Tinnitus is the most prevalent service-connected disability awarded to Veterans. However, clinical protocols for management of tinnitus have been inconsistent across Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers. A study was funded to develop and pilot test a protocol to provide tinnitus services consistently across VA audiology clinics. Drawing on a series of prior VA and external research projects, a clinical model was formulated, supporting materials in multimedia were developed, and a pilot study was conducted. Five hierarchical levels of care were defined and labeled the Progressive Audiologic Tinnitus Management (PATM) model. The model facilitates access to medical services for tinnitus and includes detailed protocols for evaluation, education, and counseling of patients. Patients at each level of care have the option to "progress" to the next level of PATM if further services are required. Clinical procedures were defined for each level and materials were produced for audiologists and patients. The PATM model was then piloted with clinical patients at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital (JAHVH) in Tampa, Florida. Throughout the pilot study, feedback from patients and clinicians was carefully noted. Training materials for audiologists, incorporation of the protocol into clinic activities, and patient outcomes were evaluated. The model was implemented within the JAHVH Audiology Clinic and to assist Veterans with tinnitus management. The most notable finding was how little tinnitus-specific intervention was required for the majority of patients. This finding supports a clinical model that offers stepped-care ("progressive") levels of care until tinnitus management is achieved by the patient.


Due to their physical and chemical properties, mortars made with lime are considered to be more compatible with historic fabrics than those made with artificial cements. This paper explores the mechanical properties of clay brick masonry bound with hydraulic limes of different strengths, and hydrated calcium lime (CL90-s) with no hydraulic properties. Masonry wallettes built with a CL90-s mortar and two natural limes of hydraulic strengths 3.5 and 5 MPa (NHL 3.5 and NHL 5) respectively were tested for compressive and flexural strength. The strength of the bond between the mortar and the brick was also measured. The paper concludes that CL mortar masonry displays a plastic behaviour in compression while the mechanical behaviour of the HL mortar masonry is of a brittle nature, with wallettes splitting along the centre, cracks above and below the vertical joints and spalling of brick and mortar. It also concludes that neither the rate of late strength gain of masonry, nor its ultimate compressive strength or its bond strength are determined by the mortar nature, thus a mortar of low hydraulic strength can provide stronger masonry than an emminetly hydraulic mortar. The paper agrees with previous authors on that the masonry's compressive strength is more sensitive to the brick-mortar bond strength than to the compressive strength of the mortar. Finally, the paper demonstrates that the NHL-mortar compressive strength increases at a higher rate, and reaches higher final values than that of the NHLmasonry whereas, in contrast, the CL90-s mortar is weaker in compression than the CL90-s mortar masonry.


We present algorithm evaluations for ATR of small sea vessels. The targets are at km distance from the sensors, which means that the algorithms have to deal with images affected by turbulence and mirage phenomena. We evaluate previously developed algorithms for registration of 3D-generating laser radar data. The evaluations indicate that some robustness to turbulence and mirage induced uncertainties can be handled by our probabilistic-based registration method. We also assess methods for target classification and target recognition on these new 3D data. An algorithm for detecting moving vessels in infrared image sequences is presented; it is based on optical flow estimation. Detection of moving target with an unknown spectral signature in a maritime environment is a challenging problem due to camera motion, background clutter, turbulence and the presence of mirage. First, the optical flow caused by the camera motion is eliminated by estimating the global flow in the image. Second, connected regions containing significant motions that differ from camera motion is extracted. It is assumed that motion caused by a moving vessel is more temporally stable than motion caused by mirage or turbulence. Furthermore, it is assumed that the motion caused by the vessel is more homogenous with respect to both magnitude and orientation, than motion caused by mirage and turbulence. Sufficiently large connected regions with a flow of acceptable magnitude and orientation are considered target regions. The method is evaluated on newly collected sequences of SWIR and MWIR images, with varying targets, target ranges and background clutter. Finally we discuss a concept for combining passive and active imaging in an ATR process. The main steps are passive imaging for target detection, active imaging for target/background segmentation and a fusion of passive and active imaging for target recognition.


