Oil-immersed bushing is one of the most important accessory equipment of a transformer, whose insulation status is crucial. Moisture is an important factor that affects the insulation status of oil-immersed bushing. It has a very important significance to estimate the moisture content of oil-immersed bushing accurately. Here, the 72.5 kV bushing samples with different moisture contents were made. Afterwards, the frequency domain dielectric spectrum (FDS) of samples were tested at 15°C. The Havriliak-Negami equation was modified based on the analysations of complex planes, then it was used to analyse the experimental results. Moreover, the characteristic parameters and method to estimate moisture content were obtained and testified. Finally, the field application of the proposed estimation method was also discussed. The results of the studies shown here indicate that the moisture content of oil-immersed bushing can be estimated based on the proposed method effectively; however, in order to estimate the moisture content of field oil-immersed bushing, the elimination of temperature effects should be considered.


In content-driven reputation systems for collaborative content, users gain or lose reputation according to how their contributions fare: authors of long-lived contributions gain reputation, while authors of reverted contributions lose reputation. Existing content-driven systems are prone to Sybil attacks, in which multiple identities, controlled by the same person, perform coordinated actions to increase their reputation. We show that content-driven reputation systems can be made resistant to such attacks by taking advantage of the fact that the reputation increments and decrements depend on content modifications, which are visible to all. We present an algorithm for content-driven reputation that prevents a set of identities from increasing their maximum reputation without doing any useful work. Here, work is considered useful if it causes content to evolve in a direction that is consistent with the actions of high-reputation users. We argue that the content modifications that require no effort, such as the insertion or deletion of arbitrary text, are invariably non-useful. We prove a truthfullness result for the resulting system, stating that users who wish to perform a contribution do not gain by employing complex contribution schemes, compared to simply performing the contribution at once. In particular, splitting the contribution in multiple portions, or employing the coordinated actions of multiple identities, do not yield additional reputation. Taken together, these results indicate that content-driven systems can be made robust with respect to Sybil attacks.


Working capital always being disregard in financial decision making since it involve investment and financing in short term period. However, it is an important component in firm financial management decision. An optimal working capital management is expected to contribute positively to the creation of firm value. To reach optimal working capital management firm manager should control the trade off between profitability and liquidity accurately. The intention of this study is to examine the relationship between working capital management and firm profitability. Cash conversion cycle is used as measure of working capital management. This study is used panel data of 1628 firm-year for the period of 1996-2006 that consist of six different economic sectors which are listed in Bursa Malaysia. The coefficient results of Pooled OLS regression analysis provide a strong negative significant relationship between cash conversion cycle and firm profitability. This reveals that reducing cash conversion period results to profitability increase. Thus, in purpose to create shareholder value, firm manager should concern on shorten of cash conversion cycle till optimal level is achieved.


In a retrospective study of thirty-one immunosuppressed patients with new pulmonary infiltrates transbronchial biopsy provided a specific diagnosis in 11 of the 31 (36%) patients. In a further five patients, whose biopsy showed non-specific interstitial pneumonitis, a specific diagnosis was established by other means. Overall a specific diagnosis was obtained in 52% of patients. Twelve patients were left with a diagnosis of non-specific interstitial pneumonitis. In three out of 31 (10%) patients insufficient tissue was obtained. The seven patients who had metastatic carcinoma of the lung did poorly. The nine with other specific diagnoses did better in that five of them were alive after more than 11 months of follow-up. Patients with non-specific pneumonitis did well; eight out of 12 (67%) were alive after an average follow-up of 13.4 months. In 27 of the 31 (87%) patients the procedure was felt to have influenced therapeutic decisions. This was true whether the biopsy yielded a specific or a non-specific diagnosis. In our series making a specific diagnosis did not improve the patients' survival. Those with non-specific pneumonitis who were treated empirically did well, as did patients with specific diagnoses other than metastatic carcinoma of the lung.


We review the physics of many‐body localization in models with incommensurate potentials. In particular, we consider one‐dimensional quasiperiodic models with single‐particle mobility edges. A conventional perspective suggests that delocalized states act as a thermalizing bath for the localized states in the presence of of interactions. However, contrary to this intuition there is evidence that such systems can display non‐ergodicity. This is in part due to the fact that the delocalized states do not have any kind of protection due to symmetry or topology and are thus susceptible to localization. A study of such incommensurate models, in the non‐interacting limit, shows that they admit extended, partially extended, and fully localized many‐body states. Non‐interacting incommensurate models cannot thermalize dynamically and remain localized upon the introduction of interactions. In particular, for a certain range of energy, the system can host a non‐ergodic extended (i.e. metallic) phase in which the energy eigenstates violate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) but the entanglement entropy obeys volume‐law scaling. The level statistics and entanglement growth also indicate the lack of ergodicity in these models. The phenomenon of localization and non‐ergodicity in a system with interactions despite the presence of single‐particle delocalized states is closely related to the so‐called "many‐body proximity effect" and can also be observed in models with disorder coupled to systems with delocalized degrees of freedom. Many‐body localization in systems with incommensurate potentials (without single‐particle mobility edges) have been realized experimentally, and we show how this can be modified to study the the effects of such mobility edges. Demonstrating the failure of thermalization in the presence of a single‐particle mobility edge in the thermodynamic limit would indicate a more robust violation of the ETH.


The aim of this book is to provide a sound theoretical basis for the understanding of tests of significance. Such an aim is seldom achieved, even among students who continue to employ t-tests and apply chi square computations on the whole appropriately and accurately, and are able to verbalise their conclusions quite sensibly, at least at a superficial level. Therefore such a book as this will be by-passed by the student who is content with a statistical 'cook-book'. It may also be by-passed because it is narrow in scope, for although the processes of hypothesising, computing and interpreting are set with admirable clarity in relation to specipc tests of significance and abundant examples are provided (with answers), apart from chi square and Coefficient C, there are no references to any other non-parametric tests, and both correlation and analysis of variance are entirely ignored. Explicitly, the book is directed towards the interests of sociologists, economists and students of business studies. For the student who really wants to understand the logic of making probabalistic inferences from samples however, this is a useful book. Arguments are developed both verbally and mathematically and with the aid of tree diagrams. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter, and the early chapters on probability are particularly intriguing. The central question of tests of significance is only raised after the reader has been taken through a series of preliminary discussions of the nature and rules of probability, types of distributions (binomial, normal and Poisson's), the theoretical bases of sampling and the problems of estimation. Within its narrow scope it is a thorough book: it goes on to discuss the logic of the null hypothesis, types of error, one and two tailed tests, the interpretation of significant differences, concisely and well. It should prove to be a valuable book for the serious student, particularly if his interests are primarily in the conduct of social surveys.


Our visual experience constitutes an unending chain of transient events, including those caused by saccadic eye movements, by blinks, and by localized or global changes in the external world. The categorical perception of objects is maintained across different classes of transient events, suggesting that the neural circuitry underlying visual perception responds to different transient events in a similar manner. However, different sorts of transients do have different perceptual impacts: for example, the sudden changes in a scene due to a saccade or a blink do not disturb our perceptual continuity of a visual scene as much as an external change does. We recorded the responses of 103 single visual cortical neurons in two rhesus monkeys (V1: n = 38, V2: n = 19, V3V/VP: n = 30, V4V: n = 16) to the onset and offset of a visual stimulus that was elicited by four different conditions: 1) stimulus flashed on and off while the eyes remain fixed; 2) stimulus turned on and off along with the entire scene (external darkening); 3) stimulus constant, onset and offset induced by rapid saccadic eye movements; and 4) offset induced by an eyeblink. For most neurons the onset and offset of a visual stimulus elicited qualitatively similar responses regardless of condition. We found no systematic effect of different conditions across the neuronal population. Previously we have shown that when the visual scene is occluded by a blink V1 neuronal firing declines in a similar manner as when the external scene is darkened and the eyes left open. Here we show that this is also the case in V2, V3V/VP, and V4V. However, for a substantial minority of neurons, the response varied strongly as a function of the transient event. This overall pattern was the same in all four cortical areas studied here. We hypothesize that most neurons in visual cortex constitute a passive "filter bank", analyzing the scene for specific details regardless of condition. However, there are neurons that respond in a qualitatively different manner depending on how a stimulus is presented, and we hypothesize that these signals may be important for determining the perceptual salience of a visual event.


4-Vinylcyclohexene (VCH), an ovarian toxicant in mice, is known to irreversibly deplete ovarian follicles as a consequence of VCH diepoxide formation. Because ovotoxicity requires repeated dosing of VCH, the effect of consecutive daily doses of VCH (7.5 mmol/kg/day) on mouse liver microsomal activities and VCH epoxidation was determined. Cytochromes P-450 2B and 2A (CYP2B and CYP2A), principle isoforms involved in the bioactivation of VCH, as well as CYP2E1 and CYP3A were evaluated. VCH exposure increased total cytochrome P-450 content (35-83% above control levels) after either 5, 10, or 15 days of treatment. Western blot analysis revealed an induction of CYP2A, CYP2B, and CYP2E1 at day 10. Elevated levels of CYP2A and CYP2B correlated with marker androstenedione and testosterone 16alpha- and 16beta-hydroxylase activities. Microsomes prepared from mice pretreated with VCH for 10 days demonstrated an increase (>/=2-fold) in the rate of VCH monoepoxide and diepoxide formation. Microsomal VCH epoxidation was increased to a similar extent by phenobarbital, acetone, and dexamethasone treatment. An increase in cytosolic glutathione S-transferase activity was observed after repeated VCH treatment, an enzyme potentially involved in detoxification of the VCH epoxides. Interestingly, preliminary studies indicated that circulating levels of the monoepoxide (vinylcyclohexene 1, 2-monoepoxide) and diepoxide of VCH were elevated after repeated dosing of VCH. Overall, the results indicate that repeated exposure of VCH in mice induces cytochrome P-450-dependent activities, and in turn induction of its metabolism. Additional studies examining the toxicokinetics of VCH after repeated exposure are required to further delineate the relevance of induction in VCH-induced ovotoxicity.


