Multi-scale surface topography is critical to surface function, yet the very smallest scales of topography are not accessible with conventional measurement techniques. Here we demonstrate two separate approaches for measuring small-scale topography in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The first technique harnesses 'conventional' methods for preparation of a TEM cross-section, and presents how these methods may be modified to ensure the preservation of the original surface. The second technique involves the deposition of the material of interest on a pre-fabricated substrate. Both techniques enable the observation and quantification of surface topography with Ångström-scale resolution. Then, using electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) to quantify the sample thickness, we demonstrate that there is no systematic effect of thickness on the statistical measurements of roughness. This result was verified using mathematical simulations of artificial surfaces with varying thickness. The proposed explanation is that increasing the side-view thickness of a randomly rough surface may change which specific features are sampled, but does not significantly alter the character (e.g. root-mean-square (RMS) values and power spectral density (PSD)) of the measured topography. Taken together, this work establishes a new approach to topography characterization, which fills in a critical gap in conventional approaches: i.e. the measurement of smallest-scale topography.


From the genesis of cinema to the present, the habitats and living spaces that are symbolized by the term "ecology" and shaped through nature, scenery, and landscape have always served as important vistas for depicting and expressing human feelings and thoughts. However, contemporary European and American cinema after the era of the atomic bomb explosions and concentration camps completely reversed what had been the status quo and began using mutated, unbearable environments and abnormal, ruined habitats combined with the creation of prophetic (science-fiction), societal (realistic), and political (dialectic) eco-images in order to reflect intensively on the meaning of humanistic imagery. A few isolated Taiwanese cinematic works after the 1960s have also revealed the spirit of this kind of anti-ecological imagery. Ming-Chuan Huang's independent films, which emerged in 1989, not only carried on this imagery heritage but also pushed it further to the creation of a kind of alternate eco-imagery in which the loss of subjectivity results from an antihuman standard (including anti-Sinification and so on). This creative approach, in which local islands in ruins and destroyed idols were prominently featured, later inspired the young director Singing Chen to use the politicized aesthetic vision of wasted homes and ruinscapes to develop a creative approach that is expressive of resistance, introspection, ethics, and poetics all at once. Generally speaking, artists from Ming-Chuan Huang to Singing Chen have, on the one hand, expanded upon social ideologies that had rarely been continuously explored and deepened in modern Taiwan cinema and, on the other hand, manifested a contemporary visionary impulse and style within the new generation of Taiwanese cinema that is completely at odds with the usual expressions of youthful passion, indigenous folklore, and prodigious nostalgia.


To develop improvements in the stock market mechanism which would help prevent another "market break," it is important to understand the structure of the mechanism for stock market trading. Market makers and index arbitragers are only intermediaries between the patient and impatient traders who ultimately determine prices. Institutions for maintaining trust based upon accountability to customers in securities trading are scarce. The events of October 1987 unfolded as two distinct sets of events: a crash in which impatient sellers overwhelmed patient buyers, and a panic in which solvency worries took traders out of the markets. Proposals to improve the stock market mechanism should address the proper role of market makers, the lack of accountability of the mechanism to customers, and the differences between panics and crashes.


Amongst a number of deposition methods for perovskite layers, vapour based ones are promising for large area industrial production of solar cells. Different variants of such methods and high efficiencies have been reported recently, but there remains a lack of understanding on the formation process of perovskite layers with 2-step vapour deposition. Here, we present a new reactor design for a controlled investigation of the reaction kinetics for conversion of an evaporated metal halide precursor layer (such as a mixture of lead iodide and cesium bromide) into a perovskite layer by exposure to an organo-halide (such as formamidinium iodide) vapour under stable isobaric–isothermal conditions. With this new concept of gas flow reversal in a tubular reactor, we overcome an inherent problem of the lack of control over the precise start and end of the conversion process. We investigated the formation reaction of a mixed cation (Cs0.04FA0.96)PbI3 perovskite in well-defined intermediate states to elucidate the influence of processing conditions on the kinetics of perovskite and other phase formations. A high conversion rate of up to 60 nm min−1 is achieved with a well-controlled abrupt start and end of the vapor supply. Using our deposition method, a semitransparent solar cell with a power conversion efficiency (maximum power tracking) of 9.6% on a designated area of 0.27 cm2 is achieved in the initial phase of development where the charge extracting layers and interfaces are yet to be optimised.


Most purchase and sale agreements contain one or more post-closing purchase price adjustments, the most common of which is a working capital adjustment. In order to craft a working capital adjustment that is appropriate for a particular transaction, it is first necessary to understand how working capital adjustments actually work. This article looks at why working capital matters and suggests the importance of understanding the accounting implications of typical working capital adjustment provisions. It then makes some practical recommendations as to how to best address this issue.


Textbook knowledge of sonography is not immediately applicable in emergencies where the favourable prerequisites characterizing the standard case are often lacking. The question therefore arises of what textbook knowledge is also viable in the average emergency unit, under what circumstances and for which clinical questions. The answer to this differentiated question is a graded concept with "primary emergency sonography", "extended" and "standard sonography". The indications and advantages of "primary emergency sonography" in contrast to standard procedure are discussed in detail. The key to success depends on meticulous introduction and training, strict compliance with indications and principle, and rigorous surveillance by an experienced ultrasonic specialist. In addition further scientific examination of the concept is necessary.


We present a novel Ge on Si based LED with unstrained i-Ge active region. The device operates at room temperature and emits photons with energy of 0.8 eV. It basically resembles a p-i-n structure formed on a sub-micrometer thin Ge layer. The Ge layer has been grown on Si substrate by utilizing thin virtual buffer, so it becomes stress free but with high threading dislocation density. We show that such forward biased diode generates strong emission, caused by direct band to band transition in Ge. Using an InSb based detector we were able to analyze the emission spectrum in a broad energy range. We show that at low and moderate currents, features belonging to the direct and the indirect band to band electronic transitions are present which are characteristic for Ge. Clearly dominating is the direct transition related peak. Due to the missing stress-related red shift this peak appears close to the desired communication wave length of 1.55 μm. The dependence of radiation intensity on the excitation current follows a power low with exponent of 1.7, indicating that the recombination rate of the competitive nonradiative processes is relatively low. At high excitation currents features appear in the low energetic part of the spectrum. All results presented here are discussed in view of the outcome from measurements on Ge high quality bulk material. The role of the dislocation in the Ge films is discussed.


Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is time-consuming and error-prone. To ease the patient's burden and to increase the efficiency and robustness of cardiac exams, interest in methods based on continuous steady-state acquisition and self-gating has been growing in recent years. Self-gating methods extract the cardiac and respiratory signals from the measurement data and then retrospectively sort the data into cardiac and respiratory phases. Repeated breathholds and synchronization with the heart beat using some external device as required in conventional MRI are then not necessary. In this work, we introduce a novel self-gating method for radially acquired data based on a dimensionality reduction technique for time-series analysis (SSA-FARY). Building on Singular Spectrum Analysis, a zero-padded, time-delayed embedding of the auto-calibration data is analyzed using Principle Component Analysis. We demonstrate the basic functionality of SSA-FARY using numerical simulations and apply it to in-vivo cardiac radial single-slice bSSFP and Simultaneous Multi-Slice radiofrequency-spoiled gradient-echo measurements, as well as to Stack-of-Stars bSSFP measurements. SSA-FARY reliably detects the cardiac and respiratory motion and separates it from noise. We utilize the generated signals for high-dimensional image reconstruction using parallel imaging and compressed sensing with in-plane wavelet and (spatio-)temporal total-variation regularization.


A methodologically sound systematic review is characterized by transparency, replicability, and a clear inclusion criterion. However, little attention has been paid to reporting the details of interrater reliability (IRR) when multiple coders are used to make decisions at various points in the screening and data extraction stages of a study. Prior research has mentioned the paucity of information on IRR including number of coders involved, at what stages and how IRR tests were conducted, and how disagreements were resolved. This article examines and reflects on the human factors that affect decision-making in systematic reviews via reporting on three IRR tests, conducted at three different points in the screening process, for two distinct reviews. Results of the two studies are discussed in the context of IRR and intrarater reliability in terms of the accuracy, precision, and reliability of coding behavior of multiple coders. Findings indicated that coding behavior changes both between and within individuals over time, emphasizing the importance of conducting regular and systematic IRR and intrarater reliability tests, especially when multiple coders are involved, to ensure consistency and clarity at the screening and coding stages. Implications for good practice while screening/coding for systematic reviews are discussed.


This report is concerned with the effect of antibiotics on germination and translocation of native chemicals in the laboratory and on the plant's reaction to certain antibiotics used as soil drenches under greenhouse conditions. The seeds treated with antibiotics active against Gram positive organisms were deficient in both carbohydrates and proteins. The seeds treated with antibiotics active against Cram negative organisms had a delayed germination but a normal physiological development. Streptomycin had the most adverse effect on translocation but stimulated germination. Analysis of variance of germination indicated that seed germination was dependent upon the antibiotic used. The analysis for the translocation resulted in the means being significantly cliffcrent. No adverse effects, caused by the soil treatment, were noted for germination. Neomycin, penicillin, and streptomycin appear to stimulate germination; tyrothricin and polymyxin inhibit germination the first week but by the second week have a higher germination percentage than the control. Streptomycin, polymyxin and neomycin drenches have the most beneficial effect on the growth of Nato, Magnolia, and Upland varieties. A trigger agent is apparently released which stimulates growth from the first week until termination of the experiment. The three antibiotics inhibit the growth of Blue bonnet.


