In the past few decades, a diverse body of scholarship has complicated the image of American suburbs as spaces of white, middle-class homogeneity. Revisionist suburban histories and accounts of African American and immigrant suburbanization have drawn attention to the longstanding presence of non-white others in US suburbs. Yet despite diversification, white privilege remains deeply entrenched in suburbia. This article explores the shifting character of white privilege in the US — especially in the US South — and asks how whites interpret diversity and identify those with whom they are, or are not, willing to share their privileges. This article uses the results of a pilot study in a subdivision near Columbia, South Carolina, to explore how white suburbanites articulate belonging in neighborhood space. This discussion highlights the ways in which respondents reject the pre-civil-rights order marked by overt racial discrimination, but also reveals the ways in which they evaluate the relative merit of minority groups and identify certain differences as unacceptable. While limited in scope, this study encourages scholars to further explore the ways in which shifting configurations of race become intertwined with processes of contemporary suburban change.


Camel milk (CM) has an integral role in the diet of the population in the arid and semiarid
regions of Africa and Asia where scarce agricultural areas, high temperatures and small
amount of precipitation. Recent studies have shown that it has potential therapeutic effects,
including anti-cancer, hypo-allergic and anti-diabetic properties. Nowadays, CM has become
increasingly commercialised and consumed in urban areas; which has led to an increased
interest in the processing of CM to improve its microbial quality and extend its shelf-life.
However, there is still a scarcity of available information regarding the effects of different
processing methods (e.g. thermal and high-pressure treatments) on CM properties. Therefore,
the aims of the current research were to characterise and quantify CM proteins and to evaluate
the effect of high-temperature short-time pasteurisation (HTST), ultra-high-temperature (UHT)
and high-pressure processing (HPP) on the physical, chemical and the organoleptic properties
of skimmed CM in comparison to bovine skimmed milk.
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) was successful in identifying and quantifying the major
whey and casein proteins in CM (chapter 3). Major variations were found between camel and
bovine milk in terms of both concentration and composition of whey and casein proteins.
Unlike bovine whey, camel whey had no β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) and instead a high
concentration of α-lactalbumin (α-la) followed by lactoferrin (LF) and serum albumin (SA)
was observed. β-casein (β-CN) was the main camel casein followed by α-casein (α-CN) while
ҡ-casein (ҡ-CN) represented only minor amount. These variations were found to have an
impact on the technological properties of CM, and quality of dairy products made from CM.
In general, HTST (72oC for 15s), UHT (140oC for 5s) and HP (200 to 800 MPa at 20oC
for 30 min) treatments significantly affected components of skimmed CM and their functional properties (chapter 4). UHT treatment resulted in the highest levels of denaturation of whey
proteins and greatest colour change of CM compared to the HTST and HP treatments. Casein
micelles size of CM was significantly decreased after both heat and HP treatments. While,
bovine micelles size increased after UHT treatment. Similar to bovine milk, the rennet
coagulation time (RCT) of CM was significantly delayed and coagulum strength (G') decreased
after HTST pasteurisation. UHT treatment hindered the coagulation of milk from both species.
In contrast, HP treatment at 200 and 400 MPa increased the RCT of CM and G' value was the
highest after treatment at 200 MPa. Unlike bovine milk, HP treatment at pressures higher than
400 MPa impaired the rennet coagulation properties of CM.
The volatile profile of skimmed CM subjected to HTST, UHT, and HP treatments was
found to differ from the volatile profile of raw CM (chapter 5). HTST pasteurisation and UHT
treatment resulted in an increase of aldehydes, furans, and terpenes content in CM. Moreover,
the increase of heat severity during the UHT treatment led to the formation of sulphur
compounds in CM. On the other hand, HP treatments tended to enhance the formation of
alcohol and ketones in CM. Both thermal and non-thermal treatments had limited effect on
amino acids and lactose content of skimmed CM. The volatile profiles and sensory properties
of HTST pasturised and UHT skimmed CM were different to pasteurised and UHT bovine
skimmed milk. Heated CM samples were described as having attributes such as cardboard,
musty, sulphur odours, as well as sour, savoury, aged, and whey taste/flavours. While, bovine
milk samples were described as having cooked milk, creamy, and dairy aroma. Overall,
conventional heat treatments resulted in the formation of volatile compounds which were
responsible for off-flavours in processed CM.


Entrepreneurship is the strongest driver of economic growth and development and has a very large impact on overall social development. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has a history of 22 years of entrepreneurship research, with a special focus on the earliest stages, when business opportunities are perceived and individuals decide whether to engage in entrepreneurship. Their direct living environment, especially the prevailing cultural values, the company's tendency to entrepreneurship and the orderliness of the business environment, have a great influence on the involvement of individuals in entrepreneurial activities. Accordingly, the conceptual framework of GEM is set, which enables the treatment of individuals and their attitude towards entrepreneurship, perception of entrepreneurship and involvement in the establishment and / or ownership and management of a company. With its help, we can therefore gain a deeper insight into national entrepreneurship and its characteristics and a more complete picture than can be provided by various statistical sources based solely on data obtained from existing companies.


The Ta content in the CoCrTa/sub x/ intermediate layer effectively influences the crystallographic texture, the grain size and the magnetic properties of NiAl/CrV/CoCrTa/CoCrTaPt thin film media. The thin film media have a preferred in-plane Co (10.0) texture and about 10 nm of mean grain size with more uniform distribution, when the Ta content is in the range of 0-5 at.%. Once Ta content exceeds 7 at.%, the texture of the Co-alloy changed from in-plane to out-of-plane, the grain size increased with wide distribution and the coercivity decreased dramatically. It was found that the grain size becomes small; coercivity, exchange decoupling and thermal stability increase; and the switching volume is reasonably small as the Ta content is increased from 0 to 5 at.%.


© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. A major application area for electrochromic devices is architectural glazing, particularly that for office buildings which are often highly glazed. This chapter begins with an overview of daylighting in non-residential buildings and explains why the traditional control solutions, for example, blinds, often lead to the under-exploitation of the daylighting potential of the building. It reviews the control of daylight in buildings together with reasons why the traditional methods, for example, venetian blinds, are habitually used in a sub-optimal fashion, often negating the daylight potential afforded by the glazing design. Various types of chromogenic and variable transmission glazing (VTG) are outlined, and the potential for practical use in buildings together with operational factors and performance issues is discussed. The chapter concludes with a description of and preliminary findings from a case study evaluation of a pair of offices spaces in the United Kingdom fitted with EC glazing.


This study investigated the effects of managerial leadership on the performance on ECDE centers in Gucha South District (Kish County). The study particularly sought to determine inadequacies within ECDE centres, various leadership styles employed in ECDE Centers in Gucha South District, the relationship between the qualifications of the ECDE teachers and school management of ECDE centres, the effect o f stakeholders on the performance of ECDE centers. The study was conceived due to the fact that the performance in the ECDE Centers in Gucha South was not good, despite the global campaigns on Education For All (EFA) and related declaration of children's is rights. The study was conducted through descriptive research design which employed an expost facto design. Data was collected during the month o f July to October using questionnaires and observation schedule. The study targeted all the public ECDE centers in Gucha South. A sample of 16 schools out of 104 was selected using simple random sampling techniques. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select participants in each category. The filled questionnaires' were coded, cleaned and analyzed using statistical processes for social science (SPSS) and data was presented using tables, percentages and bar graph. From the study the following are some of the findings; The leadership style of headteacher were largely directive that is autocratic which scored (9) 56.25% as given by teachers (8) 50% by chairpersons (7) 43.75% by parents and (2) 40% by inspectors. In this regard, the headteacher gave their teachers less participation in planning and other ECDE centres administration. On the relationship between the teacher qualifications and ECDE centre performance, it was found that the data showed clearly that those ECDE centres with high number of trained teachers performed positively (Local MOE Office Report, 2011) and those with fewer trained teachers performed negatively. From the findings effective managerial leadership on the performance of ECDE centres is depended on many factors functioning in complex interaction. Some key areas were identified which have an effect on managerial leadership of ECD centres, that were the style of leadership applied by various Head teachers has an influence on effective managerial leadership.


Abstract The restoration of the anthropogenic Pławniowice water reservoir with the hypolimnion withdrawal method (the Olszewski's tube) began in December 2003. The decision to restore the reservoir had been taken due to its terrible condition resulting from the hypertrophy, which had been indicated by the research from the years 1993–1998. The following paper presents the results of eight-year-long research into the formation of oxygen conditions and restoration settings. They were compared with the data obtained from the research before the restoration. Positive changes were witnessed. It was showed that grasping the changes in oxygen conditions enables the comparison of oxygen profiles in the same months in subsequent years. The ratio of anoxic water layer thickness to the oxygenated layer thickness was suggested as a factor characterizing oxygen conditions. The area described with an izooxa in the xy coordinate system was suggested as a factor [O2 mg/m2] allowing researchers to understand and describe occurring changes. It was observed that the oxygen solved in water as a result of the restoration occurred in the whole water column in the third decade of July. The oxygen concentration in the hypolimnion gradually rose in May, June and July each year. It was showed that the improvement in oxygen conditions stemmed from progressing oligotrophy of the reservoir.


