Summary form only given as follows. A model of the fossil fuelled generating power plant with once through boiler for power system frequency simulation studies is presented. In the model, the plant control system is modeled to represent the fundamental response of the coordinated boiler-turbine control in the large-size supercritical plants under change in the system frequency. The model is based on a survey of configurations of the plant control systems used in the major units commercially operated in Japan. The values of the parameters in the model are described through the comparisons with plant responses in a field test and with simulation results from a detailed model of the plant manufacturer. Sample simulation results from the model is presented for demonstrating the fundamental response of the once-through plants under change in system frequency.


Cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) were introduced on the island of Mauritius between 400 and 500 years ago and underwent a strong population expansion after a probable initial founding event. However, in practice, little is known of the geographical origin of the individuals that colonized the island, on how many individuals were introduced, and of whether the following demographic expansion erased any signal of this putative bottleneck. In this study, we asked whether the current nuclear genome of the Mauritius population retained a signature that would allow us to answer these questions. Altogether, 21 polymorphic autosomal and sex‐linked microsatellites were surveyed from 81 unrelated Mauritius individuals and 173 individuals from putative geographical sources in Southeast Asia: Java, the Philippines islands and the Indochinese peninsula. We found that (i) the Mauritius population was closer to different populations depending on the markers we used, which suggests a possible mixed origin with Java playing most probably a major role; and (ii) the level of diversity was lower than the other populations but there was no clear and consistent bottleneck signal using either summary statistics or full‐likelihood methods. However, summary statistics strongly suggest that Mauritius is not at mutation–drift equilibrium and favours an expansion rather than a bottleneck. This suggests that on a short time scale, population decline followed by growth can be difficult to deduce from genetic data based on mutation–drift theory. We then used a simple Bayesian rejection algorithm to estimate the number of founders under different demographic models (exponential, logistic and logistic with lag) and pure genetic drift. This new method uses current population size estimates and expected heterozygosity of Mauritius and source population(s). Our results indicate that a simple exponential growth is unlikely and that, under the logistic models, the population may have expanded from an initial effective number of individuals of 10–15. The data are also consistent with a logistic growth with different lag values, indicating that we cannot exclude past population fluctuation.


This paper describes fuzzy control theory to modulate the input signal for static Var compensator (SVC) to enhance power system stability. Static Var compensator, which is the first generation of FACTS devices, increases power transfer and improves the damping of electromechanical oscillations when used in transmission systems. The proposed control system for SVC is based on fuzzy set theory. The quantity of reactive power supplied and/or absorbed by SVC is determined based on the input signals at each sampling time. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated by a single machine infinite bus system (SMIB) through computer simulations.


ABSTRACT It has long been recognized that there is a link between sustainable development, poverty and consistent access to useable water. Increased population is requiring more water and changing climate is altering the hydrological cycle making the water less accessible at the time when it is required. Combining the measurement of water availability and the socioeconomic capacity towards its access gives new insights in the fields of water resources management and poverty alleviation, which ultimately address the agenda of sustainable development. This paper customizes the water poverty index (WPI) indicators to encompass the climatic extremes and social settings to analyse the water stresses to the community people and their capacity to manage the water extremes focusing on the water availability in climatic variability condition in Karnali river basin in western Nepal. The indicators of the WPI were based on the multiple aspects of water focusing to water quantity and availability. The WPI is not only a useful tool to monitor progress; but it can even be used to identify areas of greatest need, thereby enabling prioritization of action in the water sector.


Optical components with complex surfaces or microstructures are more and more widely used, but it is very difficult to manufacture these components by using traditional mechanical fabrication methods. Fast Tool Servo (FTS) system driven by piezoelectric ceramic (PZT) can manufacture these complex surfaces or microstructures efficiently and accurately, owing to its high response frequency, good dynamic performances and high stiffness. In this paper, the cutting characteristics are studied in the FTS machining process, and the identifying algorithm of tool interference is given. A set of high-powered FTS system is developed, which consists of PZT, fast feeding device, DSP28335 control panel and ultraprecision machine tool. The testing results indicate that the FTS system's motion resolution is 1nm, the stroke is 90μm, and the response frequency is 220Hz while moving distance is 36μm. On the basis of above work, three kinds of typical workpieces with complex surfaces are manufactured by using FTS system. The measuring results indicate that surface accuracy can reach PV 0.14μm, the roughness is less than Ra 12nm, and the means are presented to improve the machining accuracy.


A relationship between the learning rate in the learning algorithm, and the slope in the nonlinear activation function, for a class of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) trained by the real-time recurrent learning algorithm is provided. It is shown that an arbitrary RNN can be obtained via the referent RNN, with some deterministic rules imposed on its weights and the learning rate. Such relationships reduce the number of degrees of freedom when solving the nonlinear optimization task of finding the optimal RNN parameters.


New data from the Herschel Infrared Galactic Plane Survey (Hi-GAL) and the Expanded Very Large Array, together with ancillary multifrequency data from different archives, have provided a comprehensive picture of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) surrounding the Galactic luminous blue variable (LBV) candidate Gal 026.47+0.02. The high angular resolution of both the 70-μm and 6-cm maps has allowed us to appreciate finest details of the nebula, whose morphology is consistent with a series of nested tori. The inner torus, which is close to the central object, is fully ionized, indicating events of aspherical mass loss.

We have derived the physical properties of the CSE, including, in particular, one of the highest current-day mass losses from the central object and a very massive nebula, which consists of, at least, 17 M_⊙ of ionized gas, with 1.2–3.2 × 10^(−2)  M_⊙ in the form of dust. Altogether, the physical properties of Gal 026.47+0.02, including a very high stellar luminosity, point towards a very massive progenitor on the main sequence.

According to the current models for Type IIn supernovae, the CSEs associated with possible progenitors have well constrained properties in both content and morphology. The derived physical characteristics of the nebula associated with Gal 026.47+0.02 actually satisfy all such requirements, providing some observational evidence of a direct link between a LBV and a possible Type IIn supernova.


Background: The broad spectrum of neuroblastoma (NB) clinical behavior depends on a genomic landscape of tumor cells. The amplification of MYCN oncogene is the most powerful negative prognostic marker in NB. Moreover, segmental chromosomal alterations are also associated with a poor outcome. Therefore, the comprehensive characterization of tumor genetic features is obligatory for NB patients. These features determine the risk stratification and therapeutic decisions in treatment.
Purpose: Our report focuses on a possibility to use standard microarray procedure to demonstrate critical structural chromosomal alteration in archival samples of NB tumors.
Methods and Findings: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 8 NB primary tumors have been analyzed by cytogenetic microarrays. It achieved a very good quality of genomic DNA from fixed samples. Chromosomal abnormalities were detected in 7 out of 8 cases. It was not an incidence of MYCN amplification.
Conclusion: The results demonstrate that it is possible to obtain reliable and highquality microarray data from archival samples.


The use of polyethylene (PE) mulch causes environmental pollution where incomplete removal leaves fragments susceptible to escape to ecosystems, such as the ocean, where they can cause ecological harm. PE mulch is generally nonrecyclable due to contamination with soil and crop debris after use, leaving growers with few end-of-life options for used PE mulch. Research studies have shown that soil-biodegradable plastic mulch (BDM) is comparable to PE mulch in terms of performance, soil health, and overall economics and is preferred from an environmental perspective, but the adoption of BDM by producers is still low. Previous research has shown that the primary barriers to BDM adoption are insufficient knowledge about BDM, high purchase cost, and unpredictable breakdown of BDM in the soil. The high purchase cost of BDM compared with PE mulch is offset by the costs for PE mulch removal, transport, and disposal fees. This project was conducted to develop BDM training materials, to educate and assess BDM knowledge gained by extension personnel and other agricultural professionals through trainings and webinars, and to educate producers about BDM through hands-on experience. Thirty-six research and extension publication outputs from two previous US Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative BDM projects were reviewed and transcribed into 45 new extension publications that included 11 slide presentations, 5 lecture slides, 10 fact sheets, and 3 videos. All the training materials are posted on a public university website. Professional development trainings were conducted at local, regional, national, and international levels to provide agricultural professionals the current, science-based information on BDM and resources for information. Survey results showed that at a local level, the greatest change of knowledge among participants was observed for "BDM use in organic production" (60%), and the lowest reported change of knowledge was observed for "limitations to PE mulch disposal" (19%). At a regional level, out of 58 participants, 23% to 35% of participants learned "a lot" and 35% to 51% learned "some new information" regarding BDM from the webinar. At the national level, out of 30 participants, 48% responded that they learned "a lot" and another 48% learned "some new information" on BDM from the training. Growers were trained about BDM via field days and on-farm demonstrations where five strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) growers volunteered to participate in BDM trials. The participant growers observed no difference in weed control and fruit yield between the PE mulch and the BDM. Growers expressed concerns about slow biodegradation of BDM after soil incorporation, potential impacts on soil biological activity, food safety concerns with BDM fragments and that BDM is not currently permitted for use in organic production.


Summary: Congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries are relatively uncommon conditions and have been associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD) in children. Although anomalous coronary artery distribution is widely reported in the literature, no articles to date address the origin of both the right (RCA) and left coronary arteries (LCA) from the posterior (noncoronary) sinus of Valsalva. This is a report of a 16-year-old black male in good health, who collapsed and was unable to be resuscitated after physical exertion while playing basketball. In this patient, postmortem evaluation revealed the LCA and RCA originating exclusively from the posterior (noncor-onary) sinus with acute angle takeoff of the LCA which likely lead to ischemia, causing SCD. We discuss the incidence of coronary artery anomalies and the proposed mechanisms that led to SCD in these patients.