Undoped and (Mn, Al) co-doped Zinc Oxide nanoparticles are synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method at room temperature effectively via poly ethylene glycol (PEG) as stabilizing agent. XRD data reveals that all the concentrations acquire hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure with no secondary peaks concerning to Al or Mn, indicating successful dissolution of Al and Mn in to ZnO host lattice. The exact particle size is estimated using TEM illustrations, which is confirmed through the XRD results. EDS spectrum shows, no impurities are present in the samples other than manganese and aluminum. The absorption spectra of all the samples reveal characteristic absorption edge in the vicinity of 375 nm. PL spectra show that all the concentrations include defect associated peaks in the visible region. VSM measurements reveal the ferromagnetic nature for co-doped samples. Copyright © VBRI Press.


A population of bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus, was introduced into three man-made ponds in 1966. Analyses of these ponds in 1984 and 1985 found significant mtDNA divergence without nuclear gene differentiation. The difference between nuclear gene and mtDNA measures of interpopulational divergence was very large and suggests that sexual asymmetries in life histories may be important considerations in mtDNA and nuclear gene rates of divergence. The rapid divergence of mtDNA haplotype frequencies suggests that sorting of previously existing variation may accelerate mtDNA divergence among recently isolated populations.


Embedded systems are increasingly finding their way into a growing range of physical devices. These embedded systems often consist of a collection of software threads interacting concurrently with each other and with a physical, continuous environment. While continuous dynamics have been well studied in control theory, and discrete and distributed systems have been investigated in computer science, the combination of the two complexities leads us to the recent research on hybrid systems. This paper addresses the formal analysis of such hybrid systems. Predicate abstraction has emerged to be a powerful technique for extracting finite-state models from infinite-state discrete programs. This paper presents algorithms and tools for reachability analysis of hybrid systems by combining the notion of predicate abstraction with recent techniques for approximating the set of reachable states of linear systems using polyhedra. Given a hybrid system and a set of predicates, we consider the finite discrete quotient whose states correspond to all possible truth assignments to the input predicates. The tool performs an on-the-fly exploration of the abstract system. We present the basic techniques for guided search in the abstract state-space, optimizations of these techniques, implementation of these in our verifier, and case studies demonstrating the promise of the approach. We also address the completeness of our abstraction-based verification strategy by showing that predicate abstraction of hybrid systems can be used to prove bounded safety.


This paper presents the design and development of a novel battery charger for simultaneous charging of two NiMH/NiCd batteries. The design supports fast charging of batteries with different configuration and capacity. The charger periodically monitors the battery parameters; voltage, current and temperature; calculates the voltage and temperature gradient; for precise measurement and control of battery charging. The proposed design provides multiple charging current options with automated selection of optimum charging rate for the battery being charged. The novelty of this design lies in accurate procedure adopted to end the fast charging cycle; this ensures complete, fast and safe charging of the battery pack. The design is implemented using an 8-bit microcontroller which controls and monitors the charging operation. The battery status and parameters are displayed on an LCD. Reentrant procedures are adopted in software writing that enable common software to control multiple batteries simultaneously. The proposed design is implemented and tested on NiMH and NiCd battery packs, which confirm the utility of the proposed design.


: The results of insulin action (0.4 IU per mouse) are demonstrated in intact animals only. This action leads to a higher uptake of 59Fe. rabbit transferrin of isolated cells from lactating mouse mammary gland. It is suggested that most inactive transferrin receptors in the cell membrane are incorporated by the hormone action or some new receptors are synthesized. On the contrary, adrenaline in a dose 0.5 micrograms per animal demonstrated an opposite effect--a lower uptake of 59Fe. human transferrin from lactating mouse mammary gland. This is probably due to a redistribution of some part (about 28%) of the iron. Instead of flowing to the mammary gland it flows towards other organs for overcoming the stress situation. An alternative explanation could be the inhibition of endogenous insulin secretion by adrenaline. From our data it follows that insulin and adrenaline have an antagonistic effect on regulation of Fe transport in lactating mouse mammary gland.


This guide will provide you with the basics of MLA, APA, and CSE citations including sample papers, how to set up your research paper in Microsoft Word, and how to cite in-text sources.


This study explores the roles that gender socialization and the acoustics of [s] play in the sociophonetics of perceived gay and straight speech. There have been two main approaches to the study of why some men sound gay and some sound straight: acoustic and social reasons. Many sociolinguistic studies have focused only on the phonetic cues utilized in sounding gay or straight, or on cues listeners use to judge someone as sounding as such (Jacobs et al. 2000; Piccolo 2008; Zimman 2010). In previous studies (e.g., Jacobs et al. 2000; Munson et al. 2006; Zimman 2010), the phonetic variable [s] has been found to be the best acoustic cue for di↵erentiating between gay and straight speech. Studies (Gaudio 1994; Linville 1998; Munson et al. 2006) that have explored social reasons as to why men are perceived as sounding gay or straight have argued that selfidentified sexual orientation as well as membership in a larger gay or straight community may influence perceptions of speech. Only one study (Renn 2002) has focused on how gender socialization influences judgments of men's voices as sounding gay or straight. Fourteen self-identified gay and straight Latter-day Saint returned missionaries were recruited as participants in a sociolinguistic interview, which resulted in the collection of demographic information as well as approximately one-hour audio recordings of three di↵erent speech styles (two reading styles and spontaneous speech). These speaker-participants also completed the Kinsey Scale (Kinsey et al. 1948) to determine sexual identity and a psychometric recalled childhood gender socialization questionnaire (Zucker et al. 2006) used to determine childhood activities and habits. Short samples from the interviews were used in a subsequent matched guise study where listener-participants were asked to judge the speech samples as sounding gay or straight along a five-point Likert scale. Four acoustic properties of [s], highest peak frequency, highest amplitude, spectral center of gravity, and spectral skew; actual orientation; style; and the results from the childhood gender socialization questionnaire were analyzed using a mixed e↵ect model of statistics to determine their e↵ects in the judgment of a voice sample being perceived as sounding gay or straight. The results showed that those speaker-participants who had lower scores on the recalled childhood gender socialization questionnaire were more likely to be judged as sounding gay while those who had higher scores were more likely to be judged as sounding straight. Speaker-participants were judged as sounding significantly "straighter" when reading the scientific reading sample as opposed to the dramatic reading or when speaking spontaneously. The highest amplitude and spectral skew measures yielded significant results but in the opposite direction that was hypothesized. Those with a lower average skew and average higher amplitude in [s] were judged as sounding straight, those with a higher average skew and average lower amplitude were judged as sounding gay. Results counter to Jacobs et al. (2000); Munson et al. (2006); Zimman (2010, 2013) may be the result of participant outliers or may actually be a phenomenon that is unique to the Mormon male population.


Closed forms for $f_{\lambda,i} (q) := \sum_{\tau \in SYT(\lambda) : des(\tau) = i} q^{maj(\tau)}$, the distribution of the major index over standard Young tableaux of given shapes and specified number of descents, are established for a large collection of $\lambda$ and $i$. Of particular interest is the family that gives a positive answer to a question of Sagan and collaborators. All formulas established in the paper are unimodal, most by a result of Kirillov and Reshetikhin. Many can be identified as specializations of Schur functions via the Jacobi-Trudi identities. If the number of arguments is sufficiently large, it is shown that any finite principal specialization of any Schur function $s_\lambda(1,q,q^2,\dots,q^{n-1})$ has a combinatorial realization as the distribution of the major index over a given set of tableaux.


But in real life many quantities that we wish to model probabilistically are real-valued; examples include the position of a particle in a box, the time at which an certain incident happens, or the direction of travel of a meteorite. In this lecture, we discuss how to extend the concepts we've seen in the discrete setting to this continuous setting. As we shall see, everything translates in a natural way once we have set up the right framework. The framework involves some elementary calculus but (at this level of discussion) nothing too daunting.


Despite a values emphasis said to distinguish Catholic business schools from secular institutions, a focus on moral development through principles of Catholic social teaching (CST) resembles the prominent role that ethics education plays at business schools accredited by AACSB International. This study measured faculty knowledge and use of CST in undergraduate business classes at Catholic and non-Catholic AACSB institutions and among Catholic and non-Catholic faculty. The results reveal both professional bureaucracy and cultural influences on ethical perspectives: Both Catholic and non-Catholic faculty at AACSB schools have similar views regarding the ethics of professional interactions with students, but faculty with a connection to Roman Catholicism are more likely to be familiar with and to use recent business-related interpretations of CST. Nonetheless, a majority of faculty at Catholic institutions are unfamiliar with CST. We conclude that if Catholic institutions wish to provide an ethics-based business education, familiarity with and use of CST appear to be unnecessary at AACSB-accredited schools. If, however, CST principles are to be important spiritual elements for students who are receiving a Catholic education, then Catholic institutions must increase awareness and perceived relevance of CST among Catholic and non-Catholic faculty.


