Much of the promise of governing Africa's land market since the 2000s has rested on reforms aimed
at getting the right institutions in place, sometimes by creating new hybrid regimes to make formal
and customary administration more compatible. Such 'institutional fix' strategies are often frustrated
because the new institutions themselves are embedded in existing structures and power relations that
shape the priorities, political preferences and interpretations of social actors affected by them. The
thesis argues that attempts to develop new hybrid institutions for land governance at the local level
in Ghana between 2003 to date under the Land Administration reforms illustrates this dynamic. By
providing greater understanding about the conflictual and political process of creating new hybrid
institutions in urban settings, the thesis aims to contribute to debates about how to operationalise
hybrid land governance practices at scale in ways that facilitate equitable land development.
Conclusions were drawn from case study analysis of three urban communities that have benefitted
from a long period of government's attempts to institutionalize new hybrid institutions for land
governance: Gbawe in the Ga south municipality (Accra), Ejisu and Juaben both located in the Ejisu-
Juaben municipal area (Kumasi). Building on historical institutionalism and ideational theories, the
analyses focused on why attempts to make customary tenure and statutory law compatible under the
Ghana Land Administration Program are producing widely diverging outcomes in the country. The
thesis explores this divergence in relation to three critical aspects of urban transformation: land
governance, local land use planning and urban land value capture.
The research results suggest that whether state interventions induce institutional change or not
depends on customary actors' political priorities and the extent to which they valued compatibility
between customary and formal institutions. These differing political priorities impelled customary
actors in Gbawe and Juaben to implement the new hybrid arrangements by preparing the ground.
Customary actors prepared the ground by reflecting on existing institutional arrangements, conceiving
and 'selling' persuasive new proposals that appealed to shared cultural understandings of targeted
supporters. On the contrary, in Ejisu customary actors' political priorities incentivized overriding these
new hybrid institutions in the interests of political and economic gain. This study argues that the
chances of achieving transformative hybrid regimes in land governance is enhanced when
government's layering efforts when they activate existing potentials generated by supportive
customary actors, and when it limits their ability to counter change. In addition, it suggests that
theories of institutional change that focus on the largely theorized positive outcomes of hybrid
regimes may miss the extent to which existing institutional context and the actors empowered within
them can shape the course of reform, either by (un)intentionally interpreting or redeploying new
institutions to new goals that may be inconsistent with national land policy objectives.


Efficient rendering of photo‐realistic virtual worlds is a long standing effort of computer graphics. Modern graphics techniques have succeeded in synthesizing photo‐realistic images from hand‐crafted scene representations. However, the automatic generation of shape, materials, lighting, and other aspects of scenes remains a challenging problem that, if solved, would make photo‐realistic computer graphics more widely accessible. Concurrently, progress in computer vision and machine learning have given rise to a new approach to image synthesis and editing, namely deep generative models. Neural rendering is a new and rapidly emerging field that combines generative machine learning techniques with physical knowledge from computer graphics, e.g., by the integration of differentiable rendering into network training. With a plethora of applications in computer graphics and vision, neural rendering is poised to become a new area in the graphics community, yet no survey of this emerging field exists. This state‐of‐the‐art report summarizes the recent trends and applications of neural rendering. We focus on approaches that combine classic computer graphics techniques with deep generative models to obtain controllable and photorealistic outputs. Starting with an overview of the underlying computer graphics and machine learning concepts, we discuss critical aspects of neural rendering approaches. Specifically, our emphasis is on the type of control, i.e., how the control is provided, which parts of the pipeline are learned, explicit vs. implicit control, generalization, and stochastic vs. deterministic synthesis. The second half of this state‐of‐the‐art report is focused on the many important use cases for the described algorithms such as novel view synthesis, semantic photo manipulation, facial and body reenactment, relighting, free‐viewpoint video, and the creation of photo‐realistic avatars for virtual and augmented reality telepresence. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the social implications of such technology and investigate open research problems.


Using a data set of highly cited researchers in all fields of science, we show that the gap in scientific performance between Europe, especially continental Europe, and the USA is large. We model the number of highly cited researchers in a sample of countries as a function of physical and human capital and a country-specific, factor-augmenting Hicks-neutral productivity term. We find that differences in productivity between Anglo-Saxon countries and other countries are not solely due to differences in the levels of inputs. Not surprisingly, our results reveal the importance of English proficiency. However, they also show that the governance and design of research institutions that characterize Anglo-Saxon countries, as well as a few other countries that have similar institutions, is another critical factor for research output.


OBJECTIVE: Previous reports on pregnancy in homozygous sickle cell (SS) disease are biased by hospital-based, more severely affected subjects and may have underestimated recurrent early pregnancy losses. We report pregnancy outcome in a representative sample of SS subjects subsequently referred to as "subjects" or "sickle cell subjects," and matched normal controls followed from birth. METHODS: The outcomes of 94 pregnancies in 52 subjects and 157 pregnancies in 68 controls followed in a cohort study from birth are presented. Outcome measures included the age at menarche, interval to first pregnancy, outcome of pregnancy, and maternal complications. Possible predictors of low birth weight are assessed. Outcomes were compared by the Kaplan-Meier analysis for interval to first pregnancy and by Student t test, χ2 test, or Fisher exact test, as appropriate. Correction was made for multiple testing, and multiple linear regression was used for analysis of birth weight. RESULTS: Compared with controls, SS subjects had later menarche (median age 15.4 versus 13.0 years) and first pregnancy (median age 23.7 versus 20.1 years), and more spontaneous abortions (36% versus 10%). Babies of SS subjects had a lower gestational age (P < .001) and lower birth weight (P < .001), the latter being significantly affected by sickle-related events in pregnancy. There was no difference in pregnancy-induced hypertension, preeclampsia, or antepartum or postpartum hemorrhage, but a retained placenta was marginally more common in SS subjects (Fisher exact test, P = .007 after adjustment for multiple testing). Two SS subjects died, a mortality rate of 2.1%. CONCLUSION: The increased fetal loss and maternal morbidity in mothers with homozygous sickle cell disease is confirmed. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-2


Coal gangue and limestone were used as raw materials with fluorite and gypsum as the mineralizer. The activation mechanism of calcined coal gangue with calcium and the pore structure of its hydrating slurry are discussed. The experimental results show that during calcinations F- and [SO4]2- come into the framework and react deeper with CaO at 850-950°C to create hydraulic-activity C12A7 and C2S. Pore structure analysis of the hydrating slurry indicates that adding gypsum and fluorite into coal gangue is more propitious to strengthen the slurry and optimize the pore distribution than only of gypsum.


A survey of adolescents (N = 1,488) documented third-person perception (TPP) regarding Facebook use and cyber bullying. As Facebook establishes itself as the dominant social network, users expose themselves to a level of bullying not possible in the analog world. The study found that 84% of adolescents (middle school through college undergraduates) use Facebook, and that most users log on daily. While 30% of the sample reported being cyber bullied, only 12.5% quit using the site, and only 18% told a parent or school official. Despite heavy use and exposure, adolescents exhibit TPP, believing others are more likely to be negatively affected by Facebook use. The study contributes to the TPP literature, by linking the perceptual bias to self-protective behaviors. A range of self-protective behaviors from precautionary (deleting or blocking abusive users) to reactionary (quitting Facebook) were related to decreased degrees of TPP. TPP was also related to optimistic bias, experience, liking of and use of Facebook, and perceived subjective norms and age. Implications for prevention education are discussed.


Abstract Fire is often used in northern grasslands to control invasive grass species but has unknown effects on Tamarix spp., more recent invaders. Temperature (using an oven as a fire surrogate) and duration combinations that would be most lethal to Tamarix seeds and seedlings were determined. Tamarix seeds were sown in soil-lined dishes, water added to saturation, and seedlings grown for 1 to 5 d. Seeds were also placed in water-saturated or dry soil just before temperature exposure (79 to 204 C [175 to 400 F]) by duration (1 to 5 min) treatments. After treatment, soil water loss was measured by weight difference, and surviving seedlings were counted for 6 d. Tamarix seedling establishment and survival decreased with increasing temperature and duration. The 5-d-old seedlings were the most affected. No 5-d-old seedlings survived 1- and 2-min exposures to 204 C, whereas 1-d-old seedlings had greater than 25% survival. If soils were saturated, two to four times more seedlings established following seed exposure to 177 and 204 C. Longer durations at lower temperatures were required to reduce Tamarix survival. Increasing duration from 2 to 5 min at 121 C decreased 5-d-old seedling survival from more than 80% to less than 10% and eliminated those seedlings at 149 C. Five minutes at 149 C decreased dry-soil seed viability to about 15%, whereas germination on saturated soils remained high (∼75%). No seeds survived the exposure to 177 and 204 C. Soil moisture loss values associated with 90% mortality of 5- and 1-d-old seedlings were 1.7 and 2.2%, respectively. On saturated soils, 90% of seeds died with 2.5% water loss. Under suitable conditions, fire can decrease Tamarix seedling survival. Fire may be useful for controlling Tamarix seedlings in northern grasslands and should be considered for management of new invasions. Nomenclature: Tamarix spp.: Chinese tamarisk, Tamarix chinensis Lour. TAACH; saltcedar, Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. TAARA. Management Implications: Tamarix can invade moist-soil grasslands in the Northern Great Plains, and it is necessary to treat seedlings before they become well-established. Fire is an important management tool used to control nonnative grasses in northern grasslands, but this practice may also minimize Tamarix spread from seed. Although temperatures and durations associated with prescribed grassland fire are reported to be minimal, under appropriate conditions controlled burns in northern grasslands can provide soil surface temperatures and exposure periods lethal to most Tamarix seeds and developing seedlings. Deposited seeds are more likely to survive elevated temperatures than newly emerging seedlings but because seeds germinate rapidly upon wetting, fire will more likely encounter seedlings. To effectively control new infestations, Tamarix seedlings should be treated before they develop belowground perennating buds that generate new shoots following dormancy or disturbance. Repeated burning regimes are less likely to increase nonnative invasions in grasslands than other habitats suitable for Tamarix establishment because these ecosystems have evolved with this disturbance. Fire is, therefore, a viable option for Tamarix seedling control in northern grasslands, but burn programs should not target this species until more information is available.