Abstract New York State introduced the first statewide program in the U. S. of expedited HIV testing (48-hour turnaround results) of mothers with unknown HIV status at the time of labor or delivery and their newborns on August 1, 1999. We evaluated the results of this program during its first 5 months at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center (Lincoln Hospital) in the Bronx, New York. There were 1,274 total live birth deliveries between August 1 and December 31, 1999. The HIV infection status of 539 mothers (42.3%) was unknown to medical providers in the labor-delivery suite, either due to lack of testing during the current pregnancy or unavailability of HIV documentation at the time of delivery. During labor and delivery, a total of 462 (85.7%) mothers with unknown HIV status consented to expedited HIV testing (Single Use Diagnostic System for HIV-1 antibody or SUDS). The newborns of 77 mothers (14.3%) who did not consent were tested immediately after birth. Seventeen tested positive for HIV-1 antibody by the SUDS test. The results of 10 of these infants (58.8%) were subsequently confirmed positive for HIV-1 antibody by Western Blot analysis. This new rapid HIV testing program facilitated early diagnosis of these previously unknown HIV-exposed infants, although the low positive predictive value of the test in our community calls for careful communication of these results pending confirmation.


A man aged 59 years developed a rapidly progressive muscular weakness which within a few weeks involved almost the entire musculature. A carcinoma of the stomach was discovered at necropsy. The skeletal muscles showed widespread necrosis with minimal inflammatory reaction. The findings are compared with those in a woman of 51 with Hashimoto's thyroiditis who developed a slowly progressive weakness of her trunk muscles which after some months began to involve the limbs. Post-mortem examination revealed typical polymyositis with massive inflammatory infiltration and limited necrosis of muscle. We conclude that these two types of muscle disease are morphologically, and probably pathogenetically, different.


Abstract The article comments on Peetz' concept of relational mechanisms. This concept is an alternative to mechanistical explanations of analytical sociology, conceptualized as based on human agents. Peetz criticises this foundation, juxtaposing it with the idea of the analytical primacy of relations. This perspective does not necessarily presuppose agents but can explain their emergence. To demonstrate the efficiency of his concept, he presents an explanation of a concrete mechanism. The analysis of this explanation shows that a crucial point is missing from the concept of relational mechanisms: the steps that produce a social process are never spelt out. Peetz thus presents a black box explanation, which is contrary to the demands of mechanistical explanations. His preference for black box argumentation is owed to his concepts. Unlike an enlightened methodological individualist, he is not in a position to explain the productions necessary for the formation of mechanistical processes.


3-D integration using through silicon via is an emerging technology for integrated circuit designs. Random access memory (RAM) is one good candidate for the application of 3-D integration technology. However, yield will be a key challenge for the volume production of 3-D RAMs. In this paper, we present yield-enhancement techniques for 3-D RAMs. An interdie redundancy scheme is proposed to improve the yield of 3-D RAMs. Three stacking flows with respect to different bonding technologies for 3-D RAMs with interdie redundancy are proposed as well. Finally, a built-in self-repair (BISR) scheme is proposed to perform the repair of 3-D RAMs with interdie redundancies. The BISR circuits in two stacked dies can work together to allocate interdie redundancies. Simulation results show that the proposed yield-enhancement techniques can effectively improve the yield of 3-D RAMs.


Purpose of reviewThis review summarizes recent advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging that reveal similarities in the organization of human auditory cortex (HAC) and auditory cortex of nonhuman primates. Recent findingsFunctional magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown that HAC is a compact region that covers less than 8% of the total cortical surface. HAC is subdivided into more than a dozen distinct auditory cortical fields (ACFs) that surround Heschl's gyri on the superior temporal plane. Recent advances that permit the visualization of the results of functional magnetic imaging experiments directly on the cortical surface have provided new insights into the organization of human ACFs. Evidence suggests that medial regions of HAC are organized in a manner similar to the auditory cortex of other primate species with a set of tonotopically organized core ACFs surrounded by belt ACFs that often share tonotopic organization with the core. Although influenced by attention, responses in HAC core and belt fields are largely determined by the acoustic properties of stimuli, including their frequency, intensity, and location. In contrast, lateral regions of HAC contain parabelt fields that are little influenced by simple acoustic features but rather respond to behaviorally relevant complex sounds such as speech and are strongly modulated by attention. SummaryHAC conserves the basic structural and functional organization of auditory cortex as seen in old world primate species. A central challenge to future research is to understand how this basic primate plan has evolved to support uniquely human abilities such as music and language.


This research supports some of the mounting pressures higher education practitioners face in approaching innovation strategically while recognizing the mission-driven needs of the institution. Two research questions were examined. First, how do highly innovative universities communicate traditional missions and innovation in their mission statements? Second, to what extent do innovation strategies align as stated in their strategic plans with their mission statements? This research was grounded in institutional theory given the breadth of literature linking this theory to institutional rhetoric such as mission statements. In addition, the theory provided relevancy to assessing the debate over legitimizing tendencies, such as symbolism and signaling, versus more meaningful utilitarian prose. For the research design, the unit of analysis focused on the institutional level, specifically, the Top 100 international universities recognized for innovation by Reuters. Two phases were examined. Before moving into each phase, an interdisciplinary contextual overview was provided to examine geographic, historical, and financial factors on a macro basis. For Phase I, a content review of mission statements was examined for the Top 100 universities as publicly available. Concept and In Vivo Coding was conducted using ATLAS.ti software. In Phase II, a content review examined alignment of mission statements and strategic plans to assess mission-driven or mission drift evidence for select universities identified. Four key findings ensued. First, the trifecta of university missions (teaching, research, and service) dominated mission statement incidence relative to innovation rhetoric. Second, innovation language within mission statements was largely comprised of general phraseology or reference to mission, not beyond mission (or drift). Third, the service component of mission tied to innovation beyond teaching and research was driven by societal influences. Fourth, societally-driven innovation provided the greatest potential for mission drift based on stakeholder perspectives. This research filled several gaps in the literature related to international higher education studies, the intersections of traditional university missions with innovation, and the critical use of ranking systems. It provided a vantage on interdisciplinary uses for ATLAS.ti software beyond the robust coding features, such as geospatial mapping. Resulting recommendations for practitioners focused on mission statement optimization at student, program, and institutional levels, and alignment of strategic innovation with institutional missions. Recommendations for future research addressed the limitations identified as the use of the Reuters ranking system, macro-level analysis, and researcher positionality creating a U.S.-centric interpretation. Specifically, opportunities exist for expanded research studies such as qualitative interviews with stakeholders, longitudinal studies, explorations of additional institutional types through the lenses of other relevant theories (e.g., neo-institutional theory, resource dependency theory, and population ecology theory), and social network analyses given the extent of external actors involved. In conclusion, innovation continues to be hotly contested in the higher education sphere as a mechanism for "high hopes or broken promises" (Chronicle, 2019, p. 59). In the current worldwide climate of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is witnessing higher education institutions rapidly innovate programming and policies in real time as a means to adapt to pressing challenges, and in some cases, to maintain existentiality. It is also at this time, that great emphasis is placed on focusing precious resources on initiatives supporting mission – the intersection of mission and innovation challenges higher education today and will continue to for years to come. Keywords: Higher education institutions, mission, vision, innovation, strategic planning, mission statements, strategic plans, international, interdisciplinary, institutional theory, content analysis, comparative analysis.


The evolution of volume porosity previously obtained by using the existing low temperature high burn-up gaseous swelling model with progressive recrystallization for UO2 fuel is utilized to study the degradation of irradiated UO2 thermal conductivity calculated by the FRAPCON model of thermal conductivity. A porosity correction factor is developed based on the assumption that the fuel morphology is a three-phase type, consisting of the asfabricated pores and pores due to intergranular bubbles whitin UO2 matrix and solid fission products. The predicted thermal conductivity demonstrates an additional degradation of 27% due to porosity formation at burn-up levels around 120 MWd/kgU which would cause an increase in the fuel temperature accordingly. Results of the calculations are compared with available data. Keywords—Irradiation-induced recrystallization, matrix swelling, porosity evolution, UO2 thermal conductivity.