Based on the Brayton cycle for gas-turbine engines, the high thermal efficiency and power output of a gas-turbine engine can be obtainable when the gas-turbine engine operates at high turbine inlet temperatures. However, turbine components e.g., inlet guide vane, rotor blade, and stator vane request high cooling performance. Typically, internal cooling and film cooling are two effective techniques that are widely used to protect high thermal loads for the turbine components in a state-of-the-art gas turbine. Consequently, the high thermal efficiency and power output can be obtained, and the turbine lifespan can be prolonged, also. On top of that, a comprehensive understanding of flow and heat transfer phenomena in the turbine components is very important. As a result, both experiments and simulations have been used to improve the cooling performance of the turbine components. In fact, the cooling air used in the internal cooling and film cooling is partially extracted from the compressor. Therefore, variations in the cooling air affect the cooling performance of the turbine components directly. This paper presents a numerical study on the influence of the cooling air on cooling-performance sensitivity of an internally convective turbine vane, MARK II using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)/conjugate heat transfer (CHT) with the SST k-ω turbulence model. Result comparisons are conducted in terms of pressure, temperature, and cooling effectiveness under the effects of the inlet temperature, mass flow rate, turbulence intensity, and flow direction of the cooling air. The cooling-performance sensitivity to the coolant parameters is shown through variations of local cooling effectiveness, and area and volume-weighted average cooling effectiveness.


Background and Objectives: In July 1, 2011, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) implemented new duty-hour and supervision requirements for all accredited residency programs. These new requirements limited post-graduate year 1 residents (PGY-1s) to 16-hour duty periods and required them to have onsite supervision. We conducted a national survey of family medicine residents to assess the impact of the new requirements. Methods: Using an online survey we assessed residents' opinions regarding the effect of the new duty-hour requirements on patient safety, quality of care, and resident mental and physical well-being. We contacted 439 programs by email and 156 programs agreed to participate. Results: Of an estimated 3744 potential participants, 544 respondents completed the survey. Ninety-seven percent of the respondents thought that their program had implemented the new rules successfully, and 63% reported working 51-70 hours per week. Nineteen percent admitted underreporting duty hours. Fifty percent agreed that the new rules had improved resident mental and physical well-being, and forty-nine percent agreed that patient safety and quality of care improved. However, 30% disagreed that resident education and training were better. Sixty percent reported decreased clinical experience; 42% felt decreased confidence in their ability to work independently after residency. Forty-nine percent were concerned about the increase in handoffs. Conclusions: The respondents had mixed opinions about the benefits of the new duty-hour requirements in their training program. Our study found a significant gap between the intended benefits of the new dutyhour and supervision requirements and the residents' perception of the benefits.


This study sought to develop an interactive pathfinder for the College of Information Technology of Liceo de Cagayan University to locate library resources for their students. The development of the courseware was primarily aimed at speeding online feedbacking and access to website. It used the water model in developing the courseware. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) was used to document the system flow, while the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) tag and Active Server Pages (ASP) was also used to code the machine instruction. The completed courseware enables the students to download easily the subject resources, promotes independent thinking among them, and allows the librarian/administrator to monitor the resources used by the students. Hence, this courseware is recommended for utilization to enhance instruction through online-facilitated research.


This thesis investigates the levels of IT competencies and the conditions for training effectiveness among Malaysian university clerical workers using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Seven conditions that affect the transfer of IT training to the workplace according to the order of importance were identified based on an Expert of Opinion Analysis: organisational management, trainee characteristics, IT facilities, trainer competency, training methodology, organisational system and work culture. These conditions or constructs were formulated into semistructured interview and survey questionnaire, which was answered by 21 interviewees and 554 respondents respectively. Qualitative data were transcribed and categorised to identify themes and patterns while quantitative data underwent traditional reliability and validity tests using Cronbach alpha and factor analyses. A major finding is that clerical workers acquire IT competence through informal training process particularly mentoring, self and experiential learning. However, informal training mode functions as a complement to formal training. A clerical worker normally acquires basic skills through formal training and will try to master advanced IT skills through informal training. Analysis of data indicated that most of the interviewees have high levels of competence in word processing, spreadsheet and communication and Internet. Findings from the Pearson correlation analysis is consistent with the Expert Opinion Assessment whereby the highest Pearson correlation value is for organisational management, while the lowest Pearson correlation value is for work culture. Differences of mean ranking for items measuring IT competence are attributed to age, work unit and academic qualification. Finally, all seven constructs are equally important but have varying impact on IT competence. Therefore, all seven constructs should be viewed in an integrated manner in accordance to the conceptual model proposed in this study.


The results of three nationwide epidemiological surveys on tuberculosis showed the declination of the magnitude of tuberculosis from 1979 to 1990 was slower. The case registration rates and new case registration rates within ten years (1982-1991) were gradually increasing year by year and came to a climax in 1988. The fact indicated the improvement of case-finding and case registration. The case registration rate was going down thereafter coincided with the declination of the prevalence of tuberculosis. The proportion of registration rate to the prevalence was rather low. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the majority of detected patients were held by general medical clinics and had not been registered to the central registration of tuberculosis. Therefore, only 17.7% of detected tuberculosis cases were under proper case-management for treatment. The results of cohort analysis on smear-positive treated cases showed the rate of sputum negative conversion was gradually increasing and the case lost rate was going down. The case-management for treatment was improving year by year. The results of sociological study on tuberculosis indicated that the financial problem was the main factor inducing delay of treatment and intermission and interruption of treatment among treated patients.


Chapter 11 has greatly influenced bankruptcy reforms all over the world, but has been attacked as imposing great costs and delay with relatively meager rates of success as measured by confirmation of plans. Although some recent data have hinted at a less negative picture of the efficiency of Chapter 11, it is now also claimed it has become a mere liquidation device controlled for the benefit of creditors, with equity owners dismissed at the door. This paper reports data from two large multi-district studies of business bankruptcy for cases filed in 1994 and 2002. It finds a confirmation rate up to 70% among cases with a realistic change of success and an overall system that disposes of losers quite early in the process. The paper confirms that there was a sharp increase in the use of Chapter 11 for liquidation between 1994 and 2002, but reports that equity owners still retain an interest going forward in a majority of cases.


The influence of histamine on metabolism of dopamine and serotonin in the rat striatum. Acta Physiol. Pol., 1977, 28 (2): 101--105. Histamine-2HC1 (Hi) given in a dose of 500 micron g did not change DA level in the striatum but HVA was increased by approx. 50%. The Hi-induced rise of HVA level was prevented in animals pretreated with an antihistaminic drug--mepyramine. The pretreatment of rats with atropine reduced significantly the Hi-induced rise of HVA concentration. Hi did not significantly influence 5-HT content in the striatum while the level of 5-HIAA was simultaneously increased by 15%. It is concluded that Hi-induced elevation of HVA content is not a direct effect of Hi on dopaminergic neurons but the Hi action is exerted indirectly through cholinergic system. The increase of serotoninergic activity is probably a consequence of an increased activity of dopaminergic neurons in the striatum.


Using a multisite community sample of 585 children, this study examined how protective and vulnerability factors alter trajectories of teacher-reported externalizing and internalizing behavior from kindergarten through Grade 8 for children who were and were not physically abused during the first 5 years of life. Early lifetime history of physical abuse (11.8% of sample) was determined through interviews with mothers during the prekindergarten period; mothers and children provided data on vulnerability and protective factors. Regardless of whether the child was abused, being African American; being male; having low early social competence, low early socioeconomic status (SES), and low adolescent SES; and experiencing adolescent harsh discipline, low monitoring, and low parental knowledge were related to higher levels of externalizing problems over time. Having low early social competence, low early SES, low adolescent SES, and low proactive parenting were related to higher levels of internalizing problems over time. Furthermore, resilience effects, defined as significant interaction effects, were found for unilateral parental decision making (lower levels are protective of externalizing outcomes for abused children), early stress (lower levels are protective of internalizing outcomes for abused children), adolescent stress (lower levels are protective of internalizing outcomes for abused children), and hostile attributions (higher levels are protective of internalizing outcomes for abused children). The findings provide a great deal of support for an additive or main effect perspective on vulnerability and protective factors and some support for an interactive perspective. It appears that some protective and vulnerability factors do not have stronger effects for physically abused children, but instead are equally beneficial or harmful to children regardless of their abuse status.The Child Development Project was funded by Grants MH42498, MH56961, MH57024, and MH57095 from the National Institute of Mental Health and HD30572 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. We are grateful for the ongoing dedication of the Child Development Project participants and research staff. Portions of these results were presented at the 2002 American Psychological Society convention in New Orleans, LA.


Sara Walsh was born in 1919 in the west of Ireland, in a land of storytellers. In prose that is neither history nor memoir but something larger and brighter than both, "Remembering Ahanagran" captures her memories of her early years in Ireland, her migration to the United States, and her marriage to Harry White, the Harvard-educated son of Russian Jewish emigrants. Her son, eminent historian Richard White, in collaboration with Sara, forces history as it is traditionally written into conversation with personal recollections.