This article provides a selective review of advances in scientific knowledge about autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition) diagnostic criteria as a framework for the discussion. We review literature that prompted changes to the organization of ASD symptoms and diagnostic subtypes in DSM-IV, and we examine the rationale for new DSM-5 specifiers, modifiers, and severity ratings as well as the introduction of the diagnosis of social (pragmatic) communication disorder. Our goal is to summarize and critically consider the contribution of clinical psychology research, along with that of other disciplines, to the current conceptualization of ASD.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating effects of perceived service recovery process and zone-of-tolerance on consumer trust and its subsequent impact on consumer advocacy and initiation of repatronization. The study was carried out in the banking sector in India with State Bank of India (SBI); the largest nationalized bank was taken as a case. Results indicated that moderate to high perceived service recovery, initiated by SBI in response to perceived first-time service failures, is associated with elevated level of consumer satisfaction at the post service-failure phase, positive customer advocacy and intent to repatronize. Zone-of-tolerance was also found to have mediating effects on the relationship between perceived service recovery, customer trust and repatronization.


Abstract. Multiple Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) instruments can measure from the ground the absorption by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) of scattered sunlight seen in multiple viewing directions. This paper studies the potential of this technique to derive the vertical distribution of NO2 in the troposphere. Such profile information is essential for detailed comparisons of MAX-DOAS retrievals with other measurement techniques for NO2, e.g. with a lidar or from space. The retrieval algorithm used is based on a pre-calculated look-up table and assumes homogeneous mixing of aerosols and NO2 in layers extending from the surface to a variable height. Two retrieval models are compared: one including and one excluding an elevated NO2 layer at a fixed altitude in the free troposphere. An ensemble technique is applied to derive retrieval uncertainties. Sensitivity studies demonstrate that NO2 in the free troposphere can only be retrieved accurately if: (i) the retrieved boundary layer profiles for aerosols and NO2 correspond to the real ones, (ii) if the right a-priori choice is made for the (average) height of free tropospheric NO2, and (iii) if all other error sources are very low. It is shown that retrieval models that are capable of accurate NO2 retrievals in the free troposphere, i.e. models not constrained too much by a-priori assumptions, have as a major disadvantage that they will frequently find free tropospheric NO2, also when it is not present in reality. This is a consequence of the fact that NO2 in the free troposphere is poorly constrained by the MAX-DOAS observations, especially for high aerosol optical thickness values in the boundary layer. Retrieval of free tropospheric NO2 is therefore sensitive to a large number of error sources. For this reason it is advised to firmly constrain free tropospheric NO2 in MAX-DOAS retrieval models used for applications such as satellite validation. This effectively makes free tropospheric NO2 a source of error for MAX-DOAS retrieval of NO2 profiles in the boundary layer. A comparison was performed with independent data, based on MAX-DOAS observations done at the CINDI campaign, held in the Netherlands in 2009. Comparison with lidar partial tropospheric NO2 columns showed a correlation of 0.78, and an average difference of 0.1× 1015 molec cm−2. The diurnal evolution of the NO2 volume mixing ratio measured by in-situ monitors at the surface and averaged over five days with cloud-free mornings, compares well to the MAX-DOAS retrieval: a correlation was found of 0.94, and an average difference of 0.04 ppb.


Recently, greater attention is being paid to refrigerator noise. As we know, compressor is an important part of refrigerator, and it's also a very important noise soure. Based on comparison between compressor noise spectrum and refrigerator noise spectrum, the contributions of compressor noise to the refrigerator overall noise are discussed. Besides compressor direct radiation noise, compressor pressure pulsation and vibration also make great influence on refrigerator noise. A suction and discharge pressure pulsations test bench was built, and then the compressor pressure pulsation data were tested. By compressor suction and discharge pipelines optimization, the pressure pulsations and refrigerator noise were reduced. Vibration transmission path from compressor to refrigerator was investigated, and resonance frequencies on the vibration transmission path were identified. By refrigerator connection pipe optimization, refrigerator noise was reduced.


The authors present stochastic models and segmentation algorithms for speckled images, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The stochastic model developed is two-level hierarchical random field model which consists of, at the higher level, a Gibbs random field governing the grouping of image pixels into regions, and, at the lower level, speckle processes representing observations in the different regions, which are also modeled as random fields. In accordance with the physical phenomena that cause speckle, the single-look complex speckle process is modeled as a circularly symmetric autocovariance for the complex Gaussian random field, the statistical description of the complex speckle becomes complete. Starting from the model for the single-look complex speckle process, different versions of the model are developed for multilook complex and single- and multilook intensity speckled images. Maximum a posteriori segmentation algorithms using simulated annealing are developed for each of the models corresponding to the single-look and multilook, complex and intensity speckled images. >


The paper presents a novel method for transfer learning through prior variable sampling. A set of problems defined in the same feature space with similar dependencies of target on features is considered. We suggest a method for learning a decision tree ensemble on each of the problems by prior estimation of variable importance on other problems in the set and using it for regularizing model learning for a small amount of training samples. The method is tested on several simulated and real datasets. In particular, we apply our method for a set of time series classification (TSC) problems. Our analysis demonstrates an intriguing result: a model trained on several TSC problems can learn a new problem with high accuracy from a low number of samples.


Field calculation is an important. post-processing step for integral equation (IE) based electromagnetics solvers. However, the cost. of field calculation is often ignored because it takes a relatively small portion of simulation time compared with those for impedance matrix setup and iterative solution. For some applications where the field must be calculated repeatedly for large observation planes, a fast field formulation can significantly reduce the cost. The improvement is obvious when the scatterers and radiators are electrically large and the number of observation points is close to the number of current basis functions. We present a fast field calculation that is fundamentally different from current techniques. Instead of using the physics of specific structures and FFT, a multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is applied to reduce the number of interactions between observation points and current bases for arbitrary structures. Moreover, the fast far field calculation by MLFMA does not require prior knowledge of the near field as in a NF-FF transformation. Once the radiation pattern of the root box in MLFMA has been set up, the far field in any observation angle can be extracted at very little cost. We briefly review the fast field formulation and apply it to vehicle antenna simulation.


Our research seeks to determine if inorganic ion-exchange materials can be exploited to provide effective minor actinide (Am, Cm) separation from lanthanides. Previous work has established that a number of inorganic and UMOF ion-exchange materials exhibit varying affinities for actinides and lanthanides, which may be exploited for effective separations. During FY15, experimental work focused on investigating methods to oxidize americium in dilute nitric and perchloric acid with subsequent ion-exchange performance measurements of ion exchangers with the oxidized americium in dilute nitric acid. Ion-exchange materials tested included a variety of alkali titanates. Americium oxidation testing sought to determine the influence that other redox active components may have on the oxidation of AmIII. Experimental findings indicated that CeIII, NpV, and RuII are oxidized by peroxydisulfate, but there are no indications that the presence of CeIII, NpV, and RuII affected the rate or extent of americium oxidation at the concentrations of peroxydisulfate being used.


Bulbine abyssinica is widely used in folk medicine in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal and toxicity potentials of essential oil, acetone and aqueous extracts of this species using standard procedures and brine shrimp test, respectively. The results showed that the species was active against the growth of Microsporum canis, Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton rubrum among the evaluated opportunistic fungi. The toxicity results showed that the lowest cysts hatching success was observed with the essential oil, then acetone extract, with aqueous extract exhibiting the highest hatching success. Based on the criterion of toxicity indices of the lethality test, all the plant fractions exhibited LD 50 values greater than 1 mg/mL hence are non-toxic. These findings indicate that B. abyssinica is a good source of antifungal agents.


Porphyry-related Cordilleran polymetallic mineralization in the Morococha district, central Peru, displays a deposit-scale base metal zonation, a common feature observed in many ore deposits of this type. The distinct pattern of zonation consists of Cu-rich ores in the core area and increasingly Zn-, Pb-, and Ag-rich ores in more distal veins and replacement orebodies. We investigated the changing composition of key ore minerals throughout these zones. They are important indicators for the conditions of mineral precipitation and evolving hydrothermal fluid. The mineral species stannoidite Cu8(Fe,Zn)3Sn2S12, vinciennite Cu10Fe4Sn(As,Sb) S16, and tennantite-tetrahedrite have variable Cu content and Fe2+/Fe3+ values between the different base metal zones. Controlled by coupled substitution mechanisms, they show Cu-excess and predominantly ferric Fe compositions in the central areas (Cu and Zn-Cu zones), whereas stoichiometric Cu values and mixed Fe3+ and Fe2+ compositions are typical in the more distal zones (Zn-Pb-Ag and Ag-Pb). These compositional changes are interpreted to reflect decreasing oxidation state of the cooling and evolving fluid and increasing reaction with the host rock toward outer parts of the deposits. Initially high Cu, Fe, and S values in the fluid decrease with precipitation of Cu- and Fe-sulfides. As result of decreasing oxidation state and Fe and Cu values in the fluid, Fe in tennantite-tetrahedrite is increasingly substituted by competing Zn, and Cu by Ag. These data show that compositions of major and even minor ore-forming minerals reflect metal content, oxidation and sulfidation state, and degree of buffering of an evolving hydrothermal fluid by the host rock on a district-scale.


