Productivity growth has declined in most advanced economies in the past two decades and there are signs that the pace of global value chain (GVC) integration has slowed in the post-crisis period. This paper explores the role of GVCs - international trade in intermediate inputs - for multi-factor productivity growth using a range of cross-country industry-level data sources. We find that greater participation in GVCs is associated with faster domestic productivity growth at the industry level. We estimate that if GVCs had continued to grow at their pre-crisis trend, productivity growth would have been around 1 percentage point faster over the subsequent five years in both manufacturing and services. We also find that the productivity-enhancing direction of trade differs between sectors. For manufacturing sectors, greater use of intermediate inputs from foreign sources (backward participation) is linked with faster productivity growth, reflecting the beneficial effects of having access to better quality or cheaper inputs. For services sectors, it is more the sales of intermediates (forward participation) that is associated with productivity gains, in line with the traditional role of services in foreign trade as providing inputs to other activities. Looking by partner country, GVC participation with higher productivity countries is particularly productivity enhancing. We also find that GVC integration spurs greater domestic innovation activity.


few resources to support people once they have given up drugs. Resource needs are modest as, with imagination, existing local services could be used-for example, links could be established between adult education, further education, and sports centres and Manpower Services Commission projects. Making links, however, needs sensitive handling as people do not wish to be identified as ex-drug users. Links also need to be flexible as people would enter courses at various intervals, which may not always be convenient for course organisers. In addition, drop out rates may be high, which might affect people's willingness to take ex-users into their schemes. Because of the difficulties of making links people may be tempted to set up special rehabilitation facilities for drug misusers alone, yet this has a disadvantage as grouping drug'misusers together sets up yet another ghetto type ofenvironment. Instead of being prepared for a new lifestyle, past misusers are kept in a drug culture environment, and their resolution to give up drugs may be destroyed by less motivated members of the group. VERNON HOCHULI


The goal of this study was to determine the effects of peak knee valgus angle and peak knee abductor moment on the anterior, medial, and lateral tibial translations (ATT, MTT, LTT) in the "at risk" female knee during drop landing. Fifteen female subjects performed drop landings from 40 cm. Three‐dimension knee motion was simultaneously recorded using a high speed, biplane fluoroscopy system, and a video‐based motion analysis system. Valgus knee angles and knee abduction moments were stratified into low, intermediate, and high groups and peak ATT, MTT, and LTT were compared between these groups with ANOVA (α = 0.05). Significant differences were observed between stratified groups in peak knee valgus angle (p < 0.0001) and peak knee abduction moment (p < 0.0001). However, no corresponding differences in peak ATT, LTT, and MTT between groups exhibiting low to high‐peak knee valgus angles (ATT: p = 0.80; LTT: p = 0.25; MTT: p = 0.72); or, in peak ATT (p = 0.61), LTT (p = 0.26) and MTT (p = 0.96) translations when stratified according to low to high knee abduction moments, were found. We conclude that the healthy female knee is tightly regulated with regard to translations even when motion analysis derived knee valgus angles and abduction moments are high. © 2012 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 31: 257–267, 2013


Introduction: As a traditional treatment in many countries, the seeds of Nigella sativa are used to prevent and heal many diseases like diabetes, asthma, cough, nasal congestion, headache, toothache, intestinal worms, menstrual disorders, gastrointestinal diseases, and sexual dysfunction. The aim of this study was to review the published scientific reports about the physiologic effects of the seeds of Nigella sativa on different organs of body. In the review, scientific papers on the effects of the seeds of Nigella sativa on the functions of different organs of body, published between 1980 and 2015, were investigated and collected using Medline and SID databases. Conclusion: Based on the laboratory studies, the seeds of Nigella sativa are with liver, kidney, gastrointestinal, nervous system, and cardiovascular protective effects, as well as anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, and anti-parasite effects. Nigella sativa reduces blood pressure, blood sugar, and hyperlipidemia. Nevertheless, there are no expanded studies on the herb. No doubt, based on the results of laboratory studies and documents about its consumption administrated in the traditional medicine, it is useful to consume the herb in cases including a mild high blood pressure, as well as blood sugar increase and hyperlipidemia. However, it requires more human studies.


The work was devoted to a histochemical studying of the covering lamina and other epithelial secretions of the avian muscular stomach. It has been shown that in its histochemical properties the secreted mucin is similar to mucous secretions of the enterodermal lining of the mammalian stomach and contains neutral polysaccharides, sulfo- and slilosaccharides. The protein component is represented by aminoacid residues of lysin, cystine, cystein. Formation of the mechanically firm structure--lamina is based on the substances of carbohydrate--protein nature secreted by the epithelial lining of the stomach.


This introduction to the special issue highlights the youth development research and practice base that influenced the field in the 20th century and presents some historical context for the practice and study of youth work. Next, it provides an overview of the articles which offer a retrospective account of youth development from how youth development has been studied, understood and measured to how youth development practice has evolved to support, engage and address the needs of young people. The introduction concludes with reflections stimulated by the process of reviewing the manuscripts and working with the authors on their contributions. Three themes emerged as good grist for the 21st century conversations moving forward: 1) the divergent perspectives on definition, dimensions of practice and accountability, 2) the value of translational scholarship bridging science and complex practice, and 3) the importance of leveraging systems support for field building.


Runway operation is the limiting factor for the overall throughput of airports. Today the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) imposes wake vortex separation minima between following aircrafts that are based on simple pair-wise rules. However, the lifetime of wake vortices results from a much broader basis of factors, that ranges from a large set of aircraft parameters to meteorological conditions and traffic mix. In particular atmospheric conditions can significantly reduce wake hazard, for instance, in case of strong turbulence or crosswinds. While such situations could allow a reduction of the separation minima, safety reasons and the current technical challenges of detecting and managing such scenarios leads to the strict application of the ICAO standards. With the aid of accurate wind data and precise measurements of wake vortices, more efficient intervals could be set, particularly when weather conditions turn favourable. Depending on traffic intensity, these adjustments could enhance airport capacity, and generate major commercial benefits. This study deals with recent development in the radar technology to attain such goals. It presents (i) the trials of an electronic scanning radar to be used in a future wake turbulence advisory system and (ii) theoretical and numerical analysis of the radar response in clear air and in rainy weather. Part of this work has been achieved with the support of the European ATM research program SESAR.


ABSTRACT High-tech development has been broadly accepted as a prominent matter of regional development policies and plans at the global level. Strategies to enhance it have evident implications for spatial planning policies, plans and visions. Consequently, careful attention should be paid to the role that spatial planning policies play in the national and regional efforts to advance high-tech development in a particular place. This study addresses the relationship between the spatial planning system and high-tech development, searching to explain the spatial implications resulting from this relationship. It approaches the topic by comparing high-tech development experiences in the Netherlands and Taiwan from an institutional perspective. Although both countries have used a range of spatial strategies for economic growth through high-tech development, the results show that their different institutional settings, power relations between different levels of government and conceptions of science park have led to the implementation of two very distinct spatial strategies, shaping different spatial patterns of high-tech development clustering in these two regions. The findings demonstrate the potential of the institutional approach to study international planning issues, and contribute to theories of high-tech development and spatial planning.


The study addresses an issue regarding the English language teachers who have studied abroad and are teaching at the tertiary level of education in Bangladesh. The idea of this study comes out of my professional experience and my encounter with fellow ELT practitioners. I have been in the field of language teaching for the past fourteen years and at Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh for the last seven years where I watch my students turning into my colleagues. I noticed that the increasing demand for competent users of English in this era of globalization has also made my colleagues interested in getting education from Western developed countries like their predecessors. Equally has grown the demand for English Language Teaching (ELT) and related studies like Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Much investigation has been carried out on the experiences of the teachers while they were studying abroad but no studies have been carried out on the returning teachers and the episode after. This study, thus, is an attempt to explore what prompted these teachers to study abroad, whether these Western trained teachers on their return have made changes to their teaching approaches, how or in what ways have they done it, what sort of obstacles did they face or are they facing and what measures can be taken to overcome these barriers. These issues are central in connection to the future of English language teaching at the university level and based on the opinions of the teachers, the study provides recommendations to bridge the gap between the existing language teaching policy and practice.


Vaccinia virus mutants ts2 and ts25, members of the same complementation group, exhibit a temperature-dependent arrest at the stage of viral DNA replication. The lesions responsible for the mutant phenotypes have been localized to the far left region of the HindIII B genomic fragment by marker rescue studies. Hybrid selection analyses established that the DNA fragments positive for rescue represented the first open reading frame of the HindIII B fragment and encoded a 30-kilodalton protein. The gene is expressed early after infection as a rightwardly transcribed 1-kilobase-pair mRNA whose coordinates were determined by S1 nuclease mapping. To further the phenotypic analysis of the mutants, the accumulation of viral DNA sequences during permissive and nonpermissive infections was quantitated. The extent of the DNA- phenotype was shown to vary in different cell types. In mouse L cells at either high or low multiplicity of infection, nonpermissive DNA synthesis was less than 5% of that seen in permissive infections. This severe defect was mirrored by correspondingly low viral yields. In infections of BSC40 monkey cells, however, the deficiencies in both DNA synthesis and virus production were far less severe. For one mutant (ts2), the temperature sensitivity in BSC40 cells varied inversely with the multiplicity of infection.