Abstract Many types of problems caused by land degradation can be documented worldwide. The main natural resources affected are soils, water, natural vegetation, and wildlife; but cultivated plants are exposed to even greater damage, which poses a threat to food security as well. Soil degradation is one of the most crucial processes of land degradation and environmental change. Over a quarter of the world's agricultural land has been damaged by long-term soil degradation, corresponding to one-tenth of the earth's land surface. As is well known, mountain areas are especially vulnerable to land degradation (Figure 1). Because mountains are also water towers, providing water not only for highland areas but also for the surrounding lowlands, land degradation in the mountains has serious impacts on the global supply of freshwater and on growing water-related conflicts. At the same time, there have been many achievements in sustainable land use and in avoiding and combating degradation (Figure 2). Every day land users and soil and water conservation (SWC) specialists evaluate experience and generate know-how related to land management, improvement of soil fertility, and protection of soil resources. Most of this valuable knowledge, however, is not well documented or easily accessible, and comparison of different types of experience is difficult. The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) has the mission of providing tools that allow SWC specialists to share their valuable knowledge in soil and water management, assist them in their search for appropriate SWC technologies and approaches, and support them in making decisions in the field and at the planning level.


For the last decade of his life, David Crighton was the undisputed leader of the applied mathematics community in Britain. He made penetrating research contributions to the subject of aeroacoustics, which involves the emission and control of aircraft and engine noise, to our understanding of the propagation and evolution of linear and nonlinear waves and to the excitation of structural vibrations. He was a widely respected scientific administrator, working imaginatively as the chairman or president of many national and international committees. He was the enlightened editor of prestigious international journals and founded a series of texts in applied mathematics. At the time of his death from cancer at the tragically early age of 57, he was in addition filling with distinction the roles of a visionary department head and a much loved Master of Jesus College, Cambridge.Despite these heavy administrative burdens and his research schedule, David exuded warmth, gregariousness and a selfless interest in the careers of others. He seemed to have unlimited amounts of time to help and motivate his colleagues. He also found time to run regularly and to develop his prodigious knowledge of music, particularly the works of Wagner, on whose operas he was an international authority.


This essay explores the influence of ecological discourse in the 1960s on Thomas Pynchon's fiction, especially on Gravity's Rainbow. To identify the environmental Pynchon requires only that we focus on what most readers of Gravity's Rainbow will have noticed about the informing values of the novel, including such specifics as the importance of preserving trees and such general recognitions as that bestowed on Lyle Bland: that "Earth is a living critter" (590). Similarly, late in Slothrop's progress, the narrator notes that Tyrone has become "intensely alert to trees, finally." With the moral judgment implicit in that reprimand ("finally"), the text begins to read like leaflets handed out by Earth First! or Greenpeace.


This thesis is intended as a contribution to an anthropological study of the notion of tabee, with special reference to its manifestation, inter-connections and inter-relations with various social institutions among the Arabs. The primary aim is to formulate the ideas underlying the stystem in its many aspects. To show how ritual avoidances serve to establish or reflect certain fundamental social values to objects of important common interests, to events and even eventualities which crouse common concern and to situations and occasions which could not be controlled by technical means of the peoples concerned. Its immediate object is to demonstrate that the notion of taboo is not only of mere academic interest, but is also of emnirical, practical and secular importance. Ritual avoidances are considered as an integrate part of the mechanism by which the society maintains its existonce. It has been our method to cleave rather closely to primitive phenomena in analyising and examining the literature at hand. In the meantime we have carried the investigation through its successive stages to higher ethical and sophisticated manifestations of the notion in the hope of discovering the fundamental principles regulating the inatitution, and of determining the chief and general phases of its expression amon the Arabs, with the corresponding social and ritual values. For purposes of comparative study, we are partly concerned with ideas common both to the Arabs and various other simpler communities.


Based on the analysis of traditional maintenance mode, such as breakdown maintenance, preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance, lean maintenance strategy is disscussed according to it. To developed the equipment lean maintenance, a lean maitenance method is provided based on real-time data acquisition. The method benefites from the information integrated frame of manufacturing execution system, by which the real-time data of equipment is got. Based on the real-time data, the principle of status data trigger is discussed in detail, and the dynamic maintenance plan is given on the basis of maintenance rules automatically. Finally, maintenance planning system is developed by the way of system design, including business flow design, function design and principle design.


Author(s): Harris, Breanna Nicole | Advisor(s): Saltzman, Wendy | Abstract: Stress and glucocorticoids are hypothesized to mediate a trade-off between current and future reproduction, as organisms are predicted to invest less in current reproduction under stressful conditions. In this dissertation I explored whether stress and activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (resulting in elevated glucocorticoid concentrations) suppress current reproductive behavior in the monogamous, biparental California mouse ( Peromyscus californicus). Initially, I characterized HPA function under baseline and post-stress conditions (Aim 1). I next tested the hypotheses that older animals are more stress-resistant than younger animals, as older animals have lower residual reproductive value (Aim 2), and that fathers are more stress-resistant than non-fathers (Aim 3). Lastly, I determined whether chronic stress (Aim 4) and acute glucocorticoid elevation, separate from external stress (Aim 5), would decrease paternal care and alter survival and development of offspring. Results demonstrate that HPA function in California mice differs markedly from that of previously studied rodents (Aim 1), and that changes in residual reproductive value (age; Aim 2) and reproductive status (Aim 3) do not modulate HPA axis activity. Chronic stress reduced paternal behavior (Aim 4), but effects were subtle and not likely mediated solely by changes in circulating corticosterone levels, as corticosterone injection did not alter paternal behavior (Aim 5). Moreover, decreased paternal behavior during chronic stress did not appreciably alter survival, development, growth or HPA function of pups, suggesting that stress-induced decreases in paternal care had no fitness consequences under controlled laboratory conditions. In conclusion, glucocorticoids do not appear to directly mediate the trade-off between current and future reproduction in males of this species; however, stress can decrease paternal behavior. Therefore, while corticosterone concentrations may serve as part of the signal by which parents determine reproductive investment, increases in this hormone alone may not be sufficient to derail current reproductive attempts. Instead, stress-induced changes in other hormones and neuropeptides might be important in regulating stress-related changes in behavior. These experiments provide important insight into interactions between reproductive status and HPA function in a biparental mammal, and could have implications for conservation of biparental species and for understanding effects of stress on human parenting.


The intention of the paper is to show the applicability of the general categorical framework of open maps to the setting of two models – higher dimensional automata (HDA) and timed higher dimensional automata (THDA) – in order to transfer general concepts of equivalences to the models. First, we define categories of the models under consideration, whose morphisms are to be thought of as simulations. Then, accompanying (sub)categories of observations are chosen relative to which the corresponding notions of open maps are developed. Finally, we use the open maps framework to obtain two abstract bisimulations which are established to coincide with hereditary history preserving bisimulations on HDA and THDA, respectively.


The purpose of this paper is to implement e-Learning in the specific didactics on balance beam in women's artistic gymnastics. This scientific approach has led to a pedagogical experiment conducted with a group of 14 gymnasts aged from 12 to 15, members of the junior team of Romania, located in the Olympic Training Center in Izvorani. The study was carried out from June 2012 to October 2014. The following methods have been used during this research: method of bibliographic study; method of pedagogical observation; method of pedagogical experiment; method of tests; method of experts; video computerized method of biomechanical analysis and statistical-mathematical method. To assess the training level, 3 tests have been used: for the sensorimotor coordination - test no. 1, standstill landing; "Briuk" test for balance maintaining; test no. 3 for static-kinematic stability; 7 trials of physical training (for assessing the strength of arms, abdomen, back, lower limbs and the sense of balance) and 2 trials for the basic training on beam. This research used the method of video biomechanical analysis by means of a specialized program named Physics ToolKit, monitoring the key components of sports technique of the acrobatic elements on beam. The didactical structure of the learning program has been developed taking into account gymnasts' physical and technical training level, the difficulty of the exercises necessary for training; the interdependence and adequacy of the main and concrete goals, the tasks of learning; specific didactical principles , methods, means, elements of regulation, control and correction process, the results of learning by using the biological reverse afferentation (visual-motor, verbal-motor, visual-verbal, vestibular-motor). The implementation of e-learning in the specific didactics on beam made by means of the macro-methods elements for gymnastics exercises learning based on the stages of motor skills development contributed to learning, improving and correcting the key elements of sports technique and to achieving better performances in competitions.


The ahthors present new data on the character of the vaccine process in children associated with the characteristics of the blood group ABO, MNSs and Rh systems. The greater frequency of occurrence and more manifest reactions were noted in children with blood groups A, B, AB, M and Rho (D) - in comparison with those having blood groups O, Rho (D) +, MN and N. There was a significant prevalence of chromosomal aberrations in the primarily immunized children with blood groups A in comparison with groups O, B and AB. The data obtained pointed to the negative effect of the mimi-rating antigens of the smallpox virus on the immunogenesis in smallpox. Search for methods of releasing the vaccine of these antigens is necessary for reduction of the reactogenic properties and increase of immunogenecity of the smallpox vaccines.


We consider a deep ReLU / Leaky ReLU student network trained from the output of a fixed teacher network of the same depth, with Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD). The student network is over-realized: at each layer l, the number nl of student nodes is more than that (ml) of teacher. Under mild conditions on dataset and teacher network, we prove that when the gradient is small at every data sample, each teacher node is specialized by at least one student node at the lowest layer. For two-layer network, such specialization can be achieved by training on any dataset of polynomial size O(Kd −1). until the gradient magnitude drops to O( /K √ d). Here d is the input dimension, K = m1 + n1 is the total number of neurons in the lowest layer of teacher and student. Note that we require a specific form of data augmentation and the sample complexity includes the additional data generated from augmentation. To our best knowledge, we are the first to give polynomial sample complexity for student specialization of training twolayer (Leaky) ReLU networks with finite depth and width in teacher-student setting, and finite complexity for the lowest layer specialization in multi-layer case, without parametric assumption of the input (like Gaussian). Our theory suggests that teacher nodes with large fan-out weights get specialized first when the gradient is still large, while others are specialized with small gradient, which suggests inductive bias in training. This shapes the stage of training as empirically observed in multiple previous works. Experiments on synthetic and CIFAR10 verify our findings. The code is released in https://github. com/facebookresearch/luckmatters. Facebook AI Research. Correspondence to: Yuandong Tian <firstname.lastname@example.com>. Proceedings of the 37 th International Conference on Machine Learning, Vienna, Austria, PMLR 119, 2020. Copyright 2020 by the author(s).


