This paper investigates the characteristic of the ionospheric delay and forecasting using modified statistical Holt-Winter method over Malaysia. This was carried out by using dual frequency GPS Ionospheric Scintillation and TEC Monitor (GISTM) receivers installed at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) (geographic coordinates 2.55°N, 101.46°E and geomagnetic coordinates 7.10°S, 174.05°E), and Langkawi national observatory (Langkawi) (geographical coordinates 6.19°N, 99.51°E and geomagnetic coordinates 3.39°S, 172.42°E), during 2011. In this work, the Holt-Winter forecasting method is modified to provide a better forecasting result over Malaysia. The diurnal, monthly, and seasonal variations of actual ionospheric delay have been analyzed and compared with forecasted ionospheric delay. Based on the results, the diurnal variability of ionospheric delay was maximal mostly between 12:00– 17:00 LT, and minimal nearly at 05:00 LT. The maximum monthly ionospheric delays occurred in October, which is attributed to the geomagnetic storm disturbance that caused increase in ionospheric delay. The lowest seasonal ionospheric delay occurred in the summer and the highest was during the equinox. The maximum ionospheric delay on a quiet day was around 41.9 TECU, while it reached up to 86.6 TECU during the geomagnetic storm. The Holt-Winter method exhibited the highest difference between the measurements and the forecasts in March, with an error of 6%. Hence, the modified Holt-Winter method forecast ionospheric delay effectively during quiet and disturbed periods over Malaysia.


A new panel of "Latin" or Iberian-Guanche rock inscriptions has been found in Tenerife, a transcription and translation hypotheses have been put forward based on a methodology involving semantics and phonology of Basque and ancient Iberian language (used during the 1st millennium BC in Iberia and France). Both Iberian-Guanche (at Canary Is) and Iberian (at France and Iberia) rock scripts are sometimes found together with naviform lines. These incise lineal rock scripts have been found in all Canary Islands and it supports the existence of a prehistoric Guanche common culture before Punic/Roman influence could arrive to the Archipelago and postulated Guanche incapacity to navigate is doubtful. This common writing in Canary Islands together with the finding of big rock carved ("Quesera"/Cheeseboard, Lanzarote) and other ancient calendars (Telde, Gran Canaria), cart-ruts and possible pyramids could put Canarian prehistory back much earlier. Origin of these incise linear rock scripts could be found comparing them with European Runes, Iberian, Etruscan and other Old Italian writings (Raetian, Venetian, Lepontic) and also with Sitovo and Gradeshnitsa inscriptions (Bulgaria, dated at least 5,000 years BP). Similar African scripts have also been found in Tunisia. Whether Canarian Iberian-Guanche incise lineal script is origin of any or some of the above mentioned similar scripts or vice versa is open. Finally, population genetics is not a tool to draw absolute conclusions to define origin or population relatedness (i.e.: Canarians) , if it is not used in conjunction with other Anthropology branches , like Archaeology, Language, writing systems, paleoAnatomy and other Culture traits. Keywords : Rock Scripts, Inscriptions, Canary Islands, Iberian, Guanche, Lybic, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Quesera, Cheeseboard, Pyramids, Berber, Africa, Punic, Roman, Western Sahara, Tunissia, Sitovo, Gradeshnitsa, Runes, Iberian, Etruscan, Venetian, Lepontic, Raetic, Lybic, The Rock of the Dead, Calendar. Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, letreros, Roca del Muerto , Basque-Iberian, Vascoiberismo.


Sharing patient information between different care providers has been identified early as
a key enabler for quality and cost-effective healthcare. Being in the information age, it
seems natural to expect immediate access to health information in the right place at the
right time and in a usable format. However, the realization of such vision is taking too
long, and the level of providers' engagement is witnessing a decline. Difficulties in
ensuring global connectivity, interoperability and concerns on security have always
hampered attempts by the governments to deploy nationwide Health Information
Exchange (HIE) successfully. An important question to pose is how new approaches
can address the same issues of interoperability and interconnectivity without disturbing
existing infrastructure and imposing much costs. Bearing in mind the pervasiveness and
power of modern smartphones, this thesis proposes an alternative approach for
nationwide HIE that can replace or complement governmental efforts, such as the
Malaysian MyHIX project. The main objective is to introduce the idea of a multicomponent
and distributed solution for large-scale HIE as a novel approach that differs
from the existing central approaches but does not disturb the current set-up and attribute
no significant costs to any of the involved stakeholders. The proposed approach
provides a distributed framework in which patient data are carried by the patients
themselves in the form of mobile Personal Health Records (mPHRs), typically on their
handheld smartphones. This method uses the concept of mPHR in a novel way –as
distributed storage units– and is to be compared with the current central approaches that
aim to collect patient data in central repositories and circulate them via central engines.
The individual mPHR systems are capable of interconnecting securely with multiple healthcare systems through a suitable interface. This interface is another app that runs
on a special terminal device (such as a tablet) at the end of the healthcare system to
ensure the interoperability with the patients' smartphones. The detailed design and
operation of the proposed approach is provided and justified, resulting in a multicomponent
and coherent framework for HIE. The proposed framework consists of three
main components: an mPHR at the side of the patient, legacy Health Information
System (HIS) at the side of healthcare providers, and an interface device between the
two. The whole framework is validated through a prototype implementation using
software apps for the mPHR and the interface layer, and open source Electronic Medical
Record (EMR) systems to represent legacy HISs used by healthcare providers. Various
simulated use cases and scenarios have been presented to show the operation of the
framework and its overall validity. Endorsement of the proposed framework can lead to
a practical solution to the hard problem of HIE that avoids the cost of implementing a
single global network to connect all healthcare systems, and ensures that the required
data of each patient is available whenever and wherever it is needed.


This paper presents an Electrovibration Pen (EV-Pen) which incorporates electrovibration technology into pen interactions. The EV-Pen has two unique characteristics: precise interaction and pen-on-paper feeling. We conducted four experiments for evaluating the EV-Pen. Experiment 1 was to determine preliminary characteristics of the EV-Pen. Experiments 2 and 3 were to evaluate precise interaction task performance through a steering task and a tracing task. We compared user performance between the EV-Pen, a mechanical-vibration pen, a normal pen without feedback and electrovibration-based finger interaction. Experimental results indicated that the EV-Pen outperformed the other devices in precise task interactions. Experiment 4 tested pen-on-paper feeling in drawing and handwriting tasks, and it was observed that the EV-Pen significantly enhances user experience. Based on the experimental results, we discuss implications and potential benefits for the design of the EV-Pen.


Study Design. Case report. Objective. We report a rare case of postradiation sarcoma of the cervical spine 30 years after treatment for thyroid cancer. Summary of Background Data. The reported case is a 66-year-old man with a history of thyroid cancer treated with surgery and radiotherapy at the age of 36 years. He was disease-free for 30 years, but then developed left upper limb weakness and numbness. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a homogeneously enhanced mass lesion with cystic parts involving the C4 vertebral body and occupying the left side of the spinal canal with extension to the paraspinal space through the neural foramen. Methods. Using staged posterior and anterior approaches, gross total tumor excision, C4 corpectomy, and spinal fusion were achieved. Results. The histologic diagnosis revealed sarcoma that was immunoreactive to vimentin and focally to S100 and O13 antibodies. Radiation-induced sarcoma should be suspected in patients who have received radiation treatment previously and present with new neurologic symptoms and signs in the irradiated area. The patient's muscle power returned to 5/5, except for the left upper extremity, which reached 2/5; he was free from recurring symptoms during the follow-up period. Conclusion. Because of advancements in diagnostic techniques and therapeutic methods, more patients survive primary cancer, and therefore an increase in the number of cases of postradiation sarcoma is expected. Postradiation sarcomas have extremely long latent periods, and one should therefore always keep in mind such a complication of previous radiation treatment.


In this paper we introduce a runtime, non-trace based algorithm to compute the critical path profile of the execution of a message passing parallel program. Our algorithm permits starting or stopping the critical path computation during program execution and reporting intermediate values. We also present an online algorithm to compute a variant of critical path, called critical path zeroing, that measures the reduction in application execution time that improving a selected procedure will have. Finally, we present a brief case study to quantify the runtime overhead of our algorithm and to show that online critical path profiling can be used to find program bottlenecks.


Nano-particles of platinum were prepared using Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) technique and supported in a carbon nano-tube (CNT) matrix in order to obtain different atomic relationship: Pt (1%)/CNT, Pt (5%)/CNT and Pt (15%)/CNT. The as-prepared Pt/CNT was deposited on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode. Nitrate electro-reduction reaction (NER) was used as a probe to evaluate their catalytic activity. According to XRD analysis the particle size was determined as 15, 13 and 12 nm for Pt (15%)/CNT, Pt (5%)/CNT and Pt (1%)/CNT, respectively. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) confirmed the presence of nano-tubes and the platinum atomic ratio in each sample. The adsorption-desorption region related to the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) was evaluated. The charge obtained (Q/μC) followed the order Pt(15%)/CNT>Pt(5%)/CNT>Pt(1%)/CNT, in agreement with platinum content. The i-E profiles at nitrate-containing solutions showed a redox process corresponding to the NO3- reduction. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) coupled with rotating disk electrode (RDE) technique revealed that the NER is affected by the rotation rate, an indication of a strong competition of nitrate ion and protons at the electrode interface. Studies as a function of NO3- concentration (0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0M) were also carried out. The electrical current attributed to nitrate reduction increased, for all samples, as a function of concentration. Nevertheless, this current magnitude is not severely affected by the content of platinum-nanoparticles. These results have been discussed in terms of local disorders due to particles size-distribution as well as the support matrix geometry (SMG).


