»Das Tun gebauter Räume beobachten. Ansätze einer Ethnographie der Materialität«. The paper makes a methodological contribution to the question as to which part built space plays in social practices. In doing so, we firstly use practice theory according to Schatzki as a theoretical basis to clarify the relationship between space and activity. For that, it is important to overcome with Schatzki (and Heidegger) the difference between subjective and objective space. This is made possible by making "lived space" not independent of or dependent on subjectivity, but dependent on activity. In a second step, we will use an example of ethnographic observation to show under which conditions and advertencies it was possible to recognize space's part in activity. We describe what appeared by chance in observation theoretically with the concept of atmosphere in the third part. This concept was introduced into the discourse on architecture by Böhme, it was rendered more precisely by Seel, and we try to connect it to our starting point in practice theory. After applying the concept of atmosphere methodologically on observation, we cautiously draw methodical consequences from this for observation of built spaces as part of social


The main task of this paper is to draw a normative picture of close interpersonal bonds and demonstrate why they are ethically relevant and important. I start by showing that the notion of 'close relationships' is a notion in its own right—overlapping with but not reducible to the notion of 'love,' 'friendship,' or 'kinship.' Then, I go on to discuss particular features of close relationships. I start with consensuality, reciprocity, persistence in time. After that, I move on to non-instrumental treatment and the mutual sharing of responsibility, which is connected with treating the interests of the close other as one's own. Another features I discuss are truthfulness in the way we narrate our autobiographical stories, openness to the close other's co-creation of our narrative truth, and the readiness to co-create the narrative truth of the close other in return. Finally, I focus on trust; I show that the kind of trust which is characteristic of close relationships is connected with particular competences that a person should manifest in order to be a trustworthy close-relationship partner. From the fact that no person is morally infallible, it can be inferred that we need to depend on competent others in order to take full responsibility for ourselves as moral agents (we need to be inter-responsible). The people we choose to be in close relationships with are precisely such competent others; they are the guardians and the co-authors of our moral agency and our narrative identity.


Although TRAIL (tumor-necrosis-factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) has been considered a promising broad-spectrum antitumor agent, its further application was limited by poor drug delivery and TRAIL-resistant tumors. A three-step drug delivery strategy was applied to TRAIL for solving these two obstacles in the form of PEG-TRAIL-MMAE (Monomethyl Auristatin E). PEGylation of TRAIL in the first step was carried out to improve its in vivo pharmacokinetics, while the interaction between TRAIL conjugates with death receptors in the second step was designed to activate the TRAIL extrinsic apoptosis pathway, and the further release of MMAE from the lysosome was the third step for introducing another apoptosis pathway to overcome TRAIL resistance in some tumors. Herein, in order to reach a balance among the three steps, the PEG/MMAE ratio was optimized for PEG-TRAIL-MMAE conjugates. PEG-TRAIL-MMAE conjugates with various PEG/MMAE ratios were prepared and compared with each other regarding their pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD). As a result, PEG-TRAIL-MMAE conjugates with a PEG/MMAE ratio of 1:2 showed prolonged half-life in rats (6.8 h), and the best antitumor activity in vitro (IC50 0.31 nM) and in vivo while no sign of toxicity in xenograft models, suggesting it as a promising multistep drug delivery and antitumor strategy after optimization.


Community-managed water supply has, since the 1990s, been widely hailed and promoted as the solution to the challenges of rural community water provision in Africa. However, the sustainability of this approach to water provision is debated because of low rural water supply and frequent system break down in many different context. The research falls within the area of community water management and sustainability. Particularly, it will investigate the sort of community management that may make rural water supply sustainable. The research uses the case study of Ilala community, Kwara State, and was undertaken through review of relevant documents, of personal observations and of interviews with Ilala community members and government officials. Literature on the sustainability of community-managed water supply is controversial as there seems to be lack of agreement about the sustainability of the model. This thesis contributes to the debate about the sustainability of community-managed water supply. Field data from Ilala reveal that community water management is sustainable in Ilala. Furthermore, the research findings show that the motivation of beneficiaries to utilize the improved water source was necessary for sustainability. Second, community practice of maintenance in the absence of formal support structure significantly enhanced the sustainability of the water scheme. More so, regular contribution for water tariff enforced by the traditional ruler was also instrumental to the continuous functionality of the water scheme. Lastly, the existence of a strong Community Development Association and the availability strong leadership in the community provided support to the community-managed water scheme and enhanced sustainability. Field data further show that the state created and empowered agencies such as the Kwara State Community and Social Development Agencies and Kwara State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency to provide support to rural communities to manage their water. Ilala community did receive government assistance to construct the community water scheme, but that one-off support is arguably inadequate. Providing on-going support to rural communities is necessary to ensure sustainability in rural water supply. The report concludes with some suggestions for improvement in state policy


ZnO nanostructures of different morphologies were grown in a controlled manner by a novel sonication assisted sol gel process. Variation in the alcoholic medium resulted in nanorods and flower like ZnO nanostructures. Flower like ZnO nanostructures with a root size of 1m and a tip of 150nm were synthesized using ethanol as solvent, while ZnO nanorods with diameter less than 60 nm and length greater than 1m were synthesized using methanol as solvent. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The XRD results show the formation of highly crystalline ZnO with no detectable level of impurity. In this paper, a possible mechanism for the variation of morphology with the change in solvent has been discussed. The effect of solvent vapour pressure on the sonication process has been explained. The solvent vapour pressure has an effect on the intensity of sonication which affects various chemical reactions taking place during the formation of ZnO. The effect of ethylenediamine on the chemical reactions leading to formation of ZnO nanostructures has also been analyzed.


A prospective, nonrandomized study was conducted in an attempt to determine if the addition of a stem to the tibial component in noncemented total knee replacement reduces the incidence of sinkage. A stemmed tibial component was used in 125 cases and an identical artificial knee without a stem was used in 307 cases. Follow-up was two to six years. Sinkage occurred in 0.8% of the cases with stemmed tibial components and in 3.5% of the nonstemmed tibial components, among which two (0.8%) required revision. The clinical results for both groups were similar. A small group of 34 patients who had a stemmed tibial component on one side and a nonstemmed component on the other also were examined. Fifty percent of these patients preferred the stemmed component knee. The results of these studies suggest that the addition of a stem to the tibial component in noncemented total knee replacement is of value in preventing tibial sinkage.


ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 11 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The trend analysis of various components of various water resources system like rainfall, runoff, evapotranspiration and ground water recharge will help to prepare a future plan for ground water development and management plan for the basin. It will also be helpful for agricultural as well other resources planning. The required shift in cropping pattern can also be judged. The quantity predictions can be achieved to aid managerial and policy action directed towards natural resources management. The seasonal potential evapotranspiration in the Ozat basin was found insignificantly decreasing while crop evapotranspiration significantly increasing indicating that rainfall is increasing due to climatic variability. The average monsoon rainfall of the Ozat basin is found as 730.81 mm. The area weighted rainfall and runoff are found increasing in the basin. The rainfall and runoff is found increasing insignificantly for the entire river basin. The rainfall and runoff both were found increasing respectively in 1 and 3 watersheds of the basin out of 4. However, rainfall is significantly increasing in 2 watersheds (5G1C4, 5G1C5) while runoff is significantly increasing in 1 watershed (5G1C5) only. The rainfall is observed insignificantly decreasing in 1 watershed (5G1C2). The area weighted rainfall and runoff are found increasing in the basin. The rainfall and runoff is found increasing insignificantly for the entire river basin. K e y w o r d s Rainfall, Runoff, Groundwater recharge, Watershed, Evapotranspiration Accepted: 04 October 2019 Available Online: 10 November 2019 Article Info Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(11): 241-267


Suppose that one corporation, BuyCo, wants to purchase another, TargetCo. If BuyCo uses cash to purchase TargetCo, Delaware courts will apply enhanced scrutiny to the deal, forcing TargetCo's directors to show that they acted reasonably in pursuit of the highest value reasonably available for the company.' If BuyCo uses its own stock to purchase TargetCo -assuming that both corporations are widely held-courts will apply the deferential business judgment rule to the acquisition But what happens if BuyCo uses a mix of cash and stock in the deal? For corporations contemplating such an acquisition, the level of judicial scrutiny is uncertain. This Comment tracks the development of a new approach in Delaware law that ignores the method of payment in these situations. The fundamental concern underlying the application of enhanced scrutiny to the actions of target directors who negotiate takeover deals is that they are effectively negotiating away their jobs. This exacerbates agency costs. The concept is intuitive: Imagine that you own a company whose continued existence depends on signing up a big new client. Do you send out the salesman who just put in his two weeks' notice? The new approach highlights this commonsense intuition about human behavior. Cash and stock are both currency. The choice of which to use has little to do with the agency costs that justify enhanced scrutiny. Method of payment is not a proxy for structural bias. One benefit of a unifying approach is to remove the confusion presently created by mixed-consideration transactions. Current doctrine treats cash acquisitions and stock acquisitions as fundamentally different from one another. Yet, mixed-consideration acquisitions show that the two currencies serve precisely the same function:


A series of novel superabsorbents Fe3O4/poly(Acrylamide-co-sodium acrylate) core shell magnetic nanogel based on crosslinked poly (sodium acrylate-co-acrylamide) are investigated for the removal of methylene blue from aqueous solutions. The superabsorbents are characterized by FTIR, HR-TEM and SEM. The adsorbents exhibited high sorption capacities toward basic dyes, viz.: 2167.802-2765.893 mg g-1. The adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second order equation. Equilibrium isotherm data are analyzed according to Langmuir and Freundlich equations. The thermodynamic parameters including ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° for the adsorption processes of MB on the nanocomposite hydrogel were also calculated, and the negative value of ΔG° indicated the spontaneous nature of adsorption.