Problem statement: The study investigated the prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) among workers who perform the Manual Material Handling (MMH) task in an automotive manufacturing plant in Malaysia. A cross sectional study was carried out among the workers in an automotive manufacturing plant. Approach: Respondents were selected through random sampling. Then, a Body Parts Symptoms Survey (BPSS) data sheets were given to the workers to obtain the prevalence of MSD among them. Later, a few workers were selected based on the In-House Clinic (IHC) visitations data for interviews. Results: Five hundreds workers showed that the highest prevalence of MSD was Low Back Pain (LBP). It was found from interviews of 17 workers who had 3 or more visitation times to the IHC that the main reason of the ergonomic risk comes from the task that they perform. It was found that the highest prevalence of MSD was lower back pain, followed by pain at feet/ankle and pain at upper back regions. Almost one third of the study populations claimed to feel uncomfortable to their upper back and lower back. Conclusion: It was concluded that the back pain the workers are experiencing may be a result of their ignorance in the correct and ergonomic techniques in materials handling.


Background Clinically important renal involvement occasionally occurs in sarcoidosis. Renal manifestations include abnormal calcium metabolism, nephrolithiasis and nephrocalcinosis, and acute interstitial nephritis with or without granuloma formation. Objectives To analyze the pattern of osteoarticular lesions in patients with sarcoidosis hospitalized in internal medicine departments. Methods We carried out a systematic retrospective analysis of cases with sarcoidosis admitted in the last 38 years, using hospital databases. Results 50 patients with sarcoidosis were included in the study (75% women) The mean age at the onset of symptoms of sarcoidosis was 42.47 years [18-70]. The average time between onset of symptoms and diagnosis was 17.74 months with a range of [3-84].Renal involvement was observed in 17 patients (34%) and was revealing in 9 patients (18%). There were 9 women and 8 men with a sex ratio of 0.88. The tubulointerstitial nephropathy was the most common manifestation, found in 12 cases. Glomerular nephropathy and renal lithiasis were present respectively in 2 (4%) and 3 cases (6%). The tubulointerstitial nephropathy found in 12 patients (24%) was biologically characterized by low proteinuria and aseptic pyuria. The kidneys were functionning normally in 3 patients. Renal failure was noted in 9 cases. Advanced renal failure (clearance <10 ml/min) was noted in 3 cases.We have not noted hypertension in our patients. The hypercalcemia was associated with renal failure in 7 cases (77%). Renal biopsy was performed in 7 cases showing interstitial tuberculoid granuloma in 5 cases and an aspect of chronic interstitial nephropathy with interstitial lymphocytic infiltrate and tubular atrophy in 2 cases. Glomerular nephropathy was present in 2 cases. Microscopic hematuria was present in one case. Renal failure and hypertension were absent. We did not notice any disorder of phosphate and calcium assesments. Biopsy was performed in 2 cases showing a tuberculoid granuloma associated with extra-membranous glomerulonephritis in one case and a remote in the other. - The kidney stones were found in 3 cases. They were bilateral and unobtrusive in all cases. Recurrent kidney stones were noted in one case. Hypercalciuria and hypercalcemia were found respectively in 3 cases and 2 cases. Conclusions Several small series have suggested that renal involvement (as defined by either histologic changes in the kidney or a decline in renal function in the absence of a biopsy) occurs in approximately 35 to 50 percent of patients, even if, in most cases, the disease may be silent and undetected for many years or forever. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.5756


Introduction Increased virulence, the severity of illness, and mortality have all been hypothesized with respect to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi)/angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) use in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Our study aims to assess whether ACEi/ARB use in patients with COVID-19 conferred worsened severity of illness or increased mortality. Additionally, we explore the possibility of an unearthed protective benefit due to their interruption of the RAS signaling pathway as observed in cardiovascular diseases. Methods The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, and EMBASE were searched for studies relevant to COVID-19 severity, mortality, and inflammation in the context of ACEi/ARB use. Eight studies were included with a total of 17,943 patients, 4,292 (23.9%) of which were taking an ACEi or an ARB. The study population was 47.9% female and the average age across all studies was 65. The studies chosen had a sample size of at least 100 patients. Results Mortality outcomes were assessed in six studies and showed no significant difference in mortality among the ACEi/ARB and control groups (odds ratio [OR]: 0.99, 95%CI: 0.48-2.04). Seven studies assessed the severity of COVID-19 and showed no statistically significant difference in disease severity when comparing the ACEi/ARB group to the control group (odds ratio [OR]: 1.30, 95% CI 0.87-1.94). Four studies reported the length of stay with no significant difference between the ACEi/ARB groups as compared to non-users. Four studies included inflammatory markers C-reactive protein (CRP) and D-Dimer, which were noted to be consistently lower in the ACEi/ARB groups when compared to control groups, however, this was not statistically significant. Conclusion Our study found no significant difference in mortality, severity of illness, or length of stay between ACEi/ARB users and non-users with COVID-19 infection. These results support the continuation of ACEi and ARBs in the setting of COVID-19 as advised by the American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA). The decrease in CRP and D-dimer suggests a possible protective effect related to ACEi/ARB use in COVID-19, however, more studies with larger sample sizes are needed to establish this effect.


Internet has undoubtedly changed the prerequisites for global music distribution once for all. After years of skepticism, clinging to old business models and pirate hunt on P2P networks, the record industry has reluctantly begun to embrace the new channel for marketing and distribution of cultural content. But what do we know about music consumption on P2P networks? Does it coincide with the variety of cultural content in traditional media channels? This work describes the differences in cultural content on P2P networks, concerts and traditional broadcasted media based on comprehensive data on theoretic rage of choice, air play and requested music at P2P services. The study also describes some of the changes in business models that have already taken place. The study concludes among all that legal download services might reduce the present dominance of the big five major record companies in the long run.


The Treponema pallidum specific IgM haemagglutination (TP-IgM-HA) test uses erythrocytes sensitised with antiserum to human IgM to separate IgM from IgG in serum. Specific antitreponemal IgM captured in this way is detected by adding a second reagent comprising erythrocytes sensitised with T pallidum antigen. Eighty two serum samples from 82 patients with untreated syphilis, 521 samples from 73 patients with treated syphilis, and 1872 samples from people who did not have syphilis were examined by the 19S(IgM)-TPHA (T pallidum haemagglutination), IgM-FTA-ABS (fluorescent treponemal antibody absorbed), TP-IgM-ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay), and TP-IgM-HA tests for the presence of 19S(IgM) antibodies specific to treponemes. The sensitivity of the TP-IgM-HA test was 97.6% and the specificity was 99.7%. We also traced IgM specific to treponemes in untreated patients with primary syphilis by four different tests. The TP-IgM-HA test results clearly reflected the effect of the treatment.


The promotion of decentralised collective bargaining and the right to strike were central elements of federal legislative reforms operative from early 1994. The reforms also enabled compulsory arbitration, at tribunal discretion, in essential services. This examination of five public health services disputes reveals decentralised bargaining to be impracticable where significant labour costs are involved. A distinction between nominal and operational bargaining structure is developed and legislative recognition of the reality of centralised, multi-employer bargaining is advocated. The essential services dispute settlement provisions are found to continue the Australian tradition of the co-existence of collective bargaining and compulsory arbitration but in circumstances of greater Commission power. The provisions have proved controversial, with challenges to principal party motives, and the exercise of Commission discretion has involved diverse responses and outcomes. Initially the approach was conservative, favouring arbitration, and coincidentally providing an apparent windfall for unions. Subsequently, the Commission position became less predictable and by the end of 1995 a preference for bargaining over arbitration had emerged. The inherent weaknesses in the provisions are identified and weighed against the benefits of enabling pro-active tribunal intervention directed to protection of the community within a collective bargaining regime legitimising coercive power.


Purpose: to evaluate the results of single-session alcohol sclerotherapy in benign symptomatic liver cysts Material and Methods: Ten cysts (volume 200–4800 ml) in 10 patients were treated by percutaneous catheterization and injection of 96% ethanol at a dose of 10% of the cyst volume but never more than 100 ml. the treatment was applied for a maximum of 20 min, after which the alcohol and catheter were removed Results: A satisfactory reduction in cyst volume was achieved in all patients. in 8 patients there was a re-accumulation of fluid during the first period after therapy, followed by a significant reduction in volume on later follow-up examinations. Except for pain, there were no complications Conclusion: Sclerotherapy as a single-session procedure resulted in a significant reduction in cyst volume in all 10 patients. the postprocedural re-accumulation of fluid seen in 8 patients proved to be temporary. It was not necessary to repeat the sclerotherapy procedure in any patient


ABSTRACT Understanding is greatly valued in higher education. It is more likely to be achieved when lecturers and students agree on what counts as understanding. History and science lecturers' conceptions of understanding were compared with recent history and science graduates' conceptions of understanding. Whilst there was some agreement amongst students and lecturers about the nature of understanding in these subjects, there was the potential for a mismatch of conceptions which could reduce the effectiveness of teaching and the quality of learning. What lecturers and recent graduates saw as support for and evidence of understanding is also described. Clarification of what is to count as understanding in a given context should be amongst the principles for supporting students' learning. Some suggestions are made which could reduce the likelihood of an unnoticed mismatch of conceptions of understanding.


