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The results are reported in intervals of transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) and integrated in the range $1<p_{\rm T}<24$ GeV/$c$. The fraction of non-prompt D$^0$ and D$^+$ mesons is found to increase slightly as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ in all the measured multiplicity intervals, while no significant dependence on the charged-particle multiplicity is observed. In order to investigate the production and hadronisation mechanisms of charm and beauty quarks, the results are compared to PYTHIA 8 as well as EPOS 3 and EPOS 4 Monte Carlo simulations, and to calculations based on the colour glass condensate including three-pomeron fusion.


Resynthesized (RS) rapeseed generated from interspecific hybridization between suitable forms of Brassica rapa L. (syn. campestris; genome AA, 2n = 20) and B. oleracea L. (CC, 2n = 18) represents a potentially important resource to expand genetic diversity in the narrow gene pool of oilseed rape (B. napus L., AACC, 2n = 38). In this study 165 RS rapeseed lines originating from crosses between an Indian Yellow Sarson (B. rapa ssp. trilocularis) and five different cauliflower (B. oleracea convar. botrytis) cultivars were studied using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and their genetic diversity was compared in relationship to an assortment of 40 diverse spring oilseed and fodder rape varieties. Using three AFLP primer combinations, a total of 467 polymorphic bands were scored. Cluster analysis allowed differentiation among the different RS lines, which, as expected, were genetically highly divergent from the cultivars. The genetic diversity of the material is discussed in relation to its morphological variability with a view to the implementation of RS lines in oilseed rape breeding.


Case-control studies in major depression have established patterns of regional gray matter loss, including the hippocampus, which might show state-related effects dependent on disease stage. However, there is still limited knowledge on compensation effects that might occur in people resilient to depression showing only subclinical symptoms. We used voxel-based morphometry on a multicenter data set of 409 healthy nonclinical subjects to test the hypothesis that local hippocampal volume would be inversely correlated with subclinical depressive symptoms [Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) depression scores]. Our region-of-interest results show a significant (p = 0.042, FWE cluster-level corrected) positive correlation of SCL-90-R scores for depression and a left hippocampus cluster. Additionally, we provide an exploratory finding of gyrification, a surface-based morphometric marker, correlating with a right postcentral gyrus cluster [p = 0.031, family-wise error (FWE) cluster-level corrected]. Our findings provide first preliminary evidence of an inverse relationship for subjects in the absence of clinical depression and might thus point to processes related to compensation. Similar effects have been observed in remission from major depression and thus deserve further study to evaluate hippocampal volume not only as a state-dependent marker of disease but also of resilience.


A 78-year-old man with cryptogenic chronic bilateral lymphoplasmacytic pleuritis, diagnosed based on left parietal pleural biopsy specimens obtained by pleuroscopy, developed acute left bacterial pleuritis. The left pleural effusion was neutrophil dominant, however, the right pleural effusion showed lymphoplasmacytic infiltration. Laboratory examinations revealed that his serum IgG4 concentration was increased, with a higher level of IgG4 in the right pleural effusion. Re-evaluation of the previous biopsy specimens using an immunostaining method revealed numerous IgG4-positive plasma cell infiltrations with IgG4-positive/IgG-positive plasma cells at 85.4%. Accordingly, the new diagnosis of this patient was considered to be chronic bilateral IgG4-related pleuritis.


This book provides a guide to research and teaching in an Australian Indigenous Studies that is oriented toward the diverse, contemporary world. Central to this perspective is a sensibility to the intercultural complexity of that world – particularly its Indigenous component – and an awareness of the interactional capabilities that the Indigenous (and others) need to successfully negotiate it. These capabilities are important for facilitating Indigenous peoples' goal of equality as citizens and recognition as Indigenous, a goal which this book seeks to address.
The Indigenous Studies presented in this book rejects as unproductive the orientation of orthodox Indigenous Studies, which promulgates the retention of old cultures, positive stereotypes, binary oppositions and false certainties. It adopts a more dialogical and process-oriented approach that highlights interactions and relationships and leads to the recognition of cultural and identity multiplicity, intersection and ambiguous difference.
The book covers key topics such as ancestral cultures, colonisation and its impacts, identity politics, interculturality, intersectionality, structural marginalisation, unit development and teaching complexity. The focus of the book is the development of a sensibility that can shape readers' perceptions, decisions and actions in the future and guide teachers in their negotiation of intercultural classroom relationships.