The Zimbabwean Land Reform Programme of 2000 yielded both positive and negative results. It gave birth to a new phenomenon, the satellite schools, established in former commercial farming areas. During the colonial era, education was not easily accessible to the Zimbabwean  majority. Therefore, when the land was grabbed from the few   representatives of Western hegemony, the government sanctioned the establishment of satellite schools in areas which had once belonged to the white minority in order to grant the newly resettled populace an opportunity to acquire an education in compliance with the United Nations Charter on human rights. This paper examined the teaching and learning conditions in these schools, paying particular attention to Somabhula resettlement area in the Midlands province. Through the mixed methods approach this paper established that the satellite schools were a noble initiative by the  government, especially considering that education is the key to sustainable development which every government is striving to promote. Keywords : satellite schools, learning conditions, resettlement area, land reform programme, farm invasions, sustainable development


In this chapter, an overview of techniques available in the past
and at present in the field of 3D imaging and visualization are
presented. The purpose is to give the reader a clear idea of the
basic principles of different techniques, their evolution in time,
and the advantages and problems of each in a comparative manner. Although 3D imaging and visualization technologies are commonly considered to be the most novel, recent, and advanced form of visual content delivery, 3D photography, cinema, and TV actually have a long history. Surprisingly, stereoscopic 3D versions of these common visual media are almost as old as their 2D counterparts. Stereoscopic 3D photography was invented as early as 1839. The first examples of 3D cinema were available in the early 1900s. Various forms of early 2D television were developed in the 1920s, and by 1929, stereoscopic 3DTV was demonstrated. Commercial stereoscopic products also emerged in this era. However, while the 2D versions of photography, cinema, and TV have flourished to become an important
component of twentieth century culture, their 3D counterparts have almost disappeared after many peaks of temporary success. For example, stereoscopic 3D cinema had a peak around 1950.


BLT2 is a low-affinity receptor for leukotriene B4, a potent lipid mediator of inflammation generated from arachidonic acid via the 5-lipoxygenase pathway. The aim of this study was to investigate whether BLT2 plays any role in sepsis, a systemic inflammatory response syndrome caused by infection. A murine model of cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis was used to evaluate the role of BLT2 in septic inflammation. In the present study, we observed that the levels of ligands for BLT2 (LTB4 [leukotriene B4] and 12(S)-HETE [12(S)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid]) were significantly increased in the peritoneal lavage fluid and serum from mice with CLP-induced sepsis. We also observed that the levels of BLT2 as well as 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) and 12-LO, which are synthesizing enzymes for LTB4 and 12(S)-HETE, were significantly increased in lung and liver tissues in the CLP mouse model. Blockade of BLT2 markedly suppressed the production of sepsis-associated cytokines (IL-6 [interleukin-6], TNF-α[[tumor necrosis factor alpha], and IL-1β [interleukin-1β] as well as IL-17 [interleukin-17]) and alleviated lung inflammation in the CLP group. Taken together, our results suggest that BLT2 cascade contributes to lung inflammation in CLP-induced sepsis by mediating the production of inflammatory cytokines. These findings suggest that BLT2 may be a potential therapeutic target for sepsis patients.


This paper is based on part of a survey that investigated the impact of the Internet on reference services. An electronic
survey was conducted using the Web and e-mail to distribute the questionnaire. The target population was the heads of
reference services at large libraries and the directors at smaller libraries of the 36 higher education institutions in South
Africa. The response rate to the questionnaire was 28 (30.4 %); two returned questionnaires were spoilt. The following
results are therefore based on the 26 (28.2%) unspoilt completed questionnaires. These results showed that all libraries
surveyed have Internet access, and all but one provided access to their users. Librarians had access to the Internet for a
longer period than their users. User Internet training tended to be on a one-to-one basis at the point-of-use. The majority
of librarians had attended formal Internet training programmes. While the majority of libraries had web sites, only a small
number of librarians had individual pages that they updated and maintained. The majority of libraries provided electronic
reference via e-mail and the library web site, but these were characterised by low usage. Libraries lacked adequate
computer facilities and, consequently, provided limited Internet access to students. Librarians have integrated the
Internet as an information tool, but have not fully exploited what the Internet offers.


Recognition of the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration variations over time is critical for tracing the future changes in climate both globally and regionally. In this study, a time series analysis of atmospheric CO2 concentration and its relationship with precipitation, relative humidity (RH), and vegetation is investigated over Oman. The daily XCO2 data from OCO-2 satellite was obtained from September 2014 to March 2019. The daily RH and precipitation data were also collected from the ground weather stations, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was obtained from MODIS. Oman was studied in four distinct regions where the main emphasis was on the Monsoon Region in the far south. The CO2 concentration time series indicated a significant upward trend over different regions for the study period, with annual cycles being the same for all regions except the Monsoon Region. This is indicative of RH, precipitation, and consequently vegetation cover impact on atmospheric CO2 concentration, resulting in an overall lower annual growth in the Monsoon Region. Simple and multiple correlation analyses of CO2 concentration with mentioned parameters were performed in zero to three-month lags over Oman. They showed high correlations mainly during the rainfall period in the Monsoon Region.


Streptococcus iniae is a leading pathogen of intensive aquaculture operations worldwide, although understanding of virulence mechanisms of this pathogen in fish is lacking. S. iniae possesses a homolog of streptolysin S (SLS), a secreted, pore-forming cytotoxin that is a proven virulence factor in the human pathogen S. pyogenes. Here we used allelic exchange mutagenesis of the structural gene for the S. iniae SLS precursor (sagA) to examine the role of SLS in S. iniae pathogenicity using in vitro and in vivo models. The isogenic Delta sagA mutant was less cytotoxic to fish blood cells and cultured epithelial cells, but comparable to wild-type (WT) S. iniae in adherence/invasion of epithelial cell monolayers and resisting phagocytic killing by fish whole blood or macrophages. In a hybrid striped bass infection model, loss of SLS production led to marked virulence attenuation, as injection of the Delta sagA mutant at 1000x the WT lethal dose (LD80) produced only 10% mortality. The neutralization of SLS could represent a novel strategy for control of S. iniae infection in aquaculture.


In this paper, we propose an automatic method for determining the lateral offset of the vehicle with respect to the center of the lane. Initially, a linear-parabolic model is used to detect lane boundaries. The linear part of the model is then used to obtain an estimation of the lateral offset, without the knowledge of any intrinsic or extrinsic camera parameter. Finally, the analysis the offset across time is then used to determine a lane departure measure, allowing lane crossings to be detected in advance.


The aim of this master's thesis is to investigate the performance and operation of an existing grid connected PV power plant located at Evenstad in Norway. The PV system has a power rating of 70 kWp and has been operating since November 2013. Measurements of meteorological data and performance data are available for all years of operation. The assessment carried out on this PV plant may be of great significance to the PV industry in Norway. A goal for this thesis is to gain knowledge about performance and operation of PV systems in Norway, which may be of use in the development of the PV industry in Norway. The first part of this thesis gives an introduction to the theory behind solar energy. This includes the explanation of the solar resource and the PV system with it's main components. This is knowledge necessary to understand the content of this thesis. The demands and requirements for grid connected power plants are also presented. To carry out the evaluation of performance and operation of the PV system at Evenstad, a model of the real system is established in the simulation software PVsyst. The next part of the thesis gives an introduction to this simulation software. The simulation model with the implemented settings and parameters is presented, and the reasons why selecting them are justified. Real meteorological data measured on-site is used in simulations to achieve correct comparisons of simulated production and measured production. Variations of the simulation model were used to obtain different studies. The results of the thesis are divided into four main parts: A discrepancy analysis of the simulation model, simulations and study of one inverter, daily simulations and at last monthly simulations. In the discrepancy analysis the effect of the implemented parameters are analysed, and the results reveal which parameters are important to implement in the model for the system at Evenstad, in order to achieve accurate results compared to real measurements. Correct settings for the module and horizon line in the model proves to give the most impact on the results of the simulations. It is concluded that the relevance of the different parameters varies according to the system analysed. The study of a single inverter in the system provide an overview of the operation and design of the system. Factors like power ratio and power limit for the inverter are proven to be important to implement correctly in the model according to the actual operation of the inverters, to obtain accurate results. Study of the operation of the system implies that the system was installed with too many modules in order to meet the customers demand. Simulations of daily and monthly time frame show that the model give quite accurate results when comparing simulated production to real production. When performing


Background Culture of body surfaces including the ear canal, throat and rectum are often routinely performed on new neonatal unit admissions. It has been postulated that in the early postnatal period the neonatal ear canal may still contain amniotic fluid and thus be superior to other sites for identifying maternally acquired bacteria responsible for early onset neonatal bacterial sepsis. However, the evidence base for routine ear canal culture is limited. Objectives (1) To ascertain whether ear canal cultures identify bacteria distinct from those in the throat and rectum. (2) To identify whether organisms isolated from the ear canal are responsible for invasive sepsis. (3) To establish whether ear canal cultures alter clinical management. Methods We identified infants admitted to the level one neonatal unit over a 6 month period (April 2008–September 2008). Clinical data was obtained from the 'Badger' electronic patient data system and microbial data was obtained from the 'Telepath' microbiology laboratory database. Results 601 infants were admitted to the neonatal unit during the study period. 66% of admissions (397/601) had ear canal cultures performed. 30.5% (121/397) of ear canal cultures were positive. 3% (3/121) of infants had organisms isolated from the ear canal but not the throat or rectum. However, none of these infants developed culture positive sepsis. 6.5% (24/397) of the infants with ear canal cultures developed blood culture positive early onset sepsis. The ear canals of 12.5% (3/24) of infants harboured the same organisms as isolated from the blood: two coagulase negative staphylococci and one group B streptococcus. These organisms were also isolated from the throat and rectum. No deviation from unit antibiotic policy was made and no barrier nursing was instigated as a consequence of ear canal culture results. Conclusions On the basis of this small study, the neonatal ear canal does not appear to harbour organisms distinct from those in the throat or rectum. Ear canal cultures are not helpful in predicting the organisms responsible for invasive sepsis and should not guide clinical management. We recommend that the acquisition of admission ear canal cultures should not form part of routine clinical practice.