This paper examines the effect of maternal socio-economic status in the household, such as their autonomy, ability, freedom and bargaining power, on child birth registration in India using the nationally representative India Human Development Survey-II (IHDS-II), 2011–12. We have estimated a multilevel mixed effects model which accounts for the hierarchical structure of the data and allows us to examine the effects of unobserved 'district' and 'community' characteristics along with individual child level characteristics on probability of birth registration. The results show that between-districts and between individuals differences share a considerably high and an almost equal proportion of the variations in probability of birth registration in India. At individual child level, mother's socio-economic status such as her ability to move around independently and her exposure to outside world, significantly raise the probability of birth registration. More importantly, the marginal effects of the maternal autonomy indicators: mother's ability to move around freely and her control over resources, on birth registration vary across districts in India. Other variables such as institutional birth, mother's antenatal care seeking behaviour, caste, religion, household wealth and parental education are significant determinants of birth registration.


Human rights are those rights which are essential for the survival of humans, humanity, humanism and human rights have been in the society right from the beginning of human civilization. Infact, In India, they have been as old as the "Satyuga" and times of Ramayana (Tretayuga) and Mahabharata (Dvapara Yuga) Particularly, the concept of "Vasudhaiba Kutumbakam" contains the spirit of human civilization. The "Rig Veda, the oldest document of the Indians declared not only all human beings are equal but the each and every creature in the universe is equal with respect to the dignity of human rights. The "Atharva Veda" advocated the same thing. In addition to this, ancient Indian stressed on the principle that one person's right is another person's duty. The need to feel the importance of human rights was felt in the pre-independence era where the human beings fought for their rights with the National freedom movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi. Infact, Bhagat Singh, Veer Savarkar and so many other revolutionaries fought for the rights of people in Jail. In the Independent India, efforts have been made to define human rights education in the 1950's & 1960's in formal school setting. But as time passes, the human rights perspectives have dominated the formulation of educational policies which is supported and recommended by major commissions and policy documents like University Education commission, (Radha Krishan Commission 1949). Secondary Education commission (Mudaliar Commission 1952) Education Commission ( Kothari Commission, 1964-1966), National Policies on Education (1968,1986), The Rammurthi Committee (1992), The Chavan Committee (1999), Programme of Action (1992) etc.Thus, the history of human rights which has its existence from the power of Rig Veda has developed as time passes to take a shape of human right as right to express, right to vote, right to education in respect of sex, caste or creed, right to information etc. The UNO declared and adopted Human rights in 1948 but the Indians talked about them in their ancient civilization. Here,  in this paper the authors have tried to quote few examples especially from Gorakh Sutras to prove that Indians valued Human rights much earlier than the whole world.


An active current waveshaping/control technique with continuous conduction of input current and suitable for single phase switch mode rectifiers is proposed. The nature of input current is similar to that of bang bang hysteresis current control. The technique does not require a reference hysteresis window. Current control is achieved with constant switching frequency for a given load current and varying inversely in a known proportion with it. Simulated performance results and selected experimental results are provided.<<ETX>>


The aim of the study is to demonstrate the ability of abnormal Doppler indices to predict the acid-base status of the fetus. A pulsed Doppler study of umbilical artery, middle cerebral artery and thoracic aorta were assessed on 30 intrauterine growth restricted and 27 appropriate-for-gestational-age fetuses immediately before cordocentesis. All the fetuses with absent end diastolic velocity in the umbilical artery were found to be acidemic by cordocentesis. Thoracic aorta pulsatility index (PI) increased and middle cerebral artery PI decreased significantly with increased umbilical impedance ( r = 0·702, r = -0·340, respectively). Umbilical artery and thoracic aorta PI significantly increased, whereas middle cerebral artery PI decreased with a decrease in umbilical blood pH ( r = -0·760, r = -0·642, r = 0·292, respectively). Doppler findings have a very strong correlation with the acid-base status of the fetuses. Increased umbilical impedance is associated with progressive impairment of placental gas exchange and that by the time diastolic flow is lost hypoxaemia or acidaemia is usually present.


When Valerie Eliot, the widow of poet T. S. Eliot, presented Andrew Lloyd Webber with old drafts and discarded fragments from the writing of her husband's volume 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats' at a production workshop in 1980, one abandoned poem prompted the composer to declare, "What you've just given me is the difference between a song cycle that could be done by children in school and a musical" The rejected draft in question was in fact originally intended to conclude Eliot's collection of feline poetry, and contained ideas that centred on aspects of the physical, and the dance of the cats. This idea of physicality and movement so galvanized Lloyd Webber that it formed the basis upon which he shifted his attention from the song cycle he was creating based on Eliot's poetry, to the idea of a staged project; ultimately, that discarded draft shaped the work's form into what is often credited as the progenitor of the "megamusical": Cats . The reason for this may now appear obvious, for as choreographer Gillian Lynne notes, "there is no limit to what cats can do with their bodies, if you watch".


Hans Adolf Sølling (1879-1945), working completely on his own in the small town of Horsens, was Denmark's first neurosurgeon. Sølling was an admirable and talented man who performed major intracranial operations on more than 130 patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia, as well as treating epilepsy, craniotrauma, brain tumors, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, and myelomeningoceles. Although not in the same league as Harvey Cushing (1869-1939), Vilhelm Magnus in Norway (1871-1929), and Herbert Olivecrona in Sweden (1891-1980), Sølling was a true Danish pioneer.


: Three unusual cases of Down's syndrome inheritance are presented which permit supposing that microstructural chromosome aberrations in parents may induce not only a structural imbalance of chromosomal material in progeny, but also a numerical imbalance.


Motivation: RNA-Seq experiments have revealed a multitude of novel ncRNAs. The gold standard for their analysis based on simultaneous alignment and folding suffers from extreme time complexity of O(n6). Subsequently, numerous faster 'Sankoff-style' approaches have been suggested. Commonly, the performance of such methods relies on sequence-based heuristics that restrict the search space to optimal or near-optimal sequence alignments; however, the accuracy of sequence-based methods breaks down for RNAs with sequence identities below 60%. Alignment approaches like LocARNA that do not require sequence-based heuristics, have been limited to high complexity (≥ quartic time). Results: Breaking this barrier, we introduce the novel Sankoff-style algorithm 'sparsified prediction and alignment of RNAs based on their structure ensembles (SPARSE)', which runs in quadratic time without sequence-based heuristics. To achieve this low complexity, on par with sequence alignment algorithms, SPARSE features strong sparsification based on structural properties of the RNA ensembles. Following PMcomp, SPARSE gains further speed-up from lightweight energy computation. Although all existing lightweight Sankoff-style methods restrict Sankoff's original model by disallowing loop deletions and insertions, SPARSE transfers the Sankoff algorithm to the lightweight energy model completely for the first time. Compared with LocARNA, SPARSE achieves similar alignment and better folding quality in significantly less time (speedup: 3.7). At similar run-time, it aligns low sequence identity instances substantially more accurate than RAF, which uses sequence-based heuristics. Availability and implementation: SPARSE is freely available at http://www.bioinf.uni-freiburg.de/Software/SPARSE. Contact: email@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


We demonstrate a technique of generating dual-wavelength picosecond pulses with a self-seeded Fabry-Perot laser diode, where the two lasing wavelengths are selected from the same mode of the laser diode by the spectrally separated orthogonally polarized reflection peaks of a polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating. Using this technique, we generated stable dual-wavelength pulses that had a pulsewidth of 59.0-63.3 ps, a wavelength separation of 0.53 nm, and a pulse rate of about 2 GHz. We were also able to achieve simultaneous lasing at the two wavelengths with equal pulse intensities and effective switching between the two wavelengths by simply adjusting the polarization controller placed in the laser cavity.


With an abundance of products available online, many online retailers provide sales rankings to make it easier for consumers to find the best-selling products. Successfully implementing product rankings online was done a decade ago by Amazon, and more recently by Apple's App Store. However, neither market provides actual download data, a very useful statistic for both practitioners and researchers. In the past, researchers developed various strategies that allowed them to infer demand from rank data. Almost all of that work is based on an experiment that shifts sales or collaboration with a vendor to get actual sales data. In this research, we present an innovative method to use public data to infer the rank--demand relationship for the paid apps on Apple's iTunes App Store. We find that the top-ranked paid app for iPhone generates 150 times more downloads compared to the paid app ranked at 200. Similarly, the top paid app on iPad generates 120 times more downloads compared to the paid app ranked at 200. We conclude with a discussion on an extension of this framework to the Android platform, in-app purchases, and free apps.


Flight simulators are widely used in aerospace industry for multiple purposes. This paper highlights the importance of engineering flight simulators and presents a 3 degrees-of-freedom longitudinal flight simulation model that can be adopted to simulate aircraft behaviour for engineering analysis. A brief overview of aircraft design process is presented with reference to flight simulation procedure. A special emphasis is placed on Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Athena Vortex Lattice program that can be used to calculate aerodynamic characteristics for a given geometric configuration. The paper explains modeling of aerodynamics and thrust blocks and shows how they can be linked with equations of motion block to build a comprehensive flight simulation model. Matlab script that linearizes and trims equations of motion is also discussed and key stability results are explained in detail. Simulation test cases are also presented. Several recommendations are made at the end of the paper on the potential use of simulators and also on ways of improving the simulation model.