First-principles calculations have been widely used to describe the ground state properties of materials over almost 20 years. Recently, a great progress was made in the first-principle calculations. Thermodynamic properties can also be gotten by calculations of the phonon densities of states (phonon DOS) and phonon dispersions of materials, which show widely potential applications in material researches. In the present work, the energetics and bonding properties of interfaces between ZrO2 and Ni metal were given by first-principles calculations. The results show that alloy element impurities (Al, Cr and Y) influence remarkably the adhesion of the ceramic and metal. On the other hand, the phonon densities of states and phonon dispersions of ZrO2 were calculated with density functional perturbation theory. From the phonon DOS, the thermodynamic properties were derived and the phase transformation of ZrO2 was discussed. By this method, the thermodynamic properties of material can be gotten from atom and electron levels without any experiment data. It is a new approach to design and study the thermodynamic properties in new material system.


Abstract This article is dedicated to the WHO International Year of Health and Care Workers in 2021 in recognition of their commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to strengthen health workforce preparedness, protection and ultimately resilience during a pandemic. We argue for a health system approach and introduce a tool for rapid comparative assessment based on integrated multi-level governance. We draw on secondary sources and expert information, including material from Denmark, Germany, Portugal and Romania. The results reveal similar developments across countries: action has been taken to improve physical protection, digitalization and prioritization of healthcare worker vaccination, whereas social and mental health support programmes were weak or missing. Developments were more diverse in relation to occupational and organizational preparedness: some ad-hoc transformations of work routines and tasks were observed in all countries, yet skill-mix innovation and collaboration were strongest in Demark and weak in Portugal and Romania. Major governance gaps exist in relation to education and health integration, surveillance, social and mental health support programmes, gendered issues of health workforce capacity and integration of migrant healthcare workers (HCW). There is a need to step up efforts and make health systems more accountable to the needs of HCW during global public health emergencies.


Historically, the challenge for humans has been to secure a sufficient supply of food to stave off hunger and starvation. As a result, much of the research on food and agriculture in the past century has focused on issues related to production efficiency, food supply, and farm profitability. In recent years, however, farmers, agribusiness, policy makers, and academics have increasingly turned their attention away from the farm and toward the food consumer and to issues related to food consumption. This handbook provides an overview of the economics of food consumption and policy and is a useful reference for academics and graduate students interested in food economics and the consumer-end of the supply chain. It is also relevant to those employed in food and agricultural industries, policy makers, and activist groups. The first section covers the application of the core theoretical and methodological approaches of the economics of food consumption and policy. The second part concentrates on policy issues related to food consumption. Several chapters focus on the theoretical and conceptual issues relevant in food markets, such as product bans, labeling, food standards, political economy, and scientific uncertainty. Additional chapters discuss policy issues of particular interest to the consumer-end of the food supply chain, such as food safety, nutrition, food security, and development. The final section serves as an introduction to particular issues and current topics in food consumption and policy. Contributors to this volume - Awudu Abdulai, University of Kiel, Germany W.L. Adamowicz, University of Alberta, Canada Luis Miguel Albisu, Agro-Food Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA), Spain Frode Alfnes, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway Sven M. Anders, University of Alberta, Canada Fredrik Carlsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Sean B. Cash, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA Julie A. Caswell, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA Marco Costanigro, Colorado State University, USA Sven-Olov Daunfeldt, Dalarna University, Sweden Andreas C. Drichoutis, University of Ioannina, Greece Fabrice Etile Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France and Paris School of Economics, France Jacinto F. Fabiosa, Iowa State University, USA John A. Fox, Kansas State University, USA Konstantinos Giannakas, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA Azucena Gracia, Agro-Food Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA), Spain Roland Herrmann, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany Sandra A. Hoffmann, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, USA Wallace E. Huffman, Iowa State University, USA Helen H. Jensen, Iowa State University, USA Olof Johansson-Stenman, University of Gothenburg, Sweden David R. Just, Cornell University, USA Harry M. Kaiser, Cornell University, USA Christian Kuhlgatz, University of Kiel, Germany Panagiotis Lazaridis, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece Mariah L. Loureiro, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain Jayson L. Lusk, Oklahoma State University, USA Stephan Marette, UMR Economie Publique INRA-AgroParisTech, France Thomas L. Marsh, Washington State University, USA William A. Masters, Tufts University, USA Jill J. McCluskey, Washington State University, USA Pierre R. Merel , University of California-Davis, USA Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr., University of Arkansas, USA Jonas Nordstrom, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Lund University, Sweden Nicholas E. Piggott, North Carolina State University, USA Kyrre Rickertsen, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway Jutta Roosen, Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany Ana Isabel Sanjuan, Agro-Food Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA), Spain Ted C. Schroeder, Kansas State University, USA Richard J. Sexton, University of California-Davis, USA Ian Sheldon, The Ohio State University, USA Jason F. Shogren, University of Wyoming, USA Hayden Stewart, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, USA Joffre D. Swait, University of Alberta, Canada Johan F.M. Swinnen, University of Leuven, Belgium Mario F. Teisl, Professor, University of Maine, USA Ramona Teuber, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany Linda Thunstrom, The Swedish Retail Institute (HUI), Sweden Glynn T. Tonsor, Kansas State University, USA Thijs Vandemoortele, University of Leuven, Belguim Joachim von Braun, Bonn University, Germany Christoph R. Weiss, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria Parke Wilde, Tufts University, USA Michael K. Wohlgenant,North Carolina State University, USA