This pragmatic article founds grounds to establish a farm policy to include multiple sources of starch in commercial ruminant diets to improve rumen and ruminant health. Rumen environment has a dramatically fluctuating nature that requires versatile species of microbes to inhabit. As such, multiple sources of differently fermentable starch (varying degradation extent and rate) are required to maintain ruminal microbial versatility and integrity. For its considerable dietary inclusion rate, starch from multiple grain and forage sources better meets energy requirements of a variety of microbial groups and helps minimize risks from metabolic complexities such as subacute rumen acidosis and immune deficiency.


In polytocous mammals an inverse relation is known to exist between the number of young in the litter and the size of the young at birth. It has been customary to attribute this to prenatal competition for a limited pool of nutrients in the maternal circulation (Hammond & Marshall 1952). The present study was undertaken in order to subject the traditional theory to quantitative test. Pregnant mice were killed shortly before term and their foetuses were weighed. Some of the pregnancies had resulted from natural ovulation. Others were obtained by inducing superovulation with hormone treatment, in some cases in adult, and in others in sexually immature females. Analysis of the foetal weights yielded a number of results at variance with the predictions of the theory of competition, notably the following: (1) Foetal growth was more affected by the presence of other foetuses if these w'ere in the same, rather than in the opposite, uterine horn. (2) Foetuses dying in mid-pregnancy, when their nutritional demands would still be small, exerted effects upon the growth of the survivors comparable to those exerted by foetuses surviving the middle period. (3) The signs of nutritional stress exhibited by sexually immature females carrying abnormally large numbers of foetuses, were not accompanied by a reduction in foetal weight after due allowance for foetal number. (4) The foetus occupying the top (ovarian) position in the uterine horn was on average significantly lighter than its neighbour. These results can be better accommodated by an alternative theory of foetal growth (Eckstein, McKeown & Record 1955) which proposes that the chief regulating factor is the pressure at which maternal blood is supplied to the placenta. Some other observations on foetal growth in mice are cited which are also consistent with the haemodynamic theory.


In a magnetized toroidal plasma, an antenna tunable in vertical wave number is used to excite density perturbations. Coherent detection is performed by means of Langmuir probes to directly determine both the wave vector and the plasma response induced by the antenna. Comparison between the theoretical density response predicted by the generalized Hasegawa-Wakatani model, and the experimentally determined density response enables us the identification of one peak of the plasma response as a drift wave.


More than three years after its initial election with a mandate for health reform, Australia's Labor government has released plans for how it expects a new national network of primary healthcare organisations to operate.

The first 15 of the organisations, to be called Medicare Locals, are due to start in July, with the remainder expected to be in operation by the middle of next year, when all core funding for Divisions of General Practice will cease.

The government released guidelines for Medicare Local applicants on 22 February giving Divisions of General Practice and other applicants a deadline of several weeks (April 5), although the boundaries for the organisations are not yet finalised.

Health policy experts have raised concerns about the ability of Medicare Locals to bring about change, and warn that they may not lead to a healthier population, or a fairer, better healthcare system.

Medicare Locals are to be established as independent companies, and managed by skills-based boards. They are expected to operate under an organisational membership model, with members such as local …


Computer vision techniques applied to systems used on road maintenance, which are related either to traffic signs or to the road itself, are playing a major role in many countries because of the higher investment on public works of this kind. These systems are able to collect a wide range of information automatically and quickly, with the aim of improving road safety. In this context, the correct visibility of traffic signs and panels is vital for the safety of drivers. This paper describes an approach to the VISUAL Inspection of Signs and panEls ("VISUALISE"), which is an automatic inspection system, mounted onboard a vehicle, which performs inspection tasks at conventional driving speeds. VISUALISE allows for an improvement in the awareness of the road signaling state, supporting planning and decision making on the administration's and infrastructure operators' side. A description of the main computer vision techniques and some experimental results obtained from thousands of kilometers are presented. Finally, the conclusions of the system are described.


Genome-wide analysis of transcription in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum has revealed robust variation in steady-state mRNA abundance throughout the 48-hour intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) suggesting that this process is highly dynamic and tightly regulated. However, the precise timing of mRNA transcription and decay remains poorly understood due to the utilization of methods that only measure total RNA and cannot differentiate between newly transcribed, decaying and stable cellular RNAs. Here we utilize rapid 4-thiouracil (4-TU) incorporation via pyrimidine salvage to specifically label, capture and quantify newly-synthesized P. falciparum RNA transcripts at every hour throughout the IDC following erythrocyte invasion. This high resolution global analysis of the transcriptome captures the timing and rate of transcription for each newly synthesized mRNA in vivo, revealing active transcription throughout all stages of the IDC. To determine the fraction of active transcription and/or transcript stabilization contributing to the total mRNA abundance at each timepoint we have generated a statistical model to fit the data for each gene which reveals varying degrees of transcription and stabilization for each mRNA corresponding to developmental transitions and independent of abundance profile. Finally, our results provide new insight into co-regulation of mRNAs throughout the IDC through regulatory DNA sequence motifs associated with these processes, thereby expanding our understanding of P. falciparum mRNA dynamics.


This is a study of the growth of organizational power in the world-economy over the past forty years. It takes the position that transnational corporations (TNCs) are increasingly significant actors in the world-economy, independent of the nation-states within which they are located. The goal of this work is to identify the expansion, spatial distribution, and concentration of this global power over time, and to consider its impact on the global economy. The TNC networks are identified by locating the headquarters and foreign subsidiaries of the world's 100 largest manufacturing corporations in 1962, 1971, 1983, 1991 and 1998. The distribution of ownership and location of these foreign subsidiaries are examined, both globally and bilaterally. I find high levels of concentration in ownership of these global networks that decrease over time, in contrast to a high degree of dispersion in the location of these linkages. U.S. corporations are clearly the dominant actors from 1962 to 1971 but decline dramatically through 1998, while Japanese and Western European TNC control over transnational networks grows significantly over this period. An empirical measure of economic dominance in the global economy is also presented.


Purpose: Information technology is growing rapidly in Indonesia, bringing drastic changes in the lifestyle of the Indonesian people, especially in Bali. Digital technology has increased ease of use, efficiency, and savings in every activity. The Financial Technology System is an online financial payment that is usually provided by banks. This study aims to analyze trust as an intervening variable in relation to ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived value of customers' intended use of M-Banking financial services. Approach/Methodology/Design: Data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires, where the population is the BPD Mobile Banking system customers in Bali, Indonesia. This is a descriptive and verification research, a descriptive method based on assessment analysis and a verification method based on quantitative analysis. The samples were determined by purposive sampling and the analysis technique used the Partial Least Square (PLS). Findings: The results showed that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived value had a positive and significant effect on intention to use the mobile banking system, perceptions of application usability had the most significant effect on intention to use compared to perceived convenience and perceived value of the mobile banking system. Practical Implications: The results show that although the BPD Mobile banking system has provided several benefits for customers, it is still not actively used by customers compared to other bank mobile banking systems in Indonesia. Originality/Value: The article emphasizes the usefulness of customers so that trust is created and will reuse the M-banking facility provided by the bank to facilitate consumer financial transactions.


John Dugard needs no introduction. So why do I stand here? I have been thinking about that for some weeks, and have concluded that it is not to introduce John but to pay tribute to him, as a teacher, an academic colleague, an outstanding jurist and a friend. John, over some 50 years, has had an enormous impact in South Africa and internationally in the field of international law, and just as great an impact, in South Africa and elsewhere, in bringing human rights to the fore.


This dissertation includes high-resolution, near-infrared spectroscopy to study CO in circumstellar disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars. The velocity-resolved spectra was used to measure the distribution of gas in the circumstellar disk and thus determine the evolutionary state of the system. Near-infrared spectra were obtained on over 30 young circumstellar disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars to study the physical processes in the disk. The radial location of the CO emitting gas bears directly on the evolutionary state of the transition objects in the sample. This study included a detailed study of the debris disk star β Pictoris where the disk mass was estimated. The study found that CO is detected in most disks, yet there were no systems showing evidence for the grain growth scenario of planet formation. In addition, by using high-resolution spectra of the fundamental ro-vibrational CO emission lines, one can measure the position centroid of the emission as a function of velocity to provide an independent measurement of M1/2sin(i) and the disk inclination. Knowing the inclination is crucial for determining the radial distribution of gas inferred by other high-resolution spectra using low spatial resolution instruments such as the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared on Herschel. Perhaps most importantly, by measuring the position centroid of the emission, one can determine where in the disk the CO emitting gas arises independent of assumptions about the disk velocity field, Keplerian or otherwise. This analysis was performed on HD 100546, where asymmetric emission is observed. The results also provide a fundamental test of our fluorescence emission model, which allows our model to infer the CO emission radii in systems that are too distant to spatially resolve the emission.


Caring for the Diversity of Schools by Building the Character of Pancasila Students. The background is the phenomenon of viral news related to the issue of the dynamics of diversity in the educational environment. This news quickly spread to become a hot issue that was feared could have a negative impact. Because the Indonesian nation stands on a foundation of diversity / diversity, this condition is a problem that must be resolved so that it does not develop into a bigger conflict while preventing and minimizing it. The research method used qualitative methods with data collection techniques through observation, literature study and interviews. The results of the research show that there is an assumption that diversity / diversity can endanger the integrity of the nation, is a reason to maintain diversity in order to remain in wholeness and unity. Schools as intellectual communities and as miniatures of national diversity must be able to care for this diversity by building the character of Pancasila students. Pancasila students are lifelong students who have global competence and behave according to the values of Pancasila, namely: Believing & being devoted to God Almighty and Moral Morals, Global Diversity, Mutual Cooperation, Independent, Critical Reason, Creative.