Background: Vitiligo is an acquired pigmentary disorder that affects 1% of population. It presents as depigmented patches. One of the most probable theories regarding the pathogenesis of vitiligo is autoimmunity. Systemic corticosteroids may arrest the progression of vitiligo and lead to repigmentation by suppressing immune system. The objective of this study is to assess the clinical efficacy of low-dose oral corticosteroids in actively progressing vitiligo.
Materials and Methods: Seventy four patients with vitiligo were evaluated. The patients took daily doses of oral prednisolone (0.3 mg/kg) initially for 2 months. Then the dosage was halved monthly, for the five subsequent months of treatment. The effects of treatment were evaluated using photography's before and after the study. Side effects were assessed at the first, second, third and fourth month of the treatment.
Results: Arrested progression of vitiligo and repigmentation were noted in 74.3% and 62.1% of patients respectively. The mean pigmentation was 26.8%. The localized form, lower age of disease onset, no hair whiteness on the lesions and less affliction percent showed increased repigmentation with statistical significance. There was no significant difference between sexes and positive family history of vitiligo in patients. The best therapeutic results were obtained for facial lesions and the worst for mucosal lesions. The side effects of treatment were minimal and did not affect the course of the treatment.
Conclusion: Low-dose oral corticosteroids are effective and have few serious side effects in preventing the progression of actively progressing vitiligo but regimentation is not significant and this regimen is effective in patients who are refractory to topical corticosteroids or phototherapy.


The need exists for high-sensitivity, low-noise vibration sensors for various applications, such as geophysical data collection, tracking vehicles, intrusion detectors, and underwater pressure gradient detection. In general, these sensors differ from classical accelerometers in that they require no direct current response, but must have a very low noise floor over a required bandwidth. Theory indicates a capacitive micromachined silicon vibration sensor can have a noise floor on the order of 100 ng//spl radic/Hz over 1 kHz bandwidth, while reducing size and weight tenfold compared to existing magnetic geophones. With early prototypes, we have demonstrated Brownian-limited noise floor at 1.0 /spl mu/g/Hz, orders of magnitude more sensitive than surface micromachined devices such as the industry standard ADXL05.


Legitimacy is essential for any polity that seeks to exert law-making authority over its people. Although the EU is not a single state it is a polity that has to obtain legitimacy for its power to make laws affecting some 500 million people across 28 member states (soon to be 27 pending UK exit). And yet in the eyes of EU citizens the Eurozone crisis and Brexit vote call into question the EU's legitimacy as it cannot guarantee prosperity for all its peoples or shield against economic and political uncertainty. There is growing unease and disaffection among southern EU states' voters, and divisions between core/peripheral member states, with emerging alternative popular representation structures (e.g. Podemos in Spain) and reappraisal of the EU among pro-EU politicians (e.g. British leftwing). In this context, "core" member state refers to the advanced economies and strong democracies including the original founding members (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands), and new members from the enlargement period 1973 to 1995 (Denmark, Ireland, the UK, Greece Portugal, Spain, Austria, Finland, Sweden). "Peripheral" member state denotes the southern, central, eastern European states that joined from 2004 onwards (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia). Added to this is a lack of debate and public awareness of what the EU stands for and its practical benefits. It is, therefore, important to understand how legitimacy is (or is not) created and maintained in the EU.

A form of legitimacy may be conferred by EU citizens engaging in public and voluntary acts of consent. These are acts taken by individuals and groups which may confer legitimacy on the law-making authority of an entity (e.g. voting in European Parliamentary elections; national referendums on EU matters). Political theorists, such as Beetham, have explored public and voluntary acts of consent in the context of understanding how state power is legitimised. Using Beetham's "normative structure of legitimacy", especially the third component of "expressed consent", this chapter considers whether public and voluntary acts of consent may confer legitimacy on the EU. Part I explores the relevance of Beetham's "normative structure of legitimacy" under the criteria of rule-based validity, justifiability of power rules, and expressed consent. Part II evaluates expressed consent in three types of public and voluntary acts of consent: national referendums, with particular reference to the UK Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016, and Greek bailout referendum of 5 July 2015; the European Citizens' Initiative under Article 11(4) TEU; and civil society engagement under Article 11(2) TEU.


Spinal cord (SC) segmentectomy was performed at ThX level in 28 rats. The scar formation in place of surgery and the degree of restoration of anatomical integrity were studied in control rats (group I) and in rats, in which SC defect was replaced by either Spherogel neuromatrix (group II) or Spherogel containing dispersed embryonic nerve cells (group II). While in group I rats by weeks 1-2 SC defect was filled with fibrin masses, in rats of experimental groups II and III the formation of connective tissue scar was found by the same time. By weeks 10-11 these animals demonstrated partial restoration of motion in three joints of the hindlimb. In the scar tissue and in adjacent SC zones numerous regenerating thin myelinated nerve fibers were found. They were clearly demonstrated in the zones of cranial and caudal borders along the whole distance until the appearance of typical tissue of SC. In slides from the animals of control group, thin myelinated nerve fibers were found only in close proximity to SC substance, while in the scar tissue and in the cellular bands of the intermediate zone nerve fibers were scarce.


Herpes zoster occurs in 10% to 20% of the general population as a result of reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and is generally benign. It occurs more frequently in persons with cellular immunodeficiency and older age. The association between herpes zoster and HIV was confirmed early in the course of the HIV epidemic by numerous studies. Zoster was noted to precede AIDS in high-risk groups. Both the incidence and complication rate of herpes zoster are increased in HIV infected patients.


The prognosis for patients with cystic fibrosis who are colonised with Pseudomonas aeruginosa has improved as a result of the regular use of intravenous antibiotics; however, this necessitates long periods of hospitalisation. Home intravenous antibiotic treatment has potential advantages over hospital treatment. We describe our experience during the first 20 months of using a system of home intravenous antibiotic treatment in which a cystic fibrosis liaison sister has an essential role. Thirteen patients have received 40 courses of treatment. There were highly significant improvements in weight, respiratory function, and white cell count during home treatment. There was no significant difference in weight and forced expiratory volume in one second between the end of home treatment and the end of hospital treatment while forced vital capacity was better after home treatment. All patients preferred home treatment. The advantages of home visits by the cystic fibrosis liaison sister during treatment are emphasised.


Recent physiologic studies have tended to emphasize the relationship between the pressure of the blood returning to the heart through the veins and cardiac activity. Physiologists may be divided into two schools in this respect at present, one of which, under the influence of certain English workers, especially Starling, believes that it is venous pressure which determines cardiac output at each beat, by influencing the initial length or initial tension of the auricular and ventricular muscle. The "law of the heart," as developed by Starling, establishes a relationship between initial load and energy of contraction in the cardiac muscle as has been shown to exist in skeletal muscle. The other school, led by Yandell Henderson, while recognizing the influence of venous pressure up to a certain point, believes that above this there holds "uniformity of cardiac behavior" in which cardiac output does not necessarily vary with venous pressure but depends


Speckle noise which is inherent to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging obstructs various image exploitation tasks such as edge detection, segmentation, change detection, and target recognition. Therefore, speckle reduction is generally used as a first step which has to smooth out homogeneous regions while preserving edges and point scatterers. Traditional speckle reduction methods are fast and their memory consumption is insignificant. However, they are either good at smoothing homogeneous regions or preserving edges and point scatterers. State of the art despeckling methods are proposed to overcome this trade-off. However, they introduce another trade-off between denoising quality and resource consumption, thereby higher denoising quality requires higher computational load and/or memory consumption. In this paper, a local pixel-based total variation (TV) approach is proposed, which combines l2-norm and l1-norm in order to improve despeckling quality while keeping execution times reasonably short. Pixel-based approach allows efficient computation model with relatively low memory consumption. Their parallel implementations are also more efficient comparing to global TV approaches which generally require numerical solution of sparse linear systems. However, pixel-based approaches are trapped to local minima frequently hence despeckling quality is worse comparing to global TV approaches. Proposed method, namely mixed norm despeckling (MND), combines l2-norm and l1-norm in order to improve despeckling performance by alleviating local minima problem. All steps of the MND are parallelized using OpenMP on CPU and CUDA on GPU. Speckle reduction performance, execution time and memory consumption of the proposed method are shown using synthetic images and TerraSAR-X spot mode SAR images.