According to a recent article, 'Instrument museums are mausoleums, places for the display of the musically dead, with organologists acting as morticians, preparing dead instrument bodies for preservation and display'. This view, often repeated since the 1960s, reflects the frustration experienced by most museum visitors facing objects stripped of their function and presented as aestheticized icons. Curatorial debate has led to the development of several alternative proposals to deliver a culturally engaging presentation of musical objects. However, none has managed to efficiently replace the expectation of museums visitors to appreciate the object in its functional state. Moreover, debate over the role of museums in preserving intangible – as well as tangible – heritage stimulated further consideration of the importance of preserving/presenting functionality of music‐related objects. While some authors have developed specific music‐related perspectives (e.g. Barclay R. [2005]. The Preservation and Use of Historic Musical Instruments: Display Case and Concert Hall), little or no cross‐fertilisation has happened with the much broader world of functional objects in museums, which includes at least scientific, technologic and mechanical objects and those pertaining to daily lives. The article will offer an overview of current debate, approaches and policies for the preservation and display of functionality in a variety of non‐music related museums, with a parallel perspective on the current approach to musical instruments.


The effects of material nonhomogeneity and nonisothermal conditions on the stress response of pressurized tubes are assessed by virtue of a computational model. The modulus of elasticity, the Poisson`s ratio, the yield strength, and the coefficient of thermal expansion, are assumed to vary nonlinearly in the tube. A logarithmic temperature distribution within the tube is proposed. Under these conditions, it is shown that the stress states and the magnitudes of response variables are affected significantly by both the material nonhomogeneity and the existence of the radial temperature gradient.


Scholars contend that our understanding of organizational change would benefit from research that more closely represents the lived reality of organizational change. Research on sensemaking is particularly valuable in this vein because of its focus on the individual's experience and understanding. Existing empirical work on sensemaking about organizational change, however, is largely based on retrospective interview data and/or focuses on a narrow window of time during change implementation and thus does not thoroughly consider how individuals' make sense of change over time. This thesis seeks to address this limitation through three complementary studies aimed at understanding how individuals make sense of organizational change over time from an emic (or insider) perspective.
All three papers are interpretive process-oriented case studies, which use grounded theory data analysis techniques to analyze interview data for the same 26 hospital employees collected at three points in time over a five year period of organizational change. Paper one is about the interpretation stage of sensemaking. This paper identifies four stable sensemaking lenses and develops two new concepts related to how individuals make sense of organizational change over time: (1) sensemaking constancy and (2) sensemaking scope. Paper two considers sensemaking triggers and explores how individuals' retrospective sensemaking compares to their real-time assessments during change. Findings indicated that in "real-time" the experience of change varied in somewhat stable way between groups but that when "looking back" over the change, change agents tended to view the changes more positively than change recipients. Finally, paper three looks at the enactment stage of the sensemaking process and examines individuals' strategies for coping with excessive change. Coping (from cognitive appraisal theory) and sensemaking are positioned as overlapping processes that individuals use to make sense of and respond to excessive organizational change. Five patterns, or stories about how individuals cope with and make sense of excessive change over time, emerged. Taken as a group, the three papers contribute to the research and practice of organizational change by offering novel insights and theoretical contributions related to how individuals experience and make sense of change over time.


As parallel file systems span larger and larger numbers of nodes in order to provide the performance and scalability necessary for modern cluster applications, the need for fault-tolerance and high data availability file systems has arisen. Modern parallel file systems spanning tens, hundreds, or even thousands of servers will require fault tolerance to avoid job failure and catastrophic data loss due to a single disk failure or server loss. Effective fault tolerance in parallel file systems must provide a high degree of data resiliency, consistency, and scalable performance. In this thesis we provide an in depth description of the resiliency and consistency requirements of parallel file systems. We then describe a data replication mechanism that meets the resiliency and consistency requirements of parallel file systems and provides scalable performance. We also provide an in depth description of how the file system responds during a system fault and how the system may be recovered to its original, fully redundant state after a failure. Finally, we measure the performance of our proposed mechanism by implementing it in a popular parallel file system, PVFS2. We primarily focus on measuring the performance costs and scalability impacts associated with consistency and resiliency.


An anthology of contemporary readings in analytic aesthetics, this reference reflects the relationships among the central aesthetic concerns of recent years. Providing a new perspective on the contemporary philosophy of art, this volume examines the challenge of Postmodernism and how it may or may not affect the future of analytic aesthetics ... offers a case study of the progress that has been made in handling the problem of expression in the arts ... reconceptualizes the concepts of the art work, its properties, and our experience and evaluation of it -- to take into account an expanding cultural, sociological contextualization, i.e., art as a culturally emergent product of social institutions and conventions ... features several readings organized around clusters of writers discussing each other's ideas and proposals, including: Beardsley, Dickie, and Blizek -- Wolterstorff, Levinson, and Bender -- Stolnitz and Dickie -- Beardsley, Margolis, and Novitz -- and Sibley and Dickie. Suitable for professionals in the art industry and anyone interested in the philosophy or aesthetics of art.


In this work, we propose connected energy management systems for a cooperative hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) platoon. To this end, cooperative driving scenarios are established under different car-following behavior models using connected and automated vehicles technology, leading to a cooperative cruise control system (CACC) that explores the energy-saving potentials of HEVs. As a real-time energy management control, an equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) is utilized, wherein global energy-saving is achieved to promote environment-friendly mobility. The HEVs cooperatively communicate and exchange state information and control decisions with each other by sixth-generation vehicle-to-everything (6G-V2X) communications. In this study, three different car-following behavior models are used: intelligent driver model (IDM), Gazis–Herman–Rothery (GHR) model, and optimal velocity model (OVM). Adopting cooperative driving of six Toyota Prius HEV platoon scenarios, simulations under New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), and Highway Fuel Economy Test (HWFET), as well as human-in-the-loop (HIL) experiments, are carried out via MATLAB/Simulink/dSPACE for cooperative HEV platooning control via different car-following-linked-vehicle scenarios. The CACC-ECMS scheme is assessed for HEV energy management via 6G-V2X broadcasting, and it is found that the proposed strategy exhibits improvements in vehicular driving performance. The IDM-based CACC-ECMS is an energy-efficient strategy for the platoon that saves: (i) 8.29% fuel compared to the GHR-based CACC-ECMS and 10.47% fuel compared to the OVM-based CACC-ECMS under NEDC; (ii) 7.47% fuel compared to the GHR-based CACC-ECMS and 11% fuel compared to the OVM-based CACC-ECMS under WLTP; (iii) 3.62% fuel compared to the GHR-based CACC-ECMS and 4.22% fuel compared to the OVM-based CACC-ECMS under HWFET; and (iv) 11.05% fuel compared to the GHR-based CACC-ECMS and 18.26% fuel compared to the OVM-based CACC-ECMS under HIL.


Planktonic ciliates were examined during a spring-summer period (November 1998 to April 1999) in 2 South Andean lakes in Argentina, with different dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nutrient concentrations. Lake Moreno Oeste is a deep warm monomictic lake (Zmax= 90 m), while Lake Morenito is shallower (Zmax = 12 m) and polymictic. Sampling was performed in a mid-lake station, where vertical profiles of temperature, light, and chlorophyll a concentration were measured in situ. In addition, DOC and phosphorus concentrations were determined, and samples for bacteria, phyto- plankton and ciliate enumeration were taken along the water columns. Lake Morenito presented DOC and phosphorus concentrations 3-fold higher than those of Lake Moreno Oeste. Two different ciliate assemblages were present. Lake Moreno Oeste was dominated by the large mixotrophic ciliate Ophry- dium naumanni, which was absent in Lake Morenito. In order to test 0. naumanni water dependence, a series of laboratory experiments were performed during the sampling season. The experiments con- sisted of the incubation of the ciliate in filtered water from both lakes and the subsequent analysis of growth rates in each treatment. In addition, experiments with Moreno Oeste lake water with a 4-fold increased phosphorus concentration (addition of MBL culture medium) were conducted. The incuba- tion of 0. naumanni in Lake Morenito water led to highly negative growth rates of the ciliate. Results showed that the addition of nutrients did not cause significant differences in the growth rates.


Abstract: This research aimed to know differences in students learning outcomes through guided inquiry learning model with conventional learning model on ecosytem material in SMP Negeri 1 Marioriwawo. This research is quasi experiment. This research population is all students class VII SMP Negeri 1 Marioriwawo school year 2016/2017 consists of 6 class. Taking research sample was done by way of random sampling, so it is obtained class VII.5 and VII.6. This research was conducted during 3 meetings for material and 2 meetings evaluation. The Influence of Guided Inquiry Learning Model was seen with increasing learning outcomes done by providing learning outcomes test in the form of multiple choice questions as much as 20 item, includes pretest and postest. The collected data is analyzed on descriptif statistics and inferential statistics (hypothesis testing by using t test sample analysis with signification 0.05). The result of inferential statistic analysis using T-test for student learning outcomes are obtained 0,002 it can be concluded that there is the differences between guide inquiry learning model with lecture method in the ecosystem material in class VII SMP Negeri 1 Marioriwawo Keywords: guide inquiry model, learning outcomes


Conditionals encode speculation. They convey how events could have been different in the past or present, or might be different in the future if particular conditions had been or will be met. While all languages afford the means to speculate or hypothesize about possible events, the ways in which they do so vary. This work explores some of this variation through an analysis of the stucture and semantics of complex conditional sentences in Russian and Macedonian. It addresses typological questions about the general properties of natural language conditionals and examines the role of the grammatical categories tense , aspect , mood and status in the coding of conditional meaning. The book also discusses the relationship between the use of these categories and the shape of a language's conditional system. For example, the use of tense in counterfactual contexts in Macedonian correlates with the grammaticalization of more shades of conditional meaning than are grammaticalized in Russian, which does not employ tense forms in this way. The study draws on data from a rich variety of sources and thus includes kinds of conditionals overlooked in many other studies. The book addresses issues of concern to Slavists and raises questions for those interested in conditionals and the coding of hypothetical meaning.