This subgenus is founded on four skulls, forming part of the collection transmitted to the British Museum in 1858, by His Excellency Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B., from the sandstone rocks at the foot of the Rhenosterberg, S. Africa. These skulls belong, by their dentition, to the Dicynodont family, but present such strongly marked deviations from the type species of the genus (Dicynodon lacerticeps, Ow.) as to indicate a distinct subgeneric section; they were accordingly entered in the Museum list, and labelled in the cabinet where they are exposed to view, under the term Ptychognathus. Dicynodon (Ptychognathus) declivis, Ow. (Plate I. figs. 3, 4, 5.) In this species, assuming the horizontality of the upper (fronto-parietal) plane of the cranium (P1. I. fig. 3 ll) as giving the natural position of the skull, the broad plane of the occiput meets the fronto-parietal plane at an acute angle, rising from the condyle upwards and backwards—a direction not hitherto observed in any reptile, and similar to that presented by the occiput in relation to the vertex in the feline and many other gyrencephalous mammals. The fronto-parietal plane (ib. fig. 5) is bounded by an anterior ridge, 14, 15, extending from one superorbital process to the other, with a gentle convexity forward, including the interorbital space. From this ridge the facial part of the skull (fig. 3 15, 22) descends in a straight line in a direction nearly parallel with that of the occiput, but slightly diverging from that parallel as it cxtends downward


A major rearmament program can have a lasting effect on the balance of political and economic power between societal groups. It will typically require the expansion of progressive taxation and government interference in the economy, both of which are disproportionately harmful to the interests of the upper classes. Consequently, conservative governments that face a sharp increase in international threat should be more likely than their leftist counterparts to try to substitute alliances and appeasement for arms. I test this hypothesis on Great Britain in 1895–1905, 1907–14, and 1931–39, France in 1904–14 and 1935–39, and the United States in 1938–41, 1948–60, and 1979–86. In all but one of these cases, I find that leftist governments did more to strengthen their countries' militaries than conservatives.This paper was made possible by the generous support of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. I would also like to thank Ben Fordham, P. R. Goldstone, Greg Mitrovich, Talbot Imlay, Brad Lee, Ken Schultz, Deborah Boucoyannis, Mark Haas, Sean Lynn-Jones, and the participants in the Olin Institute's National Security Seminar Series and the Belfer Center's International Security Program Seminar Series for their helpful comments and advice.


This article reports results of a survey of railroad tie management conducted by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reflecting 2017 practices. Similar surveys were previously conducted for 2013 and 2008 practices. North American railroads purchase approximately 23 million new wood crossties annually. Most ties are used to replace worn ties. Through this survey, the AAR seeks to provide clarity to its member railroads, the regulators, and other interested parties, regarding how the railroads' tie purchase preferences and used tie management choices have been changing in response to changing technologies and regulations. Technology changes include use of borate preservatives to dual-treat wood ties to provide longer service life in high decay environments, non-wood ties made of concrete or plastic, and energy conversion methods for used ties such as gasification and torrefaction. Passage of the EPA Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials (NHSM) rule in 2011, including updates in 2013, 2016, and 2018, is reducing the potential for recycling used ties as fuel. However, the EPA is also promoting use of biological materials, such as wood, to produce energy without increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere, thus reducing human caused climate change. Purchase and tie management trends are indicated by the survey results. Approximately 95% of all ties purchased are preservative-treated wood. Due to demonstrated longer service life in high decay zones for wood ties that are dual treated with borate and either creosote or copper naphthenate, the fraction of concrete and plastic tie purchases has decreased while the faction of dual treated wood tie purchases has increased. Recycling used ties for energy remains the most common practice, at 66% of ties, but has declined from 81% in 2013. Reuse of ties for other treated wood uses, such as landscape and agricultural type purposes, remains common at approximately 18%. Landfill disposal remains uncommon, but seems to be increasing at 6% of removed ties. The shift away from recycling for energy is thought to result from the both impact of the EPA NHSM rule and the low cost of natural gas. The smaller market tie users, mainly the short line railroads in contrast to the Class 1 railroads, manage far fewer ties per company, but purchase and manage approximately 31% of all ties. The short lines recycle to landscape and agricultural uses at about half the rate of the Class 1s and dispose in landfills at a much higher rate of 76% versus 1.2% for the Class 1s. This difference is thought to result from the economics and availability of local versus distant management options.


The nucleons protons and neutrons are the basic building blocks of atomic nuclei. We now know that the nucleon consists of fundamental particles called quarks and gluons. The quarks interact with each other by exchanging gluons via the strong interaction. Understanding the quark-gluon structure of the nucleon, especially the confinement of quarks within the nucleon in its ground state, remains one of the main unsolved puzzles of particle physics. The nucleon electromagnetic form factors are directly related to the internal structure of the nucleon. A new generation of high precision experiments, GEp-V, GEn-II, GEn-RP, and GMn, measuring the ground state nucleon space-like electro-magnetic form factor at high momentum transfer is underway at Jefferson Lab experimental Hall-A as part of the Super Bigbite Spectrometer (SBS) program. This series of experiments will provide a new level of understanding of the nucleon structure. These experiments are highly demanding due to the extremely fast drop off of the elastic cross section with the increasing four-momentum transfer squared(Q2). This thesis provides an overview of the SBS physics program and reports on the extensive R&D program carried out to achieve the high rate running conditions essential for carrying out the SBS experiments. SBS will provide an intermediate solid angle of approximately 35 msr, which is significantly larger than the solid angle of other dipole based spectrometers at Jefferson lab. Of course, there are much larger acceptance spectrometers at Jefferson Lab, CLAS12 for example. What is special about SBS is that it provides a sizable acceptance while operating at the highest possible luminosity at Jefferson Lab. With this combination of medium acceptance and the highest available luminosity, SBS provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore the nucleon in its ground state with unprecedented resolution. The relatively large acceptance of SBS is achieved by using a large gap dipole magnet and placing it close to the target. An unavoidable consequence of this is that the SBS GEM trackers and other detectors have a clear line-of-sight view of the target and a portion of the beam-line. As a result, the background hit rate in the SBS front GEM trackers is expected to be up to 500 kHz/cm2, over the entire active area of 6000 cm2. To the best of our knowledge, this extremely high rate over such a large area is unprecedented in any particle tracking system used anywhere in the world before. Correctly reconstructing the particle tracks of interest in this very high background environment is achieved by using especially adapted high rate techniques at every step of the tracking process: optimizing the GEM module and tracker design at the hardware level, using high bandwidth electronics and real time Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based background suppression techniques at the Data Acquisition (DAQ) level, and developing highly specialized tracking algorithms to pick out the signal hits from among the vast amount of background hits. In order to ensure a smooth start and running of the SBS experiments, it is extremely crucial that these techniques are developed, implemented, and tested under realistic conditions well before the actual start of the SBS experimental program. A detailed Geant4 simulation of the experiment was combined with a digitization package to generate the detector level pseudodata similar to what is expected in the actual experiments. The digitization procedures were calibrated against actual GEM data from cosmic-ray runs, X-ray tests, beam test runs in experimental Hall-A, and the PRad experiment in Hall B. Then, optimized tracking algorithms were developed and implemented in an analysis program used to analyze these pseudo-data and to extract expected high-level parameters. These extracted quantities were then compared with the input parameters from the simulation to verify and determine the performance characteristics for the SBS tracker. From this work, a final tracking efficiency of 69% at 25% occupancy was achieved, with the required reconstruction accuracy, for the GMn experiment, the first experiment in the SBS program, with background level at 100 kHz/cm2. These demonstrated parameters are adequate for the successful running of not only the GMn experiment but as well as for GEn-RP and GEn-II experiments, the second and third experiments in the program. This work builds the solid ground to further improve the tracking performance for these experiments and achieve similar conditions for the running of the GEp-V experiment, the most demanding experiment in the SBS program, with an expected background level at 500 kHz/cm2.


By taking advantage of the additional information provided by a transmitter precoder, semi-blind approaches are proposed for identification and equalization of the so-called LTI-ZMNL-LTI nonlinear channels, which consist of two linear time invariant (LTI) filters separated by a polynomial type zero memory nonlinearity (ZMNL). Identification of the linear subsystems relies on the output second order cyclostationary/stationary statistics, induced in the transmit data by non-redundant periodically time-varying and/or redundant block precoders. It is shown that identification of linear subsystems is robust to channel order overestimation errors, location of channel zeros, and color of additive noise. Assuming that the ZMNL is a one-to-one map, transmitter precoding allows also exact zero-forcing (ZF) linear equalization of LTI-ZMNL-LTI channels, without restrictions on the zeros of the linear subsystems and channel order overestimation errors.