Introduction: The caries process is characterized as a lifetime disease that occurs at an early phase of life. One of the most important factors which influence the development of dental caries is saliva. Aim of the study: The study was conducted to correlate the effect of ageing on selected physical properties of saliva and caries experience. Methodology: A cross-sectional comparative research was assessed among 90 healthy subjects (males only) who attended International Medical Center at Baghdad city. They were classified into 3 age groups (20 years, 40 years and 60 years) each age groups consisted of 30 subjects. The data was then statistically analyzed using SPSS version 22. Statistically, a significant difference was at p<0.05. Results: The current study found that the increase in the mean value of caries experience represented by DMFs with an increase in age (7.27 ± 8.02), (22.07 ± 20.33), (60.37 ± 31.39) respectively. There was a highly statistically significant difference between different age groups (p<0.01). The present study recorded decrease in the mean value of salivary flow rate and a slight increase in the mean value of salivary viscosity with an increase in the age with highly significant difference (p<0.5) among different age groups, while salivary pH recorded approximately equal mean value with no significant difference among different age groups. The current study revealed a negative significant correlation between Ds fraction with salivary PH among the young age group, a positive correlation was recorded between (Ds) fraction with salivary viscosity among young and middle-aged groups. Conclusion: The present data suggest that with increasing age an increase in dental caries is experienced. There are significant age-related differences in salivary physical properties that can affect the caries experience.


Purpose: This paper has a double purpose. First, to analyze the competencies and skills proposed as ideals for an Industrial Engineering degree and identify them in the current study plans implemented in Spanish universities. Second, to check the fit between competencies and skills described in Spanish Industrial Engineering degrees and a real business environment. Design/methodology/approach: We searched information from universities through the web www.universia.es and obtained the list of all Spanish Universities, which have been filtered one by one according to their studies about Industrial Engineering degree. In addition, to compare competencies with real business world we have used results provided from the web analysis and from a previous paper in which a qualitative methodology called grounded theory was used. Findings: On one hand, we have analyzed and identified the competencies and skills proposed as ideals for an Industrial Engineering degree in the current study plans implemented in Spanish universities: competencies as multidisciplinariety and R&D are considered in all the universities, but commercial or environment are not so popular. On the other hand we have checked the fit between competencies and skills described in Spanish Industrial Engineering degrees and a real business environment. As a result, competencies as rotation, experience, company vision and corporative strategy are in all the analyzed study plans, but competencies as shared vision, free access to information and involvement of managers do not appear in new degrees, but they are required in real business. Research limitations/implications: About the origin of information, we use official web sites belonging to Spanish public and some private universities, and corresponding schools. Some universities have not updated the information about degrees in Industrial Engineering, and they still have old plans information. Moreover, the comparison we can make between the competencies of degrees and the needs to develop the Industrial Engineering profession is theoretical because the introduction of new degrees has just started and there are no graduates. Practical implications: The principal practical implication is to identify a professional profile of the engineer common to most Spanish universities and therefore facilitate the selection of one curricula or another for students. These can lead to check with the first graduates whether or not the competencies acquired in University fit in the business world. On the other hand, from a professional point of view, we open a future line of research by testing competencies acquired by graduates and competencies required in the professional field, as well as the study of these competencies in the professional field. In addition, current employees may decide to recycle their competencies or acquire new ones knowing the design of new degrees. Originality/value: There are no comparative studies about competencies a Spanish Industrial Engineer has to acquire in University to develop his or her professional work. In consequence, there are not comparative studies about competencies acquired in university and profiles demanded by companies in real business world. This paper deals with both topics.


Introduction: Theoretical Common Places Rubber Plants and the Soviet Order of Things Archeology of the Common Place A Labyrinth without a Monster The Mythologist as Traveler 1. Mythologies of Everyday Life Byt: Daily Grind and Domestic Trash Poshlost': Banality, Obscenity, Bad Taste Meshchanstvo: Middle Class, Middlebrow Private Life and Russian Soul Truth, Sincerity, Affectation Kul'turnost': The Totalitarian Lacquer Box Soviet Songs: From Stalin's Fairy Tale to "Good-bye, Amerika" 2. Living in Common Places: The Communal Apartment Family Romance and Communal Utopia Art and the Housing Crisis: Intellectuals in the Closet Welcome to the Communal Apartment Psychopathology of Soviet Everyday Life Interior Decoration The Ruins of Utopia A Homecoming, 1991 3. Writing Common Places: Graphomania History of the Literary Disease The Forgotten Classics The Genius of the People and the Conceptual Police Glasnost', Graphomania, and Popular Culture A Taxi Ride with a Graphomaniac 4. Postcommunism, Postmodernism The End of the Soviet World: From the Barricades to the Bazaar Glasnost' Streetwalking: Fallen Monuments and Rising Dolls Stalin's Cinematic Charisma, or History as Kitsch Trashy Jewels of Women Artists Merchant Renaissance and Cultural Scandals The Obscure Object of Advertisement Conclusion: Nostalgia for the Common Place Notes Index


Preceded by a short discussion of the motives for using permanent magnets in accelerators, a new type of permanent magnet for use in accelerators is presented. The basic design and most important properties of a quadrupole will be described that uses both steel and permanent magnet material. The field gradient produced by this magnet can be adjusted without changing any other aspect of the field produced by this quadrupole. The generalization of this concept to produce other multipole fields, or combination of multipole fields, will also be presented.


We study the medium modified fragmentation function in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. We show that the ACSX and QW formalisms are equivalent to each other in the high-Q2 limit in both theoretical and numerical aspects.


Steerable metasurface antennas Metasurface antennas are planar multi-layer configurations of sub-wavelength building blocks (i.e. unit cells) typically printed on grounded dielectric slab. Metasurfaces possess, among others, the ability to manipulate surface waves. Metasurface antennas radiation is well described in terms of a continuous slowly varying electric sheet tensorial reactance, interacting with a surface wave, which is gradually transformed into a leaky wave. Indeed, a leaky-wave antenna is a waveguiding structure which sustains a wave that radiates energy while propagating along the antenna itself. As for metasurface antennas, such radiating mechanism is achievable through Sinusoidally-Modulated Reactance Surface (SMRS) placed at the upper interface of a grounded dielectric slab. This work focuses on the steerability of metasurface antennas via a reconfigurable ground plane. Thus, the goal is to reconfigure the ground plane in a manner that for different values of the equivalent plane, the antenna radiates at different controllable angles. Therefore, the idea is to add between the SMRS and a fixed ground a reconfigurable periodic arrangement of sub-wavelength unit cells, which will form a uniform reactance surface. The reconfigurability will be achieved through the insertion of varactor diodes in the unit cell design of such texture. Ergo, the steerable metasurface antenna will be composed by three different layers: on the bottom there is a bare ground plane, separated by an air gap from the reconfigurable metasurface, which is surmounted by a dielectric layer and topped by a SMRS. The working principle is the following: changing the sheet impedance of the reconfigurable plane allows for the modification of the wavevector of the surface waves sustained by the structure and, consequently, of the surface impedance "seen" by such modes. The modulation of the overall surface impedance gives rise to a leaky wave radiating away from the surface at a certain angle, which depends on the average impedance and, ultimately, on the varactor diodes' capacitance. State of the art systematic procedures allow to derive the admittance of a patterned metallic sheet, whether this is printed on a grounded dielectric substrate or not, starting from the scattering parameters. These techniques are tested and used to determine the sheet admittance of the upper layer of the proposed antenna. Then, studying the solutions of the transverse resonance equation (TRE) of the structure, the optimal values of the admittance of the reconfigurable plane are identified in order to achieve the maximum possible steerability of the main beam. Finally, a proper geometry is found to implement such admittances, given the range of capacitance of a commercial varactor diode. The complete antenna is simulated and designed using both full-wave electromagnetic solver CST and in-house solvers. Despite some discrepancies between the expected results and the simulations, a clear steerability of the radiating beam is obtained.


We excite exciton-polariton condensates in half-moon shapes by the non-resonant optical excitation of GaAs-based cylindrical pillar microcavities. In this geometry, the {\pi}-jump of the phase of the condensate wave function coexists with a gradual {\pm \pi} phase variation between two horns of the half-moon. We switch between clockwise and counter-clockwise phase currents by slightly shifting the excitation spot on the surface of the pillar. Half-moon condensates are expected to reveal features of two-level quantum systems similar to superconducting flux qubits


Based on the framework of endogenous economic growth, this paper took the education sector as a separate human capital production sector, and then an economic growth model with endogenous human capital accumulation is constructed, and a combination of theoretical derivation and simulation is used for the education investment behavior of the Chinese household sector, as well as the analysis of the efficiency of human capital accumulation. Based on above theoretical analysis, then to study the impact of educational investment on economic growth. The study found that the more the elasticity of education investment, the higher the efficiency of human capital accumulation, and the greater willingness of families to increase investment on education. Human capital accumulation is a key factor in determining the economic growth potential of a country or region, and education is the most important way for the accumulation of human capital. The investment in education is necessary for China under the condition of the economic growth rate slowing down.


Surface level ozone (O3) is clearly a global scale problem with regard to its adverse effects on crops, forests and native, terrestrial plant ecosystems. Photochemists and meteorologists are continuing to define the chemistry and physics of the prevalence of O3 at the ground level. Similarly, plant scientists in the U.S. and Europe have examined the effects of O3 on crops and tree seedlings or saplings through large-scale studies. Examples include the U.S. National Crop Loss Assessment Network (NCLAN), the U.S. EPA's (Environmental Protection Agency's) San Bernardino National Forest Photochemical Oxidant Study, European Open-top Chambers Programme (EOTCP), and several ongoing EU (European Union) projects. In addition, there have been studies on mature tree responses through field measurements and by simulation modeling.