During a severe nuclear power plant (NPP) accident, iodine is transported from damaged fuel rods through a primary circuit into the gas phase of the containment building. There iodine is exposed to air radiolysis products as well as to the ionizing radiation (such as alpha, beta, gamma and X-ray) itself. This may lead to oxidation of gaseous iodine and subsequent formation of iodine containing aerosol particles. Currently, the effect of radiation on the speciation of gaseous inorganic and organic iodine compounds is not well known. In the largescale Phébus FP tests one of the most surprising finding for iodine behaviour in containment was a steady state iodine concentration in the containment gas phase, which was reached in every test. While the processes leading to this are not known, several hypotheses have been formulated. One of the hypotheses was that gaseous iodine species released from the containment surfaces would be radiolytically destroyed to form fine particulate iodine oxides or iodine nitrogen oxides. The aim in this study was to find out experimentally, whether UV or beta radiation would be efficient in oxidizing gaseous methyl iodide (CH3I). In experiments gaseous methyl iodide was fed into the EXSI CONT facility in an air mixture [Kärkelä et al., 2010]. In some experiments the flow contained also humidity. The reactions took place in a quartz tube heated either to 50 °C, 90 °C or 120 °C. UV-light (including 185 nm wavelength) was used as a source of radiation to produce ozone from oxygen. A separate generator was also applied to reach higher ozone concentrations. Further studies on the radiolytical oxidation of CH3I in oxygen by beta radiation at 20 °C were carried with the BESSEL facility [Kärkelä et al., 2015]. As a result of CH3I experiments with EXSICONT, there was a clear trend in the formation of gaseous reaction product species. The main gaseous reaction products were methanol and formaldehyde. Especially at elevated temperature other reaction products, such as formic acid and methyl formiate, became important as well. Increasing amount of reaction product species were detected while the concentration of ozone was increased. Similarly, the mass concentration of aerosols increased as well, thus aerosol nucleation was enhanced. Increase in temperature seemed to increase also the aerosol mass concentration. This is probably partly due to more efficient decomposition of gaseous CH3I and subsequent aerosol formation by ozone. In the beta irradiation experiments with the BESSEL facility, it was found out that the concentration of formed particles (ca. 10 nm to 50 nm in diameter) decreased very slowly with increasing irradiation time, see Figure 1. It seemed that an equilibrium was reached between gas phase iodine compounds and iodine species deposited on wall surfaces. At that equilibrium the rate of new particle formation was low. When the facility was purged with oxygen, a new formation of particles was observed in every CH3I experiment. It suggested that the radiolysis reaction products were limiting the particle formation. Oxygen, a precursor of ozone when irradiated, was also needed for the nucleation to take place, since the new particle formation was not observed without irradiation or when the atmosphere was pure nitrogen. The formed particles were highly water soluble and volatile. These findings could also partially explain the constant concentration of iodine, which was observed in the gas phase of containment at the end of every Phébus FP test.


This paper presents the mineralogy and chemical composition including iron ore impurities to ascertain its suitability for industrial applications. The Asanje iron ore deposit is hosted in Precambrian volcano-sedimentary rocks in the Mayamaya-Hombolo Belt in Dodoma region, within the Lake Nyanza Superterrane. Iron ores are found in two parallel ridges trending NW-SE. Ridge I occurs as vein and banded hematite-type ore and Ridge II as massive-type ore. A total of 24 ore samples were analysed for major and trace elements by XRF and petrographic studies by optical microscopy and XRD. The XRD results revealed that hematite and goethite are the main components and quartz is the gangue mineral in the iron ores. The XRF data shows the Fe 2 O 3t content ranges from 20.8 to 87.3 wt% with an average of 52.7 wt%. The average concentrations in wt% of impurities such as SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , P 2 O 5 and S are 37.9, 0.9, 1.2, and 0.2, respectively. By comparison, Ridge II has greater iron content (30.5–87.3 = Avg. 64.66 wt% Fe 2 O 3t ) than Ridge I (20.8–78.22 = Avg. 48.68 wt% Fe 2 O 3t ). Based on the chemical composition, the quality of iron ore is categorised as low to medium grade, and can be used in metallurgical and cement industries.