Rice banks are increasingly used in South-East Asia as a means of addressing seasonal food crises facing poor communities. Despite general agreement about the effectiveness of community-managed rice banks in improving food security, there has been almost no research into their effectiveness in reaching the poorest, or the prospects of sustainability linked to regular repayments of rice. Concern Laos sought to answer these questions through community mobilisation, forming rules and regulations to encourage the participation of the poorest, developing simple tools and procedures in line with existing community capacity, and building greater community capacity. Other challenges remain, such as changing the prevailing 'relief' mentality, ensuring women's participation, and establishing regular savings schemes, in order to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of the rice banks.


The adoption and diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (further: ICT) between an enterprise and consumers continues to grow. ICT brings new opportunities for enterprises, particularly enabling them to enter the virtual global market as well as develop sales activities in this market. Growing ICT adoption intensifies competition between companies giving wider choice for online consumers. In this context enterprises strive to understand online consumer behaviour in order to better satisfy consumer needs and stay ahead of competition. The paper aims to develop conceptual framework of key controllable factors of consumer behaviour and empirically identify the main ones. Considering the works of various scholars the conceptual model is developed basing on Intention, Adoption, and Continuance model proposed by Limayem, Cheung and Chan (2005). The proposed model consists of 2 stages – intention and adoption as in this paper consumer behaviour is analyzed. The continuance stage refers to repeating purchase, so this stage is excluded from the proposed model. Most of the researchers consider controllable and uncontrollable factors. From the point of the company controllable factors attract most of the attention as these factors can be influenced. The proposed conceptual model is based on the "Intention – Adoption" approach rather than on the traditional buying decision model. The value of the paper is reflected through the identification of key factors affecting online purchase behaviour in Lithuania. These factors should be carefully considered by online traders as they impact consumer decision to purchase online. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.19.1.5692


Fibroepithelial lesions with cellular stroma are frequently termed cellular fibroadenomas although criteria for distinguishing them from a phyllodes tumor are vague and subjective. However, the clinical implications and surgical management for these 2 lesions may be different. We randomly selected 21 cases of fibroepithelial lesions sent in consultation to the senior author that were challenging to classify as cellular fibroadenoma or phyllodes tumor. One to 2 representative slides of each case along with patient age were sent to 10 pathologists who specialize in breast pathology. The World Health Organization criteria for phyllodes tumors and a diagnosis form were included with the study set. For the purposes of data reporting, fibroadenoma and cellular fibroadenoma are considered together. In only 2 cases was there uniform agreement as to whether the tumor represented a fibroadenoma or phyllodes tumor. Of the remaining 19 cases, if the diagnoses of fibroadenoma and benign phyllodes tumor were combined and separated from borderline and malignant phyllodes tumors, there was 100% agreement in 53% of cases and 90% agreement in 79% of cases. This study highlights the difficulty that exists in distinguishing some cellular fibroadenomas from phyllodes tumors even for pathologists who specialize in breast pathology. However, there appears to be considerable agreement when cellular fibroadenomas and benign phyllodes tumors are distinguished from borderline and malignant phyllodes tumors. Further studies are needed to determine if there is a clinically significant difference between cellular fibroadenomas and benign phyllodes tumors and how to better distinguish them from borderline and malignant phyllodes tumors.


A very noticeable feature of economic development in many Asian countries has been the growing employment of young women in industry. Whereas much has been written about the exploitation of the workers, and this is often related to the wider debates about the links between gender relations and globalisation, there has been relatively little analysis of the ways in which women resist exploitation through collective action, creating organisations, and networking. All these strategies enable women workers to cope with ongoing change, and sometimes to reshape gender power relations. This article analyses collective action, organisation-building, and women's leadership in the garment sector in Bangladesh, where women have rapidly entered a highly visible form of employment.


The existing system of nature reserves in Australia is inadequate for the long-term conservation and restoration of native biological diversity because it fails to accommodate, among other elements, large scale and long-term ecological processes and change, including physical and biotic transport in the landscape. This paper is an overview of the connectivity elements that inform a scientific framework for significantly improving the prospects for the long-term conservation of Australia's biodiversity. The framework forms the basis for the WildCountry programme. This programme has identified connectivity at landscape, regional and continental scales as a critical component of an effective conservation system. Seven categories of ecological phenomena are reviewed that require landscape permeability and that must be considered when planning for the maintenance of biological diversity and ecological resilience in Australia: (1) trophic relations at regional scales; (2) animal migration, dispersal, and other large scale movements of individuals and propagules; (3) fire and other forms of disturbance at regional scales; (4) climate variability in space and time and human forced rapid climate change; (5) hydroecological relations and flows at all scales; (6) coastal zone fluxes of organisms, matter, and energy; and, (7) spatially-dependent evolutionary processes at all scales. Finally, we mention eight cross-cutting themes that further illuminate the interactions and implications of the seven connectivity-related phenomena for conservation assessment, planning, research, and management, and we suggest how the results might be applied by analysts, planners, scientists, and community conservationists.


The whole‐cell configuration of the patch‐clamp technique, immunoprecipitation experiments and unilateral naris occlusions were used to investigate whether the voltage‐gated potassium channel Kv1.3 was a substrate for neurotrophin‐induced tyrosine phosphorylation and subsequent functional modulation of current properties in cultured rat olfactory bulb (OB) neurons. Membrane proteins of the OB included all three Trk receptor kinases, but the truncated form of the receptor, lacking an intact kinase domain, was the predominant form of the protein for TrkA and TrkC, while TrkB was predominantly found as the full‐length receptor. Acute (15 min) stimulation of OB neurons with bath application of 50 ng ml−1 brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is a selective ligand for TrkB, caused suppression of the whole‐cell outward current and no changes in the kinetics of inactivation or deactivation. Acute stimulation with either nerve growth factor or neurotrophin‐3 failed to evoke any changes in Kv1.3 function in the OB neurons. Chronic exposure to BDNF (days) caused an increase in the magnitude of Kv1.3 current and speeding of the inactivation and deactivation of the channel. Acute BDNF‐induced activation of TrkB receptors significantly increased tyrosine phosphorylation of Kv1.3 in the OB, as shown using a combined immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis. With unilateral naris occlusion, the acute BDNF‐induced tyrosine phosphorylation of Kv1.3 was increased in neurons lacking odour sensory experience. In summary, the duration of neurotrophin exposure and the sensory‐dependent state of a neuron can influence the degree of phosphorylation of a voltage‐gated ion channel and its concomitant functional modulation by neurotrophins.


Pulses are low-glycaemic foods rich in protein (20-25 %), resistant starch and fibre that suppress appetite and glycaemia. The objective of the present study was to elucidate the component(s) of yellow peas responsible for these benefits and assess their efficacy as value-added food ingredients. We investigated the effects of 10 or 20 g of isolated yellow pea protein (P10 and P20) or fibre (F10 and F20) on food intake (FI) at an ad libitum pizza meal served at 30 min (Expt 1, n 19) or 120 min (Expt 2, n 20) and blood glucose (BG) and appetite in young, healthy males (20-30 years). In Expt 1, P20 led to lower FI than control (4937 (sem 502) v. 5632 (sem 464) kJ (1180 (sem 120) v. 1346 (sem 111) kcal)) and all other treatments (P < 0·01) and lower cumulative FI (pizza meal kcal+treatment kcal; CFI) compared to F10 (5460 (sem 498) v. 6084 (sem 452) kJ (1305 (sem 119) v. 1454 (sem 108) kcal); P = 0·033). Both protein treatments suppressed mean pre-meal (0-30 min) BG compared to control (P < 0·05), whereas only P20 suppressed mean post-meal (50-120 min) BG (P < 0·01). There was no effect of treatment on pre-meal or post-meal appetite. In Expt 2, there was no effect of treatment on FI, CFI, or pre- or post-meal BG or appetite. In conclusion, protein is the component responsible for the short-term effects of yellow peas in the regulation of glycaemia and FI, but its second-meal effects disappear by 2 h post-consumption.


The depth statistic was defined for every Coxeter group in terms of factorizations of its elements into product of reflections. Essentially, the depth gives the minimal path cost in the Bruaht graph, where the edges have prescribed weights. We present an algorithm for calculating the depth of a signed permutation which yields a simple formula for this statistic. We use our algorithm to characterize signed permutations having depth equal to length. These are the fully commutative top-and-bottom elements defined by Stembridge. We finally give a characterization of the signed permutations in which the reflection length coincides with both the depth and the length.


An inviscid flow model is presented to gain a basic understanding of the reflection of a swept oblique shock from a planar wall. The analytical model is constructed to describe the fundamental influence of sweep on this shock configuration, which has been commonly studied as an unswept non-dimensional shock boundary layer interaction (SBLI). Transformation of model parameters into a plane perpendicular to the sweep angle reduces the resultant flow to a two-parameter system. An equivalency between this configuration and others commonly assessed is presented with advisory notes on the definition of effective coordinate systems. Inviscid shock detachment has been associated with the onset of quasi-conical SBLI spanwise development; see (Settles & Teng, AIAA J., vol. 22 (2), 1984, pp. 194–200). Its occurrence for this SBLI configuration is determined for a range of conditions and compared to experimental observations of swept SBLIs claiming cylindrical/conical similarity scalings. Finally, influence of a zero-mass flux plane associated with typical experimental and numerical analyses is presented with an accompanying model for the shock structure. While this paper serves as a useful resource when designing swept impinging oblique SBLI studies, it also provides a vital benchmark for this complex configuration and helps to unify various SBLI configurations that are often analysed in isolation.


Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is in a state of crisis. This message was brought forward in a recent, widely discussed paper in the British Medical Journal published in 1014 by prominent representatives of the EBM-movement itself. The authors also present a way out of the crisis: a return to the original founding principles of EBM. They sketch an image of both a golden past and a golden future of real evidence-based medicine that we, as historians, find rather problematic. We therefore aim to inform the current debate about the crisis of EBM historically by describing four ways in which EBM has evolved in the past 25 years.


HIV drug resistance is one of the major limitations in the successful treatment of HIV-infected patients using currently available antiretroviral combination therapies. When appropriate, drug susceptibility profiles should be taken into consideration in the choice of a specific combination therapy. Guidelines recommending resistance testing in certain circumstances have been issued. Many clinicians have access to resistance testing and will increasingly use these results in their treatment decisions. In this document, we comment on the different methods available, and the relevant issues relating to the clinical application of these tests. Specifically, the following recommendations can be made: (i) genotypic and phenotypic HIV-1 drug resistance analyses can yield complementary information for the clinician. However, insufficient information currently exists as to which approach is preferable in any particular clinical setting; (ii) when HIV-1 drug resistance testing is required, it is recommended that testing be performed on plasma samples obtained before starting, stopping or changing therapy, on samples that have a viral load above the detection limit of the resistance test; (iii) the panel recommends that genotypic and phenotypic HIV-1 drug resistance testing for clinical purposes be performed in a certified laboratory under strict quality control and quality assurance standards; and (iv) the panel recommends that resistance testing laboratories provide clinicians with resistance reports that include a list of drug-related resistance mutations (genotype) and/or a list of drug-related fold resistance values (phenotype), with interpretations of each by an experienced virologist. The interpretation of genotypic and phenotypic analysis is a complex and developing science, and in order to understand HIV-1 drug resistance reports, communication between the requesting clinician and the expert that interpreted the resistance report is recommended.


THE emergence of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and meticillin-resitant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) in pet animals is a public health concern due to the high zoonotic potential of these multidrug-resistant bacteria (Perreten and others 2010, Ruscher and others 2010, Weese and van Duijkeren 2010). Major human epidemic clones of MRSA, mainly sequence type (ST) 22 (EMRSA-15), have been isolated from dogs and cats in various countries (Weese and van Duijkeren 2010). Although rare, human infections with MRSP of canine origin have recently been reported (Van Hoovels and others 2006, Chuang and others 2010) and high carriage rates have been shown among small animal practitioners in the USA (Morris and others 2010).

As data on MRSA and MRSP carriage rates in dogs and cats are scarce, particularly in Europe, this study investigated the prevalence of MRSA and MRSP carriers among animals presenting at the teaching hospital of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, thus representing a sample from a tertiary referral centre population.

From April 2008 to May 2010, nasal swabs were obtained from 141 cats and 146 dogs within two hours after admission to the hospital. The swabs were enriched in 3 ml broth containing 10 g/l mannitol, 65 g/l sodium chloride, 2.5 g/l yeast extract and 10 g/l tryptone. After overnight incubation, 10 μl bacterial suspension was plated on to a selective medium (ChromID MRSA; bioMerieux) and suspected MRSA/MRSP colonies were confirmed by PCR detection of mecA (Technical University of Denmark [DTU] 2008). Meticillin-resistant staphylococci were isolated …


Abstract Injury to sensory afferents may contribute to the peripheral neuropathies that develop after administration of chemotherapeutic agents. Manipulations that increase levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) can protect against neuronal injury. This study examined whether nicotinamide riboside (NR), a third form of vitamin B3 and precursor of NAD+, diminishes tactile hypersensitivity and place escape–avoidance behaviors in a rodent model of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy. Female Sprague-Dawley rats received 3 intravenous injections of 6.6 mg/kg paclitaxel over 5 days. Daily oral administration of 200 mg/kg NR beginning 7 days before paclitaxel treatment and continuing for another 24 days prevented the development of tactile hypersensitivity and blunted place escape–avoidance behaviors. These effects were sustained after a 2-week washout period. This dose of NR increased blood levels of NAD+ by 50%, did not interfere with the myelosuppressive effects of paclitaxel, and did not produce adverse locomotor effects. Treatment with 200 mg/kg NR for 3 weeks after paclitaxel reversed the well-established tactile hypersensitivity in a subset of rats and blunted escape–avoidance behaviors. Pretreatment with 100 mg/kg oral acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) did not prevent paclitaxel-induced tactile hypersensitivity or blunt escape–avoidance behaviors. ALCAR by itself produced tactile hypersensitivity. These findings suggest that agents that increase NAD+, a critical cofactor for mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation systems and cellular redox systems involved with fuel utilization and energy metabolism, represent a novel therapeutic approach for relief of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathies. Because NR is a vitamin B3 precursor of NAD+ and a nutritional supplement, clinical tests of this hypothesis may be accelerated.


Scholarly attention for the position of older Moroccan and Turkish migrants has been rising in recent years. The focus lies on their relatively high vulnerability, as compared to non-migrant older Dutch their financial situation and living conditions are less comfortable and they have more physical and psychosocial health problems. Still, they have benefited from taking the step to migrate. Compared to age peers in the home country they are more prosperous and have access to better medical care, their (grand)children can look forward to a better future, and there is more space for personal freedom here. Moreover, the general picture of vulnerability does not do justice to the many older Moroccan and Turkish migrants who do have the right resources to grow old in a resilient manner. There is also increasing attention for the best type of care for those who need it the most. The dominant norm within the Moroccan and Turkish communities of children being their parents' caregivers is increasingly clashing with the busy professional and family lives of the informal carers. One has to learn to accept that informal care is not always the only good or even the most suitable type of care. The current problem is that although there are culture-specific and multicultural (residential) care facilities, these are not enough to meet future care demands. Structurally fostering cultural sensitivity in regular care institutions is really needed too. A hallmark showing that migrant-friendly policies are being implemented can speed up this process.


In this work, photocurable perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs) have been used for the fabrication of microfluidic devices by a direct photolithographic process. During this mask-assisted photopolymerization technique, the material is directly photopolymerized in the presence of a mask, avoiding the use of a master. We demonstrate the high level of control in transferring micropattern features with high density, a minimum transferred size of 15 μm, a high aspect ratio (at least up to 6.5), and complex shapes useful for microfluidic applications. Moreover, we successfully apply this technology to fabricate sealed devices; the fabrication time scale for the overall process is around 5 min. The devices are able to withstand a flow pressure of up to 3.8 bar, as required for most microfluidics. Finally, the devices are tested with a model reaction employing organic solvents.


The resolution power of single Very Low Frequency (VLF) data and multi-frequency Radiomagnetotelluric (RMT) data in delineating conductive structures typical for the sedimentary cover and crystalline basement in Scandinavia is studied with a view to future developments of the technique to increasing the frequency range into the LW radio band. Airborne and ground VLF data are interpreted and correlated with RMT measurements made on the ground to better understand the resolution power of VLF data. To aid in this understanding single and multifrequency VLF and RMT responses for some typical resistivity structures are analyzed. An analytic model is presented for obtaining unique transfer functions from measurements of the electromagnetic components on board an air-plane or on the ground. Examples of 2D inversion of ground and airborne VLF profiles in Sweden are shown to demonstrate the quantitative interpretation of VLF data in terms of both lateral and depth changes of the resistivity in the uppermost crust. Geothermal resources are ideal targets for Electromagnetic (EM) methods since they produce strong variations in underground electrical resistivity. Modelling of Magnetotelluric (MT) data in SW Iceland indicates an alteration zone beneath the surface, where there are no obvious geothermal manifestations, in between Hengill and Brennisteinsfjoll geothermal systems. It suggests that a hydrothermal fluid circulation exists at depth. It also proves that the MT method, with its ability to map deep conductive features can play a valuable role in the reconnaissance of deep geothermal systems in active rift regimes such as in Iceland. A damped nonlinear least-squares inversion approach is employed to invert Controlled Source Tensor MT (CSTMT) data for azimuthal anisotropy in a 1D layered earth. Impedance and tipper data are inverted jointly. The effects of near-surface inhomogeneities are parameterized in addition to each layer parameter(s). Application of the inversion algorithm to both synthetic and field data shows that the CSTMT method can be used to detect azimuthal anisotropy under realistic conditions with near surface lateral heterogeneities.


A-30-years old married man with HIV/AIDS wasting syndrome is being reported. The patient had history of injecting heroin with rampant sharing with his drug partners, weight loss, night sweats, productive cough, severe muscle wasting, chronic diarrhoea >30 days and fever > 30 days. This syndrome indicates the long-standing complication of HIV infection. Blood, sputum, CSF, faeces and urine routine and culture examination findings to rule out opportunistic infections were repeatedly negative. No malignant cells were found. HIV testing was positive. The CD 4 positive T-lymphocyte count was measured before and after six months of treatment. In the present case report, evaluation of the symptoms yielded no specific pathogen and had no evidence of opportunistic infections. He is being placed under observation with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) along with nutritional support. He is improving clinically and immunologically by raising in the patient's CD4 count. Early antiretroviral therapy along with meticulous nutritional support is ideal to improve the quality of life of AIDS patients.