Wind is a potential dominant factor regarding the air infiltration through building envelopes. Due to its dynamic characteristics, quite complex aerodynamic phenomena arise around a structure or through cracks and openings. Energy perfomance is influenced by the climate conditions and thus it should be much more researched. Despite the fact that steady state measurements of infiltration rates offer a simple and easy way of estimating an enclosure's airtightness level, a supplement to those methods might be imposed. In this context, computational fluid dynamics could be a useful tool, generating interesting results and helping understand the role of flow mechanisms. The current numerical study deals with the influence of wind gust on the infiltration rate of a bluff body ('box') on which cracks of varied size are located on different sides. Different internal volumes are also researched. On discussing the results, the dynamic leakage rates (infiltration and exfiltration) are under investigation, while the airflow patterns inside the 'box' are pointed out as well. Frequency characteristics of the wind gust and their correlation with the internal volume are also studied. The results suggest that gust frequency is the dominant factor for air flows through cracks on the windward side, while the internal volume also plays an important role on the instantaneous leakage rates under unsteady wind conditions. The impact of the enclosure's volume seems to be of importance for relatively small cracks. In addition, there is a difference among the leakage rates through the studied cracks and openings depending on their location or switching from a small to a big volume. Comparisons with the respective behavior of the cracksopenings under steady state enclosure's pressurization at 50Pa are shown as well. Since the studied enclosure represents a airtight single zone, where air flows only through the opening(s), a parallelism to the internal space of a high level airtight building arises. Taking into account the results of the current study, the influence of the frequency of the gust, the internal volume of a relatively airtight building and the location of the leakage area seem to be critical factors under climate conditions. Having ensured that leakages through the internal walls are very low, a further research should be proceed towards the importance of the location and airtightness of the internal walls. On the same mode internal volume's control and exterior local climate might be also considered.


Introduction: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is considered to be hot topic among medical & dental fraternity throughout the world, particularly in India, because around 0.5% population got affected yearly that posing a major health problem. Besides OSMF, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) apprehends majority oral malignancies, studies have proved OSMF has got 7 to 13% malignant potential. Therefore,the study was carried out to learn the collagen fiber histopathologically for the orientation and thickness of collagen fibers in OSMF, OSCCand OSCCwith OSMF with picrosirius red staining and was examined with polarizing microscope.Material & method: Each fifteen cases of histologically diagnosed, OSMF, OSCC and OSCC with OSMF were taken for the study and fivespecimen of normal buccal mucosa were also incorporated as a control group. All were stained with haematoxylin, eosin and picrosirius red staining for evaluation under polarised microscope. Result:The result of the study showed, there is a gradual change in birefringence of collagen fibers from red to orange red to yellowish green as from OSMF to OSMF with OSCC and to OSCC. Conclusion: The conducted study indicated that the change in orientation and thickness of collagen fibers in OSMF could acts as a prognostic marker indicative of malignant transformation.


In this paper, we consider full order modeling, i.e., when the true system belongs to the model set. We investigate the minimum amount of input energy required to estimate a given linear system with a full order model within a prescribed degree of accuracy γ, as a function of the model complexity. This quantity we define to be the "cost of complexity." The degree of accuracy is measured by the inverse of the maximum variance of the discrete-time frequency function estimator over a given frequency range [-ωB,ωB]. It is commonly believed that the cost increases as the model complexity increases. However, the amount of information that is to be extracted from the system also influences the cost. The objective of this paper is to quantify these dependencies for systems described by finite-impulse response models. It is shown that, asymptotically in the model order n and sample size, the cost is well approximated by γσo2nωB/π where σo2 is the noise variance. This expression can be used as a simple rule of thumb for assessing trade-offs that have to be made in a system identification project where full order models are used. For example, for given experiment duration, excitation level and desired accuracy, one can assess how the achievable frequency range depends on the required model order. This type of consideration is useful when formally planning experiments. In addition, we establish several properties of the cost of complexity. We find, for example, that if ωB is very close (but not necessarily equal) to π, the optimal input satisfies the model quality constraint for all frequencies.


A contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium "Antipolitics," this article examines the diverse types of imaginary that support sortition, which is currently at the heart of important debates on the reform of existing democratic institutions. Different and often diametrically opposed actors now advocate sortition as a tool for addressing crises of political representation. How are we to understand this convergence? Over the past two decades, the field of experience and the horizon of expectation of citizens in the global North have profoundly changed, and this article seeks to assess those changes in the context of three ideal types that advocate the use of randomly selected minipublics. This article analyzes, each in turn, the attraction of sortition for supporters and theorists of deliberative democracy, antipolitical democracy, and radical democracy, outlining the elements that unite and divide these imaginaries to help explain the astonishing convergence of voices in defense of sortition in politics.


Summary This application note describes a high-speed, reconfigurable, full-precision Transposed Form FIR filter design implemented in the Virtex™ and Virtex-II series and Spartan™-II family of FPGAs. The VHDL reference design provided with this application note is easily modified to change filter parameters including coefficients and the number of taps. By illustrating a design methodology for digital filters, the advantages of using FPGAs for digital signal processing applications (DSP) are emphasized. The Core Generator tool provides a preoptimized alternative solution to this reference design (Core Generator Tool).


This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the competitiveness of Spanish tomato export compared with its major competitors in the European Union market countries (EU28). The methodological framework is implemented through Constant Market Share to analyze variations in exports, allowing the portion attributable to competitiveness and segregation into general or specific competitiveness to be quantified. This analysis was carried out with the 2005-2009 and 2010-2014 periods to see if there had been a recovery from the global financial and economic crisis of 2007 in the Spanish tomato trade. Before the global economic and financial crisis, Spain had a positive structural effect of exports which contributed significantly to the growth of tomato sales to the EU, but had a negative change in the volume of exports to the EU28, mainly due to the negative effect of the competitiveness component. According to the segregation effect of competitiveness, a marked general negative competitive effect was evident, that cannot be offset by the positive effect of specific competitiveness. Since 2010, Spain has experienced a positive change in the volume of its tomato exports to the EU28, the competitiveness component also being positive, due to positive investment of the component of general competitiveness and whose greatest contribution was the positive effect of specific competitiveness. Within the group of competitors, Spain is the only country supplying tomatoes to the EU28 that has experienced a positive change in volume when comparing business performance of 2010-2014 vs 2005-2009.


This paper proposes an improved version of lifting-based Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The lifting based DWT architecture has the advantage of lower computational complexities transforming signals with extension and regular data flow. The main feature of the lifting based DWT scheme is to break up the high pass and low pass filters into a sequence of upper and lower triangular matrices and convert the filter implementation into banded matrix multiplications. Such a scheme has several advantages, including "in-place" computation of the DWT, integer-to-integer wavelet transform (IWT), symmetric forward and inverse transform, etc. In order to assess the feasibility and the efficiency of the proposed scheme, the architecture thus designed is simulated and implemented on a field-programmable gate-array board. It is therefore a challenging problem to design an efficient VLSI architecture to implement the DWT computation for real-time applications.


The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine the handling and shelving of graphic novels and adult-comics in Swedish public libraries, in order to find out if this type of literature is prioritized in the same way as other forms of literature. The study was conducted by photographing the Hci/uHci shelves at ten different public libraries to give an objective view of the shelving to later be analysed and compared. Inquiry sheets were sent to the photographed libraries in order to get the librarians view of their own comic book shelves and collections. We found that the state of the comic-shelves differed from library to library according to how interested and committed the librarians were. New research areas in the field of Library and Information Science are discussed and questions are raised about the future of graphic novels and adult-comic-books in libraries, about their place in the libraries and about how librarians and the users knowledge of this media can be improved.


The entry phase of peace mediation is under scrutiny in Getting In. The book looks at how choices made in the initial phase, strategies pursued and tactics employed drive developments in later stages of peace processes and impact the final outcome of mediation/negotiations. A model is developed to analyse why mediators get involved, why mediation is considered by the parties, when entry is attempted and how the entry process begins. The model is applied to analyse six case studies, all (except for one) internal conflicts in Africa that have been through complex mediation efforts: Rwanda, Burundi, the Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan and Ethiopia– Eritrea. For each case, a brief review of the conflict and an analysis of entry initiatives made are provided. Getting In sheds light on a phase of the mediation process that has rarely been subject to systematic examination. This phase is difficult to observe; the processes at work are largely internal to the parties, and perception plays a prominent role. The book does well in distilling how particular contextual circumstances and configurations of actors and interests impacted the outcome. To the seasoned mediator, a main contribution of the book is its synthesis of practical and theoretical lessons learned for each case. Reviewing six case studies, however, comes at the expense of substantiating in-depth the links between initial choices and the later process. Hence, the book lays the foundation for further research into entry initiatives. For students, Getting In is an excellent introduction to mediating African conflicts written by some of the foremost experts in the field of conflict resolution. Elisabeth Lothe


Transitional metals, particularly iron, markedly potentiate oxidant damage to isolated cell organelles. However, determining the probable importance of iron in damage to intact cells is difficult because of our inability experimentally to increase the cell content of this transition metal. We now report that heme is a uniquely effective iron delivery vehicle, capable of loading large amounts of potentially reactive iron into intact cells. We find that endothelial cells in vitro rapidly incorporate free heme and this heme-loading sensitizes endothelium to oxidant-mediated cytotoxicity caused by hydrogen peroxide, the hypoxanthine/xanthine oxidase system, or phorbol-stimulated PMN. Although the precise mechanism of the heme-aggravated cytotoxicity is not yet known, it closely parallels amplified lipid peroxidation in endothelial cell membranes suggesting the importance of lipid injury. Hemopexin, by complexing heme, protects endothelial cells from activated PMN, but only if added simultaneously. The hydrophobic iron chelator and antioxidant, U74500A, abrogates heme-augmented hydrogen peroxide and PMN-mediated endothelial damage. Such compounds, therefore, may have therapeutic potential in one or more of the listed clinical syndromes. We speculate that exposure of endothelium to free heme may potentiate vascular damage in various clinical syndromes, including acute renal failure after massive intravascular hemolysis, crush injuries, reperfusion after myocardial infarction (perhaps secondary to cardiac myoglobin release), retrolental fibroplasia associated with neonatal hemopexin deficiency, and, perhaps, atherosclerosis involving sites of turbulence that may trigger minor red blood cell lysis.