Thyroid-associated orbitopathy (TAO) is usually diagnosed clinically. Early presentation of TAO such as ocular irritation, lid puffiness, and mild retraction may be overlooked and misdiagnosed. Careful clinical evaluation, laboratory investigations, and orbital imaging studies are needed for diagnosing early TAO. Knowing the pathogenesis will open the door for obtaining directed and effective treatment for the inflammatory process in TAO. Most patients with mild to moderate active TAO are treated with observation alone as the available treatment modalities effective in controlling the disease have many potential side effects. Severe active TAO, compressive optic neuropathy, and severe exposure keratopathy are the main indications for treatment with immunosuppressant agents, orbital radiotherapy, or orbital decompression. Surgery remains the final rehabilitation in TAO, which should be done during cicatricial (inactive) TAO when reliable and stable results can be obtained.


Background: Oral diseases remain one of the major public health challenges in India. Mobile dental services may be used as alternatives to supplement the standard care in order to reach underserved populations in several countries. However, not enough research has been conducted on school children. Hence, this paper aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness (where cost is expressed in monetary units and results in non-monetary units) of a mobile dental vehicle (MDV) in delivering primary oral health care among adopted schools of a dental college in Bengaluru. Methods: This retrospective population-based study was conducted among adopted children of the age group of 4–15 years in Bengaluru. The data were collected from the college camp out-patient register over three academic years of 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 in December 2020. Cost-effectiveness was calculated utilizing the formula total cost (direct+indirect) of service provision with the total number of the patients who used the services in the same period. Statistical tests unpaired student t-test, ANOVA, Tukey's post hoc test, and all the statistical tests were set with a level of significance (p <0.1), which was conducted using the statistical package SPSS version 19.0. Results: A total of 14,806 patients and 75,421 teeth were treated in mobile dental vehicle. The cost for each patient was around 259.0/- rupees and for each tooth, around 51.3/-rupees. Around 2686 teeth were benefitted from the use of a portable dental chair. Therefore, the cost of treating each tooth was around 12.3/- rupees. The mean difference in the number of the treated patients was found to be significantly decreasing. Conclusion: We conducted the current study to demonstrate the costs of providing primary oral health care among adopted schools. Mobile dental vehicle and the portable dental chair were found to be cost-effective in delivering primary oral health care.


In this paper, the use of a channel shortening prefilter in conjunction with a maximum a-posteriori probability (MAP) based turbo equalizer is considered. The prefilter shortens the effective channel, thereby reducing the number of equalizer states. As a result of channel shortening, residual intersymbol interference (ISI) appears at the input to the turbo equalizer and the noise becomes colored. To account for the ensuing performance loss, two enhancements to the scheme are proposed. Firstly, a feedback path is used to cancel residual ISI. Secondly, a carefully selected value for the variance of the noise assumed by the MAP-based turbo equalizer is used. Simulations are performed over the highly dispersive Proakis C channel. It is shown that the proposed enhancements give an improvement of approximately 0.65 dB with respect to the unmodified channel shortened turbo equalizer at a bit error rate (BER) of 10-5.


PurposeCircular economy is emerging as a new sustainability paradigm. Similarly, eco-innovation is being recognized as one of the most important mechanisms that allow the transition from a linear to a circular economy in production processes, as there is a strong relationship between eco-innovation (eco-innovation of products, processes and management) and circular economy activities. However, the relationship between eco-innovation and circular economy is an issue that has been isolated and little analyzed in the academic literature. Therefore, this research fills this gap by exploring the interdependence between eco-innovation and circular economy.Design/methodology/approachThe research is conducted through an extensive literature review from where a research framework consisting of two measurement scales, 18 items and three hypotheses were developed. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed and 460 responses were obtained from companies in the automotive and auto parts industry in Mexico. The data obtained were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results suggest that eco-innovation of products, process and management has a significant positive impact on the circular economy of companies in the automotive and auto parts industry.Practical implicationsThe findings of this research can inform managers in the automotive sector and policymakers when formulating and deploying environmentally sustainable strategies.Originality/valueThis paper fills a research gap by expanding the limited body of knowledge that relates eco-innovation and circular economy and providing some evidence of their relationship. The research also allows the unique characteristics of eco-innovation and the circular economy to be understood within a particular context, growing in this manner the body of knowledge on this field.


. The UvA Rescue Team has several innovative ideas to fur-ther improve the infrastructure of the RoboCup Rescue Simulation League. Those ideas range from providing USARSim an interface compatible with the RoboCup@Home Simulation, to provide the possibility to specify robots in the URDF format, to create a model for the Ricoh Theta 360 o camera, to create a model of the omnidirectional robots like the KUKA youBot and to modify the simulator of the Agent competition so that agents receive observations while moving.


It is enough to work on the assumption that all of the details matter in the end, in some unknown but vital way. Edward O. Wilson, Biophilia Advances in knowledge of northern ecology have been so rapid that to undertake a synthesis of all the literature now available would be a major enterprise, perhaps even a life's work, and so it must be considered permissible to fill in a few gaps, follow one's own inclinations, leaving comprehensive syntheses to those willing to undertake them. This is the rubric under which I have written, reporting some of the more interesting data I and others have obtained over the years, often diverging into discussions of plants, soils, climate, and faunal relationships which have perhaps not previously been dealt with extensively, or at least in quite the same way. This is purely intentional, since I find it difficult to summon up the needed enthusiasm, at this late hour, to write on topics which unfortunately for me have little attraction. I have thus written for the pleasure derived from depicting, perhaps at times as something of an impressionist, a fascinating biotic region, a captivating land, a collection of interesting ecological problems, environmental relationships to be discerned in part, perhaps understood to some small degree, perhaps one day to be modeled mathematically. As Leo Szilard once wrote: ': . . to be able to say even this much might be of some value" (Szilard, 1960).


A physical model has been developed for real-time sound synthesis of the Clavinet, an electromechanical keyboard instrument from the 20th century. The Clavinet has a peculiar excitation mechanism, relying on a tangent striking the string. The modeling paradigm chosen is waveguide synthesis and this paper suggests several novel techniques, such as a polynomial excitation pulse model and a beating generator, both of which have parameters depending on key velocity. Realistic emulation of the release part of Clavinet tones is based on a decrease in the decay rate of the tone and lengthening of a delay line, which corresponds to the physical string. A real-time implementation on Pure Data demonstrates the efficiency of proposed model.


BACKGROUND
Hard water is thought to play a key role in weakening of hair (not Hair Loss) and breakage especially when travelling is involved. In our community, commonly men do the travelling and complain more about hair problem which is why only young male individuals were included in this study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Water samples from different districts of KPK, Pakistan, were collected and their hardness values were estimated to find the water sample of maximum and minimum water hardness in order to know the maximum hardness hair would encounter in KPK, Pakistan. Samples from district Kohat had maximum hardness whereas minimum hardness was estimated in samples of district Peshawar. Water from district Kohat was considered as our sample water for the experimental group of hair. Hair samples were collected from 76 male individuals of district Peshawar, the area with least water hardness among the samples collected. Each hair sample was divided into two halves. One half was considered as experimental group and the other was considered as control group. The experimental group was treated with hard water of district Kohat for 10 minutes on alternate days, for 3 months. In a very similar way the control group was treated with de-ionized water. Tensile strength in term of "Stress" of both the experimental and control groups were measured using the universal testing machine and compared using paired t-test.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The standard deviations (SD) for hair treated with hard water and distilled water was 62.05 and 58.13 respectively and the mean values were 238.49 and 255.36 respectively. The results showed that the tensile strength of hair was significantly (p=0.001) reduced in hair treated with hard water as compared to hair treated with de-ionized water.


Chinese children's visual representation of characters was tracked with two tasks. The Delayed Copy Character Task required children to reproduce different types of characters and noncharacters after each had been briefly presented. The Detect Component Task required children to find different types of components embedded in sets of characters. Experiment 1 showed that by late first grade some children are aware of the internal structure of Chinese characters and are beginning to encode characters in terms of units representing major character components. Experiment 2 involved children from the second and fourth grade, as well as children early in the first grade, and more refined versions of the perceptual tasks. The finding again was that major components of characters, and even subcomponents that do not represent semantic or phonological information, function as units of character perception. The ability to see characters in terms of constituent units is acquired gradually over the early elementary school years and is correlated with vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension, and teacher's rating of reading level.


Phosphorus internal loading from the sediment of a surface aquatic system is considered to be the primary source of phosphorus responsible for eutrophication. In this study, we propose a possible solution to intercept phosphorus liberated from sediment to overlying water by a membranous nano-barrier (MNB) with tunable capacity. The equilibrium could be attained within 2 h when the MNB interacted with phosphate-containing water. The intercepting capacity was almost unaffected when the solution pH was varied from 4 to 10. The laboratory-scale trial showed that the MNB could positively intercept phosphorus liberated from sediment when the MNB covered the sediment, and the MNB was easy to replace once it became phosphate saturated, making its actual application feasible. Generally, the novel MNB can be considered to be a possible pathway for eutrophication control in shallow surface aquatic systems and scenic water.