Existing studies on sparse Bayesian learning for structural damage detection usually assume that the posterior probability density functions follow standard distributions which facilitate to circumvent the intractable integration problem of the evidence by means of numerical sampling or analytical derivation. Moreover, the uncertainties of each mode are usually quantified as a common parameter to simplify the calculation. These assumptions may not be realistic in practice. This study proposes a sparse Bayesian method for structural damage detection suitable for standard and nonstandard probability distributions. The uncertainty corresponding to each mode is assumed as different. Variational Bayesian inference is developed and the posterior probability density functions of each unknown are individually derived. The parameters are found to follow the gamma distribution, whereas the distribution of the damage index cannot be directly obtained because of the nonlinear relationship in its posterior probability density function. The delayed rejection adaptive Metropolis algorithm is then adopted to generate numerical samples of the damage index. The coupled damage index and parameters in the variational Bayesian inference are successively calculated via an iterative process. A laboratory-tested frame is utilised to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results indicate that the sparse damage can be accurately detected. The proposed method has the advantage of high accuracy and broad applicability.


In the Netherlands, transgender people are increasingly becoming the focus of media attention, both in written media and on television. The question we raise in this article is whether the sudden popularity of trans people in the Dutch media can be seen as a moment of interruption and destabilising through which the contours of new paths of gender identification become imaginable, or whether, upon closer scrutiny, the media coverage of trans lives merely or mostly reinforces dominant, binary gender ideologies. We use the concept of 'transgender scripts' to explore the particularities of the representation of trans people in three national newspapers as well as two television programmes in the time frame 1991-2016. Trends in media reporting show that, in recent years, it has become more common to speak of transgender persons in affirmative ways. This affirmation, however, seems to come more easily when trans narratives confirm norms of gender, whiteness, youth, and national identity. We, therefore, argue for the inclusion of (subcultural) trans perspectives that show the variety in gender identity, including also non-binary identities, as well as cultural background and social and bodily experiences.


Background Recent studies from the USA and Europe suggest an association between an individual's political ideology and their health status, with those claiming to be conservatives reporting better health. The presence of this association is examined in Japan. Methods Individual-level data from the 2000–3, 2005 and 2006 Japan General Social Survey were analysed. The outcomes of interest were self-rated poor health and smoking status. The independent variable of interest was reported political beliefs on a 5-point 'left'-to-'right' scale. Covariates included age, sex, education, income, occupational status and fixed effects for survey periods. Logistic regression models were estimated. Results There was an inverse association between political ideology (left to right) and self-rated poor health as well as between ideology and smoking status even after adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status and fixed effects for survey periods. Compared with those who identified as 'left', the OR for reporting poor health and smoking among those who identified as 'right' was 0.86 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.99) and 0.80 (95% CI 0.70 to 0.91), respectively. Conclusions Health differences by political ideology have typically been interpreted as reflecting socioeconomic differences. The results from Japan corroborate the previous findings from the USA and Europe that socioeconomic differences do not account for health differences by political ideologies. Political ideology is likely to be a marker of several latent values and attitudes (eg, religiosity, individual responsibility and/or community participation) that might be beneficial for health at the individual level.


Abstract Coral-rich strata of the Leitha Limestone of Badenian age (Middle Miocene) at the type-locality in Grosshoeflein (Burgenland province, Austria) were re-interpreted from an actualistic viewpoint in comparison with Recent Bahamian and Arabian Gulf coral communities. The investigated outcrop (quarry "Fenk") is interpreted as a sequence of framebuilding coral carpets and non-framebuilding biostromal coral communities, alternating with bryozoan and corallinacean calcarenites and bivalve beds. No indication for the presence of a reef was found. In total, a sequence of 10 coral intervals was observed, which can be grouped into 2 coral carpet types (high carpet framework, low bushy framework), four non-framework communities, and one bivalve/coral community. Within this sequence, no unequivocal indication for sea-level changes at the time of deposition was apparent. The different coral facies are interpreted as having been deposited within roughly the same water depth as Recent coral systems observed in the Bahamas (Andros, Exuma Cays) and the Arabian Gulf (Dubai, UAE). According to the model presented, the facies merely represent different lateral positions within the same spatially highly complex environment. A distribution map of benthic biota in the Arabian Gulf (Jebel Ali, Dubai, UAE) was used to illustrate the likely lateral distribution of the Miocene facies.


Predicting the Seismic Behavior of the Dywidag Ductile Connector (DDC) Precast Concrete System Elizabeth Mary Kenyon Structural engineering is heavily dependent on the use of computers. When creating a building model using structural analysis software, it is required that the designer have an understanding of the system behavior and the modeling program capabilities. Some engineers in the Southern California region are taking steps towards incorporating the Dywidag ductile connector (DDC) and super hybrid systems into building practice due to the advantages found in these systems' construction methods and seismic performance. As the DDC and super hybrid systems reach industry, the design engineer will need to model these systems using structural analysis programs. This report describes two DDC specimens that were each modeled two ways: (1) using elastic members in conjunction with nonlinear rotational hinges (lumped plasticity model), and (2) using finite elements (fiber model). The experimental pushover curve for each test specimen was compared to the corresponding analytical backbone curves. The fiber modeling focuses on providing a means to study the joint behavior as the parameters of the system change. The lumped plasticity model provides the design engineer with a means for modeling a three-dimensional DDC building in order to get acceptable global demand values. This project offers modeling suggestions for both the fiber models and the lumped plasticity models used to predict the seismic behavior of the DDC precast concrete system.


DiplomacyIn a surprise announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week named three prominent scientists as special envoys to assess the potential for scientific partnerships with Muslim-majority countries. The move is the first concrete step in a broader U.S. effort to expand the role of science in diplomacy. Speaking in Morocco on 3 November, Clinton announced the selection of Egyptian-born Ahmed H. Zewail, a chemistry Nobelist at the California Institute of Technology; Algerian-born Elias Zerhouni, a radiologist who stepped down last fall as director of the National Institutes of Health; and biochemist Bruce Alberts, former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and current editor-in-chief of Science .


Gold mineralization, in the Flambeau Lake area, is found in and adjacent to quartz-carbonate-albite veins surrounded by halos of intense ankerite-albite alteration. These features are the result of the passage of hydrothermal fluid through tension fractures and shear zones developed in response to regional dextral shearing. Wall-rock alteration is zoned, consisting of four distinct alteration assemblages: distal weak isochemical alteration; a transitional zone where chlorite was gradually removed and replaced by carbonates and albite; a zone of mainly ankerite and albite; and a rare marginal zone of mainly albite and quartz. A detailed analysis of potential mass balance indicators from a single alteration halo in quartz diorite revealed that Zr, Ti, light REE, U, Th, and to some extent, Nb, remained immobile during alteration. A mass balance study of this halo shows that SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , Fe 2 O 3 , MgO, and K 2 O were removed from the wall rock and that CaO, CO 2 , S, and Na 2 O were added. These changes are attributed to the breakdown of chlorite, sericite, calcite, and quartz, and their replacement by albite and ankerite. Vein mineral textures show that the veins were open, allowing the passage of the substantial amounts of hydrothermal fluid required to produce the alteration and to remove large amounts of SiO 2 from the rock (up to 30 wt %). The behavior of perfectly mobile elements indicates that the fluid/rock ratio increased toward the vein. A model is proposed in which the observed alteration is explained by the interaction of the wall rock with a quartz-undersaturated, alkaline, CO 2 -bearing fluid. The study emphasizes the importance of quartz undersaturation as a mechanism for the enhancement of hydrothermal alteration through porosity modification. In addition, it demonstrates how fluid-rock reaction paths can be investigated using simple mass balance calculations.


The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to reconsider the relationship between public and private research and development. The policy issue is whether, over the next 20 years, governments' only negotiating position on biomedical technologies will be to sign one purchase contract after another and transfer value from tax payers to investors in pharmaceutical companies. Knowledge and technologies that are crucial to Covid-19 vaccine development and production were created with the contribution of governments. Patents filed by pharma companies do not protect the public interest arising from such earlier research. The paper offers a case study on the privatization of knowledge created in the first place by research and development in the public sector or supported by public funds and eventually being appropriated by pharmaceutical corporations.


In this theoretical study, the H2 adsorption is considered in a novel system formed by a (6,6) carbon nanotube fragment and a planar graphene layer portion, when they are separated 4.72 a.u., with both subsystems inside a cubic supercell box of 25 a.u. side. There is greater H2 adsorption inside the carbon nanotube than in the interstitial space between the graphene layer and the carbon nanotube. The results are compared with the way the H2 molecule is adsorbed upon a lonely graphene layer and inside or outside the (6,6) carbon nanotube. It is studied if in the interstitial space close to the middle point between the wall and the graphene layer the hydrogen molecule could be adsorbed with a greater binding energy that in any other case. This was not possible for the selected supercell, but there are given some suggestions to be explored (using a nanotube with smaller radii or increasing the size of the supercell), that perhaps can optimize the binding energy for H2 adsorption. A general result is that the size of the cubic supercell can be selected to confine not only hydrogen inside the carbon nanotube but also in the interstitial space between the carbon nanotube wall and the graphene layer. It is believed that the studied system or a modification of this could sooner or later be used in a competitive way in comparison with other H2 storage materials respect to the hydrogen adsorption and desorption process.