This paper presents a fast and effective algorithm for detecting ridge- or ribbon-like linear features from remote sensing imagery. To judge if a pixel is at the center of a linear feature, the first step is to find several biggest pixels by their grey values within orthogonal directional windows, and store them into an evaluation window. A simple evaluation method is then applied to make the yes or no decision on whether the pixel is a linear feature point. Aerial images were used to test the algorithm's ability to extract roads. This algorithm was compared with the Multiple Directional Non Maximum Suppression (MDNMS) algorithm. The experimental results indicate that with the proposed algorithm the processing of road details could improve and the processing time decrease.


Big Data has emerged as of one of the biggest business and technological buzzwords of recent years. "The term Big Data applies to information that cannot be processed or analysed using traditional tools or processes" (Eaton et al. 2012). A number of IT companies including International Business Machines (IBM), Hewlett Packard (HP) and Oracle are leading the development of Big Data analytics programs and are creating unique packages for retailers, which suggests that it is going to have a big impact on the retail industry. The primary research has been carried out in the form of interviews, which has been conducted anonymously with representatives from COMPANY A and COMPANY B, to help meet the aims and objectives. Extensive secondary research has also been undertaken to provide more information to help answer the overall question: How can the analytics on Big Data affect the buying trends of customers in the retail industry? There is a high probability that the main benefit of Big Data for retailers and their customers is being able to better understand customers, allowing for more personalised offers leading to higher sales and customer loyalty. One of the prominent factors that may affect the buying trends of retail customers is the channel by which purchases are made. The analytics of Big Data will undoubtedly have an impact on the buying trends of retail customers but ultimately when, where and how customers make purchases will be down to personal preference. There is a distinct possibility that a collective view from a minimum of five retailers could prove more reliable, allowing for more representative conclusions to be made. As more and more data becomes available every second, and with the use of analytics tools becoming more commonplace in the retail industry, there could a huge impact for many years to come. Peter Smith is currently completing the final year of a Business and ICT BSc (Hons) degree as well as being a course representative. His interests in Big Data and Analytics were discovered leading up to and during his year in industry. To contact Peter Smith, please email: firstname.lastname@example.com  or visit his LinkedIn profile: uk.linkedin.com/in/petersmith24.


The breastfeeding program for babies is very encouraged by the government on the grounds that there are many benefits of breastfeeding that can be given to babies. One of the supporting factors for the success of the program is to prepare the breast so that it can produce abundant milk and contains lots of nutrients. Preparation of pregnant women to provide quality breastfeeding is by treating the breast during pregnancy in the final trimester of pregnancy. Warm massage and compresses on the breast have several effects, including improving blood flow and making the nipple more elastic and not easily scratched when breastfeeding later.Key words: Pregnant women, breast care, breastfeeding.


The economics of geographical indications (GIs) is assessed within a vertical product differentiation framework that is consistent with the competitive structure of the agricultural sector with free entry/exit. It is assumed that certification costs are needed for GIs to serve as (collective) credible quality certification devices, and production of high-quality product is endogenously determined. We find that GIs can support a competitive provision of quality that partly overcomes the market failure and leads to clear welfare gains, although they fall short of delivering the (constrained) first-best level of the high-quality good. The main beneficiaries of the welfare gains are consumers. Producers may also accrue some benefit if the production of high-quality products draws on scarce factors that they own.


The successful bonding of bare thinned Si SOI wafers to bare GaAs wafers in previous research has proven to be an important first step in achieving integration of Si electronics with GaAs optoelectronic devices. The thinning of the SOI wafer has been shown to be a successful solution to the problem of the thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between Si and GaAs, allowing for the potential dense integration of mixed optoelectronic and electronic technologies. This research takes the next logical step toward that end by bonding Si wafers with simulated full back-end processing to GaAs wafers. The back-end processing simulation consists of depositing 1000A of Al, patterning the Al into 5pm serpentine lines on a 5pm pitch, covering the Al with a PECVD oxide, and performing CMP planarization of the oxide. The 1000A variations caused by the Al layer are consistent with surface profiles taken from fully processed SOI wafers obtained from IBM. The result is that these "simulation" wafers model the difficulties presented with bonding fully processed wafers; namely the temperature constraints caused by the existence of buried Al metal and the topography created by the patterned metal. The entire process, including the bonding and post-bond anneal, is carried out at temperatures below 450 C, making it compatible with a fully processed SOI CMOS wafer. The use of dielectric CMP has become a common back-end processing step. The wafer bonding in this work relies on CMP technology to planarize PECVD oxide deposited on the bonding surface of both wafers. The combination of CMP with post CMP cleaning methods results in a PECVD oxide surface with an order of magnitude reduction in the r.m.s. roughness, rendering the surface smooth enough to facilitate wafer bonding. The future goal of this project is to bond fully processed Si CMOS wafers to GaAs wafers containing optoelectronic devices and to test the feasibility of creating interconnects through the bond interface. Thesis Supervisor: Clifton G. Fonstad, Jr. Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering


Epoxy-cyanate (EP-CE) ester composites containing the inorganic-organic hybrid polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) octaisobutyl(T8)-POSS (oib-POSS) were prepared. These EP-CE/POSS composites were characterized by gelation characteristics, transmission election microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravimetric analyses (TGA) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMTA). The glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal decomposition temperature (Tdec) of composites increased compared with the neat epoxy-cyanate ester with the increment of POSS content. Additionally, all the EP-CE/POSS composites exhibited higher storage modulus (E') values (temperature>Tg) than the pure resins. The loss factor peak intensities decreased as the weight percentage of POSS increases. TEM and XRD showed that phase-separated aggregates of POSS were found in matrix, because POSS did not react with the resin.


Source: Variation in personality traits is predicted to reflect physiology, but the extent to which variations in stress hormones derive from differences in personality and/or state-dependent factors remains unclear. To investigate this, wild blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) were briefly brought into captivity and scored for personality and corticosterone (Cort) concentrations. More active females had lower baseline Cort than less active individuals. Exploratory tendency and neophobia did not co-vary with baseline Cort. Stress-induced Cort concentrations were correlated negatively with exploratory tendency and haematocrit, but positively with mass gain in captivity. Therefore, baseline and stress-induced Cort concentrations in wintering blue tits were associated with state-dependent variables, sex, age and personality traits. Key to interpreting the physiology of personality traits seems to be their interactions with other traits that mediate ability to utilise resources, and thus influence an individual's perception of its current and future energy balance.


Stellar feedback, star formation, and gravitational interactions are major controlling forces in the evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). To explore their relative roles, we examine the properties and evolution of GMCs forming in an isolated galactic disk simulation that includes both localized thermal feedback and photoelectric heating. The results are compared with the three previous simulations in this series, which consists of a model with no star formation, star formation but no form of feedback, and star formation with photoelectric heating in a set with steadily increasing physical effects. We find that the addition of localized thermal feedback greatly suppresses star formation but does not destroy the surrounding GMC, giving cloud properties closely resembling the run in which no stellar physics is included. The outflows from the feedback reduce the mass of the cloud but do not destroy it, allowing the cloud to survive its stellar children. This suggests that weak thermal feedback such as the lower bound expected for a supernova may play a relatively minor role in the galactic structure of quiescent Milky-Way-type galaxies, compared to gravitational interactions and disk shear.


Author(s): Blair, Kyle Adam | Advisor(s): Karis, Aleck | Abstract: When considering the creation of new musical compositions it occurs to me that there exists a variety of ways of relating to history. Many works call upon forms and harmonic languages spanning back hundreds of years. Some composers seek to eschew the past and present and imagine music of the future. Some composers ignore the issue entirely. Music explicitly relating to the present time always fascinates me. Although one might respond to that notion by claiming that any piece of music ever written qualifies as "music of the present" upon its completion, my concern is not with the date of composition. In this case I am concerned with music that embraces the cultural phenomena and innovations of the time during which it was composed. The Zeitoper pieces of Kurt Weill exemplify this concern wholly, as these pieces exploit current events and technological innovations as inspiration for musical content. In this thesis I aim to highlight three other examples of "music of the present". Firstly, I will propose manners in which Edgard Varese's Ionisation for percussion ensemble might be understood as related to the electrochemical process of ionization and the Neils Bohr model of the atom, proposed in 1913. Secondly, I will discuss Internet latency, a parameter inherent in telematic performance practice, as a usable compositional tool. Finally, I will discuss my recent composition, Microscope, with regards to its relationship to popular culture idioms and to the placement of musical and non-musical "hooks" throughout the work.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-protein coding transcripts involved in many cellular and physiological mechanisms. Recently, a new class of miRNA called 'circulating miRNAs' was found in cell-free body fluids such as plasma and urine. Circulating miRNAs have been shown to be very stable, specific, and sensitive biomarkers. In this paper, we investigate whether circulating miRNAs can serve as biomarkers for erythropoiesis-stimulating agent abuse. To this end, we analyzed miRNA levels in plasma by miRNA microarrays and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Plasma samples are derived from a clinical study with healthy subjects injected with erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (C.E.R.A.). Based on microarray results, we observed a significant difference in the levels of miRNAs in plasma after C.E.R.A. injection. We demonstrated that a specific miRNA, miR-144, exhibit a high increase that lasts 27 days after C.E.R.A. stimulation. Considering the fact that miR-144 is an essential erythropoiesis agent in different organisms, these findings suggest the possibility of using miR-144 as a sensitive and informative biomarker to detect C.E.R.A. abuse.