[1] Several new data sets reveal that thinning and speedup of Jakobshavn Isbrae continue, following its recent rapid increase in speed as its floating ice tongue disintegrated. The present speedup rate of ∼5% a−1 over much of the fast-moving region appears to be a diffusive response to the initial much larger speedup near the front. There is strong seasonality in speed over much of the fast-flowing main trunk that shows a good inverse correlation with the seasonally varying length of a short (typically ∼6 km) floating ice tongue. This modulation of speed with ice front position supports the hypothesis that the major speedup was caused by loss of the larger floating ice tongue from 1998 to 2003. Analysis of image time series suggests that the transient winter ice tongue is formed when sea ice bonds glacier ice in the fjord to produce a nearly rigid mass that almost entirely suppresses calving. Major calving only resumes in late winter when much of this ice clears from the fjord. The collapse of the ice tongue in the late 1990s followed almost immediately after a sharp decline in winter sea-ice concentration in Disko Bay. This decline may have extended the length of the calving season for several consecutive years, leading to the ice tongue's collapse.


Cloud computing is an emerging technology in which information technology resources are virtualized to users in a set of computing resources on a pay‐per‐use basis. It is seen as an effective infrastructure for high performance applications. Divisible load applications occur in many scientific and engineering applications. However, dividing an application and deploying it in a cloud computing environment face challenges to obtain an optimal performance due to the overheads introduced by the cloud virtualization and the supporting cloud middleware. Therefore, we provide results of series of extensive experiments in scheduling divisible load application in a Cloud environment to decrease the overall application execution time considering the cloud networking and computing capacities presented to the application's user. We experiment with real applications within the Amazon cloud computing environment. Our extensive experiments analyze the reasons of the discrepancies between a theoretical model and the reality and propose adequate solutions. These discrepancies are due to three factors: the network behavior, the application behavior and the cloud computing virtualization. Our results show that applying the algorithm result in a maximum ratio of 1.41 of the measured normalized makespan versus the ideal makespan for application in which the communication to computation ratio is big. They show that the algorithm is effective for those applications in a heterogeneous setting reaching a ratio of 1.28 for large data sets. For application following the ensemble clustering model in which the computation to communication ratio is big and variable, we obtained a maximum ratio of 4.7 for large data set and a ratio of 2.11 for small data set. Applying the algorithm also results in an important speedup. These results are revealing for the type of applications we consider under experiments. The experiments also reveal the impact of the choice of the platforms provided by Amazon on the performance of the applications under study. Considering the emergence of cloud computing for high performance applications, the results in this paper can be widely adopted by cloud computing developers. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A vivid and original account of warfare in the Middle Ages and the cruelty and atrocity that accompanied it. Sean McGlynn investigates the reality of medieval warfare. For all the talk of chivalry, medieval warfare routinely involved acts which we would consider war crimes. Lands laid waste, civilians slaughtered, prisoners massacred: this was standard fare justified by tradition and practical military necessity. It was unbelievably barbaric, but seldom uncontrolled. Such acts of atrocity were calculated, hideous cruelties inflicted in order to achieve a specific end. Sean McGlynn examines the battles of Acre and Agincourt, sieges like Beziers, Lincoln, Jerusalem and Limoges as well as the infamous chevauchees of the Hundred Years War that devastated great swathes of France. He reveals how these grisly affairs form the origin of accepted 'rules of war', codes of conduct that are today being enforced in the International Court of Justice in the Hague.