In this paper, a microdisk resonator with two whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) is proposed for label-free biochemical sensing. According to the transmission responses of the two WGMs with different coupling gaps, there is the critical coupling status for the WGM (0, 36) while there is no critical coupling status for the WGM (1, 28). For the WGMs (0, 36) and (1, 28), the refractive index (RI) sensitivities of 45.8821 and 72.9402 nm/RIU are obtained, and the corresponding RI detection limits (DLs) of 8.5902 × 10−4 and 1.9228 × 10−3  RIU are achieved, respectively. Moreover, the proposed sensor also has the temperature sensitivities of 0.0730 and 0.0703 nm/K, which correspond to the temperature DLs of 0.1631 and 0.6263 K, respectively. By constructing a characteristic matrix, it is demonstrated that simultaneous measurement of the RI and temperature can be achieved.


QUESTIONS AS A GENERATIVE STRATEGY FOR KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AND PROBLEM SOLVING Brett Howard Cook-Snell Old Dominion University, 2015 Director: Dr. Ginger S. Watson Consistent with generative learning theory, Grabowski (1996) suggests the use of questions may serve as an effective generative strategy for learning. However, the learning effects o f questions have produced conflicting results (Bulu & Pedersen, 2010; Chen & Bradshaw, 2007; Choi, Land, & Turgeon, 2005; Chou & Liang, 2009; Davis & Linn, 2000; Domisch & Sperling, 2008; Ge & Land, 2003). Similarly, there are five basic challenges inherent in question research (Andre, 1979). These include lack of intentional and consistent question design, lack of detail making it difficult to replicate studies, lack of control groups against which to measure differences, aggregation of results only while omitting a question-by-question analysis, and results based upon the learners' ability to recall information versus near and far transfer (Andre, 1979). O f importance for this study is the latter. Knowledge transfer is a major contributor to problem-solving (Jonassen, 201 lb; Mayer & Wittrock, 1996). This study assessed the use o f domain-specific, domain-general, and combined-domain-general specific question types when compared to a control group of no questions as a generative strategy promoting knowledge acquisition, retention, and transfer in support of solving wellstructured and ill-structured problems while controlling for the methodological concerns of Andre (1979). The domain of the instruction was interpersonal communications and was delivered as a web-based course in two instructional units along with pretest and posttest assessment, unit assessments, and a role-play simulation using an automated agent to measure far transfer problem solving. Results from the study suggested no significant differences between treatment groups for knowledge acquisition, retention, or near problem-solving transfer. The data did suggest significant differences in far problem-solving transfer for the treatment group receiving domain-specific questions only. Further, measures o f central tendency suggest domain-specific questions may produce slightly greater gains in performance over domain-general only and combined domain-specific/domain-general questions.


This study proposes a biometric system for personal identification based on three biometric characteristics from the hand, namely: the palmprint, finger surfaces and hand geometry. A protection scheme is applied to the biometric template data to guarantee its revocability, security and diversity among different biometric systems. An error-correcting code (ECC), a cryptographic hash function (CHF) and a binarisation module are the core of the template protection scheme. Since the ECC and CHF operate on binary data, an additional feature binarisation step is required. This study proposes: (i) a novel identification architecture that uses hand geometry as a soft biometric to accelerate the identification process and ensure the system's scalability; and (ii) a new feature binarisation technique that guarantees that the Hamming distance between transformed binary features is proportional to the difference between their real values. The proposed system achieves promising recognition and speed performances on two publicly available hand image databases.


With 45 million children between 6 and 18 years of age participating in organized sports, pediatric injuries to the ankle and foot are extremely common. As the number of pediatric athletes grows, a concomitant rise in pediatric ankle and foot injuries is expected. In pediatric athletes, the ankle and foot undergoes rapid growth, which predisposes this population to injuries and complications that may not be seen in an adult population. In this review article, we discuss common pediatric ankle and foot injuries and detail the current practices with regard to their prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in order to provide a foundation for clinicians to build upon.


A unified treatment of the basic electrostatic and dynamic design of charge-coupled devices (CCD's) based on approximate analytical analysis is presented. Clocking methods and tradeoffs are discussed. Driver power dissipation and on-chip power dissipation are analyzed. Properties of noise sources due to charge input and transfer are summarized. Low-noise methods of signal extraction are discussed in detail. The state of the art for linear and area arrays is presented. Tradeoffs in area-array performance from a systems point of view and performance predictions are presented in detail. Time delay and integration (TDI) and the charge-injection device (CID) are discussed. Finally, the uses of the charge-coupled concept in infrared imaging are discussed.


The force of disaster hit me in the heart when, as a young woman, I heard Bob Dylan sing 'Hard Rain'. In a voice stunned by violence, the young man reports on a multitude of forces that drag the world into catastrophe. In the 1960s I heard the social justice in the song. In 2004 the environmental issues ambush me. The song starts and ends in the dying world of trees and rivers. The poet's words in both domains of justice are eerily prophetic. They call across the music, and across the years, saying that a hard rain is coming. The words bear no story at all; they give us a series of compelling images, an account of impending calamity. The artistry of the poet—Bob (Billy Boy) Dylan—offers sequences of reports that, like Walter Benjamin's storm from paradise, pile wreckage upon wreckage.


The early stages of the formation of dislocation microstructures in low strain fatigue are analysed,using three-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics modelling (DDD). A detailed analysis of the simulated microstructures provide a detailed scheme for the persistent slip band formation, emphasizing the crucial role of cross-slip for both the initial strain spreading inside of the grain and for the subsequent strain localization in the form of slip bands. A new ad-hoc posttreatment tool evaluates the surface roughness as the cycles proceed. Slip markings and their evolutions are analysed, in relation to the dislocation microstructure. This dislocation-based study emphasizes the separate contribution of plastic slip in damage nucleation. A simple 1D dislocation based model for work-hardening in crystal plasticity is proposed. In this model, the forest dislocations are responsible for friction stress (isotropic work-hardening), while dislocation pile-ups and dislocation trapped in Persistent Slip Bands (PSB) produce the back stress (kinematic workhardening). The model is consistent with the stress-strain curves obtained in DDD. It is also consistent with the stress-strain curves experimentally obtained for larger imposed strain amplitudes.


Microstructural change and soft ening behavior during annealing were investigated for deformed ferrite and lath martensite in an ultralow carbon 1.5mass%Mn-0.0018mass%B steel, and then the difference in recrystallization behavior between the materials was discussed in terms of the nucleation site of recrystallized grains. The ferritic and martensitic materials were obtained by furnace-cooling and water-quenching, respectively, after solution treatment. The ferritic material was cold-rolled at a reduction of 80% to give the same dislocatio n density as of the martensitic material. The deformed ferritic material contains a large number of geometrically necessary boundaries with large misorientations, while the martensitic material does only contain original grain boundaries such as prior austenite grain boundaries, packet boundaries and block boundaries. The recrystallization during annealing is markedly retarded in the martensitic material compared with the deformed ferritic material. As a result, the time for completing the recrystallization was roughly a hundred times longer in the martensitic material than in the deformed ferritic material. This is due to the difference in nucleation site of recrystallized grains, that is, the geometrically necessary (GN) boundaries introduced by the deformation for the ferritic material, and only the original grain boundaries for the martensitic material.


As well as a reputation for a singular life-style, France has an international reputation in the imagination of consumers for clothing design and Haute Couture. Paris and even Marseilles are considered creative strongholds, not-to-be-ignored forums for the most famous fashion designers. The ready-to-wear industry plays a particularly important role in the economic, social and cultural world of our society. Yet it is undoubtedly the most uncertain business sector in that everything hinges on an element that is by its nature risk bearing: fashion. Under these conditions, which strategies are appropriate for coping with rapid product renewal? Are enterprises interested in cooperating in order to cope with market instability? If we take it as axiomatic that collective strategies exist in the ready-to-wear sector, a new question arises: are collective strategies part of a global approach in a given sector, coordinated at every level of the industry or, on the contrary, are they restricted to just a few organisational processes? A study of the industry shows the existence of a coopetition situation: both individual and collective strategies that exist within a single industry. In other words, competition and cooperation are relationship models that coexist, sometimes at levels that differ from those observed in other sectors. This paper highlights in particular the role played by third party stakeholders such as syndicates and style agencies, which may be viewed as orchestrators of the implementation of collective action in a highly competitive environment.


Today the world's media have a pressing need to understand and interpret the modern Middle East. In this timely book, Lina Khatib examines how contemporary American cinema and the cinemas of the Arab world contribute to this global preoccupation in their representations of Middle Eastern politics. This examination of Hollywood as the dominant Western interpreter of the Arab World also views the Arab world in terms of how it perceives itself and others through its films. It covers films made in the USA, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine over the final two decades of the last century and into the present, showing how these cinemas represent major political issues in the Middle East, from the Arab-Israeli conflict, through the Gulf War, to Islamic fundamentalism. It also uncovers the challenges presented by Arab cinemas to Hollywood's ways of representing Middle East politics. The book goes beyond an analysis of difference, to address similarities in how political themes are selected as well as in the cinematic language that gives them life. For example, it looks at cinema as a tool of nationalism in the USA and the Arab world and at how the representations of political issues by Hollywood and Arab cinemas are informed by the political and historical contexts in which they occur. This book is inspired by Edward Said's writing on Orientalism, but it goes further, to show not only how the 'Orient' is constructed by the 'Occident', but also how the 'Orient' itself is consumed by power struggles both internal and external. "Filming The Modern Middle East" therefore establishes an important link between discourses of the West and those of the East.