Model inversion attacks are a type of privacy attack that reconstructs private data used to train a machine learning model, solely by accessing the model. Recently, white-box model inversion attacks leveraging Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to distill knowledge from public datasets have been receiving great attention because of their excellent attack performance. On the other hand, current black-box model inversion attacks that utilize GANs suffer from issues such as being unable to guarantee the completion of the attack process within a predetermined number of query accesses or achieve the same level of performance as white-box attacks. To overcome these limitations, we propose a reinforcement learning-based black-box model inversion attack. We formulate the latent space search as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) problem and solve it with reinforcement learning. Our method utilizes the confidence scores of the generated images to provide rewards to an agent. Finally, the private data can be reconstructed using the latent vectors found by the agent trained in the MDP. The experiment results on various datasets and models demonstrate that our attack successfully recovers the private information of the target model by achieving state-of-the-art attack performance. We emphasize the importance of studies on privacy-preserving machine learning by proposing a more advanced black-box model inversion attack.


Hepatitis C virus genotype 4 chronic hepatitis predominates in the Eastern Mediterranean region of the world. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as high as 62% of all cases are due to genotype 4 Results of efficacy and safety clinical trials using pegylated-interferon plus ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C patients have shown great promise, but treatment of early responders should be maintained at 180 μg of pegylated-interferon alfa-2a plus 1000-1200 mg of ribavirin for 48 weeks unlike the 24 weeks recommended for genotypes 2 and 3. Hepatitis C genotype 4 may not be as difficult to treat as initially thought.


Traffic safety evaluation is one of the most important processes in analyzing transportation systems performance. Traditional methods like statistical models and before-after comparisons have many drawbacks, such as limited time periods, sample size problems, and reporting errors. The advancement of traffic conflict techniques combined with microsimulation offers a potentially innovative way for conducting safety assessment of traffic systems even before safety improvements are implemented. In this paper, simulation-based safety studies are reviewed, and a modified simulation-based surrogate safety measure and a new simulation-based surrogate safety measure that can capture the probability of collisions, as well as the severity of these potential collisions, are proposed. Conceptual and computational logic of the proposed surrogate safety indicators are described in detail. These surrogate safety indices are initially proposed for link-based analysis and should not be used for other purposes, such as intersection safety assessment, without further enhancements, and the use of these indices should be limited to the analysis of linear conflicts. In addition, these link-based indices are extended to be able to conduct aggregate networkwide safety assessments. The proposed indices are validated by means of a well-calibrated traffic simulation model of a section of the New Jersey Turnpike and real accident data from the same section. Preliminary results indicate a strong relationship between the proposed surrogate safety measures and real accident data. Further research is needed to investigate these new surrogate safety indices under different locations and traffic conditions.


Using a cross-sectional data collected on 400 cocoa farmers from the Ashanti and Western Regions of Ghana, this paper provides empirical evidence on the impacts of cocoa agroforests on yield and household income. The propensity-score matching model was employed. The heterogeneity of high, medium and low shade adopters is statistically addressed. The empirical results generally indicate that adoption of cocoa agroforests has significant positive impacts on yield and household income. The impact on yields for low shade adopters was higher than medium shade and high shade adopters of cocoa agroforests. The paper provides useful policy recommendations based on the empirical magnitudes and directions on sustainable cocoa production and household welfare.


We consider a three-terminal state-dependent relay channel with the channel state available non-causally at only the source. Such a model may be of interest for node cooperation in the framework of cognition, i.e., collaborative signal transmission involving cognitive and non-cognitive radios. We study the capacity of this communication model. One principal problem in this setup is caused by the relay's not knowing the channel state. In the discrete memoryless (DM) case, we establish lower bounds on channel capacity. For the Gaussian case, we derive lower and upper bounds on the channel capacity. The upper bound is strictly better than the cut-set upper bound. We show that one of the developed lower bounds comes close to the upper bound, asymptotically, for certain ranges of rates.


The present study aimed to assess the adsorption of graphene with anticancer drug procarbazine in a gas and solvent phase (water) at the B3LYP/6-31G (d) theoretical level. Initially, the structures of procarbazine and graphene complexes were optimized in three configurations. Afterwards, IR calculations and molecular orbital analysis were performed. In addition, some important parameters were assessed, including the adsorption energy, Gibbs free energy changes (ΔGad), enthalpy (ΔHad) variations, thermodynamic equilibrium constant, specific heat capacity, chemical hardness, energy gap, and electrophilicity. According to the results, Gibbs free energy changes (ΔGad), enthalpy (ΔHad) variations, I-Isomer and II-Isomer and III-Isomer were negatives at various temperatures, throughout the temperature range of 298.15-310.15 K. Since according to the obtained results for adsorption of procarbazine on the graphene in I-Isomer and II-Isomer and III-Isomer were spontaneous at various temperatures, throughout the temperature range of 298.15-310.15 K. Structural properties calculated, including the density and length of C-N bonds, and the findings of the analysis of molecular orbitals indicated that the reactivity, electrophilicity, and conductivity of procarbazine are reduced after this reaction. Also the calculated specific heat capacity values indicated that graphene could be utilized as a sensing material in the construction of thermal biosensors for procarbazine determination.


The interaction of icebergs (of glacial origin) and pressure ridge ice keels (formed from frozen sea water) with the seabed is recognized as an important consideration in the development of hydrocarbon resources in both the arctic and eastern offshore regions of Canada. To understand the detrimental effect of a scouring ice mass upon the integrity of seafloor facilities such as wellheads, pipelines and submarine cables, a large amount of analytical, experimental and phenomenological research into ice keel scour has been undertaken. -- Concerns related to the ice keel scour phenomenon are currently being addressed within a joint industry and government sponsored research program entitled the Pressure Ridge Ice Scour Experiment (PRISE). The objective of this program is to develop the expertise and understanding required for the safe and economical engineering of offshore pipelines in regions prone to ice keel scour. Under the auspices of the PRISE program, a series of centrifuge modelling tests involving ice keel scour were undertaken. The centrifuge modelling program involved towing an instrumented model ice keel of set geometry across a model testbed at a set scour depth while under the influence of a centrifugal force. The objective of the tests was to measure scour-induced stresses and pore pressures, horizontal and vertical loads and model keel/ soil interface pressures. -- The results obtained during the experimental program involving ice keel scour in sand highlighted the importance of the static soil "dead wedge" beneath the model ice keel with respect to variation in scour loads and subscour soil displacements. Analysis of the results served to support Been's (1990) shear dragging hypothesis. The results also suggest that a linear relationship can be used to describe the variation of scour loads with depth.


The first harbour basin in Cape Town was the Alfred basin, excavated out of the rock behind the shoreline between 1860 and 1870, under the direction of the British engineer Sir John Coode. Excavation of a second basin landwards of the Alfred started in 1877 and the rock was used to create the breakwaters for what was to become the outer Victoria Basin. However, by the time that the excavations were complete, ships had increased in size significantly and the second basin was considered to be too constrained and was therefore not flooded. It became an oil storage tank farm until the start of the Waterfront development, and was then decommissioned and rehabilitated by the oil companies.


The idea is to implement a vision-aided inertial navigation system (INS) for estimating inertial measurement unit (IMU)-camera ego-motion. The system consists of a ground facing monocular camera mounted on an IMU that is observing ground plane feature points. The motion estimation procedure is through tracking detected corresponding feature points between two successive image frames. The main contribution of this paper is a novel closed-form measurement model based on the image data and IMU output signals. In contrast to existing methods, our algorithm is independent of the underlying vision algorithm such as image motion estimation or optical flow algorithms for camera motion estimation. Additionally, unlike the visual-SLAM based methods, our approach is not based on data association. The algorithm has been implemented using an Extended Kalman filter (EKF), which propagates the current and the last state of the system updated in the previous measurement state. Simulation results show that the introduced method is persistent to the level of the noise and works well even with few numbers of features.


We present a validation model for the dynamic source routing (DSR) protocol. This model includes a formal specification of the protocol and a set of scenarios. The scenarios test the conformance of a given implementation to some targeted system functionalities. The DSR protocol has been specified following the IETF draft [D.B. Johnson, et al., (2003)]. The formal specification has been performed using the SDL language and the scenarios have been generated from the specification using a method and a tool developed at INT [A. Cavalli, et al., (1999)]. The test generation method is based on a set of test purposes that express specific system properties and is completely automated. We also present the experimentation results of the application of our tool to the DSR protocol.