In recent years, increasing social and political awareness, coupled with the tightening of worldwide environmental legislation, has forced coating industries to decrease levels of pollutant substances released to the atmosphere. Solvents from the coatings industry are considered to be volatile organic substances. For this reason there is an increasing tendency to move away from conventional solvent-borne coatings to those that use water as the fluid vehicle [1]. One of the more important film-forming pigment binders used in water borne coatings is that class of resins known as acrylics. Acrylic polymers are widely used as pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs). An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids, one the dispersed phase, existing as discrete droplets dispersed throughout the other, the continuous phase. In the case of emulsion polymerization the continuous phase is comprised mainly of water and is therefore termed the aqueous phase. Emulsion polymer is actually a dispersion of solids, or semi-solids, polymer particles in a continuous aqueous phase. Acrylic polymer emulsions give excellent weather resistance, water and alkali resistant films due to the main polymer chain's carbon-carbon bonds. However, the elasticity and abrasion resistance of acrylic polymer emulsions are inferior [2]. It has long been recognized that the reaction pathway in emulsion. Polymerization plays a decisive role in determining the particle morphology and consequently the emulsion polymers properties. Zhao and his co workers carried out a study of structured polymer latex particles which were prepared by a swelling emulsion polymerization process, in which the initial particles are first swollen by ethylenically unsaturated monomers and the polymerization of the latter is then carried out [3]. Latex particle size distribution (PSD) is probably the most important variable in designing low viscosity, concentrated aqueous polymer dispersions. Asua and colleagues prepared the adhesive and rheological properties of model acrylic pressuresensitive adhesives (PSA) films prepared from high solid emulsions with different particles sizes and distributions have been investigated with a customized probe tack apparatus. The results showed that a broad PSD is favored over a narrow a PSD and that the present of large particles is recommended [4]. The molecular weight directly influences the final viscosity of the resins. The viscosity of the polymer is further strongly influenced by the rigidity of the sequences. At identical molecular weights and at equal concentrations, a solution of polymethyl methacrylate for example will be much more viscous than a solution of polybutyl acrylate. Another factor strongly influencing viscosity is the formation of associations. In non-polar solvents, the carboxyl groups have a strong tendency to form associations between one another via hydrogen bonding. These hydrogen bonds markedly increase the viscosity. The degree of polymerization is proportional to the concentration of monomers and inversely proportional to the initiator concentration. As a general rule, the lower the concentration of monomer, the lower the molecular weight of the polymer. The higher concentration of initiator, the lower the final molecular weight obtained [5].


This study aims to analyse the reflections on robotic coding for early childhood and scanned in the Web of Sciences (WOS) database from a developmental perspective. The method of the research is bibliometric research from qualitative research designs. In this context, 70 academic publications scanned in the WOS database within the framework of the criteria determined by the researchers and dealing with robotic coding in early childhood constitute the research data sources. According to the findings obtained, 45 studies were carried out as quantitative, 11 as qualitative, 11 as mixed design, and three as design-based research. The results reveal that the activities carried out with robotic coding contribute to children's cognitive, language and socio-emotional development, as well as their computational thinking skills, collaborative working skills, analytical thinking skills, problem-solving skills and mathematics skills. However, adverse effects such as children's technology literacy and teachers' inadequacies in using robotic coding tools were also observed.


A river water quality management model under average climatic conditions may not be able to account for the extreme risk of low water quality which is more prominent under an increase in river water temperature and altered river flows. A modeling framework is developed to assess the risk of river low water quality extremes by integrating a statistical downscaling model based on Canonical Correlation Analysis, risk quantification model based on Frank Archimedean Copula function and Multiple Logistic Regression model integrated with a river water quality simulation model, QUAL2 K. The results reveal that the combination of predicted decrease in low flows of approximately 57% and increase in maximum river water temperatures of approximately 1.2°C has shown an increase of about 46% in risk of low water quality conditions for the future scenarios along Tunga-Bhadra River, India. The extreme risk of low water quality is observed to increase by 50.6% for the period 2020–2040 when compared with the current extreme conditions of 4.5% and average risk conditions of about 3% for the period 1988–2005. The study captured the occurrence of extremes of low water quality with evidence of a strong link between climate and water quality impairment events.


Anopheles coluzzii is a major malaria vector throughout its distribution in west-central Africa. Here we present a whole-genome study of 142 specimens from nine countries in continental Africa and three islands in the Gulf of Guinea. This sample set covers a large part of this species' geographic range. Our population genomic analyses included a description of the structure of mainland populations, island populations, and connectivity between them. Three genetic clusters are identified among mainland populations and genetic distances ( F ST ) fits an isolation-by-distance model. Genomic analyses are applied to estimate the demographic history and ancestry for each island. Taken together with the unique biogeography and history of human occupation for each island, they present a coherent explanation underlying levels of genetic isolation between mainland and island populations. We discuss the relationship of our findings to the suitability of São Tomé and Príncipe islands as candidate sites for potential field trials of genetic-based malaria control strategies. Campos, Lanzaro and colleagues use whole-genome sequencing and population genomic analyses to infer connectivity between mainland and island mosquito populations in West Africa. The unique biogeographic history for each island population is reported, and the findings highlight potential candidate sites for genetic-based malaria control strategies.


In order to achieve more sustainable development, many are advocating the crucial role of involving a comprehensive range of stakeholders in all stages of the development process, from policy making to project implementation. Following the sustainable development literature, it is believed that tourism will also achieve greater levels of sustainability if all stakeholders participate in its development. As the interest in stakeholders has grown, so too have partnerships become popular vehicles for the delivery of strategic goals, such that other more dynamic, less resource intensive forms of stakeholder participation may be overlooked. Given the widespread interest in stakeholders, it might be anticipated that there would be a well-developed theory of stakeholding. While there is a stakeholder theory, which some tourism researchers have previously used, its current value is questioned here and a number of other organisational theories are therefore considered in an attempt to develop a more comprehensive framework for analysing stakeholding in practice. By also reflecting on collaboration, network and structuration theories, a fuller understanding of the complex range of issues is enabled. Tourism in Wales is investigated here, which provides an interesting case study as it has recently undergone a restructuring process that attempted to increase coordination between and involvement of stakeholders. There is also a policy commitment, driven by the National Assembly for Wales, for increased partnership working between organisations. Policy and strategy documents from key organisations were analysed for their commitment to stakeholder involvement and a comprehensive range of stakeholder groups was interviewed. The study explores who the stakeholders are, the kind of mechanisms and processes employed to ensure that views are heard, and the effects of doing so in terms of benefits and problems. The network and coordination structures that underlie all communications are also key considerations. Analysis is undertaken at two different levels a national and regional level of organisational coordination, as well as a local level case study of a scheme involving diverse stakeholder groups. How the different levels interact and the associated issues are also considered. It is concluded that while there are some positive structural moves, there are also some embedded social constraints that mean more effective forms of stakeholder participation are not yet fully operationalised. The top-down focus on partnership working has meant that while some more well-resourced organisations and individuals have enjoyed more privileged access to decision-making processes, more 'grass-roots' stakeholders' opportunities to participate have not greatly increased. The evident enthusiasm for partnership working and stakeholder involvement must therefore be carefully nurtured to ensure success.


The method of multiple imputation (MI) is used increasingly for analyzing datasets with missing observations. Two sets of tasks are required in order to implement the method: (a) generating multiple complete datasets in which missing values have been imputed by simulating from an appropriate probability distribution and (b) analyzing the multiple imputed datasets and combining complete data inferences from them to form an overall inference for parameters of interest. An increasing number of software tools are available for task (a), although this is difficult to automate, because the method of imputation should depend on the context and available covariate data. When the quantity of missing data is not great, the sensitivity of results to the imputation model may be relatively low. In this context, software tools that enable task (b) to be performed with similar ease to the analysis of a single dataset should facilitate the wider use of multiple imputation. Such tools need not only to implement techniques for inference from multiple imputed datasets but also to allow standard manipulations such as transformation and recoding of variables. In this article, we describe a set of Stata commands that we have developed for manipulating and analyzing multiple datasets.