ABSTRACT Chronic sleep restriction may affect metabolism, hormone secretion patterns and inflammatory responses. Limited reports suggest also epigenetic effects, such as changes in DNA methylation profiles. The study aims to assess the potential association between poor sleep quality or sleep duration and the levels of 5-methylcytosine in the promoter regions of selected tumor suppressor genes. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 710 nurses and midwives aged 40–60 years. Data from interviews regarding sleep habits and potential confounders were used. The methylation status of tumor suppressor genes was determined via qMSP reactions using DNA samples derived from leucocytes. No significant findings were observed in the total study population or in the two subgroups of women stratified by the current system of work. A borderline significance association was observed between a shorter duration of sleep and an increased methylation level in CDKN2A among day working nurses and midwives. Further studies are warranted to explore this under-investigated topic.


This paper develops an analytical model for the assessment of the cost performance of a given logistics network operating under regular and irregular (disruptive) conditions. In addition, the paper aims to carry out a sensitivity analysis of this cost with respect to changes of the most influencing factors. In particular, this is expected to investigate the vulnerability of this network with respect to particular disruptive events. The logistics network under consideration consists of the manufacturers and retailers/consumers as the origin and destination nodes of the goods flow concerned, and the transport system (links and services) connecting them. The nodes are characterized by the goods' production and consumption rates, and the level of inventories, and related costs. The transport system is characterized by the transport mode that is exclusively used in the network, its frequency of service, the goods' delivery time (speed), and the related costs. Irregular conditions are characterized by the intensity of the impact and duration of the disruptive event, which, in the given case, is assumed to completely cut off the transport services in the network. The model uses inputs reflecting these characteristics. The output consists of the network's total and average cost per unit of goods, which is estimated depending on the type and delivery frequency of the transport mode that is exclusively used, and on the duration of the disruptive event. The model is applied to the generic hypothetical logistic network using data from the European logistics networks.


Tempeh is a traditional fermented soyfood native to Central Java, Indonesia; tempeh is prepared by salt-free aerobic fermentation using Rhizopus. Similar to miso, tempeh is also reported to be antioxygenic. In this study, we used a tempeh-like fermented soybean. First, soybean was incubated aerobically and then successively incubated anaerobically. Because the γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) content was increased remarkably, we named this tempeh GABA-tempeh. The contents of other free amino acids and peptides were significantly higher in GABA-tempeh than in conventional tempeh. In this study, we compared the antioxidant activity of the water-soluble fraction in GABA-tempeh with that of soybean and conventional tempeh. The order of the antioxidant activity was shown as follows: GABA-tempeh > conventional tempeh > soybean. The components responsible for the antioxidant activity of GABA-tempeh were isoflavone aglycones, free amino acids, and peptides, which increased during aerobic and anaerobic fermentations.


Leaf Area Index (LAI) is not only an important factor to determine the amount of photosynthesis, but also a key variable to represent ground surface condition which gives significant impact to atmosphere through biophysical processes such as albedo and transpiration. In this study, we first compared the present-day LAI in Earth System Models (ESMs) with remote sensing data and confirmed the significant overestimation by ESMs, which is pointed out by some existing studies. In order to investigate the effect of the bias, we next compared two pre-industrial control experiments: an ordinary control experiment in which LAI is prognosed by the terrestrial ecosystem component of the ESM, and an experiment in which LAI is replaced with dataset made from remote sensing data (the pre-industrial state was estimated by retuning the cultivated areas to natural vegetation). The result shows a significant temperature difference between the two cases, and by analysis of the related variables we concluded that the difference is caused by albedo change due to the change in snow depth/coverage in May-June and in the sea ice coverage in winter.


The ability of Omani local pottery earthenware to accept low- and medium-temperature fired glazes can face technical difficulties. The impurities included in the clays extracted from local fields, especially iron oxide, are a noted weakness that affects painting the local pottery with shiny, opaque, or matte glazes. Previously published research conducted by the researcher on Omani earthenware clays focused on finding a special transparent, shiny, and stable glazing recipe, but few studies have provided matte and opaque glazing recipes that are technically suitable for local Omani clays. By using laborato-ry-based experimental methodology, this research will investigate the possi-bility of using White Zircon Borax Frit (WZBF) to develop matte and opaque stable glazes that are suitable with local Omani pottery clay bodies. In the end of this experimental research, the purpose of this project is to develop applicable glazing recipes to be used for painting pots made by Omani clays.


Conventional thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems consist of a duplex structure with a metallic bondcoat and a ceramic, heat isolative topcoat. In modern TBCs the ceramic topcoat is further divided into layers with different functions. One example is the double layer system in which conventional yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is used as bottom and new materials as pyrochlores or perovskites are used as topcoat layers. These systems demonstrated an improved temperature capability compared to standard YSZ. Examples of such systems will be shown. In modern gas turbines the increased temperatures and gas pressures lead to an increased fraction of radiative heat flow. Coatings with increased reflectivity can be used to avoid the direct heating of the metallic substrates by this radiation. An effective method to produce such coatings is suspension plasma spraying. These reflective coatings are deposited on top of the TBC system and will lead to a further grading and improved performance of the coating.


Although sickle cell disease is very common in Oman, priapism is a relatively rare complication of this disease. This study was aimed to identify the clinical and laboratory risk factors that predispose sickle cell disease patients to priapism. In a retrospective, case-control study, data on 21 male sickle cell disease patients, with priapism, were compared to 20 age and sex-matched sickle cell disease patients without priapism from the hospital medical records. Specifically, the demographical, hematological, biochemical, and clinical parameters including complications attributable to priapism were studied. Means for continuous measures and independent t-test were used to evaluate the association between the parameter studied and the occurrence of priapism. Priapism occurrence was associated with low basal hemoglobin (Hb), along with an increase in other parameters such as white blood cell count (WBC) (P = 0.010), platelet count (P = 0.001), reticulocyte count (P < 0.001), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) (P < 0.001), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) (P < 0.001). Biochemical laboratory parameters revealed an association with an increased total bilirubin (P < 0.001). Patients with priapism were more likely to have acute chest syndrome, stroke, pulmonary hypertension, asplenia (P = 0.006), gallbladder stones, and consequently cholecystectomy. Blood exchange and Penile aspiration were the most frequent medical therapies (P = 0.010 and P < 0.001 respectively). Patients with sickle cell disease who presented with priapism were young adults with low Hb, high WBC's, platelets, reticulocytes, MCV, MCH, bilirubin, and LDH. These findings suggest an association of priapism with increased hemolysis. Impact statement Sickle cell disease is prevalent throughout the world with a 5.8% incidence of sickle cell trait among the Omani population, yet priapism was a relatively rare complication. Penile erection and detumescence are complex physiological processes, which require a delicate neurohormonal and cardiovascular response. In this cohort, young SCD patients developed priapism with a low incidence of complications. These patients had high WBCs, platelets, bilirubin, LDH, and reticulocytes with low hemoglobin as compared to controls, suggesting an increased hemolytic process. Favorable outcome was dependent on early intervention, with almost half of these patients needing surgical intervention.


Comparison of 11 human nuclear receptor amino acid sequences revealed a conserved phosphorylation motif within their DNA-binding domains as an intramolecular signal that regulates proteolytic degradation. Nuclear receptors use this signal to either degrade or proscribe degradation through either the proteasome or nonproteasome pathways. A phosphomimetic farnesoid X receptor (FXR) S154D mutant neither bound to nor trans-activated an FXR-response element-driven reporter gene and was rapidly degraded in COS-1 cells. Ectopically expressed FXR had increased Ser154 phosphorylation in COS-1 cells after ligand treatment, and knock-down of the nuclear vaccinia-related kinase 1 (VRK1) greatly reduced this phosphorylation. FXR was phosphorylated at Ser154 in the nucleus of centrilobular hepatocytes only in ligand-treated mice. Thus, FXR Ser154 phosphorylation is a rheostat for activation and subsequent degradation that controls receptor levels and activity.