This thesis examines the crucial diagnostic and productive roles that the concepts of minor and major practice, two interrelated modes of cultural production set out by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in Kafka: toward a Minor Literature (1975), have to play in the present era of ubiquitous digital technology and informatics that Deleuze himself has influentially described as the control society. In first establishing the conditions of majority and majority, Deleuze and Guattari's historical focus in Kafka is the early twentieth century period of Franz Kafka's writing, a period which, for Deleuze, marks the start of a transition between two types of society – the disciplinary society described by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish and the control society that is set apart by its distribution, indifferent technical processes and the replacement of the individual with the dividual in social and political thought. Because of their unique conceptual location, at the transition between societies, the concepts of majority and minority present an essential framework for understanding the impact of ubiquitous digital technology and informatics on cultural production in the twentieth century and beyond. In order to determine the conditions of contemporary major and minor practice across the transition from disciplinary to control societies, the thesis is comprised of two interconnecting threads corresponding to majority and minority respectively. Drawing on the theoretical work of Deleuze and Guattari, Friedrich Kittler and Fredric Jameson alongside pioneering figures in the historical development of computation and informatics (Alan Turing, Claude Shannon and others), material observation on the technical function of digital machines, and the close examination of emblematic cultural forms, I determine the specific conditions of majority that emerge through the development of the contemporary control era. Alongside this delineation of the conditions of majority I examine the prospective tactics, corresponding to the characteristics of minority set out by Deleuze and Guattari in Kafka, which emerge as a contemporary counter-practice within the control-era. This is carried out through the close observation of key examples of cultural production in the fields of literature, film, video, television and the videogame that manifest prospective tactics for a control-era minor practice within the overarching technical characteristics of the control-era major. Through an examination of these interrelated threads the thesis presents a framework for both addressing the significant political and cultural changes that ubiquitous computation effects in constituting the contemporary control society and determining the ways in which these changes can be addressed and countered through cultural production.


Although adaptive control theory offers mathematical tools to achieve required system performance without excessive dependence on modeling, its application to safety-critical systems can be limited by the presence of unmodeled dynamics. This paper examines the robustness to unmodeled dynamics of a recently developed derivative-free adaptive control law. In contrast to derivative-based adaptive laws it is shown, using a LyapunovKrasovskii functional, that robustness to unmodeled dynamics is improved by increasing the adaptation gain. This is accomplished by including a bias term in the set of basis functions employed by the adaptive control law. It is shown that derivative-based adaptive laws do not offer the same advantage. Examples are presented that compare the these two forms of adaptation in the context of sensitivity to unmodeled dynamics.


Between 1967 and 1977 medical researchers and engineers in two separate federally-funded U.S. programs tackled the technological complexity of designing a radioisotope-powered mechanical heart, one in which the primary power source was heat generated by radioactive decay, rather than fission. Its development highlights the technological optimism of scientists and engineers, the intersection of science and government, and the broader context of public debates about risk and uncertainty in this period. Medical researchers and engineers claimed that atomic hearts were feasible and practical and the technological complexities surmountable. However, political and social concerns arising in the context of a heightened sense of risk awareness in the 1970s ultimately played the biggest role in shutting down the atomic heart programs, as strong public support for increased government control of both atomic energy and medical devices overrode scientific assertions that further development could produce a safe and practical atomic heart.


This study compares perceived organisational effectiveness within polytechnic higher education in Nigeria. A qualitative methodology and an exploratory case study (Yin, 2003) enable an in-depth understanding of the term effectiveness as it affects polytechnic education in Nigeria. A comparative theoretical framework is applied, examining three polytechnic institutions representing Federal, State and Private structures under a variety of conditions. Data was based on triangulation comprising fifty-two (52) semi-structured interviews, one focus group, and documentary evidence. The participants in the study were the dominant coalition in the institutions comprising top-academic leaders, lecturers, non-academic staff, and students. Every campus was visited during the fieldwork, which was conducted over a period of more than eighteen months. The study combines prescribed and derived goal approaches for understanding organisational effectiveness and the Competing Values Model (CVM) was used as a theoretical framework, and ten effectiveness criteria were evaluated comprising; staff training and development, remuneration, campus human relations, ability to acquire resources, physical infrastructure and equipment, accreditation, strategic planning, accountability, internal resource allocation, and information communication technology. The study showed eighteen similarities and twenty-seven differences between the criteria, as evaluated under the prescribed goal approach. Under the derived goal approach, the study revealed that for effectiveness to triumph in polytechnic higher education institutions in Nigeria, the five goals derived from the participants' interviews and focus group, which are of societal benefits require government intervention on policies: involving upgrading polytechnic institutions to university status as was done in the United Kingdom (UK) several years ago; eliminating the level of corruption in the country; offering a lasting solution to the inadequate and irregular supply of electricity that affects the general populace; the establishment of a single higher education Funding Council to run the affairs of higher education in the country; and an end to discrimination against polytechnic graduates in the labour market. The study is of great importance to the dominant coalition as the effectiveness of polytechnic institutions would bring satisfaction to their role as major stakeholders, and immensely contribute to the economic growth and development, which will in turn affect the whole of Nigerian society. The study concludes with a number of recommendations to the system's stakeholders: academic leaders, employers of labour, students, and policymakers working in polytechnic higher education in Nigeria.


This research is aimed at developing a document content analysis method to be applied in studies of standardization and technology development. The proposed method integrates two theoretical frameworks: the co-evolutionary technology development framework and the "D-N-S" (Design, Negotiation, Sense-making) framework for anticipatory standardizing. At the backdrop of complex and diversified landscape of science and R&D efforts in the technology domain, and the repeated criticism of the weak link between R&D initiatives and standardization, it is argued that the method offered in this work helps to better understand the internal dynamics of the technology development process at the early stage of standardization or pre-standardization, which, in turn, can help mobilize and direct the R&D initiatives. To demonstrate the practical usefulness of the proposed method, this paper conducts a content analysis of the research contributions presented in the COST Action IC0905 "Techno-Economic Regulatory Framework for Radio Spectrum Access for Cognitive Radio/ Software Defined Radio" (COST-TERRA). Understanding the Technology Development Process at the Early Standardization Stage The Case of Cognitive Radio


: Cytoarchitecture of brain speech-motor fields 44 and 45 was studied in 5 adult men and 5 women. The width of the cortex and its layers, the profile field area of layer III and V neurons, the numerical density of layer III neurons in area 45, and the numerical density of satellite gliocytes and neurons surrounded by them, were measured in 20 microm thick total frontal sections, stained with cresyl violet. Both in men and women, the tendency for the left hemisphere dominance was detected for the values of the number of the cytoarchitectural indices, including the width of the associative layer III, the value of the profile field area of the neurons of this layer, the increased frequency of large and super large neurons. Interhemispheric differences of these indices were more expressed in men as compared to women. Several signs of sexual dimorphism were found between men and women. The most significant of these were the increase of neuronal numerical density and of the density of satellite gliocytes and neurons surrounded by them, found in women.


Research indicate a significant relationship between the spread of respiratory symptoms and poor housing conditions that arise due to overcrowding — both of which are typically prevalent in refugee camps. The World Health Organization states that the impact of a novel pandemic influenza virus on refugee and displaced populations is expected to be severe. There is, however, insufficient data on the health status of refugees and the spread of common diseases within these camps. In this study, agent-based simulation is employed to address the lack of data and to gain an understanding of the spread and prevalence of a communicable disease within refugee camps. The model aims to explore the spread of a potential influenza pandemic within a Greek refugee camp by modelling personal characteristics of refugees and their interactions with other members. The ability to model, with a reasonable level of accuracy, the spread of a potential influenza pandemic could assist humanitarian aid in combating the problem with evidence-based policy decisions.


We report here 1,1- and 1,2-insertion reactions of small unsaturated molecules in the N-B bonds of two boron guanidinates, (Me2N)C(NiPr)2BCy2 (1) and {iPr(H)N}C(NiPr){N(p-tBu-C6H4)}BCy2 (2), and two bisboron guanidinates(2-), {iPr(BCy2)N}C(NiPr){N(p-tBu-C6H4)}BCy2 (3) and {iPr(C8H14B)N}C(NiPr){N(p-Me-C6H4)}BC8H14 (4), the latter being prepared for the first time by double deprotonation of the corresponding guanidine with the 9-borabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane dimer, (H-BC8H14)2. Compounds 1-4 easily insert aromatic isonitriles, XylNC (Xyl = 2,6-Me2-C6H3) and (p-MeO-C6H4)NC, to give the expected diazaboroles 5-12, some of them being structurally characterised by X-ray diffraction. Interestingly, the BC8H14 derivatives 11 and 12 are in a fast temperature-dependent equilibrium with the de-insertion products, whose thermodynamic parameters are reported here. A correlation between these equilibria and the puckered heterocyclic structure found in the solid state for 11, and confirmed by DFT calculations, is also established. Reactions of the aforementioned guanidinates with CO are more sluggish or even precluded, and only one product, {iPr(H)N}C{N(p-tBu-C6H4)}(NiPr)(CO)BCy2 (13), could be isolated in moderate yields. The 1,2-insertions of benzaldehyde in compounds 1, 2 and 4 are reversible reactions in all cases, and only one of the insertion products, {iPr(H)N}C{N(p-tBu-C6H4)}(NiPr)(PhHCO)BCy2 (16a), was isolated and diffractrometrically characterised. Likewise, CO2 reversibly inserts into a N-B bond of 2 to give {iPr(H)N}C{N(p-tBu-C6H4)}(NiPr)(CO2)BCy2 (19) with a conversion of ca. 9%. In all these equilibria, de-insertion is always favoured upon increasing the temperature.


textabstractSchering spends considerable effort to undertake product recovery activities in pharmaceutical production. The two main recovery activities are by-product recycling and solvent reuse. The main driver for engaging in these activities is economical. Recovery leads to annual savings of approximately DM 25 million, which is about 8.5 % of the total production cost. This figure does not include additional savings due to reduced
disposal quantities and additional costs due to investments in recovery equipment, of which we do not have reliable estimates. Furthermore, being engaged in recovery activities has additional benefits for Schering that are related to the reduced waste stream: production is in accordance with environmental legislation, the
company builds an environmentally friendly image, and there is less strain on the environment. The downside of the recovery activities is that they complicate production and inventory planning. Especially the added complexity of production planning, resulting from cycles in the production structure, is a disadvantage.A simple MRP approach, as commonly used in practice, is no longer applicable but has to be replaced by a
more sophisticated planning procedure. Schering has developed an advanced decision support system which integrates a MIP procedure. Thus it turns out that reverse logistics also is a field which creates challenges for developing advanced planning systems in order to support practical decision making.