This thesis discusses various schemes and protocols for quantum information processing in mesoscopic systems with particular focus on using the spin of a particle as the bearer of information. The first chapter introduce various aspects of the field of quantum information used in this thesis such as qubits, entanglement, its quantification, quantum logic gates and entanglement swapping. In this chapter concepts such as AKLT states, decoherence and adiabatic elimination are introduced as they will be relevant in the thesis. In chapter 2 we introduce the Quantum Dots as the solid state system that will primarily be used as the hardware for the development of Quantum Information Processing (QIP). The different properties of quantum dots depending on their size are discussed. The exchange interaction between tunnel coupled quantum dots and the background of quantum computation in quantum dots is described. The principal sources of decoherence and the measurement techniques for spin qubits are presented. In chapter 3, carbon nanowires filled with N@C60 dimers are studied to analyse the entanglement between nuclear spins. The dimer is modelled as a two coupled nuclear spin- electron spin pair with a Heisenberg interaction. The entanglement have been studied depending on the temperature and the intensity of an external magnetic field. Witnessing the entanglement, and particularly bound entanglement are discussed. In chapter 4, the way to extract a singlet from a quantum dot is explored. The system that we model will be consisting of a triple dot and analyse the best way to get the singlet out, with each electron in a separate dot. The chief motivation is to create a singlet between separate dots in a time-scale much faster than that given by spinspin exchange interactions. In chapter 5, quantum logic gates in a triple dot system has been studied. Such gates have been widely studied in double and single quantum dots. Motivated by the advent of experimental set ups of triple dots, we have studied the natural quantum gates that came out of a triple dot system. There are still two spin quantum bits in the three dots and there is an empty intervening dot, which imparts the scheme some advantages, as well as a substantial difference from the class of schemes studied so far. In chapter 6, we model a large square dot. As we describe in chapter 2, the properties of the large dots make them behave with some interesting properties such as hosting Wigner molecules of electrons inside. We explore the application of these structures for quantum information processing. We show here how to get singlet/triplet measurement, entanglement swapping, and how to prepare a 1D AKLT state, using the square dot as a construction block of the system. Finally in chapter 7 conclusions and further work. Here we indicate the further work that could be done with the knowledge present in this thesis and motivated by future advances in the technology.


Mild steel hot-rolled sections are commonly prismatic because of the rolling process with a furnace, but welded sections made from steel plates do not have such a constraint, especially when robotic welding machines are used. The weight saving could be very significant by, say, using wide flanged section at mid-span and a small flanged section at ends of a simply supported beam. However, design codes do not provide formulae for buckling check of tapered members. This paper proposes a code-free second-order direct analysis for stabilty design of steel frames made of tapered members. The design is further applied to a single layered mega space frame of 136m span. In the whole design process based on the concept of Second-order Direct Analysis, no uncertain effective length and independent member buckling checking are required.


The author of this title defines the correlation of holes on the triangular lattice under periodic boundary conditions and studies its asymptotics as the distances between the holes grow to infinity. He proves that the joint correlation of an arbitrary collection of triangular holes of even side-lengths (in lattice spacing units) satisfies, for large separations between the holes, a Coulomb law and a superposition principle that perfectly parallel the laws of two dimensional electrostatics, with physical charges corresponding to holes, and their magnitude to the difference between the number of right-pointing and left-pointing unit triangles in each hole. The author details this parallel by indicating that, as a consequence of the results, the relative probabilities of finding a fixed collection of holes at given mutual distances (when sampling uniformly at random over all unit rhombus tilings of the complement of the holes) approach, for large separations between the holes, the relative probabilities of finding the corresponding two dimensional physical system of charges at given mutual distances. Physical temperature corresponds to a parameter refining the background triangular lattice. He also gives an equivalent phrasing of the results in terms of covering surfaces of given holonomy. From this perspective, two dimensional electrostatic potential energy arises by averaging over all possible discrete geometries of the covering surfaces.


Choices for a limited approach to total knee arthroplasty (TKA) now include the mini-arthrotomy, the mini-midvastus, the subvastus, and the quadriceps-sparing technique. These newer approaches suggest use of modified instruments at least smaller in overall size; call for early ambulation and range of motion with modified pain management protocols; demonstrate improved early recovery of the knee; and lead to less visualization and can contribute to an increase in outliers. Use of navigation for TKA remains controversial. Prophylaxis against deep venous thrombosis is necessary and is used at the discretion of the operating surgeon. Complications are sometimes higher with these approaches, and patient preference and choice of surgical technique are extremely important. Minimally invasive surgery approaches are still evolving for TKA, and long-term results are not available. These techniques are certainly not for all patients or all surgeons, and the indications are still being developed.


A key aspect in the design and optimization process of high voltage apparatus is the precise simulation and geometric optimization of the electric electromagnetic field distribution on electrodes and dielectrics. Since these simulations and optimizations are rather compute intensive, the engineer demands a user friendly working environment requiring as little knowledge as possible with regard to the computer specific aspects of the simulation and optimization process. Furthermore, the engineer demands the optimization run to finish as quickly as possible ("push button solution"), i.e. runtimes for extensive optimizations must be kept at an acceptable level. This paper describes a design and optimization working environment for high voltage apparatus that has been developed and implemented in a joint cooperation project between Technische Universitat Munchen and Asea Brown Boveri (ABB). Furthermore, some methods that enable the programmer accelerate and adapt the simulation program to specific CPU architectures are introduced. Three practical examples on which the working environment has been tested are presented


Abstract The aim of this study is to understand the spatial and seasonal variations of persistent herbicides metabolites and to determine their origins in the Vilaine River watershed, Britany-France. Improving knowledge on herbicides metabolites sources and seasonality is important for drinking water resource management. Data were collected at 13 sampling stations during five sampling campaigns in 2016 and 2017. Relations between water quality parameters, herbicides and metabolites were analyzed using statistical methods. The influence of land use and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) on streams water quality has been identified. Cluster Analysis revealed that two groups of sampling stations can be described as "urban" with stations downstream the urban area and as "agricultural" with stations located downstream of the watershed. Chloroacetamids metabolites have been associated together with nitrates and agricultural areas as could be expected. Thus, the drinking water treatment plant located in the estuary of the Vilaine River is exposed to high metolachlor ESA and nitrate loads all year long. Aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) is associated to anthropogenic urban contamination and nutrient loads. AMPA has its major sources in both glyphosate and phosphonate detergents issued from WWTP. This can help to adapt surface water treatment process and water management policies concerning herbicides metabolites.


: Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) takes a key role in developing, deploying, and managing digital technologies, products, and services responsibly and ethically. New technologies offer new chances but also expose new threats, especially related to privacy and data security that managers need to cope with. CDR puts privacy and data security attempts in a broader context to provide a more holistic approach to Corporate Responsibilities and to strengthen consumer trust in corporate activities. However, managers still face a lack of CDR guidelines that support the implementation of CDR activities. Existing guidelines related to Corporate Responsibilities, like the ISO standard 26000, provide guidance on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) addressing socially responsible and sustainable behaviour. However, current standards do not cover CDR directly. As such, the purpose of this contribution is to evaluate the applicability of the existing CSR standard to CDR to pave the way for CDR standardization in the future.


The processing of submicrometer hardmetal grades using water and ethanol was compared. Powder dispersion was first studied in terms of electrokinetic experiments. Higher repulsive charges are generated in powders surfaces when immersed in water, which tends to decrease suspensions viscosity and to improve milling efficiency. Using water, suspensions with higher solids loading, shorter milling times can be achieved without affecting the microstructural homogeneity. Sintered samples with Co contents of 5.5 and 3.5 wt% were also prepared using both liquids. Higher quality microstructures in terms of grain size distribution, Co dispersion, porosity, and fracture toughness were obtained in water milling. This better Co distribution results in significant differences in terms of sintering behavior. Water processing of hardmetals can therefore bring substantial improvements to the production of these submicrometer grades with low Co contents, known for their processing difficulties. On the other hand, water technology is also environmental friendlier, requires lower investments related with equipment safety and maintenance costs, and hence it is a very promising step toward hardmetal green fabrication.


In Australia, before conducting research with human participants, researchers must have their research plan reviewed by a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) to ensure that proposed methods meet ethical requirements and protect the welfare of participants. In addition, it has been proposed that HRECs can contribute to a novice researcher's ethical mindfulness. To explore this suggestion, the current self-reflective case study examines the dialogue between a PhD candidate and the HREC that reviewed his proposed study of family bereavement in the context of the potential for organ donation. Findings suggest that when a respectful, problem-solving attitude is adopted by both parties, a learning environment evolves where diverse views, differences of opinion, and novel solutions are tolerated. In this context, the research plan is improved and the novice researcher's ability to apply research ethics is developed. Simultaneously, members of the HREC gain practice in the identification of ethical dilemmas and the application of ethical principles that help resolve those dilemmas.


This paper demonstrates the application of an integrated rotorcraft multidisciplinary design and optimisation framework, deployed for the purpose of preliminary design and assessment of optimum regenerative powerplant configurations for rotorcraft. The proposed approach comprises a wide-range of individual modelling theories applicable to rotorcraft flight dynamics, gas turbine engine performance and weight estimation as well as a novel physics-based stirred reactor model, for the rapid estimation of various gas turbine gaseous emissions. A Single-Objective Particle Swarm Optimizer is coupled with the aforementioned rotorcraft multidisciplinary design framework. The overall methodology is deployed for the design space exploration and optimisation of a reference multipurpose twin-engine light civil rotorcraft, modelled after the Bo105 helicopter, employing two Rolls Royce Allison 250-C20B turboshaft engines. Through the implementation of single-objective optimization, notionally based optimum regenerative engine design configurations are acquired in terms of engine weight, mission fuel burn and mission gaseous emissions inventory, at constant technology level. The acquired optimum engine configurations are subsequently deployed for the design of conceptual regenerative rotorcraft configurations, targeting improved mission fuel economy, enhanced payload range capability as well as improvements in the rotorcraft overall environmental footprint, while maintaining the required airworthiness requirements. The proposed approach essentially constitutes an enabler in terms of focusing the multidisciplinary design of conceptual rotorcraft powerplants to realistic, three-dimensional operations and towards the realization of their associated engine design trade-offs at mission level.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Robot grasping technology is a hot spot in robotics research. In relatively fixed industrialized scenarios, using robots to perform grabbing tasks is efficient and lasts a long time. However, in an unstructured environment, the items are diverse, the placement posture is random, and multiple objects are stacked and occluded each other, which makes it difficult for the robot to recognize the target when it is grasped and the grasp method is complicated. Therefore, we propose an accurate, real‐time robot grasp detection method based on convolutional neural networks. A cascaded two‐stage convolutional neural network model with course to fine position and attitude was established. The R‐FCN model was used as the extraction of the candidate frame of the picking position for screening and rough angle estimation, and aiming at the insufficient accuracy of the previous methods in pose detection, an Angle‐Net model is proposed to finely estimate the picking angle. Tests on the Cornell dataset and online robot experiment results show that the method can quickly calculate the optimal gripping point and posture for irregular objects with arbitrary poses and different shapes. The accuracy and real‐time performance of the detection have been improved compared to previous methods.