We investigate theoretically nonlinear transmission in space-division multiplexed (SDM) systems using multimode fibers exhibiting rapidly varying birefringence. A primary objective is to generalize the Manakov equations, well known in the case of single-mode fibers. We first investigate the case where linear coupling among spatial modes of the fiber is weak and derive new Manakov equations after averaging over random birefringence fluctuations. Such an averaging reduces the number of intermodal nonlinear terms drastically since all four-wave-mixing terms vanish. Cross-phase modulation terms still affect multimode transmission but their effectiveness is reduced. We verify the accuracy of new Manakov equations by simulating the transmission of multiple 114-Gb/s bit streams in the PDM-QPSK format over different modes of a multimode fiber and comparing the numerical results with those obtained by solving the full stochastic equations. The agreement is excellent in all cases studied. A major benefit of the new Manakov equations is that they typically reduce the computation time by more than a factor of 10. Our results show that birefringence fluctuations improve system performance by reducing the impact of fiber nonlinearities. The extent of improvement depends on the fiber design and how many spatial modes are used for SDM transmission. We also consider the case where all spatial modes experience strong random linear coupling modeled using a random matrix. We derive new Manakov equations in this regime and show that the impact of some nonlinear effects can be reduced relatively to single-modes fibers. Finally, we extend our analysis to multicore fibers and show that the Manakov equations obtained in the strong- and weak-coupling regimes can still be used depending on the extent of coupling among fiber cores.


Autosomal recessive ataxias are much less well studied than autosomal dominant ataxias and there are no clearly defined systems to classify them. Autosomal recessive ataxias, which are characterized by neuronal and multisystemic features, have significant overlapping symptoms with other complex multisystemic recessive disorders. The generation of animal models of neurodegenerative disorders increases our knowledge of their cellular and molecular mechanisms and helps in the search for new therapies. Among animal models, the zebrafish, which shares 70% of its genome with humans, offer the advantages of being small in size and demonstrating rapid development, making them optimal for high throughput drug and genetic screening. Furthermore, embryo and larval transparency allows to visualize cellular processes and central nervous system development in vivo. In this review, we discuss the contributions of zebrafish models to the study of autosomal recessive ataxias characteristic phenotypes, behavior, and gene function, in addition to commenting on possible treatments found in these models. Most of the zebrafish models generated to date recapitulate the main features of recessive ataxias.


Individually-tailored approach is recommended in designing the mode of treatment and extent of surgery for thyroid tumors. In cases of papillary and follicular tumors, the main therapy should be surgery to make sure that pre- and paratracheal fat is removed. Radical surgery on the neck is not indicated unless there are metastases. Combined treatment may be used in cases of medulla and poorly-differentiated cell cancer. Application of 131I may be recommended in cases of apparent metastasis or when there is no convincing evidence that surgery was radical enough since the 10-year data on treatment of differentiated cell cancer make up 90%.


: This paper represents the second of a series of papers documenting the design/development process of an individualized instructional module concerning oral implantology. This module was specifically designed for predoctoral dental students. The first paper discussed the rationale for the module and the initial field testing of the preliminary module. This paper examines the design and development of the oral implantology instructional module given to second and third year predoctoral dental students at the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Morphological characteristics of comparative-anatomical formation of extra-organic and organic arteries and microcirculatory bed architectonics in duodenum of 312 certain representatives of all classes of vertebrates was given. It was shown that two groups of vessels qualitatively different in form and type of branching formed in the process of historical development: arteries with magistral-arcuate form of branching of non-anastomosing type and that with magistral-annular form of branching. The appearance of arterio-venular anastomosis type junctions in latter ones between one side of the intestine and veins of the opposite side provides the phenomenon of bilateral non-capillary countercurrent organic circulation. Microcirculatory bed of part of the villi completely lacked capillaries, while arterioles were connected with venules expertionally by arterio-venular anastomoses.


Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) is one of the several important bacterial pathogens associated with the sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Different serotypes are either capsulated or are non-capsulated. It has been demonstrated that P. gingivalis (non-capsulated) can reproduce the neurodegenerative AD-like changes in vitro, and a capsular P. gingivalis (strain W83) could reproduce the cardinal hallmark lesions of AD in a wild-type mouse model. All P. gingivalis forms express proteolytically active proteases that enable cleavage of the amyloid-β protin precursor (AβPP) and tau resulting in the formation of amyloid-β and neurofibrillary tangles. Tau is an established substrate for gingipains, which can cleave tau into various peptides. Some of the P. gingivalis fragmented tau protein peptides contain "VQIINK" and "VQIVYK" hexapeptide motifs which map to the flanking regions of the microtubule binding domains and are also found in paired helical filaments that form NFTs. P. gingivalis can induce peripheral inflammation in periodontitis and can also initiate signaling pathways that activate kinases, which in turn, phosphorylate neuronal tau. Periodontal disease related inflammation has metabolic implications for an individual's peripheral and brain health as patients suffering from generalized periodontitis often have related co-morbidities and are "at risk" of developing AD. The aim here is to discuss the role of P. gingivalis behind such associations with the backdrop of huge efforts to test P. gingivalis virulence factors clinically (GAIN Trial: Phase 2/3 Study of COR388 in Subjects with AD) with inhibitors, which may lead to an intervention by reducing the pathogenic bacterial load.


Receptor-mediated activation of heterotrimeric G proteins leading to dissociation of the G (cid:97) subunit from G (cid:98)(cid:103) is a highly conserved signaling strategy used by numerous extracellular stimuli. Although G (cid:98)(cid:103) subunits regulate a variety of effectors, including kinases, cyclases, phospholipases, and ion channels (Clapham, D.E., and E.J. Neer. 1993. Nature (Lond.). 365:403–406), few tools exist for probing instantaneous G (cid:98)(cid:103) -effector interactions, and little is known about the kinetic contributions of effectors to the signaling process. In this study, we used the atrial muscarinic K (cid:49) channel, which is activated by direct interactions with G (cid:98)(cid:103) subunits (Logothetis, D.E., Y. Kurachi, J. Galper, E.J. Neer, and D.E. Clap. 1987. Nature (Lond.). 325:321–326; Wickman, K., J.A. Iniguez-Liuhi, P.A. Davenport, R. Taussig, G.B. Krapivinsky, M.E. Linder, A.G. Gilman, and D.E. Clapham. 1994. Nature (Lond.). 366: 654–663; Huang, C.-L., P.A. Slesinger, P.J. Casey, Y.N. Jan, and L.Y. Jan. 1995. Neuron. as a sensitive of the dynamics of G (cid:98)(cid:103) -effector interactions. Muscarinic K (cid:49) channels exhibit bursting behavior upon G protein activation, shifting between three distinct functional modes, characterized by the frequency of channel openings during individual bursts. Acetylcholine concentration (and by inference, the concentration of activated G (cid:98)(cid:103) ) controls the fraction of time spent in each mode without changing either the burst duration or channel gating within individual modes. The picture which emerges is of a G (cid:98)(cid:103) effector with allosteric regulation and an intrinsic "off" switch which serves to limit its own activation. These two features combine to establish exquisite channel sensitivity to changes in G (cid:98)(cid:103) concentration, and may be indicative of the factors regulating other G (cid:98)(cid:103) -modu-lated effectors.


Taking leave from obstacles to the creation of an 'environmental public' in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa and the political silencing and objectification of both nature and racialised subjects, this article interrogates and seeks to expand a specific figure: that of the witness. In the broader, global context of environmental violence, the witness – who, according to classical theories of testimony, is a sovereign subject who speaks in their own name – is considered in the context of constructed categories of active/passive and subject/object as these play out across race, nature and shifting conceptions of the human. The title, 'the future of the witness', prompts two questions: (i) In the context of (missing) environmental publics, in what ways we must reconceptualise the figure of the witness – on ontological, epistemological and political levels – as we move into the future? (ii) Faced with ever-escalating Anthropocenic destruction, is it possible for a witness to testify not only to past events and experiences, as per the generally accepted temporal schema of witnessing, but also to ongoing experiences that unfold into the future? In responding to these questions, it is argued (a) that the witness can no longer be considered as an isolated figure, but rather must be conceived as part of a testimonial constellation; and (b) that, in responding to ecological concerns, this constellation must be a more-than-human collective: an entangled form of sociality between humans and nonhumans that does not take recourse to modernist categories of 'human' and 'nature'.

Moving, via South Africa, from the European Holocaust to global humanitarian and forensic practices, through European and North American science and technology studies as well as Amerindian thinking, the article gathers a generalised set of questions and propositions that might in turn be folded back into specific locales. Key is the classic postcolonial question of who ought to or has the right to speak in the name of whom. Where the witness is often denied self-representation or, more gravely, entirely absent or missing, the article surveys various practices of supplementary witnessing. However, such practices ofen find themselves caught within a representational dilemma whereby, despite the necessity of defending the rights of humans and nonhumans alike, 'speaking for' or 'giving voice' to dispossessed or missing subjects – including nature – runs the risk of further replicating the original colonial matrix of being, knowledge and power that is being contested. Drawing from aesthetic and speculative practices, the article asks what possible strategies might be available for navigating the challenges of representation and for conceiving of more-than-human environmental publics that contest the neoliberal indivisualization of responsibilty and actively bear witness both to unfolding environmental degradation and possible more liveable futures.


The way health care is billed in the U.S. system is part of the reason costs are so high. WellPoint, one of the largest providers of health care benefits and insurance in the U.S., is using analytics to change its provider payment system. The goal: promote a health care system based on value, not the volume of services. This Data & Analytics Case Study takes an in-depth look at how WellPoint went from idea to implementation, working with physicians and IT staff to build its Enhanced Personal Health Care program.