In the medical decision making, the event of primary interest is recurrent, so that for a given unit the event could be observed more than once during the study. In general, the successive times between failures of human physiological systems are not necessarily identically distributed. However, if any critical deterioration is detected, then the decision of when to take the intervention, given the costs of diagnosis and therapeutics, is of fundamental importance. In this paper, Bayesian inference of a nonhomogeneous Poisson process with power law failure intensity function is used to describe the behavior of aging physiological systems with aging chronic disease. In addition, we illustrate our method with an analysis of data from a trial of immunotherapy in the treatment of chronic granulomatous disease. Finally, this paper develops a systematic way to integrate the expert's opinions which will furnish decision makers with valuable support for quality medical decision making.


A cosmetic compsn. for topical use contains, in a suitable carrier with a continuous aq. phase, (a) a protective system able to filter UVA and/or UVB radiation, and (b) a polymer with repeated units of formula (I): and of formula (II): and/or of formula (III): a = 0 or 1; R1, R2, R3, R4 = H or 1-4C alkyl; R5 = CH3CO or R6-(OC2H5)b; R6 = 2-20C alkyl; b = 1-20; and if the polymer does not contain unit (II), then R2 and R4 are not both = H.


ABSTRACT Carbohydrate (CHO) availability during endurance exercise seems to attenuate exercise-induced perturbations of cellular homeostasis and might consequently diminish the stimulus for training adaptation. Therefore, a negative effect of CHO intake on endurance training efficacy seems plausible. This study aimed to test the influence of carbohydrate intake on the efficacy of an endurance training program on previously untrained healthy adults. A randomized cross-over trial (8-week wash-out period) was conducted in 23 men and women with two 8-week training periods (with vs. without intake of 50g glucose before each training bout). Training intervention consisted of 4x45 min running/walking sessions/week at 70% of heart rate reserve. Exhaustive, ramp-shaped exercise tests with gas exchange measurements were conducted before and after each training period. Outcome measures were maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) and ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VT). VO2max and VT increased after training regardless of CHO intake (VO2max: Non-CHO 2.6 ± 3.0 ml*min−1*kg−1 p = 0.004; CHO 1.4 ± 2.5 ml*min−1*kg−1 p = 0.049; VT: Non-CHO 4.2 ± 4.2 ml*min−1*kg−1 p < 0.001; CHO 3.0 ± 4.2 ml*min−1*kg−1 p = 0.003). The 95% confidence interval (CI) for the difference between conditions was between +0.1 and +2.1 ml*min−1*kg−1 for VO2max and between −1.2 and +3.1 for VT. It is concluded that carbohydrate intake could potentially impair the efficacy of an endurance training program.


: Anaerobes of 17 infected canals with periapical periodontitis were studied. Most of root flora were not only anaerobes but also aerobes. Anaerobes were predominant in chronic periapical periodontitis. Major anaerobes isolated from canals were peptostreptococcus, B. melaninogenicus and B. oralis. The chi-square results indicated that the peptostreptococcus were significantly related to apical radiolucency and B. melaninogenicus were significantly related to percussion or foul smell. Animal experiment results showed that rats inoculated with mixed flora developed many abscesses. But the monoinfected rats had infiltration of PMNs, dilation and hypermia of vessels. B. melaninogenicus, B. oralis and mixed flora had liquefied gelatin and indicated these bacteria had collagenase which could dissolve collagen fibers and significantly related to destroy of collagen fibers and bone in periapical tissues.


Phytochemicals are biologically active naturally occurring chemicals produced by plants to help them thrive or thwart competitors or pathogenic organisms. The phytochemical experiment revealed varying degrees of flavonoid, alkaloid, saponin, tanin and phenol as naturally occurring bioactive chemicals of water and ethanol leaf extracts of Piper guineense, Cassia alata, Tagetes erecta and Ocimum graticimum. T. erecta had the highest flavonoid, alkaloid, saponin and tanin content of 3.17%, 5.43%, 3.50% and 5.15% respectively in ethanol extract and this was significant (P≤ 0.05), and followed by C. alata, O. graticimum, and P. guineense. The highest phenol content of 3.50% was recorded in water extract of C. alata followed by water extract of T. erecta, O. graticimum, and ethanol extract of P. guineense. The exploitation of antimicrobial potentials of these phytochemicals in the control of plant diseases incited by pathogenic organisms is recommended.


Fibrocalculous pancreatopathy is a form of diabetes, associated with tropical chronic calcific pancreatitis, in which islet beta-cell loss and pancreatic stone formation are found. It is likely to be a multifactorial disease with both genetic and environmental components. Regenerating (reg) gene encodes protein that has been involved in pancreatic lithogenesis and the regeneration of islet cells and therefore the abnormality of reg genes could be associated with fibrocalculous pancreatopathy. In this study, regla and reg1beta mRNAs were isolated from peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained from 16 patients with fibrocalculous pancreatopathy, 42 patients with type 1 diabetes, 37 patients with type 2 diabetes, and 22 normal controls. mRNAs were amplified by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and analysed by a single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) technique. The reg1alpha and reg1beta mRNAs were isolated, indicating the ectopic expression of these genes in peripheral blood lymphocytes; however, variation among mobility patterns was not observed in the SSCP analysis of the RT-PCR products. The results indicated that there was no abnormality of the regla and reg1beta mRNAs obtained from the study groups.


Background Prematurity increases the rate of ASD. Therefore preterm infants should be screened for it. Screening tests are designed for 24 months onwards. However, some traits of ASD are present at an earlier age and early intervention seems to improve prognosis. Aims (1) Study the prevalence of ASD at 12 and 24 months postmenstrual age. (2) Compare results at both ages. (3) Explore correlation with perinatal data. Methods Infants born <33 weeks. At 12 months, parents completed a questionnaire (CSBS-DP), which measures three areas: Communication, Expressive Speech and Symbolic abilities. At 24 months they completed the CSBS-DP and another questionnaire (M-CHAT). Results were compared at both ages and were correlated with neonatal morbidity data. Results Correctly questionnaires were obtained in 121 infants at 12 m and 43 infants at 24 m. Mean gestational age (GA) was 29.31 weeks (SD 2.39). At 12 m, 19% infants had abnormal total scores (Communication 15.7%, Speech 25%, Symbolic 20.7%). At 24 m, 16.7% had abnormal scores (Communication 23.8%, Speech 21.4%, Symbolic 14.3%), and 24.3% abnormal M-CHAT. Rate change from 12 to 24 m was significant for Communication (p = 0.006). PPV ranged 0.81–0.91 and NPV 0.31–0.60. Abnormal results correlated with umbilical artery pH <7.15 (p = 0.034), Apgar scores <7 at 5 min (p = 0.035), twin pregnancy (p = 0.049), abnormal brain scans (p = 0.005), surgery (p = 0.027) and a trend with male gender and lower GA. Conclusions The CSBS-CP questionnaire correlates with neonatal morbidity. It shows a high PPV although a variable NPV when compared at 24 m. It seems a good early screening, although a close follow-up is always needed.


Garbled circuits provide a powerful tool for jointly evaluating functions while preserving the privacy of each user's inputs. While recent research has made the use of this primitive more practical, such solutions generally assume that participants are symmetrically provisioned with massive computing resources. In reality, most people on the planet only have access to the comparatively sparse computational resources associated with their mobile phones, and those willing and able to pay for access to public cloud computing infrastructure cannot be assured that their data will remain unexposed. We address this problem by creating a new SFE protocol that allows mobile devices to securely outsource the majority of computation required to evaluate a garbled circuit. Our protocol, which builds on the most efficient garbled circuit evaluation techniques, includes a new out-sourced oblivious transfer primitive that requires significantly less bandwidth and computation than standard OT primitives and outsourced input validation techniques that force the cloud to prove that it is executing all protocols correctly. After showing that our extensions are secure in the malicious model, we conduct an extensive performance evaluation for a number of standard SFE test applications as well as a privacy-preserving navigation application designed specifically for the mobile usecase. Our system reduces execution time by 98.92% and bandwidth by 99.95% for the edit distance problem of size 128 compared to non-outsourced evaluation. These results show that even the least capable devices are capable of evaluating some of the largest garbled circuits generated for any platform.


The e-government objectives of a country go well beyond providing constituents with government information and services by leveraging information and communication technology. Although it is a crucial step, the desired goal is that of convergence characterised by ubiquitous access to government information and services and total transparency of government functioning, a stage that contributes to the social and economic wellbeing of citizens. Some developed countries are already engaged in the transformation of the governance process through increased citizen participation and are attempting to create an open, transparent environment through convergence of information and services. However, developing economies, especially poor ones, lag far behind their more progressive counterparts. Based on prior literature, this study proposes an evaluative framework for analysing e-government convergence capability in developing countries and applies it to analyse the prospects of convergence in a few selected developing countries. The results indicate that the quality and range of government information and services vary significantly across the countries, attributed in some measure to the e-leadership capability of the countries. However, we argue that e-leadership may not be able to readily combat social maladies, such as low literacy and awareness education, required for the meaningful use of information and interaction, or economic handicaps, such as living standards that impact on the citizen's ability to procure web-based access; these factors are crucial for e-government convergence.