Provincial budgets may normally make for dry reading, but in Alberta's case, there is plenty of suspense lurking inside the pages — and that's not necessarily a good thing. Your average family may know certain things about balancing a budget: keeping spending roughly in line with income; not relying on volatile, unpredictable income streams to cover expenses; and not leaving the kids with an inheritance of significant debt. But look at how Alberta has been managing its budget in the last decade, and it is obvious that the provincial government is breaking a lot of the financial management rules that most Albertans are disciplined enough to live by at home. A clear way to get a sense of how the Alberta government has managed its finances is by analyzing how much provincial program spending relies on depleting provincial savings, either in the form of savings funds or non-renewable resource deposits, such as oil and gas. By 2011, Alberta's "Budget Gap" had grown to almost the same level it was in 1993, when the province was forced to adopt wrenching budget cuts in order to close what had become a yawning gap between revenue and costs amounting to $4,000 in spending for every man, woman and child in the province. This paper suggests there are three key questions that should be posed to our government and to any political party seeking to represent our interests as our government: 1. How tolerant are they of annual deficits? Do they advocate a strategy of relatively lower levels of government spending and/or higher tax rates, so as to avoid deficits no matter the state of the economy? Or will they tolerate deficits during economic slowdowns to enable higher levels of spending and/or lower tax rates? 2. To what extent are they willing to trust the payment of health-care costs and the costs of education and social assistance to oil and gas royalties as opposed to taxation? 3. How, exactly, does one define investments in social infrastructure; investments that can be funded by borrowing or by spending non-renewable resource royalties? What limits should be put on borrowing to fund such expenditures?


While numerous studies have investigated body image, including body weight perception, most of which have focused on adolescents or young women, few studies have attempted to evaluate body weight perceptions in adult women according to age groups. This study was conducted to investigate the accuracy of self-perceived weight and actual body mass index (BMI) values among adult Korean women according to age. We used data from the 2016 Korean Study of Women's Health Related Issues, a population-based, nationwide, cross-sectional survey. BMI was calculated from self-reported weight and height. Participants were asked to describe their body image by choosing one of the following descriptions: very underweight, underweight, about right, overweight, or obese. The proportions of women aged 20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, and 70–79 years who underestimated their body weight relative to their actual BMI category were 12.6%, 15.1%, 22.2%, 34.0%, 45.6%, and 50.7%, respectively; those who overestimated their body weight comprised 18.7%, 17.8%, 14.3%, 10.8%, and 7.4%. In all BMI categories, the proportion of those who overestimated their weight status increased as age decreased, while those who underestimated their weight status increased as age increased. After adjusting for possible covariates, age was strongly associated with both underestimation and overestimation. The odds ratio for underestimating one's weight status among women aged 70–79 yeas was 2.96 (95% CI: 2.10–4.18), and that for overestimation was 0.52 (95% CI: 0.35–0.79), compared to women aged 20–29 years. Age is the most important factor associated with weight perceptions among Korean women, affecting both underestimation and overestimation of weight status.


Forgiveness can be a long and treacherous process, but it can eventually lead to a better understanding of ourselves, as well as a deeper understanding of the person who hurt us. These interviews have shown the impact of forgiveness in real life. They have reinforced the importance of including forgiveness, or at least parts of the forgiveness process, into our recovery from a deep hurt. By recognizing the opportunity to forgive, [we] may already have a greater understanding of [our] pain and may have the potential to offer forgiveness in a seemingly unhopeful situation.


As part of the CREATE project, the primary goal of WP4 is to analyse the historical 'Transport Policy Evolution Cycle' processes in Stage 3 cities, by identifying the qualitative factors that have enabled – or hindered – a shift from Stage 1 "urban congestion growth" to Stage 3"encouraging sustainable mobility and liveable cities" policies, and highlighting lessons to be learnt in order to speedup these processes in Stage 1 cities.
This is the first WP4 technical report. It introduces the common analytic framework, methodology and data collection strategy that is applied in WP4. It also provides a first assessment of the spatial and chronological perimeter it targets, a brief mapping out of multi-level institutional and transport governance settings in the five Stage 3 cities, including a chronology of the shift from Stage 1 to Stage 3 and. Most of the work introduced in this report was done in close cooperation with partners across the five cities and with other WPs in the CREATE project.
This first internal report is organized in five sections. First it discusses the relevance of the "Transport Policy Evolution Cycle" approach for understanding the long-term evolution of transport policy developments in European capital-cities. Second, drawing on the policy studies and urban governance literatures, it it introduces the common analytic framework for the work done as part of WP4. Third, it introduces the research design, methodology and data collection strategy applied in WP4. Fourth, it develops a short case-by-case analysis of the current state of urban sustainable mobility policies and governance across the five cases under scrutiny. Based on this first case-by case assessment of data availability in all five cities, it discusses next steps.