Electron microscopic and morphometric studies of the lysosomal system of hepatocytes with quantitative, informative and dispersion analysis of electron micrographs in healthy rats and rats with extrahepatic cholestasis have revealed the stage-like character of changes of the reaction of the liver subcellular structures in the processes of development of the pathologic process. At the first stage (12h-3 days) in parallel with the symptoms of injury (dilation of the lumen of bile canals with dystrophic alterations of epitheliocytes microvilli, depletion of the cytoplasm by glycogen, appearance of lipid inclusions, accumulation of the bile pigments) the initiation of urgent reactions of compensation was observed (using part of primary lysosomes in heterophagic processes, activation of autophagocytosis) as well as the beginning of the formation of long-term reactions with a somewhat increased amount of primary lysosomes and greater amount of small primary forms. There occur normalization of the ratio of primary and secondary forms. The 2nd stage (the 2nd half of the 1st week--the 2nd week) is characterized by the prevalence of compensatory adaptation reactions, underlaid by the formation of long-term reactions of compensation (considerable increase of the amount of primary lysosomes at the expense of intensification of their synthesis, active resorption of bile and lipid metabolites with the transformation of the latter in glycogen). The 3rd stage (the 3rd week) is characterized by depletion of reserves of the lysosomal system: sharp drop of the ability for self-renewal of the structures, change of the population composition of organelles expressed as prevalence of autophagosomes and residual bodies, transformation of the lysosomes in residual bodies.


ABSTRACT Individuals with serious mental disorder diagnoses (SMD) are overrepresented in U.S. jails and prisons, returning to custody more often and more quickly than those without these diagnoses. This paper examines the strengths and limitations of existing theoretical interpretations of justice involvement among those with SMD. Further, the paper presents results from in-depth interviews (n = 23) in an effort to direct an alternative theoretical path. Findings indicate people with SMD are not simply subject to the whims of their psychopathology. Instead, they are risk-exposed agents whose arrests are related to early institutionalization, interpersonal conflict, and life circumstances punctuated by socioeconomic marginality. Such findings suggest longitudinal and multi-level theoretical orientations are most appropriate for understanding carceral involvement among individuals with SMD.


Somatising tendency, defined as a predisposition to worry about common somatic symptoms, is importantly associated with various aspects of health and health-related behaviour, including musculoskeletal pain and associated disability. To explore its epidemiological characteristics, and how it can be specified most efficiently, we analysed data from an international longitudinal study. A baseline questionnaire, which included questions from the Brief Symptom Inventory about seven common symptoms, was completed by 12,072 participants aged 20–59 from 46 occupational groups in 18 countries (response rate 70%). The seven symptoms were all mutually associated (odds ratios for pairwise associations 3.4 to 9.3), and each contributed to a measure of somatising tendency that exhibited an exposure-response relationship both with multi-site pain (prevalence rate ratios up to six), and also with sickness absence for non-musculoskeletal reasons. In most participants, the level of somatising tendency was little changed when reassessed after a mean interval of 14 months (75% having a change of 0 or 1 in their symptom count), although the specific symptoms reported at follow-up often differed from those at baseline. Somatising tendency was more common in women than men, especially at older ages, and varied markedly across the 46 occupational groups studied, with higher rates in South and Central America. It was weakly associated with smoking, but not with level of education. Our study supports the use of questions from the Brief Symptom Inventory as a method for measuring somatising tendency, and suggests that in adults of working age, it is a fairly stable trait.


In this article, Karen Barad entertains the possibility of the queerness of one of the most pervasive of all critters – atoms. These "ultraqueer" critters with their quantum quotidian qualities queer queerness itself in their radically deconstructive ways of being. Given that queer is a radical questioning of identity and binaries, including the nature/culture binary, this article aims to show that all sorts of seeming impossibilities are indeed possible, including the queerness of causality, matter, space, and time. What if queerness were understood to reside not in the breech of nature/culture, per se, but in the very  nature of spacetimemattering, Barad asks. This article also considers questions of ethics and justice, and in particular, examines the ways in which moralism insists on having its way with the nature/culture divide. Barad argues that moralism, feeds off of human exceptionalism, and, in particular, human superiority and causes injury to humans and nonhumans alike, is a genetic carrier of genocidal hatred, and undermines ecologies of diversity necessary for flourishing.


IN CONNECTION with recent studies of the permeability and other properties of the excised cornea, 1 measurements of electrical impedance might be expected to give additional pertinent information. It is now generally accepted that the impedance of biologic tissues is directly related to their ionic permeability. 2 In the same way that measurements of impedance of solutions of pure electrolytes may be considered to measure (aside from concentration effects) the ability of the ions to diffuse through the medium, measurements of impedance of the cornea may be considered to give a measure of the ability of the ions to move through the tissue. The impedance consists of a resistive component, related to movement of ions in an electrolyte (and thus generally accepted to be a measure of permeability to ions), and a capacitative component, probably associated with dielectric properties and polarization of the tissue. The resistive component is of principal


In the future, the number of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) that will participate in the primary frequency control (PFC) is likely to increase. In our previous research, the computational complexity of the PFC problem for a large number of PEVs was reduced using aggregate models of PEVs. However, in the literature on the PFC, the distribution network characteristics have not been included in the aggregate models of PEVs for the PFC, despite the fact that PEVs will be dispersedly connected to the distribution network. This paper proposes an aggregate model of PEVs for the PFC that further incorporates distribution network characteristics, i.e., the distribution network power loss (DNPL) and the maximum allowed current (MAC) of the lines and transformers. The DNPL variation is formulated according to the line and transformer impedance, spatial distribution of PEVs and loads, and active power variation of PEVs. Then, DNPL variation together with the MAC of the lines and transformers are incorporated in the proposed model of PEVs. Finally, the simulation results show an excellent agreement of 98% between the detailed model and the proposed aggregate model of PEVs.


Objective: This study aims to analyse the clinical effect of docetaxel chemotherapy combined with zoledronate on patients with osseous metastatic breast cancer.
Methods: Sixty patients with osseous metastatic breast cancer treated in our hospital from January 2014 to May 2016 were randomly selected and divided into control (n=30) and observation groups (n=30). The control group was treated by docetaxel chemotherapy, whereas the observation group was treated by docetaxel chemotherapy combined with zoledronate. The clinical results were statistically analysed.
Results: The symptoms are relieved in 28 cases (93.3%) in the observation group, which is significantly higher than that in the control group (73.3%) (P<0.05). The inhibition rate of MCF7/ADM and MCF-7/S in the observation group is significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05). The post-treatment body pain is statistically different between the control and observation groups (4.49 ± 1.80 and 2.87 ± 1.62, respectively) (P<0.05).
Conclusions: The clinical treatment of docetaxel chemotherapy combined with zoledronate can relieve the body pain and increase the curative effect in patients. Docetaxel chemotherapy has promising applications.


The research goal has been synchronizing the process of asphalt production, asphalt transportation and pavement laying by connecting different machines together using wireless technologies. Sensors and GPS positioning units were installed to the machines for measuring process variables (e.g. mass temperature) and detecting events (e.g. loading, unloading). The first prototype system (autumn 2007) was based on embedded wireless measurement and data collection modules. A more recent system uses a vehicle PC and a separate embedded system module with sensor interfaces and a short-range radio transmitter. Vehicles communicate with the database through a GPRS link and use a short-range radio as an RFID for authentication and a direct communication channel with the other vehicles. GPS position information is used for context recognition together with the short-range radio and sensor information. Process information is continuously stored to a database, to be used for quality control and process optimization.


Previous research on correctional goal orientations has focused on the attitudes of the public, correctional administrators, and correctional staff. Only a few studies have examined inmate attitudes. This research addresses the question: Do jail inmates and staff have similar beliefs about the goals of corrections? Findings from a sample drawn from a single rural mountain state jail indicate that jail staff rank incapacitation as the primary goal of corrections, while inmates rank rehabilitation as most important. Results from two multinomial logistic regression models were mixed. The inmate model indicated that race is significantly associated with a rehabilitative goal orientation. Additionally, for inmates, gender and education influence a non-retributive goal orientation. The staff model did not reach statistical significance. These findings lend some support to further empirical studies that address problems associated with correctional operations and organizational culture in a way that incorporates an inmate perspective.


In this paper, we address the problem of the recognition of isolated complex mono- and bi-manual hand gestures. In the proposed system, hand gestures are represented by the 3D trajectories of blobs. The blobs are obtained by tracking colored body parts in real-time using the EM algorithm. In most of the studies on hand gestures, only small vocabularies have been used. In this paper, we study the results obtained on a more complex database of mono- and bi-manual gestures. These results are obtained by using a state-of-the-art sequence processing algorithm, namely hidden Markov models (HMMs), implemented within the framework of an open source machine learning library.


Thanks to its wide coverage and general-purpose ontology, DBpedia is a prominent dataset in the Linked Open Data cloud. DBpedia's content is harvested from Wikipedia's infoboxes, based on manually created mappings. In this paper, we explore the use of a promising source of knowledge for extending DBpedia, i.e., Wikipedia's list pages. We discuss how a combination of frequent pattern mining and natural language processing (NLP) methods can be leveraged in order to extend both the DBpedia ontology, as well as the instance information in DBpedia. We provide an illustrative example to show the potential impact of our approach and discuss its main challenges.