In this paper, by explicitly considering a dynamic model of the robots, the coefficients of trajectories are determined by boundary conditions, optimal performance index and collision avoidance conditions. The planned trajectory is feasible and has a closed loop expression, which is efficient for real-time updating. There are two main improvements compared with existing parametric approaches. First, most existing methods use kinematic models of the robots, which could cause curvature discontinuities when trajectories are updated in real-time. Second, in some existing parametric methods, the initial position and ending waypoints can not be aligned vertically due to singularities. The approach proposed in this paper overcomes this limitation. Computer simulations verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.


The selection of the best assistants is an important aspect of performance management as it produces useful information for assistant administration decisions. Assistant administrative decisions is the selection of practicum managers, the determination of the amount of salary, and other decisions. The selection of the best assistants is not only for assistant administration decisions, but also useful as self-introspection and motivating to improve assistant performance. This research aims to apply decision support system with Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Weighted Product (WP) method to a system that can perform task in choosing the best assistant. TOPSIS method is used for sub-criteria calculation and WP method for criteria calculation. Testing is done with Netbeans software and Java programming language. The criteria that become the best assistant assessment are discipline, attendance, and Assistant Performance Values (NKA). Each criteria has sub-criteria, that is for Discipline has a sub-criteria are tardiness and cash payment, for attendance has sub-criteria debriefing, meeting, and teaching, and for NKA has sub-criteria mastery of material, responses questions, ability to motivate, ability to manage time, and spirit assistant. Alternatives are selected from the laboratory assistants in the Integrated Laboratory of Informatics, are Yaya, Za, Syilvia, Kahfi, Oddy, and Ridwan. Testing is done by entering data assistant as much as six people. The system performs have  faster calculation process than the manual calculation by producing the best assistant recommendation, namely Yaya with a value of 0.19734.


Oral and poster Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) is one of North America's most valuable softwood species. Historically, it thrived in regions characterized by frequent, low-intensity fires that created favorable regeneration conditions. Declining frequency of such fires, coupled with competition, insect, and disease problems, has seriously impeded white pine regeneration efforts. A greater understanding of the vegetation conditions favoring white pine survival, growth, and stem quality would enable more effective management of early stand conditions in the absence of fire. In 2000, an experiment with 3 installations was initiated to quantify the temporal and spatial effects of woody and herbaceous vegetation on white pine seedlings. A response-surface design is being used to combine and test different durations of herbaceous vegetation suppression (0, 2, and 4 years) with various timings of woody vegetation release (time of planting, after 2 growing season, after 5 growing season, and none). Four different hardwood densities are being studied: 0, 5000, 10000, and 15000 stems per ha. The research sites, situated near North Bay, Ontario, and Doaktown, New Brunswick, address the clearcut and 2 gradients of the shelterwood regeneration systems. After 4 growing seasons, white pine subjected to woody-only competition control had 1.2 to 1.4 times the stem volume of trees left untended, earlier release providing the larger gains. In contrast, pine receiving 2 growing seasons of herbaceous competition control averaged 4.3-fold gains in stem volume over untreated trees. Two seasons of herbaceous control, coupled with woody vegetation control after the 2 growing season or at the time of planting, increased these gains to 6.0and 7.7-fold, respectively. These responses to early vegetation control challenge the current operational strategy of planting, waiting 2 growing seasons, and then broadcast releasing with glyphosate (i.e., providing both woody and herbaceous control after the 2 growing season), which provided 3.0-fold volume gains over untended pine. Moreover, these early growth responses were strongly correlated with observations of seedling physiology and microclimate. In general, low photon flux density and soil moisture content in the top 15 cm of mineral soil were associated with reduced photosynthetic potential of white pine seedlings. Herbaceous vegetation appears to be a greater competitor for soil moisture than woody vegetation during the first two growing seasons after planting, explaining the significant positive gains in white pine growth in response to early herbaceous vegetation control. After the second growing season, woody vegetation, with its rapidly increasing height and leaf area, become greater competitors for both light and soil moisture. Although light levels approached critical levels for white pine growth more rapidly in the shelterwood than in the clearcut, moisture and temperature extremes were moderated in the shelterwood environment. White pine height growth and weevil avoidance were greatest with either an aspen or a mature pine (shelterwood) overstorey, suggesting that early herbaceous vegetation control and maintenance of a moderate overhead canopy may maximize white pine stem growth and quality. 1 Canadian Forest Service, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, 1219 Queen St., E., Sault Ste. Marie, ON. P6A 2E5 Phone: 705-5415610 E-mail: email@example.com. 2 Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario Forest Research Institute, 1235 Queen St. E., Sault Ste. Marie, ON. P6A 5N5. 3 Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 3301 Trout Lake Rd., North Bay, ON. P1A 4L7. 4 Canadian Forest Service, Atlantic Forestry Centre, P.O. Box 4000, Fredericton, NB. E3B 5P7 5 Tembec, Canadian Ecology Centre, Box 430, #6905 Hwy 17 W, Mattawa, ON. P0H 1V0.


In mobile network, cell coverage analyses are vital to network optimization. The traditional check method is road testing by manpower which costs much time and resources. This paper presents a multiple factors analysis method of cell coverage, and designs the relevant system based on GIS platform. Based on a huge number of mobile measure data in OMC, this method derives a cell coverage analysis chart and identification of the problem cells by analyzing multiple factors such as signal level distribution, sample point distribution, category of interferences, neighborhood relationship, and azimuth ward and so on. The calculation and analysis results are presented in map based on GIS platform. This method and system are validated by a large number of actual datasets from an in-service GSM network.


Purpose
Information and communication technology (ICT) appears to play an indispensable task in influencing and directing the growth process of several developing countries. The spread of ICT in the South Pacific region including Fiji has facilitated faster and smother business in different sectors of the economy such as banking, education, transport and tourism. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to empirical literature and explore the effect of ICT on economic output, both in the short run and long run in the Fiji Islands.

Design/methodology/approach
The economic analysis was conducted using data from 1990 to 2016, improved framework of Solow (1956) and the autoregressive distributed-lag bounds approach to cointegration. Findings from the study and economic standpoint, the ICT is indeed important. The analysis shows an indication of long-run cointegration relationship among the variables for the two indicators of ICT. From the analysis, it is also observed that the two ICT indicators have a statistically significant and positive effect on output with coefficient ranging from 0.04 to 0.06.

Research limitations/implications
These results extend the ICT literature by providing support for it in case of a small developing island economy. The study highlights that while the two proxies of ICT are important for long term output growth, besides broad money and capital stock, the principal technology contributor is a mobile cellular subscription in Fiji Islands.

Practical implications
The policymakers need to work diligently to not only enhance ICT related infrastructure but also focus on better services and communication in different sectors of the economy. The efficient use of present technologies such as 3-G and 4-G is crucial and must be connected and made available to other smaller islands of Fiji.

Originality/value
The recent study has focused on the contribution of ICT on small island developing country, relative to large developing or developed countries. Furthermore, the author examined the contribution of two indicators of ICT using Solow (1956) augmented framework.


The province of overijssel is aiming to increase social quality in overijssel. It is for this reason
that they have decided to fund programs that they believe will promote social quality in the
communities. For this year's programs they have decided to focus on sports programs. While
they give funding to sports clubs and sport's programs that meet their requirements, they do not
have evidence that the funding is having the desired effect of promoting social quality. This is
where the University of Twente and this paper come into place.
While the province spends money they believe is helping to promote social quality, they don't
have a way to back that belief up. The first step to help is to determine what social quality is and
how such a thing can be monitored. After conducting a literature review, it was discovered that
leading theories of social quality splits social quality into four interconnected sub-parts.
Economic security, social cohesion, social inclusion and self-empowerment. Of these four,
social cohesion is most often associated with sport participation, so this became the focus of
this research paper. How can sport participation promote social cohesion?
Delving deeper into literature, it was found that social cohesion is often defined using the
concept of social capital. People can grow their social capital through their network of people
they meet throughout their lives. Social capital growth leads to opportunities in education,
employment and social mobility. There are two important types of social capital when it comes
to sport participation, bonding and bridging capital. Bonding is the capital between close friends
and family, while bridging is the relationships created by new people that can help bring you into
new groups and communities. The literature showed that sport participation helped to create
and develop both bonding and bridging capital, which helps to create higher levels of social
cohesion.
With the discoveries it was time to tackle the problem of the province, how can it be determined
if their interventions in sport programs are having the desired effect of increasing social
cohesion? After conducting a survey with 44 sport participants in the province, it was shown that
people, who participate in sport, do in fact have social capital that they would not otherwise
have if they did not participate in sport. It was also shown that the people who participated
heavily in sport (3+ times in the week) had bigger social networks and capital than people who
participated less.
With this accomplished the paper showed that the provinces funding in sport programs was not
misplaced to promote social cohesion, but maybe there is another way in which it can be
visualized, to perhaps make smarter choices of where to focus sport funding. Using the idea of
a social network analysis, and with additional information from the survey where the participants
listed their social networks, visualizations were created to show just how sport participants
create bonding and bridging capital. With a proper approach it would be possible to see the
effects the sport funding has on communities and how it connects members of sports clubs to
other sport clubs, cities, people and job opportunities that they would not have, if they did not
participate in sport.