Ursolic acid (UA) has been recently proposed as a potential candidate for the treatment of muscle wasting conditions because of its protein sparring/anabolic effects. Despite this finding, it is unknown whether this response is the consequence of a direct effect on the muscle fibre or if it is mediated by neural or other systemic factors. In the present study, we sought to determine if UA has direct effects in skeletal muscle cells, whether it can increase myoblast proliferation and whether UA can become myotoxic at higher doses. Our results demonstrate that UA directly promoted protein accretion in cultured myotubes but did not modulate myoblast proliferation. At higher doses, UA compromised cell viability in both myoblasts and myotubes. We conclude that the anabolic properties of UA seen in vivo and in vitro are likely a direct effect on the muscle cell, but at higher doses, the benefits decline in favour of a myotoxic outcome. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This thesis describes the synthesis and study of the optical properties of various colloidal semiconductor (hetero)nanocrystals ((H)NCs). Before the experimental results are discussed in detail, the essential theoretical background on the chemical and physical aspects of this work is provided in chapters 2 and 3, respectively. In chapter 2 the concept of a nanocrystal as a dynamic hybrid particle consisting of an inorganic crystal core and organic surfactant shell is introduced. Furthermore, the synthesis of colloidal (H)NCs is discussed as well as the most important mechanisms on nucleation and growth of (H)NCs. Chapter 3 describes the effect of spatial confinement on the electronic structure of (H)NCs taking the properties of bulk semiconductors as a starting point. The formation of ZnTe magic sized nanocrystals is discussed in chapter 4. The experimental results indicate that the reaction temperature, concentration, precursors, and type of ligands play a crucial role in the formation of magic size NCs. Chapter 5 addresses the synthesis and optical properties of highly luminescent (Zn,Cd)Te-CdSe heteronanowires. The use of ZnTe MSC as seeds is found to be essential for the formation of the heteronanowires. The nanowires were formed via a growth mechanism in which the magic size clusters first undergo a fast cation exchange resulting in (Zn,Cd)Te magic size clusters. The resulting (Zn,Cd)Te magic size clusters form nanowires, via oriented attachment, in which CdSe is incorporated. The optical properties of the heteronanowires imply the formation of a spatially indirect exciton after photo-exciation. The degree of electron-hole overlap can be tuned by the amount of CdSe incorporated in the heteronanowires. Chapter 6 discusses the coupling of excitons with longitudinal optical phonons in Type-II heteronanocrystals at 4.2 K. The results clearly show that this coupling is larger for Type-II HNCs than for other types of (H)NCs. This increase is explained by the decreased electron-hole wavefunction overlap which leads to larger exciton polarizabilities that enhance the exciton-phonon coupling via Frohlich interactions. A distinct demonstration of the size dependence of the exciton levels in CdTe QDs is given in chapter 7. Analysis of the size dependent CdTe QD absorption spectra allowed a comparison with calculated absorption spectra. Best agreement was found for tight binding calculations in which electron-hole configuration interactions were included. Chapter 8 deals with the formation and optical properties of concentric core/shell ZnSe/CdSe heteronanocrystals synthesized via a cation exchange reaction. The optical properties of the core/shell HNCs suggest that the HNCs are type-I1/2. Furthermore, the influence of the reaction temperature on the cation exchange reaction and the final HNC elemental distribution profile is investigated. In chapter 9 a study of the photoluminescence (PL) enhancement of suspensions of colloidal CdTe QDs as a function of the equilibration time after dilution is presented. Based on our results we propose a ligand mediated surface reconstruction and surface relaxation model. This model emphasizes the importance of the ligand-ligand and ligand-NC surface interactions which determine the evolution of the PL-enhancement of the colloidal CdTe QDs.


The main objective of sustainable and comprehensive economic development is the successful implementation and integration of human resources into national programs and development policies. To attain such all-inclusive and maintainable levels of development, the fundamental elements of economic growth, inclusive societies and the environmental protection should be harmonized with each other. With the understanding that a strong correlation exists between human resources and sustainable economic development, states and governments should adopt policies that effectively address these interconnected elements in order to reach the goal of prosperity of individuals under the slogan "inclusive societies." In accordance with this framework, the Sustainable Development Goals, which are reflected in the Sustainable Development 2030 Agenda, define the priorities for regional sustainable comprehensive development and relate the strategies necessary for implementation of human capital plans. Countries in the Caspian Sea basin, such as the Republic of Azerbaijan, are currently in the process of further integrating their human resource capacities into the general development of the country. This paper analyzes further positive economic results along with effective human governance through the use of new principles and contemporary technologies.