Acupuncture has been widely used in alternative medicine for pain relief but may have many complications due to lack of appropriate cares. Pharmacopuncture is a sort of acupuncture that injects a herbal ingredient through a thin tube for the purpose of combining the effects of the herb and acupuncture and it has many pitfalls. The agents used in pharmacopuncture are not refined for a desired effect and not produced by sterile standard processes under strict medical surveillance. We report a case of a 44-yr-old male patient who had multiple abscesses in the psoas region with fever, right low back and hip pain that began after the pharmacopuncture treatment. This case shows that although pharmacopuncture has been practiced widely, it is important that the appropriate aseptic technique should be used to prevent severe infections and other complications.


We consider standard $\La$-coalescents (or coalescents with multiple collisions) with a non-trivial "Kingman part". Equivalently, the driving measure $\Lambda$ has an atom at $0$; $\Lambda(\{0\})=c>0$. It is known that all such coalescents come down from infinity. Moreover, the number of blocks $N_t$ is asymptotic to $v(t) = 2/(ct)$ as $t\to 0$. In the present paper we investigate the second-order asymptotics of $N_t$ in the functional sense at small times. This complements our earlier results on the fluctuations of the number of blocks for a class of regular $\La$-coalescents without the Kingman part. In the present setting it turns out that the Kingman part dominates, and the limit process is a Gaussian diffusion, as opposed to the stable limit in our previous work.


Background The study aim was to investigate the association between knowledge of breast cancer and practice of breast self-examination (BSE) and having clinical breast examination (CBE) in a cross-sectional sample of 700 Malaysian secondary school teachers. Methods A two-stage sampling frame was used; a simple random sample of 10 out of 24 schools was selected and all teachers within those schools were invited to participate. The following data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire (i) socio-demographic data, (ii) five knowledge categories: general knowledge of breast cancer, signs and symptoms, risk factors, mammography, recommended frequency of BSE and CBE, and (iii) practice of BSE and CBE. Separate knowledge scores were computed for each knowledge category and an overall summative score. Backwards stepwise (Wald) logistic regression models were developed (SPSS V20) with BSE and CBE practice as dependent outcome measures. Independent variables were: socio-demographic, lifestyle factors, total score or knowledge score for each of the five categories. Results The response rate was 74% (518/700). Level of exercise was associated with BSE (p = 0.02) and CBE (p = 0.01), with exercise twice a week showing the strongest association compared to never exercising, OR=2.71 (95% CI 1.38–5.33, p = 0.004) for BSE, OR=2.40 (95% CI 1.27–4.55, p = 0.007) for CBE. Self-report of having an annual medical checkup was associated with BSE, OR=2.13, (95% CI 1.29–3.52, p < 001) and CBE, OR=2.41, (95% CI 1.57–3.70, p < 001). Likelihood of practicing BSE improved with increasing total knowledge score (quartiles) in a dose dependent manner, Q2, OR=1.78 (95% CI 0.97–3.27), Q3 OR=1.89 (95% CI 1.06–3.36), Q4 OR=2.2 (95% CI 1.15–3.91, p = 0.02) compared to the lowest quartile Q1 when adjusted for exercise and annual checkup. Knowledge of symptoms and signs was associated with BSE practice, OR =1.25 (95% CI 1.06–1.48, p = 0.009) and CBE, OR=1.3 (95% CI 1.08–1.57, p = 0.005) having adjusted for exercise and annual checkup (BSE and CBE) and age and marital status (CBE). General knowledge was also positively associated with BSE, OR=1.39 (95% CI 1.07–1.81, p = 0.01) after adjustment though not with CBE (p = 0.41). Knowledge of mammography was inversely associated with BSE however the association was not statistically significant OR=0.77 (95% CI 0.56–1.05, p = 0.10). Conclusion Correct knowledge of symptoms and signs of breast cancer is the most important factor associated with BSE and CBE in Malaysian women after adjustment for other positive health behaviours. Knowledge of risk factors, mammography and recommended frequency of BSE and CBE were not associated with practice of BSE and CBE.


Following the financial crisis, the share of non-performing loans has significantly increased, while the regulatory guidelines on the Internal-Ratings Based (IRB) approach for capital adequacy calculation related to defaulted exposures remains too general. As a result, the high-risk nature of these portfolios is clearly in danger of being managed in a heterogeneous and inappropriate manner by those financial institutions permitted to use the IRB system, with the consequent undue variability of Risk-Weighted Assets (RWA). This paper presents a proposal to construct Advanced IRB models for defaulted exposures, in line with current regulations, that preserve the risk sensitivity of capital requirements. To do so, both parameters Expected Loss Best Estimate (ELBE) and Loss Given Default (LGD) in-default are obtained, backed by an innovative indicator (Mixed Adjustment Indicator) that is introduced to ensure an appropriate estimation of expected and unexpected losses. The methodology presented has low complexity and is easily applied to the databases commonly used at these institutions, as illustrated by two examples. JEL Classification: C51, G21, G28, G32


Horse spleen ferritin is a naturally occurring iron storage protein, consisting of a protein shell encapsulating a hydrous ferric oxide core about 8 nm in diameter. It is known from prior work that the protein can be adsorbed onto the surface of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) electrodes, where it undergoes voltammetric reduction at about −0.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl. This is accompanied by dissolution of Fe2+ through channels in the protein shell. In the present work, it is demonstrated that a pre-wave at about −0.4 V vs Ag/AgCl is due to the reduction of FePO4 also present inside the protein shell.
 In order to prove that the pre-wave was due to the reduction of FePO4, it was first necessary to prepare 8 nm diameter hydrous ferric oxide nanoparticles without protein shells, adsorb them onto ITO electrodes, and then study their electrochemistry. Having achieved that, it was then necessary
to establish that their behaviour was analogous to that of ferritin. This was achieved in several ways, but principally by noting that the same electrochemical reduction reactions occurred at negative potentials, accompanied by the dissolution of Fe(II). Finally, by switching to aqueous phosphate buffer, the pre-wave could be unambiguously identified as the reduction of FePO4 present as a thin layer on the hydrous ferric oxide nanoparticle surfaces.
 Although the bare and protein-coated hydrous ferric oxide nanoparticles were found to behave identically toward electrochemical reduction, they nevertheless reacted very differently towards H2O2. The bare nanoparticles acted as potent electrocatalysts for both the oxidation and the reduction of H2O2, whereas the horse spleen ferritin had a much lesser effect. It seems likely therefore that the protein shell in ferritin blocks the formation of key intermediates in
hydrogen peroxide decomposition.


An unusual jaw found in a calcite nodule from Collishaw Point, Hornby Island, British Columbia (off the east coast of Vancouver Island) represents the first definitive pterosaur found in British Columbia, and the first istiodactylid from Canada. The nodule was derived from the Northumberland Formation (Nanaimo Group), a fossiliferous formation known for producing numerous plants, invertebrates, sharks, and mosasaurs. The pterosaur is represented by the anterior portion of the rostrum, including the anterior edge of the nasoantorbital fenestra, and numerous small, triangular teeth lacking denticles. These teeth are similar in overall morphology to the teeth of istiodactylids, but are smaller, more numerous, more tightly packed, and have proportionately smaller crowns. Although fragmentary, this specimen is diagnostic and represents a new genus of istiodactylid pterosaur. Its presence in the upper Campanian Northumberland Formation makes this the latest occurring istiodactylid and extends the stratigraphic ...


Several versions of a mathematical programming model which determines attribute weights for each consumer are empirically eavluated using data on dry cereals and automobiles. The model is found to be a good predictor of consumer preferences, particularly for dry cereals. Managerial implications for product repositioning, new product design, and market segmentation are discussed in the paper.


Summary: We studied 30 patients with postictal psychosis and compared them with 33 patients with acute interictal psychosis and 25 patients with chronic psychosis. All patients had either complex partial seizures (CPS) or EEG temporal epileptogenic foci. Patients with postictal psychosis had a high incidence of psychic auras and nocturnal secondarily generalized seizures. The most striking feature that distinguished postictal psychosis from both acute interictal and chronic psychoses was phenomenological: the relatively frequent occurrence of grandiose delusions as well as religious delusions in the setting of markedly elevated moods and feeling of mystic fusion of the body with the universe. In addition, postictal psychosis exhibited few schizophreniform psychotic traits such as perceptual delusions or voices commenting. Reminiscence, mental diplopia, and a feeling of impending death were also fairly frequent complaints of patients with postictal psychosis. Interictal acute psychosis and chronic epileptic psychosis were psychopathologically similar. Although acute interictal and chronic epileptic psychoses could simulate schizophrenia, postictal psychosis results in a mental state quite different from that of schizophrenic psychosis.


Coastal adaptation can reduce climate change impacts and investing now, though costly, will bring greater benefits over the longer term, particularly in urban areas. Yet public actors currently cover a small fraction of needed coastal adaptation investments, a finance gap set to widen as coastal adaptation costs continue to increase. Mobilizing private finance for coastal adaptation is thus a salient challenge, as emphasized in the Paris Agreement. Key under‐researched dimensions of this challenge are what promotes private investment in coastal adaptation and how can public actors' interest in adaptation be aligned with private investor interests. To address this, we review the literatures on coastal adaptation finance and on financial arrangements involving both public actors and private investors. We describe key actors and interests, and identify coastal financial arrangements that align public actor and private investor interests, finding that private provisioning, public–private Partnerships (PPP), and public debt arrangements are promising. We then survey empirical examples, finding that private provisioning attracts investment when returns are high, for example, in urban real estate, and that PPPs attract dredging and construction companies' investment, particularly for adaptation measures with a large share of operational costs, for example, beach nourishment. We find little evidence of institutional investment through public debt instruments. A number of policy instruments, for example, concessional loans, tax incentives, and standards, may address this gap and enhance private coastal adaptation investment. Our results are also relevant for other sectors that involve long‐term infrastructure adaptation measures.