SUMMARY Wing lengths of nearly six thousand Spodoptera exempta adults have been measured in samples caught at light-traps at various sites in East Africa between December 1973 and July 1974. There were systematic variations in mean wing length between different populations at different times and places. A sampling unit called the station-month is defined as all the moths of one sex caught at one particular station in one particular month. The variance between station-months was greater than that between days within station-months, but less than that between observations within days. In general, wing length was at a minimum in February and rose to reach a maximum at the end of the season in July. In any one month wing lengths were usually larger at more northerly stations. A sample from one particular night at Ilonga (Tanzania) consisted of moths whose wing length and sex ratio differed significantly from those caught there at other times; this suggests that there was an influx of moths from a different geographical source on this night. Measurements were also made on samples from emergence sites in Kenya, and the results compared with the main analysis: they provide further evidence for geographical variation. Possible causes and consequences of the variation are discussed.


Dengue virus serotype 3 has been recognized as the predominant serotype in many occurrences of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) in Indonesia. Performing DHF prevention could be done with vaccination. BPPT institution was developing a vaccine, which is made from NS2B-NS3 recombinant protein. This protein is one of the non-structural proteins that arrange the genome of DENV and it has a molecular weight of 83 kDa. This research aims to isolate and purify NS2B-NS3 protein DENV-3 from transformant cell of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Purification of NS2B-NS3 protein is done with HisPur Ni-NTA Magnetic Beads method. Optimization of purification is done by increasing the concentration of imidazole as protein binder in the elution buffer starting from 250 mM until 500 mM. The validity of purified protein was tested qualitatively with Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrilamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) method and quantified by Bichinconinic Acid (BCA) method. The results revealed us that NS2B-NS3 protein was purified optimally at 300 mM imidazole by HisPur Ni-NTA Magnetic Beads method. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that there was a specific band with size 83 kDa in lane result of elution with 300 mM imidazole and based on the result of protein quantification obtained that it has the highest percentage of purification effectiveness is 16.38 %.


Today it is very common for software systems to be built by teams located in more than one country. For example, a project team may be located in the US while the team lead resides in Sweden. How then should students be trained for this kind of work? Senior design or capstone projects offer students real-world hands-on experience but rarely while working internationally. One reason is that most instructors do not have international business contacts that allow them to find project sponsors in other countries. Another reason is the fear of having to invest a huge amount of time managing an international project. In this paper we present the general concepts related to "International Capstone Project Exchanges", the basic model behind the exchanges (student teams are led by an industry sponsor residing in a different country) and several alternate models that have been used in practice. We will give examples from projects in the US, Germany, Sweden, Australia, and Colombia. We have extended the model beyond software projects to include engineering projects as well as marketing, and journalism. We conclude with a description of an International Capstone Project Exchange website that we have developed to aid any university in establishing their own international project exchange.