Motivated by historical and present clinical observations, we discuss the possible unfavorable evolution of the immunity (similar to documented antibody-dependent enhancement scenarios) after a first infection with COVID-19. More precisely we ask the question of how the epidemic outcomes are affected if the initial infection does not provide immunity but rather sensitization to future challenges. We first provide background comparison with the 2003 SARS epidemic. Then we use a compartmental epidemic model structured by immunity level (taken here as age classes) that we fit on available data; this allows to derive quantitative insights into the future number of severe cases and deaths.


The collaborative research project SUPRA, intends to develop methodologies and advanced flight simulator concepts for teaching airline pilots to detect, and recover from adverse flight upsets that lead to unusual attitudes. The project is funded by the EU Seventh Framework Programme, in the area of Aeronautics and Air Transport. Research activities of SUPRA include: 1) extension of two existing aerodynamic models using systematic engineering methods and actual flight tests; 2) development of advanced motion cueing algorithms; 3) definition of self-motion perception criteria specifically for upset recovery profiles, including sustained G-loads. The integrated SUPRA concept will be evaluated in four high-performance research simulators. Two simulators (GRACE at the NLR; and the PSPK102 simulator at TsAGI) feature high fidelity civil cockpits on a Stewart platform, and are thus instrumental in answering the question if and how current level-D full flight simulators can be upgraded for adequate upset recovery training. Two other SUPRA simulators feature newgeneration moving bases: the Desdemona facility of AMST and TNO, and the MPS Robotic Simulator at the Max Planck Institute. The SUPRA project will investigate to what extent the unconventional large motion capabilities of both simulators are capable of simulating the extreme attitudes and G-loads relevant for successful upset recovery. The SUPRA project will run from mid 2009 to mid 2012.


Questions are used to obtain information, stimulate thinking, and redirect reasoning. Academics in higher education use questions on a daily basis to stimulate thinking and reasoning in students. Final examination papers are used by academics to assess the retention and application skills of students. The assumption, however, exists that questions relating to application skills at universities of technology should start to dominate the higher academic levels in education, with a subsequent drop in questions regarding retention skills. These questions may be categorized as either higher order or lower order questions. This article attempts to distinguish between these two types of questions in light of Bloom's taxonomy, with similar concepts such as deep and surface learning being examined. The literature review is applied to an electrical engineering module titled Electronics, which serves as the case study. The results of this study indicate that a high percentage of the final examination papers dealt with the objective ¿Application,¿ where students had to make use of numerous mathematical equations to solve various unknowns. The results also indicated that academics in electronics are using more lower order than higher order questions in their final examination papers. A balance is suggested between these two types of questions for various academic levels at universities of technology.


As the Web gradually evolves into the semantic web, the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) recommends that web ontology language (OWL) be used to encode semantic information content over the Web. Semantic web is an essential infrastructure to enhance Web to obtain better integration of information and intelligent use of web resources. Moreover, a web service is annotated by web ontology language for service (OWL-S) to form a semantic web service that, however, is a static description. The OWL-S based semantic web services thus are reactively invoked by users. How to dynamically coordinate, composite, or discover the services is an important issue.


Responder as an electronic product have been widely used in intelligence and knowledge competitions occasions. This paper developed a multiway responder with wireless communication technology. Its components, function, working principle and interface with microcontroller programming were described in detail. It consists of six modules - competition answer module, answering signal receiver module, SCM system, enactment module, display module, voice prompt module. It uses wireless transceiver chips FSK-2A/CZS-3 for short-range wireless data transmission. It uses codec chips PT2262/PT2272 for data encryption and decryption. It uses AT89S52 microcontroller as the core controller. Simulation by protues software well achieved the expected results. The designed responder is not only simple and easy to implement, but also practical and cheap.


Real-time and near real-time precise point positioning (PPP) requires shorter solution convergence time. Residual tropospheric delay, which exists as a result of the limitations of current tropospheric correction models, is a limiting factor for fast PPP convergence. To overcome the limitations of existing tropospheric models, we proposed a new approach. In this approach, the bulk of the tropospheric delay is accounted for using an empirical model, while the residual component is accounted for stochastically. The analysis of many daily tropospheric residuals data series for stations spanning North America shows that the residual component can be accounted for using an exponential cosine model. A random walk (RW) model was also developed and used along with the NOAA tropospheric corrections with Vienna Mapping Function 1. It is shown that the RW improved the accuracy of station coordinates within the PPP convergence time by a few centimetres.


Solid modeling of objects forms an important task in design and manufacturing. Recent developments in the field of layered manufacturing have shown potential for the physical realization of heterogeneous (multi-material) objects. Thus, there is a need to represent material information as an integral part of the CAD model data. Information models for the representation of product data are being developed as an international standard called STEP (ISO 10303). However, the current application protocols focus on the representation of homogeneous objects only. This paper proposes an information model to represent heterogeneous objects using the information modeling methodology developed for ISO 10303. This will help in providing a uniform base in the development of heterogeneous solid modeling systems. It will also equip the solid modeler with the ability to integrate with other applications and process planning in the domain of layered manufacturing.


In recent years, the research focus in multi-objective optimization has shifted from approximating the Pareto optimal front in its entirety to identifying solutions that are well-balanced among their objectives. Proper Pareto optimality is an established concept for eliminating Pareto optimal solutions that exhibit unbounded tradeoffs. Imposing a strict tradeoff bound allows specifying how many units of one objective one is willing to trade in for obtaining one unit of another objective. This notion can be translated to a dominance relation, which we denote by M-domination. The mathematical properties of M-domination are thoroughly analyzed in this paper yielding key insights into its applicability as decision making aid. We complement our work by providing four different geometrical descriptions of the M-dominated space given by a union of polyhedral cones. A geometrical description does not only yield a greater understanding of the underlying tradeoff concept, but also allows a quantification of the space dominated by a particular solution or an entire set of solutions. These insights enable us to formulate volume-based approaches for finding approximations of the Pareto front that emphasize regions that are well-balanced among their tradeoffs in subsequent works.


Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a group of geometrical and positional isomers of linoleic acid (C18:2, cis-9, cis-12). In contrast to linoleic acid, double bonds in CLA are usually located at positions 9 and 11 or 10 and 12 and each double bond can be either in the cis or trans configuration. Meat and dairy products from ruminant animals (such as milk, butter, yogurt and cheese) are the principal natural sources of CLA in the human diet. Egg and meat products from poultry contain less CLA than meat from ruminant animals (0.6 and 0.9 mg/g fat vs. 2.9 to 5.6 mg/g fat, respectively). Meat from turkeys contains much higher CLA relative to meat from chickens. Dietary CLA has been shown to have potent anticarcinogenic and antiatherogenic effects in animal models. CLA was also found to have a potent immune modulating activity characterized by increased blastogenesis and macrophage killing ability. In addition to these biological properties, CLA was reported to reduce body fat content and increase lean body mass in pigs and rodents. Because of these biological properties of CLA, recently there has been a lot of interest in enriching egg, meat and dairy products for human consumption.


This article discusses the concept of digital literacy and presents a digital literacy questionnaire containing questions related to the use of digital technologies and the level of digital literacy skills. It also reports the results of two studies that used the digital literacy questionnaire to investigate the digital literacy level of 100 English for academic purposes (EAP) students at a university in Australia and 70 English as a foreign language (EFL) students at a university in Japan and examine factors affecting their use of digital technologies for learning English. The findings of the studies provide some insights into the students' awareness and use of digital technologies and their views of the use of digital tools and resources for language learning. Each group showed a different level of expectations and needs in their digital literacy skills with a different background and experience. It is suggested that the expectations and needs of respondents to the digital literacy questionnaire should be taken into account when the results of the digital literacy questionnaire are presented and interpreted in different contexts.


Molecular Dynamics (MD) codes predict the fundamental properties of matter by following the trajectories of a collection of interacting model particles. To exploit diverse modern manycore hardware, efficient codes must use all available parallelism. At the same time they need to be portable and easily extendible by the domain specialist (physicist/chemist) without detailed knowledge of this hardware. To address this challenge, we recently described a new Domain Specific Language (DSL) for the development of performance portable MD codes based on a "Separation of Concerns": a Python framework automatically generates efficient parallel code for a range of target architectures.
Electrostatic interactions between charged particles are important in many physical systems and often dominate the runtime. Here we discuss the inclusion of long-range interaction algorithms in our code generation framework. These algorithms require global communications and careful consideration has to be given to any impact on parallel scalability. We implemented an Ewald summation algorithm for electrostatic forces, present scaling comparisons for different system sizes and compare to the performance of existing codes. We also report on further performance optimisations delivered with OpenMP shared memory parallelism.