This paper proposes a new approach for addressing the long term hydrothermal coordination of a generation company operating in a competitive market, fully adapted to represent hydroscheduling in an inflow uncertainty context. The proposed approach employs the traditional Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) methodology. Since the modeling of the market behavior in these new conditions hardly fits with the traditional cost minimization scheme, the sub-models at each SDP stage are stated as Mixed Complementarity Problems (MCP) in order to properly represent the electricity market equilibrium. Each MCP sub-model sets up the electricity generation market equilibrium by formulating the equations that express the optimal behavior of the generation companies, considering both stochastic hydraulic inflows and technical constraints that affect the scheduling of their units. The hydrothermal coordination stochastic model has been developed and implemented in GAMS. A case study is also presented to show its successful application to a large-scale electric power system such as the Spanish one.


This study aimed to understand the perception of Islamic banking among post millennials Muslim students and explore their expectations towards Islamic Shariah compliant banking. The study uses qualitative method to understand respondents' subjective views. Semi-structured interviews are used among the Muslim students studying at public and private universities in Malaysia. Twelve students were selected using purposive sampling.
The analysis revealed that religious motives, efficient services, and convenience in terms of online banking and ATM services are factors in bank selection. The study found that the students' perceptions of their understanding of Islamic banking are not sufficient, and there is a gap in the understanding of the mechanism of Islamic banking operations. Most of the existing literature is on the customer satisfaction, customer behaviour and service quality. However, there are little research on the perceptions of Islamic banking among the students who are post millennials. This study focus on the new generation's perception of Islamic banking and attempts to fill this gap. The findings of the present study can be used as a reference in future studies in the area of perceptions among students or post millennials.


abstract:Four teeth of Peking Man from Zhoukoudian, excavated by Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 and currently housed in the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University, are among the most treasured finds in palaeoanthropology, not only because of their scientific value but also for their important historical and cultural significance. It is generally acknowledged that the first fossil evidence of Peking Man was two teeth unearthed by Zdansky during his excavations at Zhoukoudian in 1921 and 1923. However, the exact dates and details of their collection and identification have been documented inconsistently in the literature. We reexamine this matter and find that, due to incompleteness and ambiguity of early documentation of the discovery of the first Peking Man teeth, the facts surrounding their collection and identification remain uncertain. Had Zdansky documented and revealed his findings on the earliest occasion, the early history of Zhoukoudian and discoveries of first Peking Man fossils would have been more precisely known and the development of the field of palaeoanthropology in early twentieth century China would have been different.


The emission of ions from incandescent solids has been studied by many investigators. The value of e/m , the ratio of the charge to the mass, for the carriers of negative electricity was first measured by Sir J. J. Thomson in the case of a carbon filament heated in a high vacuum. Other observers have since determined the value of this quantity for the negative ions emitted by different incandescent solids, and all agree that the carriers are negatively electrified corpuscles identical in mass from whatever substance they are produced. The investigation of the nature of the carriers of positive electricity emitted by glowing solids presents greater difficulties, owing to the variability of the amount of the positive ionisation produced under different conditions, the causes of which are not yet fully understood. The first measurements of the value of the specific charge of these ions were made by Sir J. J. Thomson, who found e/m = 104/25 for the positive ions from a heated iron wire. Later, experimenting with a strip of platinum foil which had already been heated for some hours in a high vacuum, he obtained the value e/m = 104/27 for the majority of the carriers of positive electricity from that metal. The positive ions thus seem to have the same mass, about 26 times that of the hydrogen atom, in the two cases. This value suggested to Sir J. J. Thomson that they might be molecules of CO or of N2, either of which has a mass about 28 times that of the hydrogen atom, so that it would be impossible to distinguish between these two gases by a determination of e/m alone. When a luminous discharge was passed through the residual gas in the tube after the experiments with platinum, the band spectrum of carbon monoxide was obtained, and it was concluded that molecules of this gas acted as the carriers of positive electricity from the glowing metal.


The note considers recent theological commentary on the clerical sexual abuse crisis in Ireland and beyond. It examines the nature and extent of the crisis within the Catholic Church through the lens of the Murphy and Ryan Reports. These two reports together provide an invaluable resource for understanding the theological, ethical, and ecclesiological dimensions of this scandal. The note also considers "the shape of the reform" that is urgently needed within the Church under the headings of (1) the body and sexuality, (2) patriarchy and the abuse of power, and (3) church, ministry, and leadership.


Political instability causes the widespread loss of income for nearly all subpopulations of a country. However, it is not the case that all people lose a constant share of their income. Using a case of political instability in Madagascar that caused incredible disruption to the economy, I analyze the effect of political instability on two groups, women and the well educated. I find that women are more vulnerable to income loss and that this may be the reason political instability leads to worse human development indices than would be predicted solely by income. I also find the well-educated have some form of coping mechanism that allows them to better assess the economic environment and find a way to maintain their labor income.


Most organizations recognize the importance of cyber security and are implementing various forms of protection. However, many are failing to find and fix known security problems in the software packages they use as the building blocks of their networks and systems, a vulnerability that a hacker can exploit to bypass all other efforts to secure the enterprise. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) initiative seeks to avoid such disasters and transform this area from a liability to a key asset in the fight to build and maintain secure systems. Coordinating international, community-based efforts from industry, government and academia, CVE strives to find and fix software product vulnerabilities more rapidly, predictably, and efficiently. The initiative seeks the adoption of a common naming practice for describing software vulnerabilities. Once adopted, these names will be included within security tools and services and on the fix sites of commercial and open source software package providers. As vendors respond to more users requests for CVE-compatible fix sites, securing the enterprise will gradually include the complete cycle of finding, analyzing, and fixing vulnerabilities.


Inferior vena cava (IVC) leiomyosarcoma (LY) is a rare tumor with poor prognosis and recurring in one third of patients, radical surgery represents the only chance of cure. Whether caval flow has to be re-established with IVC reconstruction is a matter of debate as well as neoadjuvant therapy. We herein present a case of recurrent IVC LY managed with caval resection and reconstruction with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) prosthesis and left lateral liver resection for suspected metastases. Although the patient experienced a prosthesis occlusion and transient renal failure, at 24 months' follow-up is recurrence free with a normal renal function and no sign of lower limbs edema.


Optical properties of bilayer organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on MEH-PPV (2-methoxy, 5-(2′-ethyl-hexoxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene) and Alq3 (tris(8-hydroxy-quinolinato) aluminum) are investigated in this paper. Numerical method solving 1D model based on driftdiffusion, continuity and Poisson`s equations extended by boundary conditions in treatment of internal organic interface is applied. The obtained space charge densities were employed in the emissive singlet exciton continuity equation resulting in the singlet exciton distribution and the emission zone profile. Dipole methods were utilized for the simulation of light emission in a layered medium. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra of OLED are considered by taking into account dominant interference effects. The exciton quenching near electrodes, allowing for a dominant nonradiative decay, is treated through effective emission zone narrowing.


The present study addresses the question of how to support the professional development of English teachers with no subject-specific training apart from the formal channel of pursuing a Diploma of Education. This paper aims at finding out whether it is possible to employ action research as a means of professional development. It reports the cases of how three primary school English teachers with no subject-specific training grow professionally and change their methodology in teaching English through action research. Qualitative research method is adopted. Pre-interviews and post-interviews conducted by the researcher with the teachers and the students, journals written by the teachers, class observation reports written by the researcher, and post-lesson observation conferences between the researcher and the teachers are used to collect data. Triangulation is employed in data analysis. The findings suggest that action research can be an effective means to help non-subject trained teachers improve English teaching. This provides an option for professional development of language teachers.


Nanotechnology is a promising field that is focused on working at the atomic and nanoscale. Many helpful materials and imaging techniques have been developed in nanotechnology. Graphene, a nanomaterial consisting of a single atomic layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, exhibits excellent optical, electrical, and thermal properties and has many applications in the semiconductor, energy, and thermal management industries. Additionally, iron oxide nanoparticles are excellent candidates for drug delivery and labeling applications in medicine due to their high biocompatibility and customizable size and surface chemistry. Near-field microscopy is a nanoscale imaging technique with the capability of providing the label-free tissue diagnostics medical field with information about the intrinsic optical properties of tissue that cannot be probed by any other techniques. Despite the benefits that near-field microscopy offers for medicine, its use in imaging biomaterials has been limited due to the large topographic variations that these samples exhibit. This gap between the nanoscale and the scales of interest for industry and medicine also presents an obstacle in the application of iron oxide nanoparticles in medicine and graphene in industry. In this work, I develop multi-scale optical metrology techniques for characterizing graphene at the industrial scale, identifying unlabeled nanoparticles within cultured human cells, and studying the intrinsic optical properties of tissue with near-field microscopy. Through fluorescence quenching microscopy (FQM), I map the layer thickness and uniformity of entire centimeter-scale graphene sheets and identify fluorine-doped regions. I utilize scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) to identify iron oxide nanoparticles in cultured human cells through their scattering behavior, and I develop SNOM for label-free tissue diagnostics, quantifying image creation in SNOM of large biological samples and then revealing the cause of scattering dependence on the hydration state of fixed human breast tissue. This work contributes knowledge to the graphene growth, nanoparticle design, and label-free tissue diagnostics fields and facilitates the integration of nanotechnology with medicine and industry.