The Ordovician–Silurian organic-rich shales in the Wufeng and Longmaxi Formations are widespread in southern China and are the most important shale gas producers in China. The shales display varying total organic carbon content ranging from 0.2% to 6% and are composed of black siliceous mudstone, shelly limestone, siliceous clay-rich mudstone, gray silty–shaly interlaminated mudstone, gray argillaceous mudstone, and calcareous or dolomitic mudstone. Detailed stratigraphic correlation of these formations was achieved, and a high-resolution sequence stratigraphy was constructed based on the integration of well-log data, mineralogical, geochemical, and petrophysical analyses. The Wufeng Formation and the Guanyinqiao Bed were interpreted to be a condensed section with four cycles of sea-level fluctuation. The Longmaxi Formation consists of three members. The Long-1 Member was interpreted to be a third-order depositional sequence that can be subdivided into a transgressive systems tract, an early highstand systems tract, and a late highstand systems tract. Within the constructed isochronal stratigraphic framework, the characteristics and genetic mechanism of different shale lithofacies were studied. The deposition of black siliceous mudstone of high total organic carbon in the Wufeng Formation and the Long-1 transgressive systems tract was likely influenced by volcanic activity. The Guanyinqiao shelly limestone or calcareous mudstone was associated with the Ordovician–Silurian transition when glaciation and mass extinction took place. The gray silty–shaly interlaminated mudstone of moderate total organic carbon in the Long-1 early highstand systems tract was the product of bottom flow intrusion. The deposition of gray argillaceous mudstone and calcareous or dolomitic mudstone with low total organic carbon in the Long-1 late highstand systems tract resulted from enhanced terrigenous input from peripheral uplifts. The distribution pattern of different lithofacies varies greatly in the Upper Yangtze area, and this difference is a result of dissimilar sediment provenances and variable hydraulic restriction levels that were controlled by basin geometry. A better understanding of the distribution pattern and depositional history of the Wufeng and Longmaxi Formations might provide guidance for future profitable shale gas exploration.


Background: Despite increasing emphasis on using multiple methods to assess personality constructs in psychosomatic research, previous investigations of relations between alexithymia and type A behavior (TAB) have been limited by the use of single methods of measurement and almost no attempt to assess subcomponents of TAB. The aims of this study were to (1) evaluate levels of agreement between structured interview assessments of alexithymia, TAB, hostility, and time urgency and well-established self-report measures of these constructs, and (2) explore relations between alexithymia and TAB and its subcomponents in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: 62 CHD patients were investigated 6 weeks after coronary angioplasty. Alexithymia was assessed with the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). TAB was assessed with the DCPR and the Short Form of the Jenkins Activity Survey Type A scale (JAS-SF). Time urgency was assessed with the DCPR and the Speed/Impatience scale of the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS-S), and hostility was assessed with the DCPR and the Hostility subscale of the Revised Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-HOS). Results: The DCPR classifications showed reasonably high levels of agreement with the TAS-20 and JAS-SF classifications of alexithymia and TAB, but lower levels of agreement in identifying patients with high hostility on the SCL-HOS and high time urgency on the JAS-S. Alexithymia measured by both the DCPR and the TAS-20 was unrelated to both self-report and structured interview measures of TAB, hostility, and time urgency. Conclusions: The DCPR is a suitable screening instrument for assessing alexithymia and TAB, although the two constructs are unrelated.


John Ferejohn and Larry Sager's contribution to the Symposium on Precommitments offers an elegant and important argument in praise of Article V and the obduracy of the United States Constitution. I think it is wide of the mark. For them, the key purpose served by obduracy is this: A constitution as hard to amend as ours will be more likely than others to assure the realization of that constitution's substantive normative commitments - more likely, that is, to bring to earth the constitution's commitments to liberty, equality, and the like. But Ferejohn and Sager's argument is too categorical to persuade. True, a significant degree of obduracy may help attain the constitutional goods they highlight: broadly worded justice-seeking amendatory language, and constitutional courts authorized and able to make the commitments workable and real. However, both logic and experience suggest that amendment rules need not be remotely as obdurate as ours to provide what support such rules can offer to securing those goods. More than that, obduracy on the order of the U.S. Constitution may actually erode and thwart a nation's capacity for realizing many of its deepest constitutional commitments. Ferejohn and Sager's commitment-centered case on behalf of Article V rests on a court-centered model of how the Constitution's substantive commitments have been elaborated and enforced. According to this model, popular challenges to judicial interpretations have been a threat to the realization of those commitments. Because popular oversight of the process of constitutional interpretation and enforcement is a threat, we are fortunate that Article V makes such involvement and oversight an extremely daunting, protracted and procrastinating process. But this model is too simple by half. Popular constitutional politics, including popular challenges to judicial interpretations, have had a more complex relationship to judge-made constitutional law. Popular political challenges have been both a threat to and an essential source of the justice-seeking elaboration of the Constitution's substantive commitments. Social movements, including popular efforts to amend the Constitution, have proved an indispensable crucible of the very judicial interpretations Ferejohn and Sager prize. A Constitution too obdurate can and, in several important cases, has stifled this generative process. If that is the case, then the design objective Ferejohn and Sager invoke in defense of obduracy demands instead a balancing of obduracy and amendability; or so this essay argues, via whirlwind tour of twentieth-century U.S. constitutional history and a comparative coda that takes a glimpse at how well the experience of other nations seems to square with Ferejohn and Sager's thesis.


Based on the dynamic mathematical model of induction motor, the mutual model reference adaptive system method (MRAS) for rotor speed identification is proposed to implement a speed sensorless direct torque control of induction motor. The model reference adaptive theory is flexibly used in the rotor speed and the stator resistance online identification. The reference model and adjustable model used in the mutual MRAS scheme are interchangeable. Therefore, The induction motor speed sensorless direct torque control system can obtain high-precision speed identification. Computer simulations and experimental results show that the method can solve the problems of speed control accuracy and system stability under the influence of motor parameter variation. The low speed performance of DTC is also improved.


Many patients are left with psychological symptoms after surgery for a ruptured intracranial aneurysm. Often the reason for these symptoms is not clear. A prospective study was carried out of 27 patients who were in a good (Grade 1 or 2) condition before operation to identify the origin of such symptoms and discover whether the basic techniques of aneurysm surgery could lead to serious psychological sequelae even in the absence of any specific complication. Each patient was given a modified psychometric assessment just before surgery and at the time of discharge from hospital. One year later a full psychometric and social assessment was carried out. Even a temporary worsening of psychometric performance did not occur unless there had been some specific surgical or post-operative problem. Five patients showed worsening of psychometric performance in the immediate post-operative period but by one year, only two of the 27 patients showed any abnormalities on formal psychometric evaluation; in both, clear reasons were evident. Although the majority of patients reported minor psychological symptoms, these had not hindered full functional recovery, and we doubt whether they had any organic basis. It is concluded that aneurysm surgery does not, itself, threaten higher intellectual function unless some specific complication occurs.


Additional information available at the end of the chapter Abstract Air quality sampling campaigns in three European subway systems (Barcelona, Athens and Oporto) were conducted in order to characterise particulate matter (PM) to better understand the main factors controlling it. PM mass concentrations varied among the European subway platforms, and also within the same underground system, this being mainly associated to differences in the design of the stations and tunnels, system age, train frequency, ventilation and air‐conditioning systems, commuter's density, rails geometry and outdoor air quality. PM concentrations displayed clear diurnal patterns, depending largely on the operation and frequency of the trains and the ventilation system. Chemically, subway PM 2.5 on the platforms consisted of iron, carbonaceous material, crustal matter, secondary inorganic compounds, insoluble sulphate, halite and trace elements. Fe was the most abundant element, accounting for 19–46% of the bulk PM 2.5 , which is generated mainly from mechanical wear at rail‐wheel‐brake interfaces. A source apportionment analysis allowed the identification of outdoor (sea salt, fuel‐oil combustion and secondary aerosol) and subway sources on platforms. The use of air‐ conditioning inside the trains was an effective approach to reduce exposure concentra‐ tions, being more efficient removing coarser particles. PM concentrations inside the trains were greatly affected by the surrounding (i.e. platforms and tunnels) air quality conditions.


Intracluster light (ICL) is believed to originate from the stars stripped from cluster galaxies. They are no longer gravitationally bound to individual galaxies, but to the cluster, and their smooth distribution potentially makes them serve as much denser tracers of the cluster dark matter than the sparsely distributed cluster galaxies. We present our study of the ICL in the galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 using both Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Subaru data, where we previously reported the discovery of a ring-like dark matter structure with gravitational lensing. The ACS images provide much lower sky levels than ground-based data, and enable us to measure relative variation of surface brightness reliably. This analysis is repeated with the Subaru images to examine if consistent features are recovered despite a different reduction scheme and different instrumental characteristics. We find that the ICL profile clearly resembles the peculiar mass profile, which stops decreasing at r ∼ 50″ (∼265 kpc) and slowly increases until it turns over at r ∼ 75″ (∼397 kpc). This feature is seen in both ACS and Subaru images for nearly all available passband images while the features are in general stronger in red filters. The consistency across different filters and instruments strongly rules out the possibility that the feature might come from any residual, uncorrected calibration errors. In addition, our re-analysis of the cluster X-ray data shows that the peculiar mass structure is also indicated by a non-negligible (3.7σ in Chandra and 2.4σ in XMM-Newton) bump in the intracluster gas profile when the geometric center of the dark matter ring, not the peak of the X-ray emission, is chosen as the center of the radial bin. The location of the gas ring is closer to the center by ∼15″ (∼80 kpc), raising an interesting possibility that the ring-like structure is expanding and the gas ring is lagging behind perhaps because of the ram pressure if both features in mass and gas share the same dynamical origin.