The paper describes Grasshopper, an operating system designed to provide generic mechanisms capable of being tailored to support a wide range of persistence paradigms. A constraint placed on this design is that the system must be implementable on conventional architectures which support paged virtual memory. The basic system abstractions relating to addressing environments, processes, and protection are described. It is shown that these provide explicit support for distributed persistent objects and processes, stability, and access control. At the same time the system provides the flexibility to allow user implementation of alternative object management techniques.<<ETX>>


Standardization is one of the basic elements of technical translation for proper communication among the users of the target language text. Consistency in signifier-signified correspondence is vital to maintain proper tandardization. However, there are many instances (in translation) in which stylistic variation and inconsistency in using lexical items are confused. The problem arises and becomes serious when inconsistency is mistakenly considered as stylistic variation. Stylistic variation is a very well known literary device to avoid repetition in texts by employing synonyms. Inconsistency arises when a signifier which has been employed in the target language to signify a new borrowed concept is alternately used with any of its synonyms. The translator may create a kind of confusion when he uses a synonym to signify the same concept rather than the assigned lexical item. Therefore, the reader may not be able to follow the progress of the text assuming that there is a different meaning for each synonym. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different types of this phenomenon in English-Arabic translation.


The technique of simultaneous localization and mapping has received much attention recently in mobile robotics. When map is being built, robot memorizes environmental information on the plane of grid or topology. Several approaches about this research have been presented so far, but most of them use mapping technique as either grid-based map or topology-based map. This paper proposes some algorithms integrating grid and topology map and its performance is faster and more stable. The proposed scheme uses an occupancy grid map in representing the environment and then formulate topological information in path finding by A* algorithm. The localization process and the dynamic obstacle avoidance can be accomplished by topological information on grid map. On simulator mapping process is shown and the shortest path is decided on grid based map. Then topological information such as direction, distance is calculated on simulator program then transmitted to robot hardware devices. Three ultrasonic sensors and electronic compass are implemented on our mobile robot and two DC geared motor wheels are individually controlled by PD control method. Simulations and experimental results show the performance and efficiency of the proposed scheme.


Online courses taught using a learning management system are common in higher education. Teaching online requires a new set of skills, knowledge, and professional growth. Faculty development programs often overlook factors that promote or inhibit the use of technologies among professors. This study identified the motivation factors that faculty consider relevant to their personal decision to adopt a learning management system. A needs assessment evaluation methodology was applied to investigate two research questions. The first question analyzed the demographics of the participants in this study including gender, age, tenure status, department, and years of experience using a technology and using an LMS. The second research question investigated the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that motivate faculty to adopt a learning management system in their instruction. Participants (N = 42) were tenured and tenure track faculty instructing at a four-year public university in California.


Abstract Hippuritids, particularly those with multiple-folds, are one of the most characteristic components in uppermost Cretaceous rudist-bearing strata of the Caribbean Province. The hippuritid rudist fauna of the Chiapas Central Depression includes the following taxa: Vaccinites vermunti Mac Gillavry, 1937 and Barrettia cf. B. ruseae Chubb, 1967 from the early Campanian Suchiapa Formation; B. monilifera Woodward, 1862, B. gigas Chubb, 1955, and Parastroma trechmanni Chubb, 1967 from the mid Campanian Suchiapa Formation; and Praebarrettia sparcilirata (Whitfield, 1897) from the early Maastrichtian Ocozocoautla Formation. These six species are described herein in detail. New observations on the outer shell layer structure of the right valve and the pore-canal system of the left valve led to amending the diagnoses of the g|enera Barrettia Woodward, 1862, Parastroma Douvillé, 1926, and Praebarrettia Trechmann, 1924. Also, the revision of Chiapas' and other American species of multiple-fold hippuritids led to proposed changes in their generic adscription.


The present paper describes detailed kinetics investigations on some selected chlorine-solid reactions through thermogravimetric measurements. The solids studied in this article include chemical pure oxides and sulfides as well as their natural bearing materials. The chlorinating agents employed are gaseous mixtures of Cl 2 +N 2 (chlorination), Cl 2 +O 2 (oxychlorination), and Cl 2 +CO (carbochlorination). Results are presented as effects of various parameters on the reaction rate of these solids with these chlorinating agents. It was observed that the reactivity of these solids towards different chlorinating agents varied widely. Sulfides could be chlorinated at room temperature, while carbochlorination of chromium (III) oxide was possible only above 500 °C. The variation of the chlorination rate of these complex materials with respect to gas velocity, composition and temperature enabled us to focus some light on the plausible reaction mechanisms and stoichiometries. The obtained results were used for selective removal of iron from chromite concentrates, extraction of valuable metals from sulfide materials, purification of MgO samples, etc.


Eight growing Angus steer calves averaging 213 kg were fitted with abomasal infusion cannulae to compare feeding 455 g of soybean meal (SBM) daily with infusing 120 g SBM abomasally (26% of intake) on nitrogen (N) retention and plasma urea and amino acid levels. A reversal design was used in which each steer received a SBM-supplemented diet plus water abomasally and an unsupplemented diet (basal) plus 120 g of SBM infused abomasally. Feeding a normal intake of SBM or infusing 26% of SBM intake post-ruminally (abomasally) resulted in similar daily N retention (18.4 g N for fed steers and 18.8 g N for infused steers). Total urinary output (liter/day), as well as urinary N losses (g/day), was 6.8 vs. 5.2 and 44.1 vs. 24.0 for the fed and infused groups of steers, respectively (P less than .05). Nitrogen retained expressed as a percent of N intake was 7.2% higher for SBM infusion. Daily fecal dry matter excretion was .25 kg greater for steers infused with SBM. Plasma urea levels were higher (P less than .05) for SBM-fed steers at each 2-hr sampling interval for 8 hr after feeding. Plasma free amino acid levels were similar for both groups of steers.


This study reports on structural, thermal and dielectric properties of Polypyrrole (PPy) and Polypyrrole/copper(II) acetylacetonate composites. Interaction mechanisms between polymer and metal ions have been determined by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) have shown that whilst doping process does not influence PPy cold crystallisation temperature substantially, it does have a relatively higher influence on glass transition and degradation temperatures. Different microstructures on the surface morphology have been observed depending on the doping level through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Temperature dependent dielecharacterisation ielectric properties tric measurements have shown that doping process causes a relatively monotonic increase on the real dielectric constant of PPy at high frequencies when compared to low frequencies and such increase was found to be up to 105% for maximum doping level at 1 MHz frequency. Two different frequency regions in the frequency dependent conductivity have been observed under the power law for PPy and its composites. The charge transfer mechanism can be explained via correlated barrier hoping (CBH) model.


Evaluators wish to test candidates on their ability to propose the correct algorithmic approach to solve programming problems. Recently, several automated systems for grading programs have been proposed, but none of them address uncompilable codes. We present the first approach to grade uncompilable codes and provide semantic feedback on them using machine learning. We propose two methods that allow us to derive informative semantic features from programs. One of this approach makes the program compilable by correcting errors, while the other relaxes syntax/grammar rules to help parse uncompilable codes. We compare the relative efficacy of these approaches towards grading. We finally combine them to build an algorithm which rivals the accuracy of experts in grading programs. Additionally, we show that the models learned for compilable codes can be reused for uncompilable codes. We present case studies, where companies are able to hire more efficiently by deploying our technology.


Sustained growth in emerging markets and developing economies requires long-term, reliable capital to finance productive investment, including in basic infrastructure. However, the availability and composition of long-term financing is constrained, partly due to fragile market conditions and cyclical weaknesses in parts of the global economy, as well as longer-term trends. This has had a particularly negative impact on developing economies that do not have reliable access to international bond markets and on sectors that have traditionally relied on bank lending (such as infrastructure). At the same time, fiscal space has been eroded by the crisis, and the direct lending capacity of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) remains constrained. This heightens the importance of the catalytic role of the official sector in mobilizing long-term financing from the private sector by drawing on its ability to reduce and share risk. This note explores some of the ways in which MDBs are equipped to serve this purpose.


Single underage asylum seekers are granted a residence permit faster and more easily than their grown-up counterparts. Since the large majority of those applying for such a permit do not have any identification papers, objective assessment is necessary but often absent. Skeletal maturation as seen on an X-ray of the hand or the medial clavicle gives some indication of age, but cannot determine precisely whether the applicant is below or above 18 years of age. Furthermore, few studies have looked at the accuracy and reproducibility of these radiographic investigations, so their interpretation is mainly based on expert opinion. Doubt about the usefulness of the assessment of the medial clavicle is the subject of the article by Van Rijn and Robben in this journal. This discussion deals with some aspects of their study including the description of the study population, the quality of the interobserver study and the theoretical arguments against the use of the method. More observational data should be collected. To date however, the use of the medial clavicular X-ray has not been shown to be invalid.


To achieve scalability, a few resource-rich heterogeneous nodes are scattered in a wireless sensor network consisting of a large number of energy-constrained sensor nodes. Heterogeneous nodes are equipped with powerful radio transceiver and their main task is to organize a backbone communication network and to relay data to the sink. For the scenario, this paper proposes a coverage problem which maintaining relay connectivity at the same time in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. The goal is to find a minimum relay connected set cover (MRCSC) which satisfies (1) active nodes in set cover fully sense the whole task area. Motivated by triangular lattice with asymptotic optimality, we address a rule for restricting irregularity spread to form an approximate nice triangular lattice, (2) active nodes are relay connected which means any active node connects to at least one heterogeneous node with a given success data forwarding rate. Simulations show that the coverage of MRCSC nearly reaches that of OGCD, but relay connectivity of active nodes is strongly reinforced with limited count of additional nodes.