Environmental interactions are ubiquitous in practical instances of any quantum information processing protocol. The interaction results in depletion of various quantum resources and even complete loss in numerous situations. Nonlocality, which is one particular quantum resource marking a significant departure of quantum mechanics from classical mechanics, meets the same fate. In the present work we study the decay in nonlocality to the extent of the output state admitting a local hidden state model. Using some fundamental quantum channels we also demonstrate the complete decay in the resources in the purview of the Bell–Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality and a three-settings steering inequality. We also obtain bounds on the parameter of the depolarizing map for which it becomes steerability breaking pertaining to a general class of two qubit states.Quanta 2019; 8: 57–67.


When it comes to advertising, food processors out-spend every other sector of the economy. However, farmer-owned cooperatives seem less enamored of the powers of Madison Avenue than their privately owned counterparts in the food industry. Advertising data spanning a 20-year period, from 1967 to 1987, show that agricultural cooperatives spent proportionately less to advertise their brand-name products (based on their share of food dollars) than did non-cooperative food processors. The data also indicate that cooperatives' share of branded advertising expenditures has remained unchanged during the 20-year period examined for this study.


2 Abstract: Social Networking System is one of the most popular Internet applications. This paper presents an online information service model based on Social Networking Systems. "Knowledge management of information extraction from Social Networking System through WCF Service" demonstrates an effective and efficient technique for extract online information from staff members profile based on Social Networking System and automatically embeds that information in an education institution website through WCF, which can make the college database more light and accurate. The data mining in SNS profiles is done through K-means Clustering. A case study based on FACE KUTTER, a practice SNS for staff members of an education institution is implemented. The performance of FACE KUTTER is compared with other widely used Social Networking Systems.


ABSTRACT Soil salinity causes considerable losses of crop productivity. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the most salt-tolerant Gramineae crops. Previously, we found that net photosynthetic rate (A n) was kept remarkably higher in the salt-tolerant barley accession OUE812 than in the salt-sensitive accession OUC613 after heading under salt stress due to the low level of salt accumulation in leaves. Here we grew seedlings in Hoagland solution with 100 mM NaCl (salt treatment) or without added NaCl (control), and compared A n, stomatal conductance (g s), salt accumulation in leaves, root hydraulic conductance and gene expression of root aquaporins between the accessions under salt stress for a few days. A n, g s and root hydraulic conductance of the plants with salt treatment decreased significantly in OUC613 compared to OUE812 with no accession difference in salt accumulation in leaves at 2 days after the onset of treatment (DAT). The reduction in root hydraulic conductance in OUC613 was caused by the reduction of the root hydraulic conductivity (Lp r). Salt treatment also decreased the transcript levels of some plasma membrane intrinsic aquaporin genes (HvPIPs) in OUC613 and, on the contrary, increased those of some HvPIPs in OUE812, resulting in a large difference between OUC613 and OUE812 in the transcript levels at 2 DAT. The accession difference in HvPIPs expression and thus Lp r was closely associated with the accession difference in A n and g s under the short-term salt stress. Graphical abstract


: Given the large number of chemical substances that may find their way into the food supply, a system is needed to monitor their presence. The U. S. Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Inspection Program routinely tests for chemical residues in animals coming to slaughter. Pesticides, heavy metals, growth promotants (hormones and hormonelike agents), and antibiotics are included. Samples are taken statistically so that inferences as to national incidence of residues can be drawn. When a problem is identified, a more selective sampling is designed to help follow up on the initial regulatory action. In testing for pesticides, only DDT and dieldrin are found with any frequency and their levels are decreasing; violative residues of any chlorinated hydrocarbon are generally a result of an industrial accident rather than agricultural usage. Analyses for heavy metals have revealed detectable levels of mercury, lead, and others, but none at levels that are considered a health hazard. Of the hormone or hormonelike substances, only diethylstilbestrol has been a residue problem and its future is uncertain. The most extensive monitoring for veterinary drugs is on the antimicrobials, including sulfonamides, streptomycin, and the tetracycline group of antibiotics that constitute the bulk of the violations; their simultaneous use prophylactically and therapeutically has contributed to the problem in certain cases. A strong, well-designed user education program on proper application of pesticides, chemicals, and veterinary drugs appears to be one method of reducing the incidence of unwanted residues.


To increase the accuracy and speed of measurement of Naringin extraction rate, the prediction of Naringin extraction rate is raised based on Weighted Least Square Support Vector Machine (WLSSVM) and improved Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) of the machine learning methods. Taking the ratio of material to solvent, the extracting time, ethanol concentration and extracting temperature which influence Naringin extraction rate as the input of WLSSVM and Naringin extraction rate as output, learn extracting Naringin test data from shaddock peels. The results of simulation indicate that the prediction of improved ABC algorithm and advanced WLSSVM acquires better prediction speed, accuracy and stability and is appropriate for the prediction of Naringin extraction, compared with the methods of LSSVM and ABC-LSSVM.


Multi-task learning (MTL) models have demonstrated impressive results in computer vision, natural language processing, and recommender systems. Even though many approaches have been proposed, how well these approaches balance different tasks on each parameter still remains unclear. In this paper, we propose to measure the task dominance degree of a parameter by the total updates of each task on this parameter. Specifically, we compute the total updates by the exponentially decaying Average of the squared Updates (AU) on a parameter from the corresponding task. Based on this novel metric, we observe that many parameters in existing MTL methods, especially those in the higher shared layers, are still dominated by one or several tasks. The dominance of AU is mainly due to the dominance of accumulative gradients from one or several tasks. Motivated by this, we propose a Task-wise Adaptive learning rate approach, AdaTask in short, to separate the accumulative gradients and hence the learning rate of each task for each parameter in adaptive learning rate approaches (e.g., AdaGrad, RMSProp, and Adam). Comprehensive experiments on computer vision and recommender system MTL datasets demonstrate that AdaTask significantly improves the performance of dominated tasks, resulting SOTA average task-wise performance. Analysis on both synthetic and real-world datasets shows AdaTask balance parameters in every shared layer well.


We introduce a new and completely online contextual bandit algorithm called Gated Linear Contextual Bandits (GLCB). This algorithm is based on Gated Linear Networks (GLNs), a recently introduced deep learning architecture with properties well-suited to the online setting. Leveraging data-dependent gating properties of the GLN we are able to estimate prediction uncertainty with effectively zero algorithmic overhead. We empirically evaluate GLCB compared to 9 state-of-the-art algorithms that leverage deep neural networks, on a standard benchmark suite of discrete and continuous contextual bandit problems. GLCB obtains median first-place despite being the only online method, and we further support these results with a theoretical study of its convergence properties.


For a given reachable automaton A, we prove that the (state-) endomorphism monoid End(A) divides its characteristic monoid M(A). Hence so does its (state-)automorphism group Aut(A), and, for finite A, Aut(A) is a homomorphic image of a subgroup of the characteristic monoid. It follows that in the presence of a (state-) automorphism group G of A, a finite automaton A (and its transformation monoid) always has a decomposition as a divisor of the wreath product of two transformation semigroups whose semigroups are divisors of M(A), namely the symmetry group G and the quotient of M(A) induced by the action of G. Moreover, this division is an embedding if M(A) is transitive on states of A. For more general automorphisms, which may be non-trivial on input letters, counterexamples show that they need not be induced by any corresponding characteristic monoid element.


A matching function approach is applied to unemployment exit data from a panel of Eastern German labour office districts since monetary union. With comparable West German data, such a matching function exhibits constant returns, is stable, and can account for at least three-quarters of the variance of exits from unemployment. In contrast, the Eastern German matching function exhibits increasing returns, and vacancies enter the function insignificantly or with incorrect sign. These estimates also differ significantly from those for the Czech Republic, discounting explanations related to the transformation per se . When the effects of special labour market measures introduced since monetary union are accounted for, Eastern German estimates resemble those of the Czech Republic, i.e. they exhibit constant to mildly decreasing returns.


This paper considers straight line path following control of wheel-less planar snake robots using sliding mode techniques. We first derive the Poincaré representation of the equations of motion of the robot using the techniques of differential geometry. Furthermore, we use partial feedback linearization to linearize the directly actuated part of the system dynamics. Subsequently, we propose an analytical solution to the robust path following control problem in two steps. In the first step, we use sliding mode techniques to design a robust tracking controller for the joints of the robot to track a desired gait pattern. In the second step, we stabilize an appropriately defined sliding manifold for the underactuated configuration variables of the robot, thereby guaranteeing convergence of the robot to the desired straight path. The paper presents simulation results which validate the theoretical results.