ABSTRACT Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc.) is an important underutilized legume crop in Indonesia. The aim of this research is to study genetic diversity of bambara groundnut from Sukabumi and Sumedang, West Java, Indonesia. This study used 107 bambara groundnut accessions, which consisted of 57 accessions from Sukabumi and 50 accessions from Sumedang. We use five simple sequence repeat (SSR) to analyze the accessions. Totally nine alleles were detected, with a mean of 1.8 alleles per locus. Allelic and gene diversities were higher in Sumedang (1.8 alleles per locus and 0.119) than in Sukabumi population (1.4 alleles per locus and 0.020), respectively. We constructed a phylogenic tree by Neighbor-Joining analysis based on genetic distances (DA) and showed the tree divided bambara groundnut accessions into two broad groups according to the origin of samples (Sukabumi and Sumedang). Results from the phylogenic tree are in line with those from the population structure analysis. Keywords: allele diversity, bambara groundnut, genetic distance, under utilized legume


The purpose of this guide is to spark interest in the many ways that we CAN REcycle, REuse, REduce wastes and to learn better options to care for our planet's REsources.


N2O decomposition to gaseous N-2 and O-2 catalyzed by a commercial Fe-ZSM-5 has been studied by different transient techniques: (i) via the transient response methods at ambient pressure, (ii) via the temporal analysis of products (TAP) reactor under vacuum, and (iii) by temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) under vacuum. The catalyst was activated in He at 1323 K. Two main steps can be distinguished within the transient period of N2O decomposition under constant N2O feed at 603 K: the first step consists of molecular N-2 formation and surface atomic oxygen (O)(Fe). It follows a period of stoichiometric N2O decomposition to gaseous N-2 and O-2 with increasing conversion until steady state is reached. The observed rate increase is assigned to a slow accumulation on the surface of NOx,ads species formed from N2O and participating as co-catalyst in the N2O decomposition. The NOx,ads species accelerates the atomic oxygen recombination/desorption, which is the rate-determining step of N2O decomposition. The formation and accumulation of NOx,ads species during N2O interaction with the catalyst was confirmed by TAP studies. The amount of NOx,ads was found to depend on the number of N2O pulses injected into the TAP reactor. In the presence of adsorbed NOx on the catalyst surface (NOx,ads ) the desorption of dioxygen is facilitated. This results in a shift of the oxygen desorption temperature from 744 K to considerably lower temperatures of 580 K in TPD experiments. Pulses of gaseous NO had a similar effect leading to the formation NOx,ads thus facilitating the oxygen recombination/desorption.


The emerging standard ISO 14649, informally known as STEP-NC, presents an opportunity to revolutionize computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools, which plays an ever-increasingly important role in modern manufacturing. This paper proposes a framework for the future CNC systems aimed to fit in a STEP-compliant manufacturing scenario. The proposed system (ST-CNC), which consists of five functional modules namely interpretation, micro-process planning, simulation, control and supervision, and in-process inspection modules, is designed as an intelligent system capable of both decision-making and machine control to support intelligent manufacturing and streamline the information flow in the process chain. Major technological issues such as part program interpretation, micro-process planning and toolpath calculation at the machine are also addressed, and a number of functional modules have been implemented along with the prototype development based on an open CNC kernel.


Presently, many issues question the capacity of Quebec's educational institutions to wholly fulfill their social mission. Those challenges include a relatively high school dropout rate, a low literacy level among the adult population, and a constant increase in the number of students with disabilities, social maladjustments or learning difficulties. Sustaining adolescents' academic motivation is a concern relating to each of the mentioned issues affecting Quebec's high schools nowadays. This paper addresses the following question: how can school agents and educational policies best support the adolescents' motivation in school? To answer this question, I use the theoretical framework of the self-determination theory (SDT), a macrotheory of the human motivation which stipulates that the respect of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) nourish students' intrinsic motivation, to analyze a research-based intervention program that aim to enhance students' academic motivation, and Quebec Education Program (QEP) recommendations on this point. The conclusions of this article invites scholars and governments to investigate educational models prioritizing the fulfillment of the youths' basic psychological needs according to SDT.


Abstract The study examined the contribution of the BA Childhood Practice work-based degree to professional and personal development, including leadership skills, analysed in relation to relevant models of professional development. It drew upon evidence from three university providers, from research assignments, subsequent questionnaires and interviews with students. A phenomenographical approach was used to identify the perceptions of learning and affective experiences. In discussing the nature of professional development, the paper draws on theoretical frameworks and the Standard for Childhood Practice. Findings revealed that characteristics identified in these models were evident in the degree, the most influential being knowledge and understanding, critical awareness, and changes to values and beliefs. These aspects promoted leadership and quality and underpinned increased self-confidence. The main issue that emerged was the significance of a work-based model which promotes the development of higher level skills; this is relevant across professions.


SUMMARY: In growing cultures of Salmonella typhimurium, flagellar e-N-methyllysine (NML) can be isotopically labelled with either L-[Me-14C]methionine or L-[U-14C]lysine. This isotopic labelling of flagellar NML was unaffected by the addition of DL-NML to the incubation medium. The methionine analogues, D-methionine and DL-ethionine, competitively inhibited the incorporation of the methyl group from methionine into flagellar NML, but had no effect on the incorporation of L-[U-14C]lysine. Although it is probable that methylation of lysine occurs after it has been incorporated into the flagellin molecule, it has not been possible by using antibiotics and purine and pyrimidine analogues to differentiate between flagellar synthesis and the formation of flagellar NML. Attempts to obtain a cell-free preparation capable of synthesizing NML have so far been unsuccessful.


Britain today is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society. In order to
provide an equitable service to non-English speaking service users, the provision of
language support is essential, and bilingual health advocates are often used to fulfil
this role. However, the role of the bilingual health advocate extends further than
simple language interpretation - they also seek to support and empower service users,
and this makes their role somewhat unique. To date, little thought has been given to
the psychological impact of working as a bilingual health advocate, and thus, the
present study aimed to redress this imbalance by examining the experiences of seven
bilingual health advocates working within a single service. Semi-structured interviews
were conducted with the advocates and the data was analysed using Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis (DPA). Four superordinate themes emerged which related
to the advocacy role, the challenges the advocates faced, how these challenges were
managed, and the wider impact of the work that the advocates do. The findings of the
research indicated that working with clients who are in distress was emotionally
challenging for all the bilingual health advocates. Equally challenging, however, were
service related issues, and the way in which the advocates perceived themselves to be
viewed by other health professionals. The advocates reported that these latter factors
had as much of a detrimental impact on their emotional wellbeing, as their direct work
with service users. A need for additional emotional and practical support was
identified, and the implications of the research findings for both clinical practice and
future research are discussed.


The effect of Thermomechanical Processing (TMP) using hot rolling on the structure, rolling pressure, mechanical properties of titanium and niobium alloyed 18Cr-10Ni austenitic stainless steels (type AISI 321) is presented. It has been found that the strengthening effect of TMP depends significantly on the kinetics of deformation accumulation schedule. The change in rolling pressure with an increasing number of passes follow a similar pattern to the change in strength of the TMP treated rolling section. The basic factor determining the difference in structure formation of studying steels is thermodynamic stability of the carbide phase under the different rolling accumulation schedules. TEM and light microscopy have been used in structural investigations. TMP with a different accumulation schedule result in increasing of yield strength by 1,3-1,7 times compared to conventional heat treatment value. The short-term high-temperature tensile tests showed that the higher room temperature strength level of TMP treated steel was also retained at high temperatures.


Numerous abdominal manifestations were noted among 600 patients undergoing treatment at Hospital Laennec for various stages of infection by the acquired immunodeficiency virus. These included violent abdominal pain in 30% of cases, the development of abdominal lymphoma, and occasionally alarming pseudo-surgical syndromes. Diagnosis is difficult, all the more so since authentic emergencies may be aggravated by the immunodeficiency state. 18 cases were collected in 3 years and included 6 cases of acute cholecystitis and 2 of appendicitis. The gangrenous and extensive nature of infection was generally noted and required appropriate antibiotic therapy.


Salicylic acid (SA) may induce toxicity in orchids depending on its concentration and the plant species, but there is no information about the effect of this substance on orchids cultivated in vitro. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different concentrations of SA on Cymbidium atropurpureo and Phalaenopsis Golden Peoker cultivated in vitro to verify the biological losses caused by the substance's toxicity. The orchids Cymbidium atropurpureo and Phalaenopsis Golden Peoker were sown in vitro in a Murashige and Skoog (MS)-growth medium and transferred to a medium of the same type containing SA 90 days after sowing. The studied SA concentrations were 0, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 1000 µmol·L−1, and the plants were kept in this medium for 210 days. The treatments were distributed into a completely randomized design with four replications. Biometric variables of the seedlings and electrolyte leakage were evaluated 300 days after sowing. The results indicate that the addition of SA interfered with the in vitro growth and development of seedlings of Cymbidium atropurpureo and Phalaenopsis Golden Peoker, given that it caused all the examined variables to show reduced values and triggered electrolyte leakage, consequently inducing toxicity.