Leizhou Bay in Guangdong Province is the most important wintering site in China for the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers (Calidris pygmaea). As food is usually a strong predictor of presence, in the winters of 2019-2022 we studied arthropod food resources and diet on the intertidal mudflats at the Tujiao and Hebei mudflats in Leizhou Bay. In December 2020, using a sampling device that encloses mobile epibenthic prey before the human sampler would disturb them in shallow pools, we visited 34 stations in their core foraging area at Tujiao. A total of 15 mobile benthic species were identified, including 13 arthropod and 2 fish species, with a total density of 106 animals/m2 (range= 0.2-48 animals/m2), with the lengths of the animals ranging from 1-19 mm. Two amphipod and one cumacean species contributed 85%. On the basis of photographs of foraging during low tide in 2019-2022, the visibly ingested prey items appeared to mainly consist of small shrimp, but also included crabs and fish. At 27 mm (compared with the 22 mm long bill of Spoon-billed Sandpipers) the average visibly ingested prey showed a strong size bias. Among the measured environmental covarying factors (sediment pH, salinity, TOC content, median particle size and distance from the seawall etc.) potentiually affecting the mobile epibenthic prey in shallow pools, only distance from the seawall was significantly and negatively correlated. Densities were higher within 1 km of the seawall (126 animals/m2) than further offshore (69 animals/m2). This may relate to the mangrove forests growing in abundance near the seawall providing released minerals, nutrients, bacterial production and diatoms for the benthic community in the adjacent mudflats. However, the potential negative impact of artificial mangrove expansion in Leizhou mudflats need to be carefully monitored and assessed to balance both mangrove and Spoon-billed Sandpipers conservation.


Chemicals can be a great threat to society and the environment, despite its wide usage in industrial applications. Extra precautions have to be taken into account, moreover with increasing number of accident cases involving chemical-transporting tanks. Precautions should
be taken especially when transporting chemicals of radioactive nature. Should any spill of such chemicals occur, its effects on the environment and human life can be catastrophic. In tenns of passive safety, the tank designer has to study the probable effect on the tank body should the
transporter get involved in a crash, thus enhancing the design. Instead of conducting real experiments or tests which requires huge sums of money, computer simulation is an alternative to predict the actual scene. ANSYS and LS-DYNA, two powerful software environments were used to simulate events of nonlinear phenomenon ranging from limited duration impacts, collisions and crashes to more pennanent defonnations providing an insight into behavioral
patterns of matelials. To have more realistic environment, the mesh-less Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) computation feature, provided by explicit finite element program of LSDYNA was used in the prediction of particle behavior of liquid (water) in the tank under stress.
Besides, the software was used to predict the dent depth and reduction in plate thickness at impact points.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lonely Life Ends on Elvis Presley Boulevard," blared the headline of a late-summer special edition of the Memphis Press-Scimitar. "The King is Dead." Much like his explosive ascent nearly a generation earlier, Elvis Presley's untimely demise on August 16, 1977, left many "all shook up." Grieving fans by the thousands trekked to Memphis for the wake and funeral; millions more paid their respects by besieging radio stations and record stores, listening to songs and looking for Presley products. Commenting on the mass anguish, one veteran columnist recalled that he had witnessed many instances of public mourning since the assassination of President John Kennedy, "but nothing has equaled the present national grief." The mainstream media, unprepared for the passionate and ubiquitous response that Presley's passing engendered, resorted to repeating by rote the distinctive American tale of an anonymous truck driver whose unrestrained performance style and meteoric rise to fame flustered the less than frenzied fifties. A stock script asserted that Presley symbolized the twentieth-century version of the heroic pioneer blazing trails into an unknown frontier, an unlikely rebel who set the stage for a countercultural insurgency that later would shake the sixties. As one editorial aptly extolled, "Elvis really started something." (1) For many African Americans, however, Elvis was less about innovation and more about continuation, namely the perpetual exploitation and misappropriation of black labor and artistry. As the Chicago Defender noted, "When Elvis Presley breathed his last breath and the press hailed him as the 'King of Rock,' 01' Man River cried out, 'Naw he ain't! My friend Chuck Berry is the King of Rock. Presley was merely a Prince who profited from the royal talent of a sovereign ruler vested with tremendous creativity. Had Berry been white, he could have rightly taken [Presley's] throne and worn his crown well."' (2) The issue of race certainly has cast a large shadow on the contributions of one of the most successful recording artists in the history of the music industry; Presley's legacy undoubtedly is a contested one. But then again, the man himself often seemed downright conflicted as to who or what he was. Dubbed the "Hillbilly Cat," the "King of Western Bop," the "Bopping Hillbilly," and a "white nigger" by contemporaries, the culturally schizophrenic Presley routinely erased artistic and societal borders, defying easy categorization. Was he a genuine rhythm and blues enthusiast appreciative of black talent and equality? Or was he a "racist redneck" who profited at the expense of the authentic African American performers he in fact despised? The answers depend on who is responding, and the responses readily recall the insight of two critics writing in 1958, who surely did not anticipate the longevity of their counsel: "As a subject for polemic, Elvis Presley has few peers." (3) As a subject for historians, Elvis remains intriguing, at least in part because he negotiated the racial boundaries of his era. While his excursions without question were unsystematic, imperfect, and "apolitical," they nevertheless threatened the racial status quo. By implicitly advocating that working-class African Americans and working-class whites might have had more in common than not, Presley's crossing of the color line undermined the myths and stereotypes that sustained Jim Crow segregation. As with other controversial episodes in the southern past, however, differing perceptions based on divergent racial and class realities have predisposed how people "remember" the singer's societal transgressions. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Memories of Elvis Presley within the mainstream frequently consist of condescending characterizations. In a nation that valued upward mobility and cultural progression, Elvis remained a proletarian provincial, an exotic and repulsive Other. …


In today's society, it becomes increasingly important to assess which non-human and non-verbal beings possess consciousness. This review article aims to delineate criteria for consciousness especially in animals, while also taking into account intelligent artifacts. First, we circumscribe what we mean with "consciousness" and describe key features of subjective experience: qualitative richness, situatedness, intentionality and interpretation, integration and the combination of dynamic and stabilizing properties. We argue that consciousness has a biological function, which is to present the subject with a multimodal, situational survey of the surrounding world and body, subserving complex decision-making and goal-directed behavior. This survey reflects the brain's capacity for internal modeling of external events underlying changes in sensory state. Next, we follow an inside-out approach: how can the features of conscious experience, correlating to mechanisms inside the brain, be logically coupled to externally observable ("outside") properties? Instead of proposing criteria that would each define a "hard" threshold for consciousness, we outline six indicators: (i) goal-directed behavior and model-based learning; (ii) anatomic and physiological substrates for generating integrative multimodal representations; (iii) psychometrics and meta-cognition; (iv) episodic memory; (v) susceptibility to illusions and multistable perception; and (vi) specific visuospatial behaviors. Rather than emphasizing a particular indicator as being decisive, we propose that the consistency amongst these indicators can serve to assess consciousness in particular species. The integration of scores on the various indicators yields an overall, graded criterion for consciousness, somewhat comparable to the Glasgow Coma Scale for unresponsive patients. When considering theoretically derived measures of consciousness, it is argued that their validity should not be assessed on the basis of a single quantifiable measure, but requires cross-examination across multiple pieces of evidence, including the indicators proposed here. Current intelligent machines, including deep learning neural networks (DLNNs) and agile robots, are not indicated to be conscious yet. Instead of assessing machine consciousness by a brief Turing-type of test, evidence for it may gradually accumulate when we study machines ethologically and across time, considering multiple behaviors that require flexibility, improvisation, spontaneous problem-solving and the situational conspectus typically associated with conscious experience.


New communications systems require high-speed data transfer and need high frequency, wideband, and directive antennas. Leaky-wave antennas are a desirable type of antennas for millimeter and submillimeter waves, since they can produce a high directive radiation with a single feeding. The latter is an enormous advantage to reducing the cost and losses at high frequency. Despite these advantages, their dispersive nature inherently produces a beam squint effect in their radiation patterns. Here, we propose the use of a lens that compensates for the dispersion of the leaky wave, making the overall antenna broadband. This concept is demonstrated in substrate integrated waveguide technology at Ka-band, and the lens is integrated in the same technology. Full-wave simulations and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the potential of our proposal. Our manufactured prototype has more than 20% frequency bandwidth for the 3-dB pattern at  $\varphi =31^\circ $ , and the main radiating direction steers only ±0.5° from 35 to 40 GHz with a half-power beamwidth of 8°.