Considered here are the forces between two current-carrying circular coils, one of which, the primary coil, has a larger diameter than the other, the secondary. In the case in which the secondary coil's central axis does not coincide with that of the primary, there exists a transverse force which we call the restoring force. It is found that this force decreases with increasing distance between the coils and changes sign. This paper presents a calculation of this force and its characteristics. Finally, it introduces some experimental results.


Exploration of an unknown environment is a fundamental concern in mobile robotics. This paper presents an approach for cooperative multi-robot exploration, fire searching and mapping in an unknown environment. The proposed approach aims to minimize the overall exploration time, making it possible to localize fire sources in an efficient way. In order to achieve this goal, the robots should cooperate in an effective way, so they can individually and simultaneously explore different areas of the environment while they identify fire sources. The proposed approach employs a decentralized frontier based exploration method which evaluates the cost-gain ratio to navigate to target way-points. The target way-points are obtained by an A* search variant algorithm. The potential field method is used to control the robots motion while avoiding obstacles. When a robot detects a fire, it estimates the flame's position by triangulation. The communication between the robots is done in a decentralized control way where they share the necessary data to generate the map of the environment and to perform cooperative actions in a behavioral decision making way. This paper presents simulation and experimental results of the proposed exploration and fire search method and concludes with a discussion of the obtained results and future improvements.


Historical events are framed by the actors of the time and then re-framed by subsequent historians and the public. This article surveys the historiography of the San Juan Island Dispute, 1853-1871, known colloquially in the twentieth century as the "Pig War." In 1859, after an American settler on San Juan shot a pig owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, the American military and the Royal Navy met in a tense stand-off resulting in a twelve year joint-military occupation of the island. This conflict was the last border dispute between Great Britain and the United States. With documents from the dispute, such as colonial despatches, official correspondence and newspaper editorials, this article considers how the event was originally framed and then examines how the "war" was re-framed over the next century. Following World War II, a message of peace became the dominant trope of histories written about the "Pig War." The term itself has come to represent this overarching theme which continues in the twenty-first century as part of a more inclusive history of San Juan Island.


Background and objective: Since the introduction of the laryngeal mask into clinical practice, various additional supraglottic ventilatory devices have been developed. Although it has been demonstrated that the laryngeal tube is an effective airway device during positive pressure ventilation no clinical study has been performed thus far regarding its use in patients with predicted ventilation and intubation difficulties. Methods: The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the use of the laryngeal tube for temporary oxygenation and ventilation in adult patients with supraglottic airway tumours scheduled to undergo a pharyngeal‐laryngeal oesophagoscopy and bronchoscopy under general anaesthesia. In addition to our standard airway management with face mask ventilation and rigid bronchoscopy, all patients were temporarily ventilated with an laryngeal tube. Also, in patients requiring laryngeal biopsies, endotracheal intubation was performed with a 6.0 mm microlaryngeal tracheal tube. Minute ventilation volumes, tidal volumes, ventilation pressures, end‐expiratory CO2 concentration, oxygen saturation and arterial blood gas samples were measured. Results: From 54 enrolled patients only patients with relevant tumour masses were evaluated (n = 23). Mask ventilation was performed without difficulty in 15 of 23 patients. Mechanical ventilation with the laryngeal tube was possible in 22 of 23 patients with an audible leak present in three. Conventional endotracheal intubation was successfully performed in 19 of 23 patients. During face mask ventilation, minute volume, tidal volume, ventilation pressure, end‐tidal CO2, oxygen saturation and arterial PO2 were significantly lower and PCO2 significantly higher (P < 0.05, paired t‐test). No statistically significant differences were noted between the laryngeal tube and the microlaryngeal tracheal tube. Conclusions: The possibility of difficult ventilation and intubation must always be considered in patients with supraglottic airway tumours. In these cases, the laryngeal tube can be considered for routine airway management and may be useful in the 'cannot‐intubate' situation although difficulties should be anticipated in patients with previous irradiation, specifically of the throat area.


Although Parkinson's disease is primarily a neurologic disorder, primary care physicians should be knowledgeable about the disease and its treatment because most patients will see their primary care physician first for their symptoms. Furthermore, in today's setting of managed care, primary care physicians will likely be called on even more to assume primary responsibility for the treatment of patients afflicted with Parkinson's disease; neurologists will likely play the role of consultants who see a patient only periodically and offer recommendations and advice for the primary care physicians to implement.


Prof. Dr. Joseph Vincent De Sa, whom we called Prof. Joe De Sa, was born on August 21,1915, in Bombay, India, where he also died on November 3, 1989 (15 years ago). To us within the international community of neurootologists and to all his friends, students, and contemporaneous ear, nose, and throat CENT) specialists in India, he was a very great communicator in the fields of both otology and neurootology . Fifteen years after his passing, we still recognize that we have lost an unforgettable clinical investigator, ear surgeon, lecturer , teacher, and-especially-great man of modern medicine at home and abroad


In the Alpine blueschist- to eclogite-facies meta-ophiolitic units of northern Corsica, the contact between a serpentinite body and an immediately overlying siliceous marble is remarkable for the occurrence of wollastonite and, on the marble side, a dark halo around the serpentinite. The refolded, continuous contact is a rodingite-type reaction zone with a centimetre-thick nephritic selvage of diopside + andradite/grossular ± perovskite on the serpentinite side, followed towards the marble by a 1-5 cm thick zone of massive wollastonite (± grossular), followed by a 5-20 cm thick dark zone (the halo) consisting of wollastonite + quartz + graphitic material (± grossular ± diopside), with no carbonate. The transition to the overlying wollastonite-free, calcite + quartz-bearing layers is sharp. Considering the stability of calcite + quartz everywhere else in the regional metamorphic series, this low-temperature occurrence of wollastonite (c. 400-450°C) requires unusual conditions. A clue to its origin is the abundance of graphitic matter with the wollastonite within a few decimetres of the serpentinite body. We interpret this observation as evidence for local reduction of Ca-carbonate to form elemental carbon and wollastonite according to the reaction: SiO2 + CaCO3 + 2H2 = CaSiO3 + C + 2H2O. Thermochemical modelling of mineral stability in the successive reaction zones suggests a positive oxygen-fugacity gradient from the serpentinite to the marble (-6 < FMQ < -1), mediated through a CH4- and H2-bearing aqueous intergranular fluid.


At least two maxima have been defined in the relatively narrow domain (240 to 280°C, 1 Hz) on the temperature-dependent internal friction curves for the quenched and cold-worked austenitic alloys with different chemical composition. The first peak is connected with reorientation of interstitial atoms couples in the applied stresses, the second with the dislocation motion. Analysis of the temperature-dependent internal friction spectrum for heat treated or mechanical treated alloys or both is considered to be difficult. A new approach for the investigation of this complex spectrum has been developed. Computer simulation of internal friction (IF) peak splitting to a few partial peaks is suggested. The method applied for the splitting of complex IF peaks in the heat treated iron-nickel-molybdenum (Fe-Ni-Mo) alloys is based on different activation energies of diffusion for carbon and nitrogen atoms in face-centered-cubic solid solution. The optimization procedure has been carried out with the use of experiment planning and by searching for the function minimum by the method of steepest descent. After plastic deformation the IF spectrum of the quenched specimens becomes more complicated. The superposition of three IF peaks Q - 1 C (carbon), Q - 1 N (nitrogen) and strain-induced IF peak Q - t P takes place. The results of computer simulation of the IF spectrum as well as the obtained data for activation energies for the heat treated and deformed iron-nickel, iron-nickel-molybdenum, iron-chromium-nickel, and iron-manganese-aluminum alloys are discussed. The influence of the degree of plastic deformation and chemical composition on the IF peak is analyzed on this basis.


A study of power system stability, based on analytical modeling, is presented for application to a current-mode DC-DC converter power system with a solar array input and a line-filter interface. A fundamental analytical background is provided for use in analyses of systems of similar architecture. With this architecture, there is a potential for two sources of instability: (1) the relatively high-Q resonant tank formed by the input filter inductance and the array capacitance combined with excessive array voltage regulation loop-gain; and (2) positive feedback due to in-phase response produced by the current-mode converter at low frequencies. Such a low-frequency instability is dependent upon the magnitude of the array current, the array impedance, and the array voltage regulation loop-gain.