—Transport mode choice in Alexandria has radically changed during the last decades, since many trips were shifted from public transport to private transport and informal public transport. This research aims at analyzing the sensitivity of transport mode choice in Alexandria under different transport policies and assess the impact on modal shift to public transport. For that aim, a Multinomial Logit Model for Alexandria has been developed, calibrated using Biogeme Software. Having validated the calibrated model, the behavior of modal split under different policies is analyzed. The proposed transport policies includes improving public transport attributes and/or increasing trip cost for other transport modes. The analyses results reveal that improving current public transport trip time and trip cost have moderate and minor effect on modal shift to public transport share respectively. Improving public transport utility constant has a significant effect, which can be achieved by introducing reliable, attractive, efficient and frequent public transport system. The impact of increasing private car, taxi and collective taxi trip cost on modal shift to current public transport is minor. The combination between the proposed push and pull policies may achieve a modal shift to public transport mode effectively.


A Gram-stain-negative, variably shaped, non-flagellated, yellow-pigmented, aerobic bacterium, designated strain SGM2-10(T), was isolated from a paddy soil sample from the Suwon region, South Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the isolate was related most closely to Parasegetibacter luojiensis RHYL-37(T). Strain SGM2-10(T) showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to P. luojiensis RHYL-37(T) (95.1 %), Flavitalea populi HY-50R(T) (95.0 %) and Flavitalea gansuensis JCN-23(T) (94.4 %). No other species in the family Chitinophagaceae shared more than 94.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with strain SGM2-10(T). The major fatty acids of strain SGM2-10(T) were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH. The only menaquinone was MK-7. The polar lipids comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, seven unknown lipids and ten unknown aminolipids. The G+C content of the DNA of strain SGM2-10(T) was 46.7 mol%. On the basis of the results of the polyphasic characterization presented in this study, it is concluded that strain SGM2-10(T) represents a novel species of the genus Parasegetibacter, for which the name Parasegetibacter terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SGM2-10(T) ( = KACC 17341(T) = JCM 19942(T)). The description of the genus Parasegetibacter has also been emended.


We study the effect of a non-trivial vacuum prescription on warm inflation observables, namely the power spectrum of the comoving curvature perturbation. Non-trivial choice of vacuum, can provide information about trans-Planckian physics. Traditionally, the initial condition for inflation is chosen to be the usual Bunch-Davies vacuum. Another more reasonable choice of vacuum is the so-called α-vacua. Because the duration of inflation is not infinite, as it is assumed in the Bunch-Davies case, imposing the initial condition at infinite past is not sensible and one must utilize another vacuum prescription. In this paper, working in the slow-roll regime during warm inflation, the initial condition for inflaton fluctuations is imposed at finite past, i.e. the α-vacua. We show that this non-trivial vacuum prescription results in oscillatory correction to the comoving curvature power spectrum, which is scale dependent both in amplitude and frequency. Having obtained this scale dependent power spectrum, we consider its late time footprints and compare our results with observational data and other proposed models for the comoving curvature power spectrum.


Numerous industrial pits are discarded after their exploitation in every part of the world. Humanity both transforms the original morphology of the landscape, due to industrial activity in the territory, and, at the same time, rejects this "new" situation. This is to the detriment of the landscape, which is witness to this transfiguration, degradation, and abandonment. What is the future of these impersonal and empty areas? In this article, we present a general survey concerning the notion of quarry reuse to highlight the importance of this current and common problem. Our work approached the topic through a combination of the main concepts and a description of selected cases of study of quarry reconversions, sensitive to the environmental issues, climate changes, and sustainability. According to this premise, the research also provides an innovative matrix of schemes to classify the existing fundamental methods of recovery. For this effect, the investigation was proposed to be an instrument to improve the knowledge in the scientific and theoretical sectors, flanking the practical understanding, which has already started to move in this direction of reconversion, as the paper shows.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of yeast-like fungi and yeasts on the mucous membranes of a group of students of Natural Sciences and Medicine.
Materials and methods: The study involved 156 students of the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology (FB&B) and 37 students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS). Material samples were collected with sterile cotton swab from the nose, mouth and throat. The identification of fungi was carried out by the evaluation of macrocultures and microcultures on Nickerson agar and biochemical features.
Results: Yeast-like fungi and yeast were isolated from 41.97% of the subjects (81 people). The fungal colonization of the mucous membrane was observed in 59 students of the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology (37.82%) and 22 students (56.46%) of the Faculty of Medical Sciences. The obtained fungi were classified into 31 taxonomic units. The predominant species were Candida dubliniensis and Lachancea thermotolerans (syn. Kluyveromyces thermotolerans). 14 species with defined status of BSL were recorded.
Conclusions: Yeast and yeast-like fungi were more frequent among students of Biology and Biotechnology, than students of Medical Sciences. In students of FB&B greater taxonomic diversity of fungi was found than in students of FMS. The species diversity and prevalence of fungi observed in students of the Life Sciences are determined not only by lifestyle, but mainly by the possibility and frequency of contact with a variety of reservoirs and sources of potentially pathogenic fungi. The occurrence in human ontocenoses of 14 species classified to 1st and 2nd class of Biosafety Level is also very important.


Justice Blackmun's commercial speech and public forum opinions reflect a distinctive balancing approach that takes seriously the listener's interests in receiving information and, sometimes, in not receiving information. The Justice consistently advocated this listener-oriented balancing approach throughout his tenure on the Supreme Court, and, contrary to the conventional wisdom, this approach proved to be substantially more protective of free speech than the more categorical approaches the Court ultimately adopted. Professor Dodge argues that Justice Blackmun's approach is preferable to the Court's current doctrine by examining two types of cases that current doctrine finds hard to handle: restrictions on protesters in public forums around abortion clinics and mandatory disclosure requirements for commercial speakers like cigarette warning labels and registration requirements for securities.


Current cancer treatment options, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, often cause damage to healthy tissue and reduce a patient's quality of life with well-known side effects, such as pain, infection and nerve damage. Recent research has shown that gold nanoparticles used as photothermal agents in photothermal therapy may pose as an alternative to traditional treatments. This great potential is due to their ability to selectively accumulate in cancerous tissue, efficiently absorb near-infrared light, and kill cancerous tissue without harming surrounding cells. Gold nanoparticles show promise in increasing treatment efficacy and reducing the side effects associated with cancer therapy. While recent studies show the potential of gold nanoparticles, the existing literature is limited in drawing comparisons between studies and practical use for photothermal therapy. This paper reviews notable studies on four common gold nanoparticles used in the therapeutic treatment of cancer: gold nanocages, gold nanospheres, gold nanorods, and gold nanoshells. By comparing key characteristics of the particles', including their synthesis, toxicity, absorption spectrum, and selective photothermal lethality, gold nanospheres can be recommended for use in photothermal therapy. Although forms of each gold nanoparticle were found to have a low toxicity, gold nanospheres can be rapidly synthesized and appear to exceed in selective photothermal lethality and immature tumour accumulation. Due to these advantages in using gold nanospheres for photothermal therapy, cancer could be treated more effectively and improve patient prognosis.


We verify that the magnetic suppression of intersubband LO or LA phonon scattering can give rise to a noticeable nonthermal occupation in higher-lying subbands. This is clearly determined by the relative intensity ratio of the interband photoluminescence spectra for the E2-HH1 and E1-HH1 transitions. The observed phenomenon may provide an effective method to control the intersubband scattering rate, which is a key factor of the so-called quantum cascade lasers. This is helpful for the population inversion between both the subbands in quantum wells.


Fabricating electrolyte with thin film is one of various methods of lowering the operation temperature for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). Because the major polarization of SOFCs is ohmic loss, many groups have tried to fabricate a thin film electrolyte – some proton conducting material that has the conductivity of a couple of orders higher than oxygen conducting one. We have investigated the synthesis of Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) including Yttria-doped Barium Zirconate(BYZ) thin film electrolyte via thin-film processes such as Pulsed Laser Deposition and Sputtering. Another approach to lower the operation temperature of SOFCs is the bi-layer structure electrolyte. The functional layer via thin film deposition could guarantee minimum power density loss and stable operation. After the study of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) condition to deposit Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) on Gadonilia doped Cerate (GDC) substrate, GDC/YSZ bi-layered electrolyte button cells showed higher OCV and larger limiting current with 100nm YSZ ultra thin film. The performance improvement might be attributed to the function of electron blocking and cutting off the reducible gas.


This chapter examines quotidian mediated service encounters where customers telephone a call centre to receive information on train services. In this context the general expectation is that the interlocutors will pay attention to each other's face and avoid causing offence. This, in theory, should be one of the telephone agents' prerogatives in that, as frontline workers, they act as ambassadors. In this chapter we will look at five interactional instances where, contrary to the expectations of good business relations, face becomes salient as a result of the jeopardising of the participants' goal achievement. In these episodes, a female agent attempts to get rid of the customers by withdrawing (Goodwin, 1981) at interactional junctures when the provision of information is typically offered. She does this displaying of disengagement within the ongoing state of talk through repetition, passivity, delayed responses, increased number of pauses and slowed down speech. The agent's generally disaffiliative behaviour is also illustrated by assigning responsibility to third parties and, offering unreliable information which is later brought to light by the customer. The agent's uncooperativeness is further shown by her rather slowed down speech delivered with somewhat flat intonation, displayed non-recipiency and general disaffiliation. We argue that these moves indicate impolite behaviour as evidenced by the caller's reactions and that this behaviour responds to both internal and external contextual factors such as the type of company examined, the essential service it offers, the way in which its services are operationalized, the job characteristics of telephone agents and the agent's interactional style. Following a brief discussion of im/politeness and facework in customer service contexts we present the background and methodology of the study. We then focus on how face is manifested in the service calls selected for this study, focusing on the sequences in which impoliteness becomes observable. Finally, we turn our attention to the role that the broader communicative setting has for the interpretation of impoliteness before presenting our conclusions.