This paper studies the possibility of using the scattering of cosmic muons to identify threatening high-Z materials. Various scenarios of threat material detection are simulated with the Geant4 toolkit. PoCA (Point of Closest Approach) algorithm reconstructing muon track gives 3D radiography images of the target material. Z-discrimination capability, effects of the placement of high-Z materials, shielding materials inside the cargo, and spatial resolution of position sensitive detector for muon radiography are carefully studied. Our results show that a detector position resolution of 50 μm is good enough for shielded materials detection.


We demonstrate enhanced organic photovoltaic cell (OPV) efficiency through the use of continuously graded donor-acceptor (D-A) heterojunctions. Device performance is a strong function of both D-A grading and overall composition ratio. The use of a tunable gradient permits an increase in the D-A interface area for high-exciton diffusion efficiency relative to a planar heterojunction, while also improving the charge collection efficiency relative to a uniform mixture. Using the archetypical D-A pair of copper phthalocyanine and C60, a power conversion efficiency of ηP = (2.1 ± 0.1)% is realized under 100 mW/cm2 simulated AM1.5G solar illumination for a graded heterojunction. This represents an improvement in ηP of ~60% relative to a planar heterojunction OPV and ~20% compared to a uniformly mixed heterojunction OPV.


Data and parameters of the proposals being selected may be not assured. This uncertainty of data and parameters can be expressed as random variables. The paper is about how to use random decision criteria to select independent proposals where investment capitals available are limited and cash flows or parameters are random variables. The paper first simply introduces the decision criteria on random condition, and gives the common methods to get these values of decision criteria. Then the general model of independent proposals decision with limited capital under random condition, and the solutions of proposals selection are put forward. In the last section a numeric example is given to show how to use software to select independent proposals with random cash flows and limited total investment capital.


Teo--c-en-t-r-b terrain elevation soil moisture, and zonal variations `in sea surface =temperature to the mea n daily preci itation rates over Austr Zia, Africa, and South America 1,n anuar v evaluated. * e 45S -CIOarse -mesh slob ►k.-=Rentta3-rc a -on iloM .,, aporation of soil moisture may either increase or. decrease the modelf generated precipitation, appa*ont4ry depending on the surface albedo: A flat, dry continent Model best simulates the January rainfall over Austral'.ia and South America, while over Africa the simulation is improved by the inclusion of surface physics, specifically soil moisture and albedo variations. l This research was carried out at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) under Grant NGR 33-016 . 086, NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center. (NASA-CR-164562) SOME EFFECTS OF N81-277.52 TOPOGRAPHY ., SOIL MOISTURE, AND SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE ON CONTINENTAL :PRECIPITATION AS Unclas COMPUTED WITH THE GISS COARSE MESH CLIMATE MODEL (Cit y C,ni.v. of New York. N. Y.) 32 p 63/4726640


The recent decision by the Eritrea/Ethiopia Claims Commission on the ius ad bellum claims of Ethiopia - that Eritrea had violated the law on the use of force in starting the 1998-2000 war between the two states - is a troubling one. It raises questions about the proper role of arbitral tribunals in such cases. There were many factors which suggested that the Commission should have abstained from giving judgment. There was no unequivocal agreement between the parties that the Commission's jurisdiction extended beyond claims for violations of humanitarian and other international law during the conflict to an examination of responsibility for the start of the war. Moreover, the award is extremely brief, and consequently it deals with controversial issues of the law of self-defence, such as the meaning of armed attack and the duty to report to the Security Council, in a rather limited way. The award also raises important questions about the relationship of an arbitral tribunal to other bodies. In this case, the award of the Claims Commission undermined the Eritrea/Ethiopia Boundary Commission's 2002 Delimitation Decision, already under challenge by Ethiopia, at a time of increasing tension along the border.


We look at the history of research on vagueness and the Sorites paradox. That search has been largely unsuccessful and the existing solutions are not quite adequate. But following Wittgenstein we show that the notion of a successful language game works. Language games involving words like "small" or "red" can be successful and people can use these words to cooperate with others. And yet, ultimately these words do not have a meaning in the sense of a tight semantics. It is just that most of the time these games work. It is fine to say, "the light is green and we can go," even though the color word "green" does not actually have a semantics.


Nowadays several qualified technologies have been established for the manufacturing of precision moulds. The fields of application can mainly be divided into moulds for non-optical and optical components. For optical moulding inserts the development goes from basic rotational symmetric geometries to complex surfaces like steep aspheres and freeforms which can additionally be overlaid with microstructures. The moulded components require a figure accuracy in the (sub-) micrometer and surface roughness in the nanometer range while moulds for replication also need advanced materials with high surface integrity. Here, diamond machining processes, e.g. diamond turning and milling as well as precision grinding and polishing are necessary for the manufacturing of precision moulding inserts from various materials. Depending on the material and application of the applied part to be replicated different replication techniques are used like injection moulding of plastics, hot embossing and precision moulding of optical glasses. For non-optical applications the current technical progress is driven by miniaturized products which are typically produced in mass production by replication techniques like hot embossing or metal forming. Each of these processes requires specific properties of the mould. Therefore, the surface topography and tribological conditions are of particular importance.


Background:
Information communication technologies (ICTs) have become a popular leisure platform. Psychological recovery during our leisure time is vital to replenish psychological and cognitive resources spent at work. In this paper I test whether intensive ICT use for private purposes can be an effective recovery strategy after work through a diary study.
Methods
A total of 320 people completed the baseline survey. Of these, 84 participants responded to the diary over 4 consecutive days, 3 times a day (before lunch, after work and before going to bed). This led to 880 data points. Items from validated instruments were used (e.g. Compulsive Internet Use (CIU) (Meerkerk, 2010) psychological recovery, Sonnentag, (2007)).
Findings
The impact of intensive Internet use on recovery appears to be moderated by trait levels of CIU. At high levels of CIU, the relationship between daily intensive Internet use and recovery before bed was negative (b=–1.18, SE=0.37, p<0.001), the opposite happened at low levels of CIU.
Discussion: The findings suggest that for compulsive users, there seems to be a price to pay for 'easy access' to recovery activities, whereas non-compulsive users do experience positive effects from intensive ICT use. Thus, it is important that we experiment and test the real impact of after-work leisure activities on our health and amend these habits accordingly. Do these activities really help us feel more energised and more relaxed (i.e. recovered)? Or is it just a way to shut down uncomfortable emotions (e.g. frustration, anger or stress)?


Sailing competitions during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro took place in the sewage polluted Guanabara Bay.1 After strong media exposure a year before the Games, World Sailing deployed a medical team to study the impact of the environment on participants, particularly to assess the epidemiology and impact of travellers' diarrhoea (TD) on athletes participating in the pre-Olympic test event in August 2015.2

In sailing, competitors may come into direct contact with the water. They are occasionally splashed with water and boats may capsize, depending on the wind conditions and the type of boat.3 Sailing techniques can include taking the ropes into the mouth to have the hands free for manoeuvring the boat. Breaks in regattas are used to offer sailors fluid replacement and nutrition which opens the possibility for infection from soiled hands.

A total of 688 persons participated in the Aquec Rio 2015 sailing event and received a questionnaire from the cross-sectional study; 396 questionnaires were included in the study (response rate 57.6%). Classic severe TD is usually defined as at least three unformed bowel movements occurring within a 24-hour period, often accompanied by cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever and/or blood in the stools. Moderate TD is defined as one …


The author analyses the Supreme Court of Appeal decision in Allaclas Investments (Pty) Ltd v Milnerton Golf Club and concludes that there is a good explanation for the seemingly harsh decision to interdict the golf club from proceeding with its normal business until the danger posed for the appellants by stray golf balls had been eliminated. Comparing the decision to the Cape High Court decision in Laskey v Showzone CC, where the offending neighbour was allowed to continue doing business while eliminating the cause of the nuisance, the author argues that the difference between the two decisions is explained by the long-established distinction between nuisance in the narrow sense (annoyance), which disturbs or hinders neighbours in the use and enjoyment of their property, and nuisance in the wider sense, which involves actual damage to property or personal injury. With reference to comparable case law regarding stray golf and cricket balls in English, Australian, Canadian and German law, the author concludes that the normal reasonable tolerance principle should not find application in the latter category of cases, where the mere fact of significant harm or damage renders the action unlawful and actionable. The article also explores the implications of this conclusion for the notions of abuse of rights and 'coming to the nuisance'.


Purpose: The aim of the study to explore the relationship between HRM practices and job satisfaction of Ukrainian employees working in Poland. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper applies a quantitative methodology. The study is based on questionnaires conducted in Ukraine and filled in by 441 people who had worked and continue work in Poland. Findings: The results demonstrate that there is a significant relationship between HRM practices, particularly around compensation and reward, applied in the case of employees from Ukraine, and their job satisfaction. Practical Implications: The findings of this research are beneficial for HRM managers in Polish enterprises who hire employees from Ukraine and would like to satisfy them and retain them longer, as they confirm the importance of certain practices and facilitate their efficient selection. Originality/Value: This research is valuable in terms of recognizing the relationship between the use of certain Human Resources Management practices in Polish enterprises and Ukrainian employees job satisfaction.