Previous scalable protocols for downloading large, popular files from a single server include batching and cyclic multicast. With batching, clients wait to begin receiving a requested file until the beginning of its next multicast transmission, which collectively serves all of the waiting clients that have accumulated up to that point. With cyclic multicast, the file data is cyclically transmitted on a multicast channel. Clients can begin listening to the channel at an arbitrary point in time, and continue listening until all of the file data has been received. This paper first develops lower bounds on the average and maximum client delay for completely downloading a file, as functions of the average server bandwidth used to serve requests for that file, for systems with homogeneous clients. The results show that neither cyclic multicast nor batching consistently yields performance close to optimal. New hybrid download protocols are proposed that achieve within 15% of the optimal maximum delay and 20% of the optimal average delay in homogeneous systems. For heterogeneous systems in which clients have widely-varying achievable reception rates, an additional design question concerns the use of high rate transmissions, which can decrease delay for clients that can receive at such rates, in addition to low rate transmissions that can be received by all clients. A new scalable download protocol for such systems is proposed, and its performance is compared to that of alternative protocols as well as to new lower bounds on maximum client delay. The new protocol achieves within 25% of the optimal maximum client delay in all scenarios considered.


We study a citizen-candidate-entry model with private information about ideal points. We fully characterize the unique symmetric equilibrium of the entry game and show that only relatively "extreme" citizen types enter the electoral competition as candidates, whereas more "moderate" types never enter. It generally leads to substantial political polarization, even when the electorate is not polarized and citizens understand that they vote for more extreme candidates. We show that polarization increases in the costs of entry and decreases in the benefits from holding office. Moreover, when the number of citizens goes to infinity, only the very most extreme citizens, with ideal points at the boundary of the policy space, become candidates. Finally, our polarization result is robust to changes in the implementation of a default policy if no citizen runs for office and to introducing directional information about candidates' types that is revealed via parties.


Abstract Phytophilous community on Myriophyllum spicatum was studied in a small artificial urban lake in the city of Osijek (eastern Croatia), during the spring and summer season in 2010. In the eutrophic conditions, macrophyte stands were well developed and in the formed periphyton representatives of the following invertebrate taxa were found: Hydrozoa, Nematoda, Gastropoda, Cladocera, Copepoda, Insecta larvae - including families Chironomidae and Coleoptera. They displayed differences in temporal abundance patterns. Two separate phases in macrophyte colonization with differences in invertebrate composition and abundance were recorded. Insect larvae, particularly Chironomidae, were most abundant in the first phase, through the spring period, and Hydra oligactis (brown hydra) was most abundant in the second phase, i.e. summer period. Concurrently, microcrustacean abundance declined towards the end of the summer. Results of the analyses indicated that water temperature and perihyton biomass were the variables exerting the main influence on the invertebrate assemblage, while interestingly, macrophyte size and biomass were negatively correlated with most of the fauna abundance. On the other hand, brown hydra was negatively correlated with all other invertebrate taxa, except gastropods. Larger surface of submersed macrophytes is the main parameter supporting the increase of invertebrate abundance due to providing protection from predators and growth for periphyton, an important food source for these phytophilous organisms. Macrophyte length was positively correlated with Hydra abundance, while Chironomids were more influenced by periphyton biomass. These organisms can indicate water quality conditions and a potential increase in primary and secondary production.


This quasi-experimental study of task-based learning aimed to determine to what extent task-type (jigsaw, decision-making and opinion exchange) and group size (partner and small group) impact both the quantity and quality of learner discourse in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC).
SCMC is a tool used increasingly in foreign language instruction for creating environments that encourage interaction between learners (Salaberry, 1996). According to Nobuyoshi and Ellis (1993), using content-based tasks in interaction develops learners' communicative strategies and contributes to learners' language development, by allowing them to apply linguistic knowledge in spontaneous speech and providing them with exposure to new linguistic forms.
In the current study, 62 students in third-semester German completed six 30-minute online discussion tasks designed to stimulate use of new vocabulary. Task-group configurations (e.g., jigsaw-partner) were counterbalanced among the five sections of the course. Transcripts were coded for foreign language, non-target language and off task communication-units, holistically scored language quality and task completion, grammatical accuracy, lexical targets, negotiated interactions, and restricted lexical and grammatical composite collocations. Students also completed an initial survey designed to collect demographic data and initial reactions to SCMC use and a follow-up survey including questions regarding the use and usefulness of SCMC and its structure, use of German, task preference and resulting attitudes. 10 students completed a 30-minute interview conducted to elicit more information about their responses on the follow-up survey.
Results of this study indicate that: (1) decision-making-partner tasks elicited a significantly higher amount of foreign language output and quality in language than the other task-group configurations; (2) the patterns of negotiated interactions differed in some ways from Smith's (2001, 2003a) model; (3) there was no significant effect for task-group configuration for increasing the quantity or promoting a higher quality of negotiated interactions; (4) opinion exchange-partner tasks elicited the largest amount and most appropriate use of both lexical and grammatical composite collocations; and (5) learner reactions to task-based SCMC were largely similar to previous findings. Participants overwhelmingly preferred the open-ended and least constrained opinion exchange task. These results demonstrate that task-group configurations in SCMC have important implications for meeting pedagogical objectives.


My thesis consists of two parts. One of the sections is a critical essay which is focused on Coetzee's novel, Disgrace (1999), in reference to the ethical implications of the work, particularly regarding notions of marginalization and bearing witness. The controversial depictions of sexism and racism in the novel have caused a diverse range of reactions, some of which claim that such depictions are unethical in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. However, I argue that this is not the case.

I first draw on Aristotle's notion of a 'tragic hero,' emphasizing the ways in which tragedy provides a cathartic process of moral learning in its audience. I work through this theory to show how Disgrace can be taken as a tragedy, and how the main character, David Lurie, can be seen as the tragic hero. Through Lurie's experience of disgrace and person catharsis, the readers can reflect in this personal progression and learn about how to lead moral lives.

I then consider Disgrace in the context of the work of Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of 'line of flight,' 'rhizome,' and 'becoming-other.' I show how Lurie's disgrace can be understood as a process of becoming-other. Lurie's transition from a narrow-minded, self-centred white male, to a person who can be treated like an animal, interrogates the idea of clear-cut definitions and shows the true malleability of categories of gender, race and species. Using Deleuze and Guattari's theory, we can see the importance of literature as a form of representation and medium for critiquing such constructions of the 'Other.' By drawing on a Deleuzian perspective, we can examine how literature serves as the 'speculative leap' which enables us to experience the point of view of the Other through a process of 'becoming-other.'·

Finally I argue that Disgrace's resistance to closure, presenting this difficulty without any resolution, means that the reader must contend with the issues raised. Hence, by denying closure, the reader is urged to take personal responsibility for what they have read about, rather than just forgetting about the moral issues after they have finished the novel.

I use the theories brought up in the critical essay to inform the creative component of this thesis, a work of fiction entitled, You Sound Like Mum. The fiction follows the child protagonist, Nick, as he negotiates the difficult family dynamic that occurs after his mother dies. He and his brother, Michael, both struggle to cope with the loss of their mother and the reappearance of the father who left them years before. Loosely drawing on the concepts of Deleuze and Guattari, the reader is privy to Nick's 'becoming-parent', when he takes up the role of parent to Michael. This new role leads Nick to gradually change his attitude toward his father from resentment to acceptance. The story ends with a number of difficult questions which are left unanswered. For instance, the circumstances that drove Michael to underage drinking remain troublingly unresolved and the reader is left to ponder how the situation might be repaired.


The Black-headed Yellow Wagtail ( Motacilla flava feldegg ) has shown a clear tendency to expand its breeding range in the period 1830-2015, with an accentuation of the phenomenon during the second half of the twentieth century. Expansion northwards has been favoured by climate change and is characterized by alternating phases of jump dispersal and subsequent diffusion within the limits thus achieved. In the Balkans and in western Europe, jump dispersal occurred mainly in the late nineteenth century and mid-twentieth century, allowing the subspecies to reach the 48th parallel north. In the eastern portion of its breeding range, however, jump dispersal mainly took place in the last decades of the twentieth century and in the early part of the twenty-first century. In Europe (especially in the oriental sector) and in Asia, the northern edge of the range is defined with good approximation by the 20°C isothermal of July. In Europe, there has been a shift in its distribution range to the west and the establishment of a new, progressively more import migration route leading the subspecies from Africa to Europe across the Strait of Gibraltar. Concurrently, more and more sightings of the Black-headed Yellow Wagtail have been reported in northern European countries. In the Middle East, expansion to the southwest in Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan has diffusive characteristics and exploits almost exclusively natural environments. In contrast, nesting in the southernmost parts of the Arabian Peninsula is determined by human activity, in particular by the irrigation of fields for the production of fodder, demonstrating the potential of the subspecies to expand further south. In this case, the limiting factor is certainly the lack of a suitable environment, due to the strong prevalence of a hyperarid climate. In central Asia, especially in the catchment area of the Aral Sea, the spread of feldegg has been favoured by the irrigation of the land for agricultural purposes. In the far eastern edge of its distribution range, no particular expansive or recessive movements have been observed.


continue to increase as warfarin is now widely used in prophylaxis for vascular events in patients with atrial fibrillation. NSAIDs have become available as "overthe-counter" medications. Consequently, the chance of patients taking both these medications, and of resultant adverse events, has increased. Doctors should be particularly aware of these changing prescribing practices and should advise their patients against this combination of medications or, if it is unavoidable, consider prophylactic mucosal protection with misoprostol, now listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (authority required) for this indication.