Introduction: In high-income countries around the world, there appears to be an inverse association between educational attainment and obesity. However, the literature about this association in Spain remains disorganized and disparate. Material and Methods: We systematically reviewed peer-reviewed English- or Spanish language studies of this association in Spain from 10 databases from all periods of time available. Results: Our search identified twenty-four studies. In both nationally representative and subnational studies, women with less education had higher odds of obesity than their more educated counterparts. Men, despite exhibiting greater variability in the education-body weight relationship, also demonstrated a similar social patterning of body weight in many studies, with those at lower levels of educational attainment having higher odds of obesity relative to their more-educated counterparts. These associations in men and women were fairly consistent across time and place, though some regional variations did exist. Discussion and conclusions: We encourage future researchers to move towards more meaningful, unbiased estimates of the association between educational attainment and obesity by measuring height and weight with physical exams, controlling for a more robust set of possible confounders, and exploring potential modifying factors of the association. Additionally, when possible, we encourage researchers to employ prospective study designs that facilitate causal inference with respect to this association.


Purpose: To assess patient satisfaction among current and former users of the anti-in fl ammatory topical medications, cyclosporine A 0.05% (CYC) and li fi tegrast 5.0% (LIF), for the management of dry eye disease (DED). Patients and Methods: Patients with DED were recruited via physician referral to participate in a survey. Current users of CYC or LIF were asked to rate their experience in terms of satisfaction, side effects, and limitation of activities. Switchers of CYC to LIF or LIF to CYC were asked to rate the importance of potential reasons for switching. Results: Surveys were completed by 207 patients currently treated with CYC (n=98), LIF (n=96), or other DED medications (n=13). Although overall satisfaction with current treatment was high, current users of CYC and LIF reported ineffective relief of DED symptoms (31% and 22%, respectively) and dissatisfaction with the time to onset of effect (29% and 11%). Substantial proportions of patients reported ' sometimes ' , " usually " , or ' always ' experiencing the following side effects: burning sensation (72% CYC, 64% LIF), itching (43% CYC, 44% LIF), altered sensation of taste (21% CYC, 56% LIF), blurred vision (37% CYC, 50% LIF), and discharge (28% CYC, 30% LIF). Of the 30 switchers of CYC to LIF and 31 switchers of LIF to CYC, the majority reported inability to relieve DED symptoms as a very or extremely important switching reason. Despite switching, one in four patients were somewhat dissatis fi ed or dissatis fi ed with their current medication, with 37% of patients reporting ineffective symptom relief. Conclusion: Although the rate of overall satisfaction was generally high with both LIF and CYC, many patients were unable to achieve effective symptom relief and commonly experienced side effects. The proportion of patients who were dissatis fi ed and/or unable to achieve effective symptom relief even after switching suggests the need for additional treatment options for managing DED.


Diagenetic heterogeneities are difficult to predict in the subsurface. Nevertheless, such heterogeneities can be crucial in hydrocarbon exploration. Diagenetic processes can significantly alter petrophysical properties of reservoir rocks, especially in carbonate rocks because of the reactive nature of the carbonate minerals. Dolomitization [i.e., the transformation of calcite (limestone: Lmst) into dolomite] is a common diagenetic process in carbonate rocks. Resulting dolomite bodies have a different pore network than the original Lmst and respond also differently to tectonic stress causing different fracture networks than in the original Lmst. The paper presents an overview of the learning outcomes gained by studying fracture-related dolomite in outcrops of Oman and subsequent laboratory analysis conducted over the last 4 years. A combined structural, petrographic, and geochemical approach was taken to study three dolomite systems occurring in different stratigraphic host-rock (HR) intervals. Structurally controlled dolomitization (i.e., dolomitization along faults and fractures) typically occurs in burial conditions, and the resulting strong permeability anisotropies caused by the dolomite textures can cause major challenges for hydrocarbon exploration. Dolomite bodies in the Precambrian Khufai formation are related to N/S to NNE/SSW fractures, whereas dolomite bodies that mainly occur in the Jurassic HRs occur along reactivated WNW/ESE normal faults. These fracture-related dolomite bodies are generally less than 15 m wide, but can be up to a few hundred meters long. Late-diagenetic dolomite bodies were also recognized in Permian HRs, where they occur at or close to the contact between Permian Lmst and early-diagenetic dolomite. This latediagenetic dolomite system can be traced laterally for at least hundreds of meters and occurs in wadis that are approximately 40 km apart. Our data indicate that there were several dolomitization events in the geological history of the succession, generating dolomite bodies with different characteristics. This paper highlights the need to understand timing and structural setting of dolomite bodies in the subsurface to improve reservoir management.


Significant advances have recently been made in the coding of video data recorded with multiple cameras. However, luminance and chrominance variations between the camera views may deteriorate the performance of multiview codecs and image-based rendering algorithms. A histogram matching algorithm can be applied to efficiently compensate for these differences in a prefiltering step. A mapping function is derived which adapts the cumulative histogram of a distorted sequence to the cumulative histogram of a reference sequence. If all camera views of a multiview sequence are adapted to a common reference using histogram matching, the spatial prediction across camera views is improved. The basic algorithm is extended in three ways: a time-constant calculation of the mapping function, RGB color conversion, and the use of global disparity compensation. The best coding results are achieved when time-constant histogram calculation and RGB color conversion are combined. In this case, the usage of histogram matching prior to multiview encoding leads to substantial gains in the coding efficiency of up to 0.7 dB for the luminance component and up to 1.9 dB for the chrominance components. This prefiltering step can be combined with block-based illumination compensation techniques that modify the coder and decoder themselves, especially with the approach implemented in the multiview reference software of the joint video team (JVT). Additional coding gains up to 0.4 dB can be observed when both methods are combined.


Inhabitants' behaviour is a significant factor that influences energy consumption and has been previously incorporated as static activity profiles within simulation for energy control & management. In this paper an agent-based approach to simulate reactive/deliberative group behaviour has been proposed and implemented. It takes into account perceptual, psychological (cognitive), social behavioural elements and domestic context to generate reactive/deliberative behavioural profiles. The Brahms language is used toimplement the proposed approach to learn behavioural patterns for energy control and management strategies.


There are several development initiatives involving form factor of IC technology, with the much spoken-about difficulty of progressing along the Moore's curve. 3D IC technology assures higher levels of miniaturization and integration, focuses on portraying advances in interconnect technologies, and a reduction of interconnect delays. 3D IC technologies guarantee a significant increase in functionality and performance of components by a heterogeneous integration of materials, devices, and signals. "The adoption of 3D ICs integration technology in different applications is likely to be driven by its capability to reduce process cost, enhance interconnect density, and offer smaller form factors," notes the analyst of this research. "Although through silicon vias (TSV) has categorically evolved to be a highly competent solution for performance when gauged with conventional interconnect technologies, the industry is still in the process of establishing it as a commercially viable solution for dominant penetration in diverse application sectors." Currently, the industry is in a position to leverage the capabilities of 3D IC solutions in the image sensors market. Memory stacking is next in line with image sensors in terms of adoption of 3D IC technologies. At the bottom rung, 3D IC solutions will find opportunities in applications that involve homogeneous integration, while scientists are working toward a technology for applications that need heterogeneous integration of wafers. 1.INTRODUCTION: This paper titled 3D IC TechnologyAN ADVANCEMENT IN VLSI provides an insight into the technology development scenario of three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) technologies. This research service also provides a detailed review of the key developmental efforts around the globe, funding scenario, patent analysis, and insights into the key growth patterns that mark the evolution of 3D IC technologies in the industrial space. As the entire 3D IC technology is focusing on wafer stacking, development efforts around the globe are striving to resolve challenges associated with the silicon on insulator (SOI) domain. The industry is also determined to establish an appropriate performance guideline to enable it to choose between the 'via first' and the 'via last' approaches. The ability to handle thin wafer, proper bonding technologies for heterogeneous bonding, along with reducing the costs associated with the TSV process are some other critical issues that need to be addressed. "Despite widespread industrial efforts in the 3D IC domain, fundamental technology challenges continue to exist," notes the analyst. "However, the technology space is collaboratively striving to resolve them." The need of the hour is to establish clear performance metrics for all the evolving processes. For instance, in the case of TSV, the industry has explored aspects, such as the cost of operation (COO) of the process, but lacks a proper standard to gauge the performance of a specific process established by a development group. This will help participants know the real capabilities of their offering on a global platform. "The next decade of 3D IC evolution will significantly rely on the industry's capability to develop a performance standard for the various segments of 3D IC domain, that are currently being explored," concludes the analyst.


The goal of this study was to determine if performance-based tests should be routinely administered to students in computer application courses. The purpose was to determine the most appropriate mode of testing for individuals taking a computer applications course. The study is divided into areas of assessment, personality traits, and computer attitudes.