The objective of this paper is to present an update of various research activities of a multi-year research and development project aiming at developing dynamic positioning (DP) system technologies specifically for ice-rich environments. Since the beginning of the project in 2014, significant progress has been made in various activities that aimed at achieving the primary project objective of improving the safety and efficiency of oil and gas operations in ice infested environments through the enhancement of existing DP system technologies for efficient operations and training of DP operators in simulated realistic ice environments by providing necessary exposure to DP operations in ice. Prototypes of multiple vessel models, ice force models, and other environmental force models have been developed and are being validated. A modularized simulation and validation platform has been developed for the integration, validation, testing of all these prototypes. The research team at the National Research Council's Ocean Coastal and River Engineering (NRC-OCRE) is on the verge of delivering the complete package of the simulation platform to the project lead, the Centre for Marine Simulation (CMS) at the Fisheries and Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University of Newfoundland, for comprehensive checking and testing of the platform by the project commercial partner Kongsberg Digital Simulation (KDS) Ltd.
 In this article, an update on various activities regarding the physical model testing, numerical modeling and development of simulation platform is presented. Various modules of the prototype validation platform and their integration are discussed along with their current development status. A brief discussion on various components of the ice force modeling approach, the algorithms and implementation strategies is provided. Finally, the initial results of a number of DP in ice simulation cases and comparison with validation data is presented. A brief outline of the work remaining to be completed for achieving the project objectives, along with the associated limitations are also provided.


This paper presents the specification, design, and development of the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) on the European Space Agency's Gaia mission. Starting with the rationale for the full six dimensions of phase space in the dynamical modelling of the Galaxy, the scientific goals and derived top-level instrument requirements are discussed, leading to a brief description of the initial concepts for the instrument. The main part of the paper is a description of the flight RVS, considering the optical design, the focal plane, the detection and acquisition chain, and the as-built performance drivers and critical technical areas. After presenting the pre-launch performance predictions, the paper concludes with the post-launch developments and mitigation strategies, together with a summary of the in-flight performance at the end of commissioning.


Many marine energy systems designers and developers are beginning to implement composite materials into the load-bearing structures of their devices, but traditional mold-making costs for composite prototyping are disproportionately high and lead times can be long. Furthermore, established molding techniques for marine energy structures generally require many manufacturing steps, such as secondary bonding and tooling. This research explores the possibilities of additively manufactured internal composite molds and how they can be used to reduce costs and lead times through novel design features and processes for marine energy composite structures. In this approach, not only can the composite mold be additively manufactured but it can also serve as part of the final load-bearing structure. We developed a conceptual design and implemented it to produce a reduced-scale additive/composite tidal turbine blade section to fully demonstrate the manufacturing possibilities. The manufacturing was successful and identified several critical features that could expedite the tidal turbine blade manufacturing process, such as single-piece construction, an integrated shear web, and embedded root fasteners. The hands-on manufacturing also helped identify key areas for continued research to allow for efficient, durable, and low-cost additive/composite-manufactured structures for future marine energy systems.


Efficient and informative visualization of surfaces with uncertainties is an important topic with many applications in science and engineering. In these applications, the correct course of action may depend not only on the location of a boundary, but on the precision with which that location is known. Examples include environmental pollution borderline detection, oil basin edge characterization, or discrimination between cancerous and healthy tissue in medicine. We present a method for producing visualizations of surfaces with uncertainties using points as display primitives. Our approach is to render the surface as a collection of points and to displace each point from its original location along the surface normal by an amount proportional to the uncertainty at that point. This approach can be used in combination with other techniques such as pseudocoloring to produce efficient and revealing visualizations. The basic approach is sufficiently flexible to allow natural extensions; we show incorporation of expressive modulation of opacity, change of the stroke primitive, and addition of an underlying polygonal model. The method is used to visualize real and simulated tumor formations with uncertainty of tumor boundaries. The point-based technique is compared to pseudocoloring for a position estimation task in a preliminary user study.


The research work was conducted on the tomato hybrid F1 Мо 755 × L. esculentum var racemigerum (Lange) Brezh. The individual characteristics of the reproductive system of tomato F1 hybrid were studied for their further inclusion into the selection programs. The dynamics of these factors in regard to the clusters in the tomato inflorescence was investigated.


Abstract Objective: The Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE) is one of the most commonly used aphasia batteries. The newest edition has undergone significant revisions since its original publication in 1972, but existing evidence for its validity is lacking. We examined the construct validity of BDAE-3 and identified the factor structure of this battery. Method: A total of 355 people with aphasia of various types and severity completed neuropsychological evaluations to assess their patterns of language impairment. A principal component analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to examine the components of BDAE-3 subtests. Results: Five components accounting for over 70% of the BDAE-3 total variance were found. The five language factors identified were auditory comprehension/ideomotor praxis, naming and reading, articulation-repetition, grammatical comprehension, and phonological processing. Conclusions: Our results show that the BDAE-3 demonstrates good construct validity, and certain language functions remain primary, distinct language domains (i.e., receptive vs. expressive language) across severities of aphasia. Overall, our findings inform clinical practice by outlining the inherent structure of language abilities in people with aphasia. Clinicians can utilize the findings to select core BDAE-3 tests that are most representative of their respective functions, thereby reducing the total testing time while preserving diagnostic sensitivity. (JINS, 2019, 25, 772–776)


Real time passenger information (RTPI) is commonly available in urban areas for immediately before and during journeys; however, non-urban areas (e.g. suburban, rural, and remote areas) often have little or no access to it. One of the main challenges in providing RTPI in rural areas is the lack of infrastructure for obtaining real time vehicle location, and for providing information to passengers. In the Informed Rural Passenger Project, we attempt to address this problem through the use of passengers' smartphones. We have developed GetThere, a smartphone app that crowdsources travel information, including vehicle location, from the passengers. This information is then integrated using linked data principles with open data from various sources, and used by various web services to provide RTPI to travellers in rural areas. Initial evaluation of the GetThere system has been performed on urban, suburban, and rural bus routes in the North East of Scotland.


A handcrafted, low cost sustainable electrochemical sensor based on graphite/PLA was developed and applied for the simultaneous quantification of Pb2+ and Cd2+ in jewelry (metallic ores) on the basis of square-wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV). The proposed electrode was characterized by different complementary strategies such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray Micro Computed Tomography (μCT), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Experimental results showed that the developed electrode exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, with accurate and well-resolved voltammetric responses for the analytes assessed. Under optimized conditions, experiments led to linear ranges from 0.9 to 35.0 μg L−1 for Cd2+, and from 1.2 to 35.0 μg L−1 for Pb2+, with detection limits estimated as 0.3 μg L−1 and 0.4 μg L−1, respectively. The fabricated electrode was successfully applied to the fast simultaneous quantification of Pb2+ and Cd2+ in jewelry samples and the findings were in agreement to those reached by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF AAS).


We define and study a natural weak metric on the Teichmuller space of the torus. A similar metric has been defined by W. Thurston on the Teichmuller space of higher genus surfaces and our definition is motivated by Thurston's definition. However, we shall see that in the case of the torus, this metric has a different behaviour than on higher genus surfaces.


Viruses can be used by both States and terrorists as biological weapons, but using them on a wide scale requires considerable technical knowledge and facilities. Many viruses can be spread by aerosols, potentially infecting large populations. Various agents have been proposed as potential weapons, but smallpox has received the greatest attention and was successfully weaponised by the Soviet Union. Smallpox vaccine has been stockpiled and new drugs and vaccines developed. Other potential agents suggested in the literature include Ebola and Marburg viruses, although these are very difficult to produce in quantity. Terrorists could however use any agent and rarely follow textbook scenarios. In response to the threat of bioterrorism a substantial research and public health infrastructure has been created, which could be useful in dealing with natural events. The main defence is education of clinicians and the public as the greatest effect of these weapons is fear and panic.

Key Concepts:

Viruses are potential biological weapons, and many viruses are infectious by the aerosol route even if they are normally transmitted by vectors.

Smallpox has received most attention as a potential biological threat.

Knowledge, skills, research and public health infrastructure are the best defence for bioterrorism.

Standard principles of infection control and public health apply to bioterrorist incidents.

Nature is the greatest bioterrorist and the infrastructure developed for deliberate acts supports real events.

Keywords:

bioterrorism;
smallpox;
haemorrhagic fever;
preparedness;
vaccine;
antiviral;
aerosol


We present a new generalized topological current in terms of the order parameter field φ to describe the arbitrary dimensional topological defects. By virtue of the φ-mapping method, we show that the topological defects are generated from the zero points of the order parameter field φ, and the topological charges of these topological defects are topological quantized in terms of the Brouwer degrees of φ-mapping under the condition that the Jacobian J(φ/v)≠0. When J(φ/v)=0, it is shown that there exist the crucial case of branch process. Based on the implicit function theorem and the Taylor expansion, we detail the bifurcation of generalized topological current and find different directions of the bifurcation. The arbitrary dimensional topological defects are found splitting or merging at the degenerate point of field function φ but the total charge of the topological defects is still unchanged.


We analyse optical EPR experimental data performed by Weihs et al in Innsbruck 1997–1998. We show that for some linear combinations of the raw coincidence rates, the experimental results display some anomalous behaviour that a more general source state (like non-maximally entangled state) cannot straightforwardly account for. We attempt to explain these anomalies by taking account of the relative efficiencies of the four channels. For this purpose, we use the fair sampling assumption, and assume explicitly that the detection efficiencies for the pairs of entangled photons can be written as a product of the two corresponding detection efficiencies for the single photons. We show that this explicit use of fair sampling cannot be maintained to be a reasonable assumption as it leads to an apparent violation of the no-signalling principle.