Abstract Objective To determine the risk of an adverse upper gastrointestinal event in patients taking different cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors compared with non-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Design Nested case-control study. Setting 367 general practices contributing to the UK QRESEARCH database, spread throughout every strategic health authority and each health board in England, Wales, and Scotland. Participants Patients aged 25 or more with a first ever diagnosis of an adverse upper gastrointestinal event (peptic ulcer or haematemesis) between 1 August 2000 and 31 July 2004 and up to 10 controls per case matched for age, sex, calendar time, and practice. Main outcome measures Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios for adverse upper gastrointestinal events associated with celecoxib, rofecoxib, ibuprofen, diclofenac, naproxen, other selective and non-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and aspirin. Results The incidence of adverse upper gastrointestinal events was 1.36 per 1000 person years (95% confidence interval 1.34 to 1.39). We identified 9407 incident cases and 88 867 matched controls. Increased risks of adverse gastrointestinal events were associated with current use of cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors and with conventional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Risks were reduced after adjustment for confounders but remained significantly increased for naproxen (adjusted odds ratio 2.12, 95% confidence interval 1.73 to 2.58), diclofenac (1.96, 1.78 to 2.15), and rofecoxib (1.56, 1.30 to 1.87) but not for current use of celecoxib (1.11, 0.87 to 1.41). We found clinically important interactions with current use of ulcer healing drugs that removed the increased risks for adverse gastrointestinal events for all groups of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs except diclofenac, which still had an increased odds ratio (1.49, 1.26 to 1.76). Conclusion No consistent evidence was found of enhanced safety against gastrointestinal events with any of the new cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors compared with non-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The use of ulcer healing drugs reduced the increased risk of adverse gastrointestinal outcomes with all groups of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, but for diclofenac the increased risk remained significant.


The persistence of systemic and individual racism both within society and higher education influences the behavior and attitudes of librarians of color and their white colleagues. Racism, prejudice and discrimination in academe often have a direct impact on the recruitment and retention of African American librarians and other librarians of color. Issues of job satisfaction and initiatives for constructing an environment conducive to racial and ethnic inclusion within academe are addressed.


Purpose - Existing research of forgiveness has received substantial notice in the field of psychology. Nevertheless, less is known about forgiveness within a business context. To address this absence, this paper aims to investigate how the brand relationship affects the strategies and influential factors of brand forgiveness from a company perspective after service failures. Furthermore, this paper aims to address challenges and opportunities faced by a brand within the retail industry in a Swedish cultural context. An analytical combination of empirical findings as well as literature on branding, trust repair after negative publicity, and consumer forgiveness is conducted to generate a comprehensive model on how brand relationship affects brand forgiveness.Design/Methodology/Approach - The research method of this paper is qualitative, and the empirical data is collected through focus groups with Swedish students at Jonkoping University using vignette technique. The research approaches used for this study are inductive and abductive.Findings - A company that successfully implements its branding activities is able to create a positive brand image, which can have a positive influence on the brand-consumer relationship and consequently the forgiveness strategies that companies undertake in cases of service failures. This study suggests that a close brand-consumer relationship increases consumers' need for brand forgiveness.Research Limitations and Implications - Due to the limitations of our research, the empirical findings need to be tested in a quantitative study with a large sample size within a Swedish cultural setting in order to be generalized. To generalize the findings from an international perspective, the findings are required to be tested in different cultural contexts in order to investigate potential similarities. This paper suggests that achieving forgiveness from a closely related brand is similar to achieving forgiveness from a close friend. It highlights guidelines for practitioners on how to reach brand forgiveness within the retail industry in a Swedish cultural setting. This thesis suggests that practitioners within the retail industry should focus on building close brand-consumer relationships as it may have a positive influence on the forgiveness strategies that a company undertakes in cases of service failures.


PLGA blend and gradient films were designed and prepared to improve the late degradation properties of PLGA films. The gradient films were composed of gradual components of PLGA50/50 and PLGA 75/25, and PLGA 50/50, featuring gradual descents from outside parts to inside parts of the films. Degradation processes of biodegradable PLGA blend and gradient films were also predicted by Monte Carlo simulation to understand the mechanism of degradation. The simulation results indicated that the gradient structure prolonged the mass transfer time of the degradable films, and it induced smoother weight loss than single-component or blend films. The degradation behaviors of single-component, blend and gradient films were experimentally investigated to prove the validity of the models by immersing them into PBS. The experiment indicated that the gradient films have the most stable weight loss curves, which were in well accordance with the simulation by Monte Carlo method.


The reinforcing nature of social interactions is necessary for the maintenance of appropriate social behavior. However, the neural substrates underlying social reward processing remain unknown. It is also unclear whether these neural substrates are shared with those involved in nonsocial rewarding processing. We developed a fully automated, novel two choice (social-sucrose) operant assay in which mice choose between social and nonsocial rewards to directly compare the reward-related behaviors associated with two competing stimuli. We performed cellular resolution calcium imaging of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons in male and female mice across varying states of water restriction and social isolation. We found that mPFC neurons maintain largely non-overlapping, flexible representations of social and nonsocial reward that vary with internal state in a sex-dependent manner. Additionally, optogenetic manipulation of mPFC activity during the reward period of the assay disrupted reward-seeking behavior. Thus, using a novel operant assay, we have identified sex-dependent, non-overlapping neural representations of social and nonsocial reward in the mPFC that vary with internal state and that are essential for appropriate reward-seeking behavior.


Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite nanowires have received considerable attention for applications in optoelectronic fields; however, practical implementation of perovskite nanowires into optoelectronic devices is often hindered by low product yields, scaled-up synthesis, or overall lack of synthetic control. Herein, we report novel insights into large-scale freestanding lead halide perovskite nanowires using a series of solvent effects. A facile pathway for converting layered raw materials to nanowires with high conversion yields can facilitate the large-scale applications of nanowires, which could help us understand the unique aspects of the formation chemistry of the materials. We introduced a two-step process to obtain perovskite nanowires without an impurity phase that first involves the formation of Pb-containing nanowires with the poor solvent drip method. Subsequently, the as-prepared Pb-containing precursors can be used as morphology templates for converting completely into perovskite nanowires with high conversion yields of 83% through a series of solvent effects, such as solvent-driven, solvent-removing, solvent-exchange and solvent-growth. The synthetic strategy was demonstrated to be applicable for other perovskite-based materials, which can offer a comprehensive understanding of the formation mechanism of perovskite-based materials.


Deep-fried carrot chips, containing provitamin-A carotenes, were developed as an alternative mode of dietary intervention to combat vitamin A deficiency. The biological use of carotenoids in this product as vitamin A precursors was evaluated in Mongolian gerbils. Male 4-wk-old gerbils were fed a diet containing all essential nutrients for 1 wk. Then six gerbils were killed, and the remaining gerbils were fed the diet without vitamin A for 6 wk to produce marginal vitamin A deficiency. After depletion, six gerbils were killed and the remainder divided into four groups of 12 gerbils each and fed vitamin A-containing diet ( VA), -carotene-containing diet (BC), carrot chip-containing diet (CC), or diet containing no vitamin A/provitamin-A carotenes ( VA). The first three diets contained 6 g RE/g. Six gerbils from each group were killed after 2 wk of consuming these diets, and 6 after 4 wk. Final body weight and weekly food consumption did not differ among groups after 2 or 4 wk of repletion. Total liver vitamin A stores of BC and CC gerbils killed after 4 wk of repletion were not different from those of gerbils killed before depletion, but those of VA gerbils were significantly lower (P 0.05) and those of VA gerbils were significantly higher (P 0.05). Plasma retinol levels of gerbils killed after 4 wk of repletion, including the VA group, did not differ. Total liver and -carotenes and 9-cis -carotene contents of the CC group were significantly higher (P 0.05) than in the BC group after 4 wk of repletion. This carrot chip product effectively reversed vitamin A deficiency in gerbils. J. Nutr. 132: 211–217, 2002.


Metabolism of individual phospholipids was studied in neurones and neuroglia under conditions of convulsions caused by picrotoxin administration. Metabolic activity of all the phospholipids studied was increased in neuronal membranes under extreme conditions of convulsive attacks. The rate of metabolism of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingomyelin was increased 2-2.5-fold approximately. The most distinct alterations of metabolic activity were observed in the fraction of minor phospholipids: specific radioactivity of phosphatidylserine was increased 10-fold and phosphatidylinositol--16-fold. Metabolism of phosphatidic acid and lysophosphatidylcholine was elevated more than 15-fold. Convulsions exhibited the most distinct effect on metabolism of phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylserine in neuroglia cells. As distinct from neurones, metabolism of phosphatidyl choline and sphingomyelin was not markedly altered in neuroglia. Similar metabolism and universal cell response, carried out via phospholipids, appear to occur in the system neurone-neuroglia.