Cavitation is an undesirable phenomenon in hydraulic systems, as it causes erosion and noise. The main difficulty in cavitation prediction when using Fluent software is lack of an openly accessible tool for implementation of a freely chosen homogeneous cavitation model. In this paper the main challenge is to make such a tool, user defined function (UDF). The second challenge is to use a qualitative method in the assessment of the results of verification process. Three cavitation models are verified in Fluent 14.5: Singhal et al. , Schnerr & Sauer and Zwart et al. The verification is based on the benchmark example from the Cavitation Modeling tutorial. Three methods of the algorithms verification are used: analysis of the convergence history of volume fraction, comparison of vapour volume fractions and statistical analysis of these data. The original achievements are not only the verified codes but also statistical analysis based on the computer methods of image analysis performed using two correlation coefficients: the first based on the cavitation intensity, and the second based on the changes of the cloud shape. The results of the analyses do not give any reasons to reject the UDFs. The appendix contains the analysed codes (available with the online version of this paper).


The choral opus of Slavko Osterc (1895–1941), one of the most important Slovene composers between the two wars, comprises 35 works in different settings »a capella« (15 four to eight-voice mixed choruses, 6 four-voice male choruses, 11 three-voice youth choruses, and 3 four-voice female choruses). To these can be added 2 compositions for mixed choir with the accompaniment of a string trio, a two-voice song with piano accompaniment and two sacred vocal-instrumental works, where the vocal part has the dominant role. As some more extensive works represent a whole cyclus, the number of individual choral compositions actually exeeds the number quoted. Concerning its extent and artistic quality, the choral opus takes an prominent place among the composer's 170 works. In the choice of texts, Osterc primarily restricted himself to poems by Slovene authors, especially to those with progressive social object matter, but he also made use of narrative fables by Ivan A. Krylov in Slovene translation. A considerable number of texts were taken from the folk songs of Bela Krajina (the south-eastern region of Slovenia), which are distinguished by lively and humorous contents, by a rich dialectic idiom and by a very varied accentuation. With the exception of one composition, which was commisioned, Osterc never made use in his choral works of quotation of folk tunes. He acknowledged their artistic value but was, in principle, against their application as the dominant idea in a composer's work. With regard to the form, we observe a development from a predominantly three-part song form at the beginning to a durchkomponiert form. Occasionally a free rondo form is also applied and in some works the composer even comes near to the classical principle of the fugue. The basis of the melodic construction is rhythm. This rhythm emanates from the metre of the text and even refines it further, which entails a constant change of time. The melody grows from the contents, accentuation and syllabication of the text. Syllabic progressions in seconds prevail, sometimes, if dictated by the expression, also enlivened by larger intervals. The composer uses equally all tones of the semitone scale, but without avoiding the repetition of the same tone nor rejecting the of a major, minor or chromatic scale. We often encounter recitatives or the application of the so-called »Sprechstimme«. Athematic construction is frequent but it is not the only principle of the development of the melodic texture. Throughout the composer's work sequence plays an important role and to some extent so does ostinato. The composer often uses glissando and also employs melismas to underline the meaning of individual words. The expression is intensified with varied dynamics, marked in detail, whereas the number of agogic signs are fewer. Concerning the vertical structure in Osterc's choral works, we observe the transition from an enriched tonality in his early works to later atonality with predominating dissonant structures. In a dominant position is the linear principle of the organisation of the sound mass which prevails over the vertical structure, the latter being rather the consequence of the former. In his theoretical work »Chromaticism and modulation« (1941) Osterc himself says that it is not so important which tones compose a chord but rather the question of their progression. In polyphonic sections imitation plays an eminent role, from a strict imitation, including different kinds of canons, to different possible varieties of a very free one. The predominant linearity occasionally entails bitonality and polytonality which are a kind of middle product of atonal construction. The neighbouring voices are often combined in parallel perfect fifths, fourths or major seconds. Different kinds of chords appear in the vertical structure: chords constructed by thirds i. e. triads, chords of sevenths etc. and their inversions, chords by fourths and chords by seconds and in addition to these many indefinable chordal structures resulting from the linear conception of the composition. Dissonant tones are nearly always added to the chords by thirds. These tones appear in relation to the chordal tones of the neighbouring parts chiefly in an interval of a major second. At the end of the phrases there occasionally occur chordal progressions with the character of an authentic cadence. In the structure a constant or moving tonal centre can often be found. Just as the development of Osterc up to the middle of the thirties led to a saturation of the sound mass, which at the same time by condensing also widened and covered an ever larger space in a vertical direction, so in the last years of his work his concentration of expression was reorientated into a single melodic line. The multivocal structure becomes ever more subordinated to the melodic diction of the leading voice. The polyphonic construction falls rather into the background, nevertheless this new way is difficult to define as homophony. The concentration of the sound goes so far as to give the feeling of a monophonic development of the musical flow at multivocal points. In this way monophony acquires a completely new dimension: the melodic line does not only ascend and descend or remain at the same level, but by means of this new treatment of multivocal sound, which is so subordinated to the melodic line that it becomes, so to say a part of it, it expands and contracts. This line sometimes effervesces to an eight-voiced sound only later to subside to a single tone. Even more: it can also be reduced to a rest, which is sometimes in its expression still far stronger than a dissonant chordal structure, however full this my be.


It is widely accepted that the Accelerator Driven System (ADS) is one of the most promising technical approach to solve the problem of the nuclear wastes, a potential threaten to the sustainable development of the nuclear fission energy. An ADS study program was approved by Chinese Academy of Sciences at 2011, which aims to design and built an ADS demonstration facility with the capacity of more than 1000 MW thermal power within the following 20 years. The 15 MW driver accelerator will be designed and constructed by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) and Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of China Academy of Sciences. This linac is characterized by the 1.5 GeV energy, 10mA current and CW operation. It is composed by two parallel 10 MeV injectors and a main linac integrated with fault tolerance design. The superconducting acceleration structures are employed except the RFQ. In this paper the general considerations and the beam dynamics design of the driver accelerator will be presented.


When investigating epidemic dynamics through differential models, the parameters needed to understand the phenomenon and to simulate forecast scenarios require a delicate calibration phase, often made even more challenging by the scarcity and uncertainty of the observed data reported by official sources. In this context, Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs), by embedding the knowledge of the differential model that governs the physical phenomenon in the learning process, can effectively address the inverse and forward problem of data-driven learning and solving the corresponding epidemic problem. In many circumstances, however, the spatial propagation of an infectious disease is characterized by movements of individuals at different scales governed by multiscale PDEs. This reflects the heterogeneity of a region or territory in relation to the dynamics within cities and in neighboring zones. In presence of multiple scales, a direct application of PINNs generally leads to poor results due to the multiscale nature of the differential model in the loss function of the neural network. To allow the neural network to operate uniformly with respect to the small scales, it is desirable that the neural network satisfies an Asymptotic-Preservation (AP) property in the learning process. To this end, we consider a new class of AP Neural Networks (APNNs) for multiscale hyperbolic transport models of epidemic spread that, thanks to an appropriate AP formulation of the loss function, is capable to work uniformly at the different scales of the system. A series of numerical tests for different epidemic scenarios confirms the validity of the proposed approach, highlighting the importance of the AP property in the neural network when dealing with multiscale problems especially in presence of sparse and partially observed systems.


Background and Aims: Since a large marginal opening allows more plaque accumulation, gingival sulcular fluid flow and bone loss, microleakage, recurrent caries and periodontal disease, marginal fit is of great importance in fixed restorations. The aim of this study was to compare the marginal fit of zirconium-based all ceramic (Cercon) frameworks, made by two different approaches (Direct and Wax-up scanning). Materials and Methods: An abutment analog, with 5.5 mm width and height, was selected as an experimental model. Twenty all ceramic cores were made for this model (10 specimens per each group). In the first group (Direct), experimental models were scanned directly using Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM). The core was then designed with the aid of a computer and machined. In the second group (Wax-up or CAM) a wax-up pattern was made on the experimental model and then scanned and milled from Cercon blocks. The marginal discrepancy of each specimen was recorded using a stereomicroscope (SZX9, Olympus, Japan) and digital camera (Mode TK, C1380E, JVC, Japan) and then measured by Adobe Photoshop CS software. The data were analyzed using T-test. Results: Mean marginal discrepancy of Direct group (85.2±3.95 μm) was significantly less than that of Wax-up group (120.2±6.91 μm). Conclusion: Improved marginal fit of zirconia ceramics was found with the direct model scanning compared with that of Wax-up scanning using CAD/CAM.


South Korea uses a quota and a tariff on beef imports to keep farm prices high. Part of the quota rents are used to support indirect benefits to producers. The welfare costs of these policies are analyzed. Following a suggestion of Hayami, a deficiency payment financed by tariff revenues from increased imports is considered as an alternative to the quota. As Anderson (1983) found for Japan, a deficiency payment is Pareto-superior only if indirect benefits from the quota revenue are ignored.


This study aims to present a comprehensive review of bioethanol, its prospects, and also to estimate a potential source for commercial bioethanol production in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the primary source of fuel comes from natural gas and petroleum oil. But the total output of fossil fuel is incapable of meeting the annual fuel demand. And also, the natural reserves are insufficient to meet the energy demand for long-term economic development. To meet the demand every year Bangladesh needs to import a huge amount of petroleum oil from overseas markets. In this situation, to manage the future demand, production of renewable energy may be an alternative solution. Bioethanol production from potato and potato peel waste maybe a prospective source of renewable energy. It can use as an alternative clean-burning fuel by replacing with regular vehicle fuel. It can not only save huge foreign currency but also lessen greenhouse effect in the environment. In this scenario, there is a huge prospect to introduce bioethanol as an alternative fuel in Bangladesh.