We describe an automated procedure for protein design, implemented in a flexible software package, called Proteus. System setup and calculation of an energy matrix are done with the XPLOR modeling program and its sophisticated command language, supporting several force fields and solvent models. A second program provides algorithms to search sequence space. It allows a decomposition of the system into groups, which can be combined in different ways in the energy function, for both positive and negative design. The whole procedure can be controlled by editing 2–4 scripts. Two applications consider the tyrosyl‐tRNA synthetase enzyme and its successful redesign to bind both O‐methyl‐tyrosine and D‐tyrosine. For the latter, we present Monte Carlo simulations where the D‐tyrosine concentration is gradually increased, displacing L‐tyrosine from the binding pocket and yielding the binding free energy difference, in good agreement with experiment. Complete redesign of the Crk SH3 domain is presented. The top 10000 sequences are all assigned to the correct fold by the SUPERFAMILY library of Hidden Markov Models. Finally, we report the acid/base behavior of the SNase protein. Sidechain protonation is treated as a form of mutation; it is then straightforward to perform constant‐pH Monte Carlo simulations, which yield good agreement with experiment. Overall, the software can be used for a wide range of application, producing not only native‐like sequences but also thermodynamic properties with errors that appear comparable to other current software packages.Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Retinal vein occlusion is the second most common cause of blindness in retinal vascular disease after diabetic retinopathy and may lead to complications of macular edema. Bevacizumab is an influential treatment as an anti vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This study aims to determine the difference of visual acuity and macular thickness before and after treatment of Bevacizumab. This is a quasi experimental study in patients with secondary macular edema retinal vein occlusion who meets the inclusion criteria. Visual acuity and macular thickness were evaluated after one month of treatment. This study was conducted for two months since May-June 2017 by collecting secondary data from medical record at SMEC Samarinda from January 2016 – June 2017. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon. Sixteen eyes from 16 patients were diagnosed with macular edema secondary retinal vein occlusion given bevacizumab treatment. The mean visual acuity before therapy was 1.106 LogMAR ± 0.509 and increased to 0.889 logMAR ± 0.608 (p = 0.116) after treatment while the mean macular thickness before therapy was 504.06 μm ± 301.273 and decreased to 348.81 μm ± 181.17 (p = 0.017) after treatment. There was a significant effect on the decrease in macular thickness but no significant effect on visual acuity improvement in patients with macular edema secondary retinal vein occlusion at SMEC Samarinda.
 Keywords: Retinal vein occlusion, macular edema, bevacizumab


Everybody loves the Irish and the Irish brogue is a vehicle of certain interest for any ideas that are at all calculated to claim attention. Mr. McAlpine has used it to the finest advantage for teaching some of the fine lessons of religion in these practical days. Every one of the fifteen chapters is witty and wise, entertaining and convincing. The Laymen's Movement, the temperance cause, the missionary enterprise, the necessity for proper attention to the associates of our children, Christian Science, pastors' salaries, all these and many more topics are discussed in a way to be most helpful even if not made irresistible in the form in which the ideas are presented. It is, a book one has tried out in reading aloud in the family circle. W. O. CARVER.


Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is the most common pathogen in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) that shows various resistance to antibiotics, acquires mucoidity and multiple genotypes. This survey was performed to study phenotypic and genotypic variations among P. aeruginosa isolates in CF patients at Alzahra Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. Materials and Methods: The isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from CF patients at Alzahra Hospital was identified by appropriate biochemical and microscopic tests, then performed antibiotic resistance tests and mucoid colony morphotyping. The genum of isolates extracted and confirmed on 16S rDNA-based PCR assay and typed on 16S rDNA-23SrDNA spacer, restricted with Hinf1 restriction enzyme. Results: P. aeruginosa was isolated from 21 of the 59 CF patients (35.5%), Out of 21 isolates 9 (42.8%) strains were revealed mucoid morphotype. 81.8% isolates of mucoid strains were resistance to at least one of four antibiotics (GM, AN, PIP and CP). Most of the isolates (86%) showed resistance to ceftazidime. Ribotyping revealed two patterns (P1, P5). Conclusion: The isolates of P. aeruginosa showed meaningful difference between drug resistance to antibiotics. The majority of P. aeruginosa isolated from CF patients showed pattern1 of PCR-Ribotyping.


Valproic acid (VPA) is a potent anti‐epileptic and effective mood stabilizer. It is known that VPA enhances central GABAergic activity and activates the mitogen‐activated protein kinase–extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (MAPK–ERK) pathway. It can also inhibit various isoforms of the enzyme, histone deacetylase (HDAC), which is associated with modulation of gene transcription. Recent in vivo studies indicate a neuroprotective role for VPA, which has been found to up‐regulate the expression of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the rat brain. Given the interaction between the pineal hormone, melatonin, and GABAergic systems in the central nervous system, the effects of VPA on the expression of the mammalian melatonin receptor subtypes, MT1 and MT2, were examined in rat C6 glioma cells. The effects of VPA on the expression of glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and BDNF were also examined. RT‐PCR studies revealed a significant induction of melatonin MT1 receptor mRNA in C6 cells following treatment with 3 or 5 mm VPA for 24 h or 5 mm VPA for 48 h. Western analysis and immunocytochemical detection confirmed that the VPA‐induced increase in MT1 mRNA results in up‐regulation of MT1 protein expression. Blockade of the MAPK–ERK pathway by PD98059 enhanced the effect of VPA on MT1 expression, suggesting a negative role for this pathway in MT1 receptor regulation. In addition, significant increases in BDNF, GDNF and HDAC mRNA expression were observed after treatment with VPA for 24 or 48 h. Taken together, the present findings suggest that the neuroprotective properties of VPA involve modulation of neurotrophic factors and receptors for melatonin, which is also thought to play a role in neuroprotection. Moreover, the foregoing suggests that combinations of VPA and melatonin could provide novel therapeutic strategies in neurological and psychiatric disorders.


In phase retrieval, the goal is to recover a complex signal from the magnitude of its linear measurements. While many well-known algorithms guarantee deterministic recovery of the unknown signal using i.i.d. random measurement matrices, they suffer serious convergence issues some ill-conditioned matrices. As an example, this happens in optical imagers using binary intensity-only spatial light modulators to shape the input wavefront. The problem of ill-conditioned measurement matrices has also been a topic of interest for compressed sensing researchers during the past decade. In this paper, using recent advances in generic compressed sensing, we propose a new phase retrieval algorithm that well-adopts for both Gaussian i.i.d. and binary matrices using both sparse and dense input signals. This algorithm is also robust to the strong noise levels found in some imaging applications.


Insolvency law (bankruptcy law to some) moves so quickly in the cross-border realm that this piece's discussion, started in 2015, is probably already outdated. Nonetheless, I publish it unrepentantly because it turns overdue attention to the role of soft law in this domain. Building on earlier work in which I address the role of incrementalism, I discuss the marked success of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency and its cognate Insolvency Regulation in the EU (the latter now into its "Recast"). As predicted/hoped, the EU Recast, joining other contemporaneous reform projects, is building upon the scaffolding of legal doctrines erected by the Model Law. This is a success for soft law. Here, however, I am using "soft law" both to define the binding force of the international instrument and the substantive ambition of its insolvency law specificity. Soft law, thus defined, appears to have reigned triumphant.


Multimedia applications have become increasingly popular in the Internet. TCP is the dominant Internet congestion control protocol, but it does not serve all applications well. Thus, many new congestion control protocols have been proposed recently, in particular for multimedia applications.
To ensure that these flows share bandwidth fairly with TCP flows, TCP-friendliness is proposed as a criterion for designing new protocols. Currently, the TCP-friendliness criterion is defined based on the assumption that all flows experience the same static congestion signal. However, the bandwidth sharing and congestion signal is a result of the dynamic behavior of all participating flows. The claim of this thesis is that the bandwidth sharing behavior among competing flows should be studied in a dynamical environment.
To understand a dynamic phenomenon one needs a theoretical model that adequately describes the behavior of the system being studied. In this dissertation, we propose a state-space model to study the dynamics of the bandwidth competition, in particular among AIMD-based TCP-friendly flows. It characterizes a dynamic system by a set of related state variables, which can change with time in a manner that is predictable provided that the external influences acting on the system are known. We use the model to describe the stability of bandwidth competitions, which is characterized as convergence to a dynamically oscillating limit cycle in the state space. This stability description clearly distinguishes transient and long-term fairness.
Along with the state-space modeling, we build an adaptive AIMD-based congestion control protocol that exposes its parameters to applications. This dissertation presents some example uses of this adaptive protocol to verify the results derived from the state-space model. As an example, we adjust the AIMD parameters to achieve a uniform fairness that is independent of round-trip-times.


The high prevalence of email worms indicates that current in-network defence mechanisms are incapable of mitigating this Internet threat. Moreover, commonly applied approaches against this class of propagating malicious program do not target reducing unwanted email traffic traversing the Internet. In this paper, we take a step toward better understanding of email worms, and explore their effect on the flow-level characteristics of Domain Name System (DNS) query streams that user machines generate. We propose a novel method, which uses time series analysis and unsupervised learning, to detect email worms as they appear on local name servers. To evaluate our detection method, we have constructed a DNS query dataset that consists of 71 email worms. We demonstrate that our method is very effective.