Abstract Nanomaterials are chemical compounds or substances which are moderately produced and used. Nanomaterials are engineered to reveal novel properties of nanocells that contrast with related non-visible substances, such as expanded consistency, conductivity or synthetic reaction. Topological indexes are quantities related to molecules that capture the harmony of molecular structures and give scientifically related properties, such as: viscosity, boiling point, radius of gravity, and so on. Their demands in genetics, chemistry, physics and nanoscience are infinite. The molecular topology of such compounds would be clarify by the quantitative structure properties relationship (QSPR) and quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR). Two carbon nanosheet structures such as and dentritic nanostar have been discussed in this article, We have computed topological indices of these structures such as the first and the second K–Banhatti types indices and their variants.


Due to the modality gap between visible and infrared images with high visual ambiguity, learning diverse modality-shared semantic concepts for visible-infrared person re-identification (VI-ReID) remains a challenging problem. Body shape is one of the significant modality-shared cues for VI-ReID. To dig more diverse modality-shared cues, we expect that erasing body-shape-related semantic concepts in the learned features can force the ReID model to extract more and other modality-shared features for identification. To this end, we propose shape-erased feature learning paradigm that decorrelates modality-shared features in two orthogonal subspaces. Jointly learning shape-related feature in one subspace and shape-erased features in the orthogonal complement achieves a conditional mutual information maximization between shape-erased feature and identity discarding body shape information, thus enhancing the diversity of the learned representation explicitly. Extensive experiments on SYSU-MM01, RegDB, and HITSZ-VCM datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.


Traditional communities situated in mangrove forests near the coast have developed a way of life based on ecosystem services associated with various uses and activities (firewood extraction, artisanal fishing, crab and clam harvesting, etc.). The importance of food security and sovereignty is frequently mentioned in the context of small-scale fishing but has seldom been articulated as an explicit objective. The present work identifies a knowledge gap concerning the profits generated by artisanal exploitation, which are not recorded in official statistics. We compiled economic data from Cumbe and Curral Velho, in the state of Ceará (Brazil), using a combination of techniques (tracking tables, interviews, zoning and questionnaires). Fishermen typically work up to 5 hours a day for 4.6 days a week, working 23 hours/week, and earning € 127.20/week or € 5.53€/hour of work. It is concluded that the artisanal fishing carried out by coastal communities is not only economically viable but competes directly with industrial monocultures in terms of monetary income and workers' leisure time.


Objective: To compare the anxiety levels of mothers with newborns in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and mothers with healthy newborns in a postpartum care service (PCS). Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in state and medical school hospitals located in Eskisehir and Afyon, Turkey. The first 200 mothers, including mothers with newborns in a PCS (n=100) and mothers with newborns in a NICU (n=100); participants were followed starting March 1, 2014. Questionnaires to determine the characteristics of mothers and newborns were used as data collection tools, including the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Scale (STAI TX-1 – STAI TX-2). Results: Trait anxiety levels were not significantly different between mothers with newborns in the NICU and mothers with newborns in PCS (t=0.588, p=0.557), whereas state anxiety levels were significantly different between the two groups (t=-5.109, p=<0.001). The state anxiety levels of mothers whose infants were in the NICU were determined to be higher compared to those of mothers whose infants were in PCS. Conclusion: Being a mother of a sick newborn can elevate anxiety and lead to in mothers. During this challenging time, the support of nurses can increase mothers' abilities to cope with the stress of a sick newborn.


For the past seven years the physicians of Pittsfield, Mass, have been engaged in an experiment in graduate medical education. This report states the purpose of the project, describes the initial phases, preliminary results, and discusses the interrelationships between a community hospital and a university medical center. Medical educators agree that the highest quality of education, with few exceptions, is found in the university environment. In 1966, university hospitals accommodated only one half the total number of house officers; the other half were located in nonuniversity hospitals. Since university hospitals cannot soon cope with this problem, an urgent challenge emerges: Community hospital programs, of comparable caliber to the university medical center, must be developed. 1 The Pittsfield Affiliated Hospitals Education Program was devised to produce an educational environment by simulating the university medical center. The Council on Medical Education has been continuously consulted about the objectives and the progress of