OBJECTIVE
The effects of time, surface preparation, and use of a bonding agent on the ability to bond amalgam or resin composite to amalgam were studied.

METHOD AND MATERIALS
Cylindrical amalgam specimens were prepared in a split die (32 groups of 10 each). The 32 groups were divided into two groups of 16 each: amalgam bonded to amalgam and resin composite bonded to amalgam. One half of each group of 16 was bonded within 1 hour after the initial condensation (fresh) and the other half was bonded after 21 days' storage in physiologic saline (old). Four bonding methods (control [no bonding agent], Advance, All-Bond 2, or Amalgambond Plus) were each utilized on one abraded group (air abrasion with 50-microns aluminum oxide) and one unabraded group. After an additional 21 days of storage, bond strengths were measured with a three-point flexure test. Solid amalgam cylinders also tested.

RESULTS
Solid amalgam control cylinders exhibited mean bond strengths 10,000 psi greater than any of the bonded specimens. Among specimens of amalgam bonded to amalgam, those that were abraded after 21 days and used no bonding agent showed a significantly greater bond strength than did specimens utilizing any of the other combinations of the selected independent variables. Among specimens of resin composite bonded to amalgam, those bonded after 21 days and utilizing a bonding agent exhibited significantly greater bond strengths than did specimens utilizing any of the other combinations of the selected independent variables.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this in vitro study suggest that the strength of a repaired amalgam is only about 40% of that of an unrepaired amalgam. They also indicate that the strongest repair of amalgam using additional amalgam material may be accomplished without the use of any bonding agents utilized in this study. When adding resin composite material to amalgam, the resin composite should be added after the amalgam has had adequate time to set, and the use of a bonding agent increases the strength of the repair.


Equipping current decision-making tools with notions of fairness, equitability, or other ethically motivated outcomes, is one of the top priorities in recent research efforts in machine learning, AI, and optimization. In this paper, we investigate how to allocate limited resources to locally interacting communities in a way to maximize a pertinent notion of equitability. In particular, we look at the dynamic setting where the allocation is repeated across multiple periods (e.g., yearly), the local communities evolve in the meantime (driven by the provided allocation), and the allocations are modulated by feedback coming from the communities themselves. We employ recent mathematical tools stemming from data-driven feedback online optimization, by which communities can learn their (possibly unknown) evolution, satisfaction, as well as they can share information with the deciding bodies. We design dynamic policies that converge to an allocation that maximize equitability in the long term. We further demonstrate our model and methodology with realistic examples of healthcare and education subsidies design in Sub-Saharian countries. One of the key empirical takeaways from our setting is that long-term equitability is fragile, in the sense that it can be easily lost when deciding bodies weigh in other factors (e.g., equality in allocation) in the allocation strategy. Moreover, a naive compromise, while not providing significant advantage to the communities, can promote inequality in social outcomes.


&NA; The crossing of host species barriers, through the spreading populations of introduced pet animals that become established in the wild, sets the stage for zoonotic pathogen (re)emergence. A literature review on pathogens that are hosted by the ring‐necked parakeet (Psittacula krameri), a worldwide introduced pet, highlighted local infections of captive birds by chlamydial agents with high sanitary risk for human health in its introduced range. We searched for these pathogens through cloacal swabs collected from 85 individuals in an invasive population established in the suburban areas of Paris (Ile‐de‐France) from 5 localities during the winter seasons between 2011 and 2014. Based on quantitative PCR analysis, Chlamydiaceae shedding was detected at too low levels for species identification in 5 birds, but 1 parakeet (found dead) was positive for Chlamydiaceae typed as Chlamydia avium. The only known hosts recorded for C. avium in Europe are feral pigeons (Columba livia) and captive psittacines. This result raises the question of the sanitary risks associated with new pathogen transmission from exotic pets released in the wild, which could locally affect birds and potentially people who feed birds.


medicina fluminensis 2013, Vol. 49, No. 2, p. 112-120 112 Abstract. Splints, in a broader sense, include various groups of removable intraoral appliances which are used in biomechanical treatment approach and they help establish the neuromuscular functional balance between different parts of the stomatognathic system. The aim of the paper was to review the literature related to temporomandibular disorder (TMD) treatment with special attention given to clinical importance and the fabrication of the Michigan splint. A clinical case with a 9-year follow-up is presented within the framework of Michigan splint practical use and an evaluation of TMD treatment success until now. Generally, in TMD treatment, the principle of palliative medicine is preferred, which means treatment, control and alleviating of temporomandibular pain. The principle of non-invasive and reversible methods of treatment is preferred. The splint achieves a behavioral effect of self-awareness (cognition) about the position, function and parafunction of the mandible as well as a placebo effect.


This paper deals with study of static behavior of Bi-steel lightweight concrete beam (SLCS) which was simulated using a finite element model in Abaqus v6.1. During the course of analysis the lightweight concrete beam and SLCS beam, deflection and tension plate slip was observed. Due to the ductile nature and enhanced stiffness of the SLCS beam, the deflection of SLCS beam reduced by 43% from control beam. The slip of the SLCS beam was evaluated from the Contact open (C-Open) analysis. The variation between the load and C-Open was linear with negligible slip. Also very less Von Misses stresses was seen in the compression zone of the beam which gave good bonding of the shear connectors in the tension zone resulting in resistance to C-Open.


Using genetic engineering methods, we attempted to produce novel silk-like proteins with new function by combining several functional sequences selected from fibroin of Bombyx mori (B.mori), Samia Cynthia ricini (S.c.ricini) and spider silks or by inducing cell adhesive sequence or calcium binding sequence into silk proteins. The secondary structure of these silk-like proteins was characterized with solid state NMR. Cell adhesion assay indicated that silk-like proteins have higher cell activity. Mineralization of fibroin protein was improved with induction of calcium binding sequence. Nanofiber formation of silk-like proteins was achieved using electrospinning. Fiber was formed from silk-like proteins. These silk-like proteins might be candidates to meet requirement in the field of biomaterials.


In a random double-blind trial, meptazinol 100 mg, a new hexahydro-azepine derivative, was found to be comparable to Omnopon (papaveretum) 20 mg when given intramuscularly for the control of pain in 50 cases after hysterectomy. The onset of analgesia was rapid and the effect lasted for about 3 hours. Cardiovascular and respiratory systems remained stable. No significant difference as regards sedation and nausea was noticed between the two groups.


This paper presents the latest information on the Japanese marketing environment of structural lumber that is used for house construction. The demand for lumber has decreased, while the demand for structural laminated lumber has been rapidly increasing. The changes in end-users' requirements have created demand for structural laminated lumber. The imports in lumber and structural laminated lumber from Europe have been increasing in Japan. Europe succeeded in meeting the changing end-users' needs. The distribution system for lumber has been changing a great deal. The emergence of the pre-cut business has sharply reduced the items distributed through conventional routes. The pre-cut mills have an influential role in the structural item selection. The pre-cut mills in the metropolitan area are becoming larger. They give higher priority to stable supply and tend to do business with the suppliers who are able to supply large amount of materials steadily.


Polymers are the most common modifiers currently being used to improve bitumen properties. The polymers increase the temperature range over which a binder resists both rutting and thermal cracking. In this paper VG10 bitumen and two polymers: Styrene Butadiene Styrene (SBS) block copolymer, Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) polymer and crumb rubber (CR) are used as modifiers with varying percentage of 2%, 5% and 8%. The SBS and EVA modified bitumen samples were prepared by means of high and low shear laboratory type mixer rotating at 3000 rpm and 1500 rpm, respectively at a temperature of 180 o C whereas for the preparation of CR the modified samples are prepared at 1100 rpm. The ageing properties of polymer modified bitumen (PMB) have the main role in quality of PMB dispersions and solid PMB. For Short term aging the virgin bitumen and SBS/EVA and CR blends were aged by means of the Thin Film Oven Test (TFOT), at a temperature of 163 o C for 5 hrs. The change in physical properties such as penetration,


This dissertation investigated whether math course sequence from 8th to 9th grade influenced 9th grade math motivation, defined as perceived competence in math, sense of belonging in math, importance of math, and math anxiety. Two competing hypotheses were proposed suggesting that a more accelerated math curriculum (Algebra 1 in 8th grade versus 9th grade), would either protect student motivation or lessen it. The second overarching goal of this dissertation was to examine the independent and interacting role of two distinct measures of ethnic context on math motivation: (1) the perceived number of same ethnic peers in math; and (2) the incongruence between the perceived number of same ethnic peers in math class versus school. It was anticipated that students would report higher sense of belonging when they perceived more same ethnic peers in math class and when they perceived more same ethnic peers in math compared to the school. Data from this dissertation came from a larger longitudinal study of ethnically diverse youth (n = 4,385) who were recruited from 26 middle schools starting in the 6th grade and then followed into the 152 high schools to which they transitioned.Results showed that students who took Algebra for the first time in the 9th grade showed lower math motivation compared to students who took Algebra in 8th grade and transitioned to a higher level math course. Additionally, perceiving more same ethnic peers in math class (and in math class relative to the school) was related to greater sense of belonging in math. The role that perceived number of same ethnic peers played on math motivation also depended on students' ethnic background and the type of math course sequence they were in. For most ethnic groups (e.g., White, Black, and Latino students), perceiving more same ethnic peers in math class buffered math motivation in a more advanced math course sequence; alternatively, for other ethnic groups (e.g., Asian students), more perceived same ethnic peers was more important in a lower level math sequence. Policy implications regarding both the consequences of math course intensification and ethnic segregation in schools were discussed.