In recent years, college-level online learning has emerged as a useful adjunct to on-site training without presenting any threat to traditional brick-and-mortar universities. But fall 2012 saw the arrival of a new approach to remote higher education--pioneered, ironically, by traditional centers of higher education. Over I00,000 students started half a dozen free courses offered on an open source platform by edX, a nonprofit organization founded by Harvard University and MIT and recently joined by the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas system. At the same time, more than 1,750,000 individuals began online lessons presented by Coursera, a for-profit company founded by two Stanford University professors. The two groups offer similar approaches to their massive open online courses (MOOCs). The courses are open to any student anywhere in the world with access to an Internet connection. Both organizations offer certificates of completion to students who can prove their understanding of the subject matter in any course. For the present, those certificates come without charge. However, that might change as the courses become more established Also in the works: the possibility that online students can obtain academic credit from some of the universities involved in the projects and the chance to take proctored examinations at brick-and-mortar testing centers. The impact of these new approaches on traditional higher education remains to be seen. But the prestige of the universities offering the online courses and students' initial response indicate that would-be employers, particularly in industry, should prepare to deal with a new channel for potential recruits. Improved Understanding of the Learning Process In addition to possible future revenue, the two groups see their courses as sources for improved understanding of the process of learning. It's possible, officials say, that they can apply insights from their experiments in online learning to traditional academic teaching. "Long term," says Harvard provost Alan Garber, "the payoff is going to come from a better understanding about how people learn." The surge of MOOCs stems in large measure from technical improvements in the platforms that deliver the courses. Coursera, edX, and smaller start-ups deliver their pedagogic material in multimedia fashion that enables personalized instruction. According to the edX website, its platform's features "will include self-paced learning, online discussion groups, wiki-based collaborative learning, assessment of learning as a student progresses through a course, and online laboratories and other interactive learning tools.... Because it is open source, the platform will be continuously improved by a worldwide community of collaborators, with new features added as needs arise." Coursera emphasizes that its process enables "mastery learning" by giving students immediate feedback on homework assignments and allowing them to rework assignments. Coursera executives estimate that this process can increase the percentage of students who reach a median level of performance from 50 percent to over 80 percent. Two Business Models While they both target the same broad spectrum of potential students and seek fresh academic partners, Coursera and edX have different business models. Stanford computer scientists Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller founded Coursera soon after another Stanford professor, Sebastian Thrum, formed Audacity, a smaller online-education firm. Shortly after its foundation, Coursera received $16 million in venture capital. Having started operations with Stanford, Princeton, and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Michigan as its academic partners, the company moved fast to bring in additional elite universities to host classes on the company's online platforms and eventually receive percentages of Coursera's revenue and profits. An initial effort increased the number of participants to 17, including Caltech, Duke University, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins and Rice Universities, the University of California, San Francisco, the Universities of Washington and Virginia, and such overseas institutions as the University of Toronto, Scotland's Edinburgh University, and the Federal Technical Institute of Lausanne, Switzerland. …


Like its enteric counterpart, aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) from Pseudomonas putida is a dodecamer of two different polypeptides. Unlike the enterics, the Pseudomonas ATCase lacks regulatory polypeptides but employs instead inactive dihydroorotases for an active dodecamer. Previous work showed that PyrB contains not only the active site but also the effector binding sites for ATP, UTP and CTP at its N-terminus. In this work, 11 amino acids were deleted from the N-terminus of PyrB and the ATCase with the truncated protein was expressed in E. coli pyrB- and purified. The wild type enzyme was similarly treated. Velocity-substrate plots without effectors gave Michaelis-Menten kinetics in all cases. Deleting 11 amino acids did not affect dodecameric assembly but altered effector responses. When carbamoylphosphate was varied, the mutant enzyme was inhibited by UTP while the wild type enzyme was activated 2-fold. When the aspartate was varied, CTP had no effect on the mutant enzyme but strongly inhibited the wild type enzyme.


In this study, ternary transition metal sulfide (cobalt and nickel sulfides) nanoparticles were anchored on the surface of montmorillonite (MMT) by a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. These nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Interestingly, for the first time, the obtained nanocomposites were found to possess intrinsic peroxidase-like activity, and they could rapidly catalyze the oxidation of the substrate 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) into blue oxTMB in 3 min; also, clear color change could be quantified by absorbance at 652 nm using a UV-vis spectrophotometer. Studies showed that different proportions of cobalt sulfides and nickel sulfides in the nanocomposites affected the catalytic level of the intrinsic peroxidase-like activity. Co–Ni–S-3/MMT nanocomposites (NCs) exhibited the highest peroxidase-like activity compared with Co–S/MMT NCs and Ni–S/MMT NCs, suggesting that ternary transition metal sulfides (cobalt and nickel sulfides) possessed enhanced peroxidase-like activity compared with binary transition metal sulfides (cobalt sulfides or nickel sulfides). Similar to natural enzymes, Co–Ni–S-3/MMT NCs, as a peroxidase mimic, followed the typical Michaelis–Menten kinetics well and exhibited good affinity towards H2O2 and TMB. Moreover, the detection limit of H2O2 was determined to be as low as 1.5 μM, and the linear range was from 3 to 100 μM. Based on the peroxidase-like activity of the nanocomposites, a sensitive colorimetric sensor was designed and conveniently used for the detection of H2O2 in a contact lens solution.


In 2003-2004, the Institute of Marine Research carried out scientific cruises in the Barents Sea. Samples of sediments were collected and investigated for levels of organic contaminants like total hydrocarbon contents (THC) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). In this paper, the results of PAH and THC measurements in sediments are discussed. The levels of contamination are low and no significant anthropogenic influence on the environment is apparent. Local natural sources contribute to elevated PAH and THC levels in sediments in the vicinity of Svalbard.


A high-sensitive CMOS photosensor based on a pulse frequency modulation (PFM) scheme is presented. We propose and demonstrate the high-sensitive PFM photosensor, whose output frequency is proportionate to the incident light intensity, that utilizes MOS interface-trap charge pumping (ITCP) as a frequency-controlled ultra-low current. The proposed pixel sensor consists of only 4 transistors: a transistor as an ultra-low current source; a sense amplifier transistor; a selection transistor; and, a reset transistor. The prototype device is fabricated using 0.6-µm standard CMOS technology. High sensitivity 4.0 × 105Hz/(W·m-2), which is larger than two orders of magnitude compared to previous works, was obtained.


A coherent over- or under-density contrast across a finite survey volume causes an upward- or downward- fluctuation in the number of halos. This fluctuation in halo number adds a significant co-variant scatter in the observed amplitudes of weak lensing power spectrum at nonlinear, small scales. Because of this covariance, the amount of information that can be extracted from a measurement of the weak lensing power spectrum is significantly smaller than naive estimates. In this paper, we show that by measuring both the number counts of clusters and the power spectrum in the same survey region, we can mitigate this loss of information and significantly enhance the scientific return from the upcoming surveys. First, using the halo model approach, we derive the joint likelihood function of the halo number counts and the weak lensing power spectrum, taking into account the super-sample co-variance effect on the two observables. We show that the analytical model matches the distributions measured from 1000 realizations for a LCDM model. Then we develop a method of combining the observed number counts of massive halos with a measurement of the weak lensing power spectrum, in order to suppress or correct for the super-sample variance effect. Adding the observed number counts of massive halos with M> 10^{14} Ms/h can significantly improve the information content of weak lensing power spectrum, almost recovering the Gaussian information of the initial density field up to lmax~1000. When combined with the halo number counts for M > 3 or 1 x 10^{14} Ms/h, the improvement is up to a factor of 1.4 or 2 at angular modes of lmax~1000-2000, equivalent to a factor 2 or 4 times larger survey volume, compared to the power spectrum measurement without the Gaussianization method. The improvements are larger for surveys with higher number densities of galaxies.


The growth of agricultural and mining activities in the Amazon has impacted land-use and caused significant changes in the local environmental conditions of streams. In the face of these changes, our study aimed at assessing how environmental changes affect Odonata larval assemblages in streams in the eastern Amazon. We hypothesized that habitat conditions in streams are strong predictors of Odonata larval assemblages. We sampled 30 headwater streams (1st through 3rd order) in the eastern Amazon. We corroborated our hypothesis that regional- and local-scale environmental changes are important predictors of the Odonata larval assemblage structure. These results indicate that environmental conditions within the stream channel are important to maintain Odonata larval assemblages, as they provide important resources for larval development. For new studies, we recommend the assessment of temporal dynamics to evaluate whether these patterns are stable across time. Finally, evaluating various environmental scales of the original impact is extremely relevant for preventing the deterioration of or recuperating aquatic assemblages in Amazonian streams, considering the ongoing rapid environmental changes and deforestation in the region. Here we demonstrate that in-stream environmental conditions are important to assemblage structure and this must be considered in environmental restoration plans.


Novel tungsten oxide sensors were fabricated based on Hall Effect and their NO2 gas sensing properties were examined. Tungsten trioxide was grown by vapor evaporation of metal tungsten filament in an oxygen atmosphere. A WO3 thick film was deposited on the four Au electrode to be a WO3 sensor. The sensor was tested between magnetic field in a plastic test chamber. The gas sensing experiment revealed that at the NO2 concentration of 40 ppm, a sensitivity of 3.27, a response time of 36 s, and a recovery time of 45 s were observed at room-temperature. The effect of WO3 based on Hall Effect on the sensing characteristic is discussed.


This report presents the findings from research into the degree of integration of credit-bearing careers education in the higher education curriculum. The study was commissioned by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) and was conducted by a team of researchers from the School of Education and the Careers Advisory Service at the University of Southampton. The research was undertaken during the academic year 2005-2006. The aim of the research was to map the provision of credit-bearing careers education within UK Higher Education Institutions and Further and Higher Education Colleges. The nature and characteristics of credit bearing careers education are described and the Report provides a fine-grained typology of the provision. The Report is illustrated throughtout with a number of vignettes of innovative and interesting practice from different providers within the UK.


This paper uses findings from in-depth life story research undertaken in the United Kingdom to examine the meanings of growing older for men and women aged between 60 and 96 years old, drawing on previous gerontological work about the experience of aging. The findings revealed that meaning as applied to age was not fixed chronologically, but held diverse meanings based on participants' feelings, experiences, and interactions with others, whilst also reflecting and resisting some of the commonly held and mainly negative, stereotypes about later life. The participants said that they did not feel old, but indicated that there had been times in their lives when they had felt old: times of illness, redundancy, and bereavement They also associated aging with physical and mental decline and illness, whether or not this reflected their substantive experience. Although participants' stories revealed that the unpleasant aspects of growing older cannot be denied, they also indicated that attitudes, behavior, and actions can, to an extent, help later life to be a more positive experience.