This paper presents a brief overview of the changes made during our department level reform (DLR) process (Grant Title: A Systems Approach for Civil and Environmental Engineering Education: Integrating Systems Thinking, Inquiry-Based Learning and Catamount Community Service-Learning Projects) and some of the effects of these changes on our students and ourselves. The overall goal of the reform has been to have students learn and apply a systems approach to engineering problem solving such that when they become practicing engineers they will develop more sustainable engineering solutions. We have integrated systems thinking into our programs in the follow ing ways; 1) new material has been included in key courses (e.g., the first-year introductory and senior design courses), 2) a sequence of three related environmental and transportation systems courses have been included within the curricula (i.e., Introduction to Systems, Decision Making, and Modeling), and 3) service-learning (SL) projects have been integrated into key required courses as a way of practicing a systems approach. A variety of assessment methods were implemented as part of the reform including student surveys, student focus groups, faculty interviews, and as sessment of student work. Student work in five classes demonstrate that students are learning the systems approach, applying it to engineering problem solving, and that this approach helps


By processing waste into recycled aggregate concrete, and producing recycled concrete aggregate with 50 percent of it replacing natural gravel, we make a study of different curing conditions on the carbonation of recycled concrete as well as the resistance capacity of steel corrosion. The experiment results indicate that the depth of carbonation of recycled concrete increases sharply with the standard curing period lowering. The recycled concrete steel corrosion resistance rate decreases as standard maintenance ages. The recycled concrete steel corrosion rate is much lower than the general concrete steel. The steel corrosion weight loss rate of general concrete is less than 0.3%, with no rusting of the steel. The steel corrosion weight loss rate of recycled concrete is mostly more than 0.3%, with apparent rusting.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of a heavy dynamic preload, consisting of 1 set of 5 repetition maximum (5RM) back squats, on countermovement vertical jump (VJ) and horizontal jump (HJ) performance. The study also investigated the ability of subjects to learn to apply the effects of the preload over subsequent training sessions. Nineteen (N = 19) resistance-trained men (age = 25.0 ± 4.8 years; weight = 79.3 ± 6.6 kg) participated in the study. Each subject took part in 4 practice and 4 testing sessions. The 4 practice sessions were included to allow for any learning effects of VJ and HJ to stabilize and to establish a true 5RM back squat. The 4 testing sessions were included to see if subjects were able to capitalize on the repeat exposure to the protocol. One practice session consisted of a 10-minute warm-up (5 minutes of cycling and 5 minutes of stretching), 2 sets of VJ and HJ (each set of VJ and HJ consisted of 4 jump repetitions) with a 5-minute rest between sets, progressive 5RM back squat evaluation, and 2 final sets of VJ and HJ. Both VJ and HJ increased approximately 2% over the 4 practice sessions, and 5RM back squat strength improved from 164.2 ± 25.1 kg to 196.9 ± 23.0 kg (p ≤ 0.05). The 4 testing sessions each consisted of the standardized warm-up, 1 set of 4 VJs and HJs, a 5-minute rest, 5RM back squat, a 5-minute rest, and the final set of VJs and HJs. Pre- and post-5RM VJ and HJ order was randomly assigned. The results indicated no significant differences occurred between the mean or maximal values for either VJ or HJ as a consequence of the dynamic preload exercise. In addition, the results reflected an inability of subjects to benefit from the repeated exposure to the heavy dynamic preload exercise protocol.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate possible genetic influences on susceptibility or resistance of sheep to Johne's disease.

DESIGN
A field and laboratory study of two fine-wool Merino flocks with a high prevalence of disease due to Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis infection.

PROCEDURE
Adult sheep were phenotypically classified as having severe, mild or no disease on the basis of clinical, pathological and cultural tests for paratuberculosis, and as positive or negative in tests for humoral immunity (agar gel immunodiffusion test) or cell mediated immunity (skin test for delayed type hypersensitivity). Correlations with phenotype were sought for polymorphisms at loci within selected immune function genes (NRAMP, MHC complex, IFN-gamma, lysozyme, leukaemia inhibiting factor).

RESULTS
Possible associations of particular NRAMP and MHC alleles with susceptibility or resistance to Johne's disease were detected.

CONCLUSION
If the results of this preliminary study are confirmed in further work, then the use of rams with "resistant" genotypes may assist in the control of Johne's disease in infected flocks.