We investigated tonal perception of melodies from 2 cultures (Western and traditional Japanese) by 5 different cultural groups (44 Japanese, 25 Chinese, 16 Vietnamese, 18 Indonesians, and 25 U.S. citizens). Listeners rated the degree of "melodic completeness" of the final tone (a tonic vs. a nontonic) and "happiness–sadness" in the mode (major vs. minor, YOH vs. IN) of each melody. When Western melodies were presented, American and Japanese listeners responded similarly, such that they reflected implicit tonal knowledge of Western music. By contrast, the responses of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian listeners were different from those of American and Japanese listeners. When traditional Japanese melodies were presented, Japanese listeners exhibited responses that reflected implicit tonal knowledge of traditional Japanese music. American listeners also showed responses that were like the Japanese; however, the pattern of responses differed between the 2 groups. Alternatively, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian listeners exhibited different responses from the Japanese. These results show large differences between the Chinese/Vietnamese/Indonesian group and the American/Japanese group. Furthermore, the differences in responses to Western melodies between Americans and Japanese were less pronounced than that between Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesians. These findings imply that cultural differences in tonal perception are more diverse and distinctive than previously believed.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mentoring program of the Minority Scholars from Under-Represented Groups in Engineering and the Social Sciences (SURGE) Capacity in Disasters initiative, a pilot program that aimed to address the challenges that graduate students of color face in academic programs. SURGE promotes mentoring and professional development through its mentoring program for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students. Methods: Data collection involved distributing online surveys designed in Qualtrics to mentors and mentees five months after the SURGE program's initiation. Separate surveys were created for student mentees and faculty mentors in order to collect feedback about the mentoring program. Mentees and mentors were also asked to rate their satisfaction with the specific individuals in their mentoring network so that the evaluation team could identify issues that arose across participants. Results: We found that students had several motivations for and expectations from SURGE. A majority of the students found the SURGE mentoring program to have been at least somewhat valuable in helping them achieve these expectations. Nonetheless, students did identify a few challenges, namely lack of swift responsiveness from some mentors, not enough guidance on navigating the mentor-mentee relationship, and little to no in-person interaction. While half of the students mentioned that some individuals within their mentoring team were hard to reach, a majority remained satisfied with the overall responsiveness of their mentors. This suggests that the many-to-many mentoring model helped to ensure none were entirely dissatisfied on this measure. Conclusions: These findings support previous research and show promise for mentoring as an effective intervention to the challenges that underrepresented students face in their academic programs and for their retention and representation, particularly in hazards and disaster-related fields. Implications: Overall, given the unique barriers and challenges to retention for minority students in graduate programs, it is important to understand the mentoring needs of underrepresented students in order to provide the best possible help to them during what can be an extraordinarily difficult transition into academia. It is especially crucial to do this for underrepresented students in the fields of hazards and disaster research and practice, as their contributions and perspectives are needed to address social disparities and inequities.


This paper is aimed at analyzing the Bit Error Rate performance of the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system in Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) environment for increasing the transmission capacity and improving the spectrum efficiency for wireless communication by varying number of users. The main motivation for using OFDM in a MIMO channel is the fact that OFDM modulation turns a frequency-selective channel into a set of parallel-flat frequency MIMO channel, in order to achieve the efficient usage of the available bandwidth. Multi-user Detection (MUD) is the intelligent estimation of transmitted bits in the presence of Multiple Access Interference (MAI).Conventional detectors based on the matched filter just treat the MAI as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). However, unlike AWGN, MAI has a nice correlative structure quantified by the crosscorrelation matrix of the signature sequences. Hence, detectors that take into account this correlation would perform better than the conventional matched filter-bank. MUD is basically the design of signal processing algorithms. These algorithms take into account the correlative structure of the MAI. This paper deals with the possible analysis of various digital modulation techniques such as QPSK, 16 QAM and 64 QAM. These are compared based on their Minimum Bit Error Rates (MBER) to their corresponding Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) values and best promising combination is proposed. In this analysis, MIMO-OFDM based Wireless Communication System considers using MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) and VBLAST (Vertical Bell Laboratories layered Space-Time) technique. We compare results for Rayleigh Channel.


The author studied the ability of stromal precursor cells of mouse bone marrow to intracellular repair of radiation-induced injuries. It was shown that the slow-restorable, highly radioresistant population of stromal precursor cells is capable of early post-radiation recovery.


: The İstanbul Pliocene deposits consist of an alternation of sand, clay, and coal in the northern part of İstanbul that characterizes a delta plain deposit on the southern coastal line of the Black Sea. The Pliocene sediments, which are located conformably on the fluvial sediments consisting of coarse clastics, are about 80 meters thick and outcrop as isolated patches in Şile in the east of the İstanbul Strait (Bosphorus) and Kısırkaya in the west. The U/Pb detrital zircon ages obtained from the sands of Kısırkaya and Şile region showed that the Pliocene deposits contain Proterozoic (2396 ± 72 – 542.4 ± 7.9 Ma), Paleozoic (540 ± 12 – 258.9 ± 5.2 Ma), Mesozoic (248.8 ± 4.4 – 71.8 ± 1.2 Ma), and Cenozoic (63 ± 1.8 – 22.18 ± 0.95 Ma) zircons derived from a piedmont plateau. Presence of the youngest Oligocene–early Miocene zircons (22.18 ± 0.95 – 31.1 ± 1.2 Ma) reveals that the source of this succession may be the Northwest Anatolia and/or northern Aegean region where magmatic rocks of the same age crop out. In addition to the zircon data in the sandy deposits, trace element geochemistry also shows that the drainage basin of the Pliocene rivers transporting clastics to the basin is located in the southwestern region of İstanbul and flowed into the Black Sea before the formation of the Marmara Sea. These rivers would have been blocked in the early Quaternary by the Marmara Sea depression, which was formed by extensional faults, the product of an approximately N–S extensional tectonic regime in the region. This tectonic regime caused the rapid uplifting of the İstanbul region and the Istranca Mountains in the north of the Marmara, and the eroded flattened areas called the Bursa–Balıkesir plateau in the south, in the form of horsts. Subsequently, before the North Anatolian fault reached the region, it formed deformation structures under the effect of dextral shear in a wide zone in the Marmara region. This tectonic regime was ended when the North Anatolian fault reached and cut the Marmara Sea region in the Latest Quaternary.


This paper examines the long-run effects of supply shocks (such as oil shocks) on inflation in the United States. The persistence of supply shocks in U.S. inflation fell considerably during the period of Volcker's disinflation (1979-1982). My empirical results suggest that the difference between the pre-Volcker and post-Volcker periods is attributable to the change in the behavior of inflation expectations-agents expected shocks to persist in the pre-Volcker period, but not in the post-Volcker period. I construct a simple model of how different monetary policies lead to different persistence equilibria.


Range profile data from the surface echo of the Precipitation Radar (PR) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite enable the assessment of the nonuniformity of rainfall. The surface echo profile can be converted to a horizontal pattern of surface echo strength within the PR's footprint at off-nadir angles. Then, using the no-rain surface echo profile over ocean as a reference, the horizontal pattern of the path-integrated attenuation (PIA) can be estimated under moderate to heavy rainfall. Based on the horizontal pattern of the PIA, the nonuniform beam-filling parameter is estimated. However, this technique is applicable only to off-nadir angles and over ocean. Comparisons using ground-based radar data obtained simultaneously with TRMM data verify the effectiveness of this technique


Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare autosomal and X-linked recessive disorder, characterized by congenital abnormalities, pediatric bone marrow failure and cancer susceptibility. FA is caused by biallelic mutations in any one of 16 genes. The FA proteins function cooperatively in the FA-BRCA pathway to repair DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs). The monoubiquitination of FANCD2 and FANCI is a central step in the activation of the FA-BRCA pathway and is required for targeting these proteins to chromatin. Despite their critical role in ICL repair, very little is known about the structure, function, and regulation of the FANCD2 and FANCI proteins, or how they are targeted to the nucleus and chromatin. The goal of this dissertation is to study the mechanisms and regulation of FANCD2. Through this research, we have uncovered a nuclear localization signal (NLS) in FANCD2. Mutation of this NLS region impairs FANCD2 and FANCI monoubiquitination and inhibits the recruitment of FANCD2 and FANCI to chromatin. In addition, we have identified a putative CDK phosphorylation site cluster in FANCD2. Taken together, we believe these findings have enhanced our understanding of this important DNA repair protein and will allow for further investigation of this rare cancer susceptibility syndrome.


Packed with full-colour images from contributors such as Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, Edun and People Tree, A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion is a much-needed handbook for academics, researchers, students and professionals in the fashion and textiles industries. Beginning with a reflection on current models of fashion design and production, this book introduces the key issues associated with the production, use and disposal of fashion clothing and provides a framework on how to identify and evaluate the potential impacts of a garment during the design process. Featuring industry perspectives alongside practice-based discussions, the final five chapters of the book explore a range of ways in which designers can reduce the negative impacts associated with the life cycle of fashion garments. Including innovative examples of best practice from international designers and brands, these chapters present each key stage in the life cycle of a fashion garment and explore approaches such as low-impact textiles techniques, mono-materiality, zero waste techniques, upcycling, repair and maintenance techniques and closed-loop design systems. A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion offers an overview of the following topics: garment design; sourcing and selecting fabrics and techniques; pattern making and toiling; garment construction; distribution; clothing care and maintenance; reuse and re-manufacture; and material recycling; and it also covers the following sustainable design approaches: design for empathy; using mono materials; zero waste techniques; design for durability; engaging with local communities; design for need; reducing laundering; design for repair; upcycling; and design for closed-loop systems.


Anticoagulant treatment of pediatric central venous catheter-related venous thromboembolism (CVC-VTE) has not been specifically evaluated. In EINSTEIN-Jr, 500 children with any VTE received rivaroxaban or standard anticoagulants. A predefined analysis of the CVC-VTE cohort was performed. Children with CVC-VTE (age, birth to 17 years) were administered rivaroxaban or standard anticoagulants during the 1-month (children <2 years) or 3-month (all other children) study period. Predefined outcomes were recurrent VTE, change in thrombotic burden on repeat imaging, and bleeding. Predictors for continuation of anticoagulant therapy beyond the study period were evaluated. One hundred twenty-six children with symptomatic (n = 76, 60%) or asymptomatic (n = 50, 40%) CVC-VTE received either rivaroxaban (n = 90) or standard anticoagulants (n = 36). There was no recurrent VTE (0%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.0%-2.8%). Three children had the principal safety outcome: none had major bleeding and 3 children had clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding (2.4%; 95% CI, 0.7%-6.5%), all in the rivaroxaban arm. Complete or partial vein recanalization occurred in 57 (55%) and 38 (37%) of 103 evaluable children, respectively. Results were similar for symptomatic and asymptomatic CVC-VTE. Continuation of anticoagulant therapy beyond the study period occurred in 61 (48%) of children and was associated with residual VTE but only in children <2 years (odds ratio [OR], 20.9; P = .003) and continued CVC use (OR, 6.7; P = .002). Anticoagulant therapy appeared safe and efficacious and was associated with reduced clot burden in most children with symptomatic or asymptomatic CVC-VTE. Residual VTE and continued CVC use were associated with extended anticoagulation. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT02234843.