Abstract This study focuses on understanding and explaining the technologies that affect the governance of the risk of Covid-19 in Turkey. To assess how this risk is governed by individuals, the study focuses on discussions around this disease within a Turkish Facebook group. The aim is to understand how individuals conduct themselves and establish norms of conduct against the risk of illness that, in this case of an infectious disease, involves governing the self while managing others. The results show that the discourse created around the governance of infection risk is very much in line with notions of neoliberal governmentality, individual responsibility, citizens as consumers, and individuals as entrepreneurs. Governing the risk of Covid-19 is related to prevalent ways of prioritising or recognising economic explanations, and cost calculation and assessment of successful governance using quantifiable variables, such as the number of new cases and deaths. Concepts like herd immunity and natural selection are open to discussion. Individuals who believe that the government is primarily responsible for risk governance assert that they are paying taxes and advocate that, disciplinary measures should be taken by the government, whereas the opposing view states that individuals are responsible for the governance of Covid-19 risk. We interpret both these opposing views as illustrating neoliberal governmentality and representing contractual and familial state–citizen relationships.


The Southern Ocean hosts the formation of the densest layers of the oceanic overturning circulation and provides a climatically sensitive element of deep ocean ventilation. An oceanographic section across the eastern Scotia Sea occupied in 1995, 1999, and 2005 reveals significant variability in the deep and bottom waters of Southern Ocean origin. Warming (0.1°C) of the warm midlayer waters in the Scotia Sea between 1995 and 1999 reversed through to 2005, reflecting changes seen earlier upstream in the Weddell Sea. The volume of deep waters with potential temperature less than 0°C decreased during 1995–2005, though such a reduction was only clear between 1995 and 1999 at the southern end of the section. The abyssal waters of the eastern Scotia Sea changed circulation between 1995 and 1999, with the dominant point of their entry to the basin shifting from the south to the northeast; by 2005, the former route had regained dominance. These changes are best explained by interannual variations in the deep waters exiting the Weddell Sea, superimposed on a longer-term (decadal) warming trend. The interannual variations are related to changes in the strength of the Weddell Gyre, reflecting large-scale atmospheric variability that may include the El Nino–Southern Oscillation phenomenon. The Scotia Sea is the most direct pathway for dense waters of the overturning circulation emanating from the Weddell Sea to fill much of the World Ocean abyss. The regional changes reported here have the potential to affect the climatically significant ventilation of the global ocean abyss.


Background: The continuous rise in the number of patients suffering from Helicobacter pylori is probably due to the changes in modern life. Nowadays, patients suffering from gastrointestinal problems are diagnosed through invasive and non-invasive techniques. The choice of a diagnostic test is influenced by factors such as the tests' sensitivity and specificity, the clinical conditions, and the cost-effectiveness of the testing strategy. This study aimed to compare molecular detection methods of H. pylori by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the 16S rRNA, ureA and glmM genes with an invasive histopathological technique. Methods: 290 gastric biopsies were collected using gastrointestinal endoscopy from patients with gastritis symptoms in different hospitals in Khartoum state. Two gastric biopsies were collected from each patient for PCR and histopathology. Results: A total of 103 (35.5%) samples were positive by histopathological examination, 88 (30.3%) by 16S rRNA, 39 (13.4%) by glmM gene, and 56 (19.3%) by ureA gene. The highest sensitivity was observed in 16S rRNA (46.6%), followed by glmM (24.3%) and ureA (23.3%). While the best specificity was observed in glmM gene (92.5%), followed by ureA (82.3%) and 16S rRNA (78.6%). Conclusion: PCR test targeting the 16S rRNA gene exhibited the best results for molecular detection of H. pylori compared to other genes.


A CO2-stable dual phase membrane of the composition 40 wt % NiFe2O4-60 wt % Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ (40NFO-60CGO) was synthesized in three different ways: mixing of the starting powders (1) in a mortar and (2) in a ball-mill as well as by (3) direct in situ one-pot sol–gel powder synthesis. Backscattered scanning electron microscopy revealed that the direct one-pot synthesis of 40NFO-60CGO gives the smallest grains in a homogeneous distribution, compared with powder homogenization in the mortar or the ball-mill. The smaller is the grains, the higher is the oxygen permeability. The permeation of the membrane can be improved by coating a porous La0.6Sr0.4CoO3-δ (LSC) layer on the surface of the air side. The dual phase membrane of 40NFO-60CGO prepared by in situ synthesis shows a steady oxygen flux of 0.30 ml/(min cm2) over more than 100 h when pure CO2 was used as sweep gas, which indicated that the dual phases membrane is CO2-resistant at least over this 5 days testing period. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011


Judicial customary law, based initially on the works of indigenous scholars, has developed extensively in Ghana to provide the premise on which the country bases its laws of family, property and succession. Social enquiry, however, discloses a growing dichotomy between judicial customary law and the customary law that is actually practised by the people. This is due largely to the flexible nature of customary law and the continual development of new rules to meet changing conditions. Guided by the English doctrines of precedent and stare decisis the state courts have generally not recognised the new rules which regulate the day to day activities of ordinary people. As a result, a considerable gap exists between judicial customary law and social reality. In recent years, the state has sought to ameliorate the social injustices caused by the untrammelled operation of the rules of judicial customary law through the enactment of legislation. The present thesis argues that the mere enactment of legislation is no guarantee of the reform of customary law. It is contended that the key to successful reform of customary law lies in the implementation of programmes aimed at ensuring that norm-addressees actually benefit from legislative enactments. While the main aim of the present work is to assess the impact of recent Ghanaian legislation upon customary law in an urban environment, it also analyses the extent to which the modern law has been able to strengthen the claims of the nuclear family. The thesis concludes by making suggestions for further law reform.


Background and aims Globally, two thirds of people with dementia are cared for by their families or friends. Family caregivers' coping strategies of managing the caregiving burden of dementia have been studied widely in western literature. However, few attempts have been made to explore the experience of family caregivers' coping strategies in China. The aim of this study was to explore the family caregivers' coping strategies when caring for people with dementia in one city in the province of Shandong, China. Methods Fourteen family caregivers were individually interviewed, and interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify themes within different family members. Results Four key themes were found: (a) being filial; (b) changing self and self-care; (c) seeking help; and (d) having hope and continuing life. Conclusion The study illustrates the different strategies developed by family members in order to cope with their new roles when caring for a relative who has dementia. It shows that cultural belief of filial piety plays a large role across these various coping strategies. It highlights how responsibility has been maintained and influenced by the specific sociocultural context. The results provide a useful foundation for developing interventions that support family caregivers cope with the burden of caring in this population.


In this thesis, the relationship between Country Credit Rating or CCR and international markets returns is examined. Tests also are conducted of the use of CCR as a global explanatory variable, and the ability of CCR to predict returns in 50 countries using two different ratings sources (Institutional Investors Country Credit Rating and International Country Risk Guide). The prediction ability of CCR is further tested using a conditional asset allocation framework. Event-study techniques are used to measure the impact of CCR changes on country returns. CCR is identified as being a local risk variable that has a higher prediction power in emerging compared to developed countries. The impact of CCR changes on stock returns varies markedly before and after 1997 for both ratings measures. The use of the Sovereign risk ratings from S&P confirms the predictability pattern in emerging countries, and the identified differences between the impact on stock returns of CCR changes before and after 1997.


In this paper we present a new web based Distributed File System server management tool to perform load balancing across multiple servers. The Distributed File System from Distributed Computing Environment (DCE DFS) is a collection of many file systems mounted onto a single virtual file system space with a single namespace. The tool is based on rule-based data mining techniques and graph analysis algorithms. The data mining procedures identify DFS file access patterns and the graph analysis and statistical information relocates the filesets between different file servers. We demonstrate our tool on data collected for five months on DFS servers in a production environment. Experiments with this data show that our load balancing tool is useful to file system administrators to monitor, evaluate DFS state and to make intelligent decisions about file system transfers in order to balance the access request load on "read-write" filesets across DFS servers.


In contrast to Robust Design applications for FEM-modeled parts, the simulation of a mechatronic system including both mechanical and electrical parts requires a different strategy for the investigation of its robustness. Differences mainly results from interactions between the mechanical and the electrical part of the mechatronic system. Furthermore, a comfort mechatronic system in the automotive industry is designed customer-oriented. Subsequently, the behavior of its movement and the respective robustness has to be considered too. This paper presents an approach to evaluate robustness of mechatronic comfort systems. Additionally, the approach is applied to sliding doors of vans to prove the practicability to industrial problems.


The libertarian principles of Personal Autonomy and Personalized Justice which grew mightily in the rapidly spreading young American democracy in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the development of Bioethics in the United States. The bioethical principles of Respect for Autonomy, Beneficence, non-Maleficence and Justice support the elaboration of advance directives (living will and the designation of a proxy to attend health matters) for when the patient is no longer capable to make health decisions. Advance directives can be drafted and signed in Puerto Rico with the help of a lawyer. They can also be legally prepared in a doctor's office or in a hospital if witnessed by a doctor and two persons who will not benefit from the patient's demise or are directly involved in his/her care). We present a model for advance directives which may be executed in a doctor's office or a hospital. The model fulfills the legal requirements of Puerto Rico Law 160 which became effective November 2001. It also fulfills requirements of the Patients Self-Determination Act that became effective in 1991.The document also contains standard options for organ donations. We discuss the fundamental bioethical principles which have given root to the development of the advance directives. We suggest that it may be economically advantageous to health insurance carriers to compensate physicians who help their patients in the execution of a valid document. The existence of this document may help prevent the large expenses associated with inappropriate admissions to intensive care of patients at the end-of-life.