The paper presents a class of tentacle arms based on the use of flexible composite materials in conjunction with active-controllable electrorheological (ER) fluids. The model consists of a finite number of segments, each segment having a specific structure and control. The dynamic behaviour of the arm is obtained using Lagrange's principle developed for infinite-dimensional systems. This model is represented by a set of integral-differential equations. An approximate model is then derived as a set of differential equations with variable coefficients. Two cases are discussed: the sliding mode with the bang-bang control; and the direct mode in which the controller is based on the use of the direct evolution of the system on the switching line by switching the fluid viscosity. The numerical simulations are presented. A nonlinear observer is introduced to estimate the inaccessible state variable distributed on the length of the arm. The conditions which assure the convergence to zero of the errors are proved.


Inspired by perception in biological systems, distribution of a massive amount of simple sensing devices is gaining more support in detection applications. A focus on fusion of sensor signals instead of strong analysis algorithms, and a scheme to distribute sensors, results in new issues. Especially in wearable computing, where sensor data continuously changes, and clothing provides an ideal supporting structure for simple sensors, this approach may prove to be favourable. Experiments with a body-distributed sensor system investigate the influence of two factors that affect classification of what has been sensed: an increase in sensors enhances recognition, while adding new classes or contexts depreciates the results. Finally, a wearable computing related scenario is discussed that exploits the presence of many sensors.


The use of displacement participation factors obtained by the unit load method provides an effective drift control tool for high-rise buildings. Structural sensitivity coefficients and displacement participation factors for members in a structure with respect to the lateral displacement to be controlled are computed and used for identifying active members and their corresponding displacement components. The drift control method using the displacement participation factors with a variable linking strategy is formulated into an optimization problem to determine the amount of material to be modified. Using the drift control method, a structural design model for a high-rise building is proposed and applied to one verifying example and two moment resisting frames. Time consuming trial-and-error processes related to the structural design of a high-rise building is avoided by the proposed structural design model. As demonstrated in the examples, the maximum lateral displacements of the examples are reduced by 57·05, 40·0 and 16·36% without changing the total weights of the structures. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract:Through Indigenous critiques of the commons, this article asks what forms of collectivity might be built against the drives of settler-sovereignty. By centering various scales of forced removal and its resistance, I offer a reading of Gay Shame, a queer direct action group based in San Francisco, and its work confronting the hypergentrification of the Bay Area propelled by the tech industry. While positive attachments and shared identification are argued to be necessary for a liberatory politics, in contrast Gay Shame builds an affective commons through negative relationality. Indeed, the Left's attachment to love as the revolutionary affect persist, yet here I center organizing where a desire for struggle collects around bad attitudes. To this end, how might queer hate delineate the ways the traffic in good feelings accelerates racial capitalism's motors of accumulation and dispossession?


This paper discusses the problem of allocating storage for the activation records of procedure calls within a system of parallel processes. A compile time storage allocation scheme is given, which determines the relative address within the memory segment of a process for the activation records of all procedures called by the process. This facilitates the generation of an efficient run-time code. The allocation scheme applies to systems in which data and procedures can be shared among several processes. However, recursive procedure calls are not supported.


In this paper, a new algorithm for generating codebook is proposed for vector quantization (VQ) in image coding. The significant features of the training image vectors are extracted by using the proposed Orthogonal Polynomials based transformation. We propose to generate the codebook by partitioning these feature vectors into a binary tree. Each feature vector at a non-terminal node of the binary tree is directed to one of the two descendants by comparing a single feature associated with that node to a threshold. The binary tree codebook is used for encoding and decoding the feature vectors. In the decoding process the feature vectors are subjected to inverse transformation with the help of basis functions of the proposed Orthogonal Polynomials based transformation to get back the approximated input image training vectors. The results of the proposed coding are compared with the VQ using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Pairwise Nearest Neighbor (PNN) algorithm. The new algorithm results in a considerable reduction in computation time and provides better reconstructed picture quality.


According to the enterprise standards of "assembly and test norms for ZQ2005 clutch booster", the test projects for comprehensive performance, including pressure seal, hydraulic seal and input -output performance were researched [1]. An integrated test system based on electrical components, such as the data acquisition card, motion control card, supercharger, proportioning valve, solenoid valve was designed. And the data acquisition and data processing modules of detection system based on MFC were developed. Finally, the test procedure and the experimental program were designed. And the