The objective of field water measurement is to conserve water by improving management of its distribution and field application. A simple mobile flume to measure a discharge through small rectangular open channels in agricultural fields has been experimentally investigated. The flume consisting of a vertical cylinder inserted axially into the horizontal prismatic rectangular channel, referred as a simple cylindrical flume, has been calibrated. The flow rate in rectangular channel can be measured by constricting the flow due to presence of cylinder, resulting in critical flow conditions. Experiments have been performed on two simple cylindrical flumes of different diameters, to evaluate the hydraulic characteristics of subcritical incoming flow under free flow conditions. The results of laboratory experiments on the flume have been analysed and two different discharge prediction models have been developed. The two models developed for the prediction of discharge for simple cylindrical flumes developed for use in rectangular channel sections, are based on the energy concept and the direct regression approach, respectively. Both the proposed models have been validated using the limited experimental data available in the literature. Formation of critical depth at the throat section has also been verified. Plots have also been developed for the dimensionless column head and the corresponding Froude number of the incoming flow. The discharge prediction model giving the least error has been proposed for use in practice.


Displacement fundamental equations of moderately thick shallow spherical shells in polar coordinates concerning five independent variables, i.e. five middle surface displacements are established, based on the displacement fundamental equations of the moderately thick shells by transverse shearing deformation and basic hypothesis on shallow shells. Four assistant displacement functions are introduced to solve displacement fundamental equations of circular moderately thick shallow spherical shells , which are tenth-order differential equations with variable coefficient, then the decoupled governing differential equations are built up, and five displacement components through four assistant displacement functions are obtained.


Shaped like a 130-mile long, jagged isosceles triangle, the State of Delaware is small, flat, and awash in water. Delaware has a variety of plentiful water resources that belie its modest size (only Rhode Island is smaller). The northern tip of the state lies in the Piedmont region and is characterized by a bed of crystalline rock that runs from New England to Alabama. Most of the state, however, is within the Atlantic Coastal Plain province, which is typically flat. Much like the state, water law in Delaware is not one thing or another but a hybrid of systems that reflect four hundred years of development and domestication.This article -- to be published in a forthcoming issue of the University of Denver Water Law Review -- surveys water law and rights in Delaware, and has three sections. The first provides a brief introduction to the role of water resources and the evolution of water rights law in Delaware. The second surveys Delaware water rights law, focusing on the processes and standards for obtaining a permit to use, withdraw, or divert water in the state. The third is an overview of some related aspects influencing water rights in Delaware, namely the Delaware Coastal Zone Act, and the Delaware River Basin Commission. The article concludes that water law and rights in Delaware comprises an amalgam of ordinary riparian rights and the natural flow doctrine that combines special provisions that reflect the state's four-centuries of water law, coupled with recent legislative inventions to protect coastal areas, and a federal program designed to manage the Delaware River from the upper elevations of its headwaters in upstate New York to a submerged Cypress stand in Delaware's southernmost reach, the state's only remaining virgin forest.


Biofilms in surface waters are characterized by their spatial structure and the heterogeneous distribution of the microorganisms that interact in a complex and dynamic way. Therefore, the assessment of phototrophic and heterotrophic biofilms' metabolic activity should be done without disturbing their structure. Several optical methods that allow the study of undisturbed living biofilms have been developed and are claimed to have high potential in the analysis of biofilms. However, natural biofilms can develop into thick packages of cells that may limit light penetration into the biofilm matrix, hindering the use of optical methods. In this paper we evaluate the use of non-destructive optical and destructive methods for the study of natural algal-bacterial biofilms. Pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) fluorimetry (with both single and multiple wavelength excitation) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) are used as optical methods and compared to chemical extraction of plant pigments and exopolysaccharides. We demonstrate that the attenuation of the light intensity by the biofilm matrix represents a limitation to optical methods that is difficult to overcome in mature natural biofilms; but nevertheless, optical methods are very reliable for the study of thin or young biofilms. Apart from the biofilm thickness, the degree of compactness should also be taken into account. The density of some natural biofilms could be a limitation of CLSM especially if high molecular weight probes are used for specific biofilm components. In conclusion, a combination of both approaches still appears to be necessary in order to follow the complete developmental period of biofilms. [KEYWORDS: lms ; Microalgae ; PAM fluorimetry ; CLSM ; Chlorophyll ; Lectins ; Bacteria]


CONSPECTUS: The interaction of molecular oxygen with titanium dioxide (TiO2) surfaces plays a key role in many technologically important processes such as catalytic oxidation reactions, chemical sensing, and photocatalysis. While O2 interacts weakly with fully oxidized TiO2, excess electrons are often present in TiO2 samples. These excess electrons originate from intrinsic reducing defects (oxygen vacancies and titanium interstitials), doping, or photoexcitation and form polaronic Ti(3+) states in the band gap near the bottom of the conduction band. Oxygen adsorption involves the transfer of one or more of these excess electrons to an O2 molecule at the TiO2 surface. This results in an adsorbed superoxo (O2(-)) or peroxo (O2(2-)) species or in molecular dissociation and formation of two oxygen adatoms (2 × O(2-)). Oxygen adsorption is also the first step toward oxygen incorporation, a fundamental reaction that strongly affects the chemical properties and charge-carrier densities; for instance, it can transform the material from an n-type semiconductor to a poor electronic conductor. In this Account, we present an overview of recent theoretical work on O2 adsorption and reactions on the reduced anatase (101) surface. Anatase is the TiO2 polymorph that is generally considered most active in photocatalysis. Experiments on anatase powders have shown that the properties of photoexcited electrons are similar to those of excess electrons from reducing defects, and therefore, oxygen on reduced anatase is also a model system for studying the role of O2 in photocatalysis. Experimentally, the characteristic Ti(3+) defect states disappear after adsorption of molecular oxygen, which indicates that the excess electrons are indeed trapped by O2. Moreover, superoxide surface species associated with two different cation surface sites, possibly a regular cation site and a cation close to an anion vacancy, were identified by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. On the theoretical side, however, density functional theory studies have consistently found that it is energetically more favorable for O2 to adsorb in the peroxo form rather than the superoxo form. As a result, obtaining a detailed understanding of the nature of the observed superoxide species has proven difficult for many years. On reduced anatase (101), both oxygen vacancies and Ti interstitials have been shown to reside exclusively in the susbsurface. We discuss how reaction of O2 with a subsurface O vacancy heals the vacancy while leading to the formation of a surface bridging dimer defect. Similarly, the interaction of O2 with a Ti interstitial causes migration of this defect to the surface and the formation of a surface TiO2 cluster. Finally, we analyze the peroxo and superoxo states of the adsorbed molecule. On the basis of periodic hybrid functional calculations of interfacial electron transfer between reduced anatase and O2, we show that the peroxide form, while energetically more stable, is kinetically less favorable than the superoxide form. The existence of a kinetic barrier between the superoxo and peroxo states is essential for explaining a variety of experimental observations.


We describe here a protocol for the generation of sequence-ready libraries for population epigenomics studies. The protocol is a streamlined version of the Assay for transposase accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) that provides a positive display of accessible, presumably euchromatic regions. The protocol is straightforward and can be used with small individuals such as daphnia and schistosome worms, and probably many other biological samples of comparable size, and it requires little molecular biology handling expertise.


Climate change imposes unusual long‐term trends in environmental conditions, plus some tremendous shifts in short‐term environmental variability, exerting additional stress on marine ecosystems. This paper describes an empirical method that aims to improve our understanding of the performance of benthic filter feeders experiencing changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature, on time scales of minutes to hours, especially during daily cycles or extreme events such as marine heatwaves or hypoxic upwelling. We describe the Fluorometer and Oximeter equipped Flow‐through Setup (FOFS), experimental design, and methodological protocols to evaluate the flood of data, enabling researchers to monitor important energy budget traits, including filtration and respiration of benthic filter‐feeders in response to fine‐tuned environmental variability. FOFS allows online recording of deviations in chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen concentrations induced by the study organism. Transparent data processing through Python scripts provides the possibility to adjust procedures to needs when working in different environmental contexts (e.g., temperature vs. pH, salinity, oxygen, biological cues) and with different filter‐feeding species. We successfully demonstrate the functionality of the method through recording responses of Baltic Sea blue mussels (Mytilus) during one‐day thermal cycles. This method practically provides a tool to help researchers exposing organisms to environmental variability for some weeks or months, to relate the observed long‐term performance responses to short‐term energy budget responses, and to explain their findings with the potential to generalize patterns. The method, therefore, allows a more detailed description of stress‐response relationships and the detection of species' tolerance limits.


This study sought to examine factors influencing effective learning among pre-primary pupils in pre-primary school in Uyui district. The study was guided by the following objectives: 1. Examine influence of quality of teachers in teaching pre-primary schools; 2. Establish influence of teaching and learning materials in teaching pre-primary pupils and 3. Examine the parents' involvement in promoting pre-primary education. The study was conducted using qualitative approach; however, some elements of quantitative were used especially in finding frequencies and percentage. The study used three research techniques for data collection, namely, interviews, focused group discussions and documentary reviews. The findings indicated that teachers had no enough qualification in teaching pre-primary pupils. The schools relayed on form four leavers and old teachers who were unable to implement effectively the preschool curriculum. This hindered the right of the preschool to learn. The findings further showed that there were deficit of teaching and learning materials which de-motivated pre-school pupils to learn effectively. Specifically, there were no play grounds that are very essential for the preschool learning. Lastly, it was found that there was poor parental involvement in academic progress of their pupils as the parents were occupied by the agricultural activities and the pressure of work. The study therefore, recommended that the government should recruit competent teachers to teach pre-primary pupils, government and other stakeholders should ensure availability of recommended teaching and learning materials for pre-primary pupils and government ought to provide education to the parents and general community on the important of making follow up on education of their children.