The utilization of clinical decision support (CDS) is increasing among healthcare facilities that have implemented computerized physician order entry or electronic medical records. Formal prospective evaluation of CDS implementations rarely occurs, and misuse or flaws in system design are often not recognized or corrected. Through retrospective nephrologist adjudication of acute kidney injury (AKI) CDS alerts, we identified patient and knowledgebase factors that contributed to inappropriate or false positive, alerts. We also estimated the rate of inappropriate provider responses, which occurred in the setting of both true and false positive alerts. We found that few alerts were determined to be inappropriate. Unintended adverse consequences, or inappropriate provider responses resulting from inappropriate alerts, were rare.
Retrospective review often occurs too late to make critical corrections or initiate redesign efforts. We developed a real-time, web-based surveillance tool for nephrotoxic and renally cleared medications that integrates provider responses to CDS recommendations with relevant medication ordering, administration, and therapeutic monitoring data. The surveillance view displays all currently admitted, eligible patients and provides brief demographics with triggering order, laboratory, and CDS interactions to facilitate the identification of high-risk patient conditions, such as an imminent adverse drug event (ADE) or potential ADE (pADE). The patient detail view displays a detailed timeline of orders, order administrations, laboratory values, and CDS interactions for an individual patient and allows users to understand provider actions and patient condition changes occurring in conjunction with CDS interactions.
We evaluated the surveillance tool with a randomized trial, where intervention patients were monitored on the surveillance tool daily by a clinical pharmacist and control patients received only existing CDS and standard of care. Despite interventions made by the study pharmacist from the surveillance tool, we found no significant change in the timeliness of provider modifications or discontinuations of targeted medications or occurrence of pADEs or ADEs. We concluded that clinical pharmacist surveillance of AKI-related medication alerts did not improve the timeliness or quality of provider responses or patient outcomes.


It is expected that river systems are nowadays changing due to an ascending surface temperature and the subsequent ascending number of extreme situation such as heavy precipitation and droughts. The River Rhine is probably also affected by these climate induced changes, which can cause higher river discharges according to experts. This in combination with the fact that the Netherlands is very vulnerable to floods, because of its low-lying land and the large number of densely populated areas, will cause a rise of the flood risk. To remain safe, it is important that flood protections, such as levees, are implemented close to all submersible areas. This process is time consuming and expensive and thence good policy must be developed. Therefore, it is important for Dutch water managers and policy makers to gain more certainty about the effects of climate change on river systems, such as the River Rhine. However, the outcomes of current river discharge trend analyses are not very certain. This is due to the insufficient quality and amount of data and especially in the River Rhine coincidence of the weather cannot be excluded as the cause for a visible or invisible trend. It is therefore important to try to take into account the uncertainties in the observed discharge time series in trend analyses. It has been tried to lower the uncertainties by using ten other possible discharge time series of the past in the trend analyses. These series are constructed by using a numerical weather product called ERA-CLIM in combination with a hydrological model to transform precipitation and temperature into a discharge at Lobith. ERA-CLIM concerns the re-analysed global weather in the period 1901 until 2010 only based on the average daily sea-surface temperature, sea-ice fraction and radiation scheme. These initial conditions of ERA-CLIM's re-analysis are ten times slightly perturbed to obtain ten equally likely but different weather ensemble members. Variations in the ensemble members approach the uncertainties in the available observational sources on which the ERA-CLIM product is based and therefore they can represent the uncertainties in the observed discharge. Therefore, the objective of this study is as follows:
The objective of this study is to find confirmation for average, seasonal and extreme trends in the River Rhine discharge at Lobith making use of discharge time series created with a hydrological model in combination with a numerical weather product.
First, five types of annual discharge time series were created from the daily observed and ERA-CLIM discharge time series corresponding to five discharge characteristics; a mean discharge characteristic, two seasonal discharge characteristics and two extreme discharge characteristics. The annual discharge time series were also created for a daily time series created with a hydrological model in combination with observed input data, HYRAS discharge time series, to determine the influence of the hydrological model. After comparing both series was concluded that the influence of the hydrological model is negligible and that therefore the ERA-CLIM trends can directly be compared with the trends from the observed series.
Thereafter, the reasonability of the ERA-CLIM discharge time series with respect to the observed series was investigated through a comparison. It turned out that the ERA-CLIM can represent the same kind of weather as observed when looking at the daily series. However, taking a closer look to the annual discharge time series it turned out that the ERA-CLIM series cannot represent the observed weather as same as good for all discharge characteristics. The ERA-CLIM ensembles can for example represent mean and high-flow season discharges quite good in contrast to for example the low-flow season discharges. However, it was concluded that ERA-CLIM can represent the observed series, when keeping in mind the differences between the series. Subsequently the independency of all ERA-CLIM series is tested. It turned out that the ERA-CLIM series are not dependent on each other and also not dependent on the observed series. Therefore, it is confirmed that the ERA-CLIM series can be treated as ten possible, independent discharge series.
Subsequently, the trends of all discharge time series were calculated for the periods 1901 until 1951, 1951 until 2006 and 1901 until 2010. It turned out that the significances and direction of the trends found in the observed and HYRAS series are almost equal. Moreover, it was concluded that the trends and directions between the several ERA-CLIM series differ. The period for which the trends were calculated had also a major influence on the significance and direction of a trend. Finally, the calculated ERA-CLIM trends were compared with the trends found in the observed series. It turned out that most of the significances and directions of the trends found in the observed and ERA-CLIM series are very different. It could however be concluded that some trends in the observed series could be confirmed by the ERA-CLIM series. Although no trends in the extreme and mean series were confirmed making use of the ERA-CLIM series, the seasonal trends found in the observed series were confirmed making use of the ERA-CLIM series and therefore this study will provide circumstantial evidence for these seasonal trends in the observed series.


Introduction: Intertrochanteric fractures are defined as extracapsular fractures of the proximal femur that occur between the greater and lesser trochanter. These fractures occur both in the elderly and the young, but they are more common in the elderly population with osteoporosis due to a low energy mechanism. The female to male ration is between 2:1 and 8:1. Operative management of these fractures is considered urgent, not emergent. This allows the many comorbidities with which patients often present to be optimized preoperatively, to reduce morbidity and mortality. Aim and objectives: Aim of the study is to compare the radiological and functional outcome of proximal femoral nail with helical blade vs. proximal femoral nail with lag screw in intertrochanteric fractures. Materials and methods: Patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the study and randomly allocated in two groups. Group patients with intertrochanteric fracture were operated with proximal femoral nail using lag screw and group B patients were operated with proximal femoral nail using helical blade.


The presence of a new generation of communication technologies (internet) which has different characteristics factually it turns out one of the causes of the loss of credibility of advertising today. Viewers often seek close button in the pop-up ads on the page of a news site that is being visited. Based on research Ayu Saraswati (2014) found that respondents felt disturbed by the presence of pop-up ads, and one of the factors that cause pop-up ads to be avoided is the appearance of an ad that does not fit and repetitive. The problem will be the focus of the study is, "What causes pop-up advertisements been avoided, viewed by analysis of visual form as well as its appearance on the site pages intended audience?" The author will compare the shape and the appearance of pop-up advertising with traditional media advertising that magazine ads and television commercials commercial. The authors assumed there must be a difference in treatment medium pop up (Internet) and traditional media (magazines and television), mainly to maximize the element of interactivity advertising on the internet medium. This study used a qualitative research with descriptive writing interpretive techniques. In operating the data and the facts about popup ads were descripted factually and accurately, which further will be analyzed based on the theories related. Researcher found a lack of understanding of some ad creators caused the denial of pop up ads. Pop-up ad is a static advertising print model that is an ad only one page with no moving visuals, with treatment delivery such as television, by blocking the sites to be visited pages. So most viewers regard as a nuisance pop-up advertisements pleasure and reduce the credibility of ads.


Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is a thin film solar cell which has prospect for solving the fast growing global energy demand. It uses basically titanium dioxide TiO2, organic dye and electrolyte. The availability of these materials and their low cost makes DSSC the cheapest solar cell in the world. Although efforts are being made to improve efficiency but the short life span remain a major challenge. Improving this short life span is what this study is responding to. A known method of preparation was examined and modified for better DSSC performance. Two new approaches were introduced to the process of DSSC fabrication: the introduction of a mordant and sealing the edges. The organic pigment used for light harvesting was Teak dye. The results of the conventional method and the modified method were obtained and compared. The results of the newly developed method show a very wide improvement in the DSSC life span, and even some improvement in the efficiency. The active period of the cell increase to 60 days while the one made with the conventional approach degraded after four hours. Through these modifications, a new procedure for producing DSSC has been developed which will solve the problem of short active period in dye sensitized solar cell.