Abstract Pooling of flood data is widely used to provide a framework to estimate design floods by the Index Flood method. Design flood estimation with this approach involves derivation of a growth curve which shows the relationship between XT and the return period T, where XT  = QT /QI and QI is the index flood at the site of interest. An implicit assumption with the Index Flood procedure of pooling analysis is that the XT –T relationship is the same at all sites in a homogeneous pooling group, although this assumption would generally be violated to some extent in practical cases, i.e. some degree of heterogeneity exists. In fact, in only some cases is the homogeneity criterion effectively satisfied for Irish conditions. In this paper, the performance of the index-flood pooling analysis is assessed in the Irish low CV (coefficient of variation) hydrology context considering that heterogeneity is taken into account. It is found that the performance of the pooling method is satisfactory provided there are at least 350 station years of data included. Also it is found that, in a highly heterogeneous group, it is more desirable to have many sites with short record lengths than a smaller number of sites with long record lengths. Increased heterogeneity decreases the advantage of pooling group-based estimation over at-site estimation. Only a heterogeneity measure (H1) less than 4.0 can render the pooled estimation preferable to that obtained for at-site estimation for the estimation of 100-year flood. In moderately to highly heterogeneous regions it is preferable to conduct at-site analysis for the estimation of 100-year flood if the record length at the site concerned exceeds 50. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor A. Carsteanu Citation Das, S. and Cunnane, C., 2012. Performance of flood frequency pooling analysis in a low CV context. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (3), 433–444.


United Nations relief officials have called for international aid to help nearly one million displaced people and to help large numbers of civilians trapped in the escalating conflict between Pakistan's armed forces and Taliban militants in the country's north west.

"Circumstances in these areas are very, very difficult. Supplies of electricity have been cut, which means often water systems are not functioning," said Martin Mogwanja, the UN's acting coordinator for Pakistan.

"The monetary system is not functioning because the banks have been closed, and the food supply is very limited because there is no means of distribution with many road blocks in all directions.

"We're also concerned that a major hospital near Mingora, the capital town of Swat district, has had to be closed, and the doctors have evacuated themselves due to insecurity," the UN official told reporters in Geneva in a teleconference.

"This means that there's very limited medical capacity in those areas to respond to urgent medical needs of those who may be wounded in the fighting."

Mr Mogwanja said that the humanitarian community is considering the establishment of safe corridors in the region, but noted, "It is very difficult to make the necessary contacts and to obtain the necessary guarantees …


This report builds on previous work aligned with the North East Economic Review (Adonis, 2013), and more specifically the North East Local Enterprise Partnership Economic Strategy (2017)1 that acts as the most recent benchmark of the earlier Economic Review, as well as reports aimed at stimulating North East2 economic growth through initiatives such as promoting the region as an economic corridor3. Using an analysis of wide-scale secondary data, North East firms show proficiency in innovation in some respects, mostly depending upon specific sector and organisational contexts. These innovation indicators are presented in more detail later in the report. Mainly, it is expected that these indicators do not function solely in isolation, but rather in combination will lead to a better predictor of innovation success. An integration of the 2017 Gartner hype cycle of emerging technologies with the competencies and industries of the North East is also presented, to look ahead to opportunities and threats to the region's companies from a rapidly developing, increasingly tech-focused dynamic world marketplace. Findings show that some sectors within the North East are much more affected by this development than others. Where some will be quick to adopt to change, others may need increased support in taking up new technologies in order to survive.


Nowadays, end-users can participate in demand response (DR) programs, and even slight load reductions from many houses can add up to major load shifts in the power system. Aggregators, which act as mediators between end-users and distribution system operator (DSO), play an important role here. The aggregator contracts the end-users for DR programs, plans ahead for times when customers should shift their load, and controls the load shifts in the running time. In this paper, our main focus is on planning the end-users for load shifting. Here, we first define and formulate the flexibilities (e.g., Stamina, repetition, and capacity) related to the dynamic loads such as space heating systems (SHSs) in detached houses. Assuming some end-users being contracted for DR program, based on estimation of their house characteristics and load flexibilities, an algorithm is then proposed to plan the SHSs for load shifting. In this algorithm the states in which a flexible load can be planned, kept in backup, or unavailable are considered by the aggregator. Another algorithm has been proposed here to deal with the different sources of uncertainties (which cause some of the planned SHSs to become unavailable). Numerical results are presented at the end, which discuss performance of the proposed strategy in terms of load flexibilities, load shifts in response to DR signals, and sensitivity analysis. Here, how to estimate the houses characteristics is a difficult issue, and we approximate them based on available models in the literature.


The Tubular Linear Induction Machine (TLIM) has acquired great relevance over the past years for industrial automated applications. For this purpose, the complete modeling, simulation and determination of the parameters of a TLIM is presented in this paper. In addition, the TLIM speed control for this specific application is here described. In order to verify the performances of the proposed system, a test bench has been setup and good agreement is shown from the comparison between measured and simulated results.


ORBITAL DECOMPRESSION P. R. R. CLARKE (Middlesbrough) discussed a series of 20 patients with endocrine exophthalmos treated by lateral orbital decompression. There had been 14 bilateral decompressions, and in six patients a unilateral operation only had been performed. One patient had needed reoperation. Four patients had no thyroid abnormality, and two had untreated hyperthyroidism. In 14 patients exophthalmos had progressed after treatment for hyperthyroidism. The treatment given for hyperthyroidism had been thyroidectomy in eight, radioactive iodine in one, radioactive iodine and thyroidectomy in one, thiouracil in three, and pituitary irradiation and thiouracil in one. Eighteen of the 20 patients had been relieved of orbital discomfort, photophobia, and pain on eyeball movement. Of 12 patients with diplopia, eight had lost this symptom after operation. Papilloedema had subsided after operation in two cases. A postoperative corneal ulcer had developed in one of the three patients who had preoperative keratitis. The one patient who had corneal ulcer before operation developed a recurrent ulcer after decompression. One patient with a blood dyscrasia developed a corneal opacity after surgery, and another patient required treatment for entropion. It was suggested that orbital decompression might be considered more frequently than is often the case in view of its success in relieving discomfort in a high proportion of cases.


Objective: For most endodontically treated teeth, tooth-colored post-core systems are preferable for esthetic reasons. Therefore, improvements in material strength must also consider tooth colored post-core complexes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the difference in tooth colored post-core complex strengths. Materials and Methods: A total of 33 human maxillary central incisor teeth were used for this study, with three groups of 11 teeth. Three different methods were used to fabricate all-ceramic post-core restorations: zirconia blanks, Cerec 3D-milled to one-piece post-core restorations (Test Group 1); feldspathic cores (from feldspathic prefabricated CAD/CAM blocks) adhesively luted to CosmoPost zirconia posts (Test Group 2); and IPS Empress cores directly pressed to CosmoPost zirconia posts (Test Group 3). All-ceramic crowns from feldspathic ceramic were constructed using a CAD/CAM system (Cerec 3D) for all specimens. The post-core complexes were tested to failure with the load applied at 45° angled relative to the tooth long axis. The load at fracture was recorded. Results: The maximum fracture strength of the milled zirconia cores (Test Group 1) was 577 N; corresponding values for the milled feldspathic cores (Test Group 2) and the pressed cores (Test Group 3) were 586 and 585 N, respectively. Differences were not statistically significant at P < 0.05 (P = 0.669). Conclusions: All-ceramic cores adhesively luted on zirconia posts and one-piece all-ceramic zirconium post-core structures offer a viable alternative to conventional pressing.


Recent experience at this hospital has shown that occasronally an unexpected complicatiun may occur in an otherwise very safe procedure, A girl of nine years had a duodenal biupsy performed With the peedlatrfe Crosby capsule, On examination, the mucosa shuwed the typical fiat appearance fuund in cceliac dlsease, Some six hours after the perfurmance of the biopsy, which had proceeded uneventfully, she developed some vague abdominal pain and vomiting. These symptoms persisted, and a barium study subsequently demonstrated an almost complete block of the duodenum. There were no clinical or radlologfcal signs of perforation, but a small amount of barium at the site of biopsy appeared to have passed into the wall of the duodenum. Although coagulation studies were normal prior to biopsy, the findings observed were interpreted as being consistent with an intramural hrematoma. With conservative therapy -I.e., gastric suction and intravenous fiuids-the child settled over a few days and was then able to take food b~' mouth once more. A further barium study showed the disappearance of the obstruction and the free onward passage of barium.


We report and study the outburst of a new transient X-ray binary (XRB) in Terzan 5, the third detected in this globular cluster, Swift J174805.3-244637 or Terzan 5 X-3. We find clear spectral hardening in Swift/XRT data during the outburst rise to the hard state, thanks to our early coverage (starting at LX ∼ 4 × 1034 erg s−1) of the outburst. This hardening appears to be due to the decline in relative strength of a soft thermal component from the surface of the neutron star (NS) during the rise. We identify a Type I X-ray burst in Swift/XRT data with a long (16 s) decay time, indicative of hydrogen burning on the surface of the NS. We use Swift/BAT, MAXI/GSC, Chandra/ACIS, and Swift/XRT data to study the spectral changes during the outburst, identifying a clear hard-to-soft state transition. We use a Chandra/ACIS observation during outburst to identify the transient's position. Seven archival Chandra/ACIS observations show evidence for variations in Terzan 5 X-3's nonthermal component but not the thermal component during quiescence. The inferred long-term time-averaged mass accretion rate, from the quiescent thermal luminosity, suggests that if this outburst is typical and only slow cooling processes are active in the NS core, such outbursts should recur every ∼10 yr.