The study investigates primary and secondary verbal memory and motor/executive functions (response inhibition and strategy shifting ability) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). We studied 44 CIS patients and compared them to 49 patients with relapsing remitting MS (RR-MS) displaying mild disability and to a large cohort of age- and education level-matched healthy volunteers (n = 230). Results showed that both CIS and RR-MS patients evidenced a disproportionate impairment in the immediate and delayed recall of the second (as compared to the first) of two short narratives of the Logical Memory WMS-III subtest, and reduced performance on the Memory for Digits-Forward. Performance of either group on the executive tasks was not impaired, showing evidence of a reversed speed-accuracy trade-off. Illness duration emerged as a significant predictor of memory and executive task performance. Clinical, psychoemotional, and brain imaging findings were also examined as potential correlates of memory deficits and disease progression among CIS patients. These findings may signify early-onset decline of specific cognitive functions in CIS, which merits regular follow-up assessments and monitoring of psychoemotional adaptation and everyday functioning.


Abstract Cluster roots are structures formed by many plants adapted to phosphorus (P)-deficient soils. We investigated the combined influence of spatial heterogeneity in soil water and P distribution on the allocation of cluster root formation in white lupin (Lupinus albus L.). In this study, single plants were grown at a low or a high rate of water supply in containers filled with a P-poor sand to which either no P was added or which was fertilized homogeneously or heterogeneously. Furthermore, heterogeneous soil water distribution was established in half of the containers by using a finer instead of a coarser sand in a lateral third of the containers. Plant growth increased with water supply rate, but P fertilization had no influence on shoot biomass production. Although overall cluster root production decreased with increasing homogeneous P supply, localized P fertilization had no effect on cluster root allocation. However, cluster roots were preferentially allocated in the soil sections with lower water availability when overall water supply rate was low. The results suggest that overall cluster root production was a systemic response to initial plant P status, while cluster root growth was stimulated locally in drier patches when overall water supply was limiting plant growth.


The purpose of this research was to establish a relationship between the presence of helminth eggs in the water closet elements and the frequency of these eggs in the feces of their users. 1050 kindergarden children's feces were examinated by the spontaneous sedimentation method in three samples of feces, which were positive in 162 children presenting 184 eggs or helmints larvs. From the 465 water closet elements, constituted of : toilet seat, internal and external door knobs, latch, faucet handle and discharge valve, of 12 Infant Educational Centers of Sorocaba, examinated by sticking some transparent adhesive tape on microscopy slides, were found 18 eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides; 1 of Enterobius vermicularis and 4 larvs of nemathoids partially deformed were found in 23 infected elements. There wasn't significance relationship between the elements of water closets and user's feces contamination.


Background: To evaluate the quality of an organized mammography screening program based on the perception of screened women, we developed and validated the French-language Mammography Satisfaction Instrument (MSI). The study objective was to confirm the validity and reliability of the MSI. Methods: A confirmatory study was conducted among 529 women who had had a recent screening mammography under the Quebec Breast Cancer Screening Program (PQDCS). Eligible women from the Quebec City region completed the online MSI between January 14 and May 23, 2016. The MSI originally included 14 items evaluating 4 factors: satisfaction with (1) the technician's skills; (2) the physical environment; (3) the staff's communication skills; and (4) the information provided under the program. A fifth factor with 2 items, evaluating mammography accessibility, was added. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was done and goodness of fit indices were generated (SRMR, CFI, RMSEA with its 90% CI). Item reliability and composite reliability were estimated. Variance extract estimates (VEEs) were generated to assess the amount of variance explained by the factors. Multivariate logistic regressions were done to test the sensitivity of each scale to identify subgroups of unsatisfied women. Odds ratios (OR) and their 95% CI were estimated. Results: Most women (62.0%) were aged 55–64, and 32.9% had university level education. The CFA demonstrated that the 5 factors fitted the data well (SRMR=0.044; CFI=0.969; RMSEA=0.055 with its 90% CI: 0.047–0.063). Item reliabilities (≥0.55) and composite reliabilities (≥0.87) were high. All VEEs were also high (≥0.70). Pain during compression, anxiety before the mammography, perception of not having an excellent health, and the radiologic centers were the factors the most consistently and significantly associated with the 5 scales of satisfaction. In addition, women with university level education were less satisfied with the staff's communication skills (OR=0.64; 95% CI: 0.43–0.97) and those having had less than 10 lifetime mammograms were less satisfied with the physical environment (OR=0.52; 95% CI: 0.33–0.83) and the accessibility (OR=0.53; 95% CI: 0.31–0.92). Conclusions: This confirmatory study showed the good reliability and validity of the construct of the 16-item MSI with 5 factors. The MSI is useful to detect unsatisfied women and to improve the quality of organized breast cancer screening programs.


The ideal form of fixation for displaced, extra-articular fractures of the distal tibia remains controversial. In the UK, open reduction and internal fixation with locking-plates and intramedullary nailing are the two most common forms of treatment. Both techniques provide reliable fixation but both are associated with specific complications. There is little information regarding the functional recovery following either procedure. We performed a randomised pilot trial to determine the functional outcome of 24 adult patients treated with either a locking-plate (n = 12) or an intramedullary nailing (n = 12). At six months, there was an adjusted difference of 13 points in the Disability Rating Index in favour of the intramedullary nail. However, this was not statistically significant in this pilot trial (p = 0.498). A total of seven patients required further surgery in the locking-plate group and one in the intramedullary nail group. This study suggests that there may be clinically relevant, functional differences in patients treated with nail versus locking-plate fixation for fractures of the distal tibia and differences in related complications. Further trials are required to confirm the findings of this pilot investigation.


The aim of this study was to investigate whether demographic characteristics and sexual behavior online and offline were associated with private, respectively, nonprivate access to the Internet in a Web sample of people who use the Internet for sexual purposes. A total of 1,913 respondents completed an online questionnaire about Internet sexuality, and 1,614 reported using the Internet for sexual purposes. The majority of these respondents reported having access to an Internet-connected computer no one else had access to (62 percent women and 70 percent men). The results showed that it is possible to differentiate between those who have access to an Internet-connected computer no one else has access to and those who have shared access to an Internet-connected computer. Not only did they differ in demographic characteristics, but also in the sexual activities they engaged in on the Internet. Different patterns were found for women and men. For example, men who had private access to Internet-connected computers were more likely than those who had shared access to seek information about sexual issues. Thus, having access to Internet computers no one else has access to may promote sexual knowledge and health for men. The results of this study along with the technological development implies that in future research, attention should be paid to where and how people access the Internet in relation to online behavior in general and online sexual behavior in particular.


Introduction Healthcare workers, particularly those in the emergency department (ED), experience high rates of injuries caused by workplace violence (WPV). Objective Our goal was to establish the incidence of WPV among multidisciplinary ED staff within a regional health system and assess its impact on staff victims. Methods We conducted a survey study of all multidisciplinary ED staff at 18 Midwestern EDs encompassing a larger health system between November 18–December 31, 2020. We solicited the incidence of verbal abuse and physical assault experienced and witnessed by respondents over the prior six months, as well as its impact on staff. Results We included responses from 814 staff (24.5% response rate) for final analysis with 585 (71.9%) indicating some form of violence experienced in the preceding six months. A total of 582 (71.5%) respondents indicated experiencing verbal abuse, and 251 (30.8%) indicated experiencing some form of physical assault. All disciplines experienced some type of verbal abuse and nearly all experienced some type of physical assault. One hundred thirty-five (21.9%) respondents indicated that being the victim of WPV has affected their ability to perform their job, and nearly half (47.6%) indicated it has changed the way they interact with or perceive patients. Additionally, 132 (21.3%) indicated experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and 18.5% reported they have considered leaving their position due to an incident. Conclusion Emergency department staff suffer violence at a high rate, and there is no discipline that is spared. As health systems seek to prioritize staff safety in violence-prone areas such as the ED, it is imperative to recognize that the entire multidisciplinary team is impacted and requires targeted efforts for improvement in safety.


This review paper discusses Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy framework reform for developing countries by proposing three levels of policy integration process. In the last decade, there has been an increasing concern on the importance of STI for inclusive and sustainable economic growth. This paper aims to provide comprehensive understanding of the interdependence between governance processes and other stakeholders for leveraging STI policy at the grassroots levels. The attainment of national development goals requires realistic and context based policy development process based on relevant strategic approach at the grassroots. However, in many developing countries, there is a gap between policy and development priorities as most of them are not integrated into the grassroots. Based on the review of literature on STI policies, the analysis indicated that there is a need for a major policy reform for the third world countries' STI polices in terms of policy agendas regarding to the sustainability dimensions. However, developing world still lacks the conceptualization of STI policy, which is tailed with their development goals. The prevalence of institutional and organizational fragmentation in developing countries is one major factor that constrained the technology transfer process from translation into the development of innovation initiative. The current body of research, however, is characterized by a narrow focus on the specific institutions like universities and research institutions but the bigger picture on STI policy interaction is largely ignored. The proposed framework STI policy ecosystem is organized around three different levels with multi actors ranging from global, regional and even national levels. The limitations of STI policies necessitate policy coordination, which opens significant challenges when it comes to the implementation endeavors. Lastly the paper brings out the establishment of institutional ecosystems at the grassroots in terms innovations and their subsequent absorptive technology capacities. And it is further argued that, this bottom-up approach of STI development is to pave the way towards achieving sustainable development goals. Therefore, this paper calls for more research on the context of STI framework reform, not only but particularly for the third world countries.


This paper presents an adaptive filter with adaptive window size that is effective in filtering images corrupted with impulse noise and mixed noise (Gaussian, ..., impulse) with limited blurring effects. The filter is based on an adaptive window technique, the image data order statistics, and the LMS adaptive filter. It can be viewed as a three stages filter, the first stage is to identify impulses and passible edges, then use adaptive size calculation to isolate impulses and the third stage is adaptive filtering the remaining data using the adaptive LMS filter. This process of adaptive windowing reduces the filter size and causes reduction in computations which compensates for the excessive amount of comparisons made in sorting the image data. The proposed filter simultaneously removes both positive and negative impulses as compared to other techniques which deal with only one type of impulses at a time. Comparisons with other filtering illustrate its superiority in removing the mixed noise from images.


An important problem in computer vision is the reconstruction problem which consists in reconstructing a three dimensional surface on the base of different images of the surface. The classical formulations for solving this problem work with the so called ≪epipolar lines≫ that reduce the problem to one dimensional problems. Unfortunately they are an oversimplification of the reality and often yield solutions with limited quality. In 1998 a minimum s−t cut formulation of the reconstruction problem was proposed, that achieves in general more accurate results than the classical methods but is much more expensive in computational time and memory needs. Therefore, this new formulation is only of limited usability for large problems. In this master thesis we propose methods that allow to speed up this resolution tech- nique and to find accurate approximations by parallelizing the problem. Furthermore we introduce a formulation allowing to reduce locally the reconstruction region and to profit from preliminary knowledge of the surface by imposing border and internal con- ditions. Based on this formulation we introduce a pyramidal approach that allows to reduce the complexity of the problem and that can be combined with parallelization techniques. Most of the proposed methods and algorithms were implemented in C++ such that they can be applied to real problems.


An XMM-Newton imaging spectroscopy analysis of the galaxy cluster A1644 is presented. A1644 is a complex merging system consisting of a main and a sub cluster. A trail of cool, metal-rich gas has been discovered close to the sub cluster. The combination of results from X-ray, optical, and radio data, and a comparison to a hydrodynamical simulation suggest that the sub cluster has passed by the main cluster offaxis and a fraction of its gas has been stripped off during this process. Furthermore, for this merging system, simple effects are illustrated which can affect the use of clusters as cosmological probes. Specifically, double clusters may affect estimates of the cluster number density when treated as a single system. Mergers, as well as cool cores, can alter the X-ray luminosity and temperature measured for clusters, causing these values to differ from those expected in equilibrium. Subject headings: cooling flows — galaxies: clusters: general — galaxies: clusters: individual (Abell 1644) — intergalactic medium — X-rays: galaxies: clusters — cosmology: observations


This paper investigates the dissipativity and performance of semiactive systems with smart dampers via linear matrix inequality (LMI) synthesis. For this purpose, a dissipativity index is proposed to modify a standard linear quadratic regulator (LQR) using the techniques available in LMI‐based multiobjective convex programming for better semiactive performance. First, a review of available dissipativity indices is given, and two new dissipativity indices are defined based on the concept of energy dissipation rate. Second, an LQR problem is defined in terms of a linear objective function and several LMI constraints. Then, for each dissipativity index, a dissipativity inequality constraint is defined. It is observed that only one of the dissipativity constraints can be represented in terms of LMIs and implemented in the LQR problem. A modified LMI‐based LQR controller is obtained by attaching the dissipativity constraint in its weak form. The dissipativity indices and the proposed controller are employed for two numerical examples to investigate the dissipativity and performance of semiactive systems. The first example is a 2DOF building with an ideal damper attached in the first storey, and an LQR controller is selected such that it has high dissipativity levels. The second example is a 2DOF model of a highway bridge where a realistic magnetorheological (MR) fluid damper is attached at the bearing location resulting in an LQR controller with low dissipativity levels. Comprehensive parametric studies are carried out for both examples using the modified LQR with various dissipativity constraint values and the standard LQR. For the first example, it is found that the indices are very useful to identify the dissipative nature and semiactive performance relations. Also, the proposed method is able to improve the dissipative nature of the controller improving the semiactive performance. On the other hand, for the second example, although the proposed method is able to improve the dissipativity, the overall semiactive performance does not show a major improvement due to drastically lowered dissipativity levels caused by the realistic damper model. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this study, a femtosecond (fs) laser is proposed to pattern and anneal a metal oxide active layer for the facile fabrication of metal oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays. Compared with conventional photolithography and lift-off techniques, fs-laser ablation significantly simplified the patterning process due to its advantages such as no contact, high yield and high resolution. Uniform patterned arrays with sharp edges and small feature size (down to 32 μm) were achieved using fs-laser ablation. Moreover, fs-laser annealing was also applied for rapid conversion of the precursor to metal oxide lattices. The results showed that an increase in laser intensity lead to an improvement in charge carrier mobility and an improvement in the on–off current ratio of indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) along with a negative shift of the threshold voltage. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates that an increase in laser intensity enhanced the breakdown of weak or metastable chemical bonds within IZO films, leading to the removal of hydroxide-related (OH) species and enhancement of metal oxide composition and oxygen vacancies (Ov); it facilitated carrier transport and led to an average mobility up to 9.0 cm2 V−1 s−1. Furthermore, compared with thermal annealing (TA), fs-laser annealing could reduce the thermal budget and more effectively realize the dehydroxylation behavior for OH-related species, resulting in higher charge mobility. These results clearly demonstrated that fs-laser ablation and annealing could provide a promising tool to significantly simplify the fabrication of metal oxide TFT arrays due to their advantages such as high resolution, high yield and low cost. Hence, these techniques show great potential to be applicable in the fabrication of large-area metal oxide TFT arrays for use in display devices and circuits.


Dynamic analysis of many mechanical systems is often involved with contacts among bodies. This paper presents an efficient and general-purpose contact search algorithm for multibody dynamics in the context of the compliance contact force model. While many conventional collision detection algorithms are based on the absolute coordinate system, this paper proposes to use the relative coordinate system in detecting a contact. A boundary box of a defense surface geometry is divided into many blocks. A contact reference frame is defined on the defense body of a contact pair. Since all geometric variables necessary to detect a contact are measured relative to the contact reference frame attached to the defense body, the variables belonging to the defense body are constant, which significantly reduces computation time associated with the contact search. Therefore, the contact reference frame plays a key role in developing an efficient contact search algorithm. Contour of the defense body is approximated by many piecewise triangular patches, while contour of the hitting body is represented by hitting nodes along its boundary. Bounding boxes inside which contain each body of a contact pair are defined at a preprocessing stage to eliminate an exhaustive contact inspection when two bodies are in a distance. If two bounding boxes are turned out to be in a contact during the pre-search, each node on the hitting boundary is inspected to find out to which block the node belongs in the post-search. Since each block dividing the boundary of the defense body has a list of patches, each node on the hitting boundary is tested for a contact only with the patches in the block that the node belongs. Actual contact calculation is then carried out to find the contact penetration used in calculating the compliant contact force. Numerical example is performed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.


The paper presents how social media platforms can be used as effective tools to provide innovative library services in a university environment. The data was collected from both the central and state universities' websites especially to focus on the readiness of the university libraries. It is ascertained that how university libraries integrate these technologies to provide effective library services to the end users. For the present study, the Global Alexa rankings were considered as the source for the selection of popular social media platforms. Each of these platforms is further analyzed to know how these could be used to facilitate information or provide library services to enhance the quality of the services. The outcome of the study reveals that the usage of social media in the university libraries in India is still in the formative stage and needs to gear up to meet the growing expectations of the users.


Sodium bisulphite modification of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) RNA in solution indicates that the majority of the poly(C) tract in the RNA is single-stranded in concordance with previous results with encephalomyocarditis virus RNA. The reaction kinetics are biphasic; 60% of the cytidylic acid in the poly(C) tract reacts like synthetic poly(C), and the remainder with the kinetics of the cytidylic acid in the rest of the RNA. The reactivity of the poly(C) tract with poly(I) indicates that it is looped out and exposed in the RNA. The deamination reaction has also been used to investigate the structure of the replicative form (RF) and replicative intermediate (RI) isolated from infected cells. Analysis by gel electrophoresis of the long RNase A- and T1-resistant oligonucleotides of RI suggests that it has five single-stranded poly(C) tracts to every one which is base-paired. Bisulphite reactivity of the poly(C) tract and gel electrophoresis of the ribonuclease-resistant oligonucleotides of RF indicate that the poly(C) is base-paired to a poly(G) tract in this molecule. The presence of a poly(G) tract in RF and RI provides unequivocal evidence that the poly(C) is replicated via poly(G) in the negative strand.


Activated carbon was prepared from the pods of Albizia saman for the purpose of converting the waste to wealth. The pods were thoroughly washed with water to remove any dirt, air- dried and cut into sizes of 2-4 cm. The prepared pods were then carbonised in a muffle furnace at temperatures of 400 0 C, 500 0 C, 600 0 C ,700 0 C and 800 0 C for 30 minutes. The same procedure was repeated for 60, 90, 120 and 150 minutes respectively. Activation was done using impregnationratios of 1:12, 1:6, 1:4, 1:3, and 1:2 respectively of ZnCl 2 to carbonised Albizia saman pods by weight. The activated carbon was then dried in an oven at 105 0 C before crushing for sieve analysis. The following properties of the produced Albizia saman pod activated carbon (ASPAC) were determined: bulk density, carbon yield, surface area and ash, volatile matter and moisture contents. The highest surface area of 1479.29 m2/g was obtained at the optimum impregnation ratio, carbonization time and temperature of 1:6, 60 minutes and 500 0 C respectively. It was recommended that activated carbon should be prepared from Albizia saman pod with high potential for adsorption of pollutants given the high surface area obtained. Keywords: Albizia saman pod, activated carbon, carbonization, temperature, surface area