Architecture needs mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture. It achieves this by continually capturing the forces that shape society. This book is a graphic guide to ornaments in the twentieth century. It unveils the function of ornament as the agent for specific affects, dismantling the idea that ornament is applied to buildings as a discrete or non-essential entity. Each case exploits specific synergies between the exterior and the interior, constructing an internal order between ornament and material. These internal orders produce expressions that are contemporary, yet whose affects are resilient in time. Initiated as a seminar at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Farshid Moussavi is a partner in leading London-based firm Foreign Office Architects.


: Under investigation there were 152 patients aged 61 +/- 16 years who were conditionally divided into three groups according to the severity of ischemia. Plasmaphersis was carried out by a standard method. The monitoring of changes of microcirculation was done with the help of high-frequency ultrasonic doppler. Plasmapheresis is considered to be an effective method of treatment of the peripheral artery occlusive disease, it improves the microcirculation in ischemic tissues in critical ischemiae of the legs, normalizes the arterial perfusion due to the disappearance of arterio-venous dump at the microcirculatory level.


This paper uses data from the 2009 National Financial Capability Study to examine financial literacy and financial behavior in a sample of approximately 4,500 young adults age 25 to 34. The paper finds that most young adults lack basic financial knowledge. Financial literacy is especially low among certain demographic groups, such as women, minorities, and lower-income or less-educated people. A high level of education, however, is not a guarantee of financial literacy. Only 49% of young respondents with a college education and 60% of young respondents with postgraduate education could correctly answer three simple questions designed to assess financial literacy. Results show that respondents who display higher financial literacy or higher confidence in their math or personal finance knowledge have better financial outcomes: they are less likely to use high-cost borrowing methods, and they are more likely to plan for retirement or have set aside savings for emergencies.


Because power price fluctuations are so well linked to fuel-price movements most of the time, the spark spread, the margin between power prices and fuel costs measured in dollar volume per kilowatt-year, is a better measure of power markets than power prices. Overbuilding in a given market may lead to declining spark spreads and debt service coverage. Declining heat rates, or increased efficiency, in a market also may be evidence of overbuilding. This article analyzes the risk of overbuilding in three U.S. regions. It also discusses the impact of electricity price volatility and hedging on spark spreads.


This article considers the political, economic, and environmental factors associated with the allocation of federal LISA (Low Input/Sustainable Agriculture) funds among states. A tobit model is estimated with LISA allocations as the dependent variable. Results indicate that pressure groups are important. LISA funding depends positively on membership in environmental organizations, the number of farms, and the size of the rural-nonfarm population, while it depends negatively on the size of the urban population. States with host LISA institutions receive significantly more funding, as do states with Senators in leadership positions on key congressional agricultural committees.


"Citizenship and community service are values that have been appropriated by new forms of corporate marketing strategies: corporate social responsibility, cause related marketing, and social cause branding. These trends in branding effectively tie social activism and political participation with consumerism and profit motives. In this paper I attempt to explore the implications of the commodification of social causes, with particular focus on the role of women in marketing strategies, both as subject and object of the social cause branding campaigns."--Page [1].


We propose a novel method designed for large-scale regression problems, namely the two-stage best-scored random forest (TBRF). "Best-scored" means to select one regression tree with the best empirical performance out of a certain number of purely random regression tree candidates, and "two-stage" means to divide the original random tree splitting procedure into two: In stage one, the feature space is partitioned into non-overlapping cells; in stage two, child trees grow separately on these cells. The strengths of this algorithm can be summarized as follows: First of all, the pure randomness in TBRF leads to the almost optimal learning rates, and also makes ensemble learning possible, which resolves the boundary discontinuities long plaguing the existing algorithms. Secondly, the two-stage procedure paves the way for parallel computing, leading to computational efficiency. Last but not least, TBRF can serve as an inclusive framework where different mainstream regression strategies such as linear predictor and least squares support vector machines (LS-SVMs) can also be incorporated as value assignment approaches on leaves of the child trees, depending on the characteristics of the underlying data sets. Numerical assessments on comparisons with other state-of-the-art methods on several large-scale real data sets validate the promising prediction accuracy and high computational efficiency of our algorithm.


Launch vehicles often experience severe vibration problems during the ascent phase due to intense acoustic fields and mechanically transmitted disturbances. These disturbances are characterized by a large number of resonances over a wide-band frequency spectrum. The payloads inside the launch vehicle must be designed strong enough to withstand these structural vibrations. Passive isolators are used to isolate the payloads from the vibrating structure but this type of isolation has no effect on the acoustic excitations. This study focuses on methods for achieving active damping on plate structures by means of piezoelectric actuators (PZTs). An experiment was conducted using PZT actuators and accelerometers mounted on a rectangular plate with an active damping controller implemented on a 486 computer. Two control design methods were evaluated for this application: the H/sub /spl infin method and rate feedback.<<ETX>>


The recent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act have been widespread, spontaneous, and without the active sponsorship of political parties. They have brought out on the streets thousands of students and women who have never before participated in political rallies. What is the significance of this movement as a point of resistance against authoritarian Hindu nationalism? What does it mean for the future of Indian democracy?


OBJECTIVE
We reviewed the data of the termination of pregnancy (TOP) cases between 2002 and 2010 to evaluate the changes in fetal indications for both early and late TOPs in this period.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The data of 962 TOP cases were analysed in two groups according to the periods as in 2002-2006 and 2007-2010. The women were also subdivided into two categories according to their gestational age; <23 weeks' gestation (early termination) and ≥23 weeks' gestation (late termination).

RESULTS
Four hundred and fifty-eight (47.6%) of TOPs were performed between 2002 and 2006 (Group 1) and 504 (52.3%) were performed between 2007 and 2010 (Group 2). The number of early (<23 weeks) and late (≥23 weeks) terminations were 583 (60.6%) and 379 (39.3%), respectively. The vast majority of anomalies were central nervous sytem malformations (51.8%). They were followed by multiple anomalies (10.2%) and chromosomal anomalies (9.4%). Chromosomal and cardiovascular system anomalies were significantly higher in 2007-2010 in comparison to 2002-2006 (p<0.0001 and p=0.002, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference between the fetal indications that led to early termination compared to those that led to late termination.

CONCLUSION
The distribution of indications for TOP was influenced by the development in prenatal screening policy, resulting in a significant increase in terminations due to chromosomal and cardiovascular system anomalies. Cultural, educational, religious and legal factors cause differences in the indications for TOP as well as the gestational age that TOPS are performed.


This paper presents an efficient joint disparity-motion estimation algorithm and a fast motion estimation algorithm in an MPEG-4 compatible stereoscopic sequence codec for 3D broadcasting. In stereoscopic sequence coding, the critical problems to be solved are double bandwidth and computational complexity. However, the previous trials to reduce coding bits have increased computational complexity. In this paper, we try to implement fast algorithms for stereoscopic sequences while maintaining high coding efficiency. Joint disparity-motion estimation can increase coding efficiency and reduce the computational complexity of the stereoscopic codec by using the relationship between the disparity and motion fields. The disparity vectors are estimated by using the left and right motion vectors and the previous disparity vectors in each time frame. In order to obtain more accurate disparity vectors, we employ the spatial prediction process after joint estimation. From joint estimation and spatial prediction, we can obtain the accurately predicted disparity vectors and then increase the coding efficiency from those predicted vectors. Moreover, we propose a fast motion estimation algorithm which utilizes correlation between the motion vectors of the neighboring blocks. We confirmed that the PSNR of the proposed method is 1.0-2.0 dB higher than ones of conventional methods. In addition, the processing time is reduced by almost 1/10.


This paper investigates the relative performance of a thermally activated environmentally friendly cooling system: a NH3-H2O sorption system. This system can by activated with relatively low heat source temperatures such as those achieved by solar collectors. The study explores the relative thermal performance, i.e. the performance coefficient and refrigeration capacity of the system and a qualitative comparison based on the type of solar collector, i.e. compound parabolic collector. The geographical functioning location of the system was chosen for the city of Braşov, Romania for July. Firstly, the solar system collectors was investigated: the efficiency of the solar collectors as a function of the ambient temperament, the solar radiation and heating medium temperature, daily irradiance on a fixed plane, daily irradiance on a 2-axis tracking plane, average daily temperature profile. The absorption system is analyzed. The mathematical model developed is based on the energy and mass conservation equations. The thermodynamic model of ammonia-water binary mixture was used in the calculations. The advantage of this model is given by the high evaluation accuracy of the state points, compared with the common method, with the enthalpy-concentration diagram, where the reading accuracy of the values is relative. The results show an improvement to the design parameters currently used when calculating these types of refrigerating installation. In addition, a minimum number of "requirements" for the refrigerating cycle have been identified in order for this to be able to work within the designed parameters and with acceptable values for the performance coefficients. The thermodynamic model of the ammonia-water binary mixture, once completed, enables different types of absorption thermodynamic cycles to be studied with the purpose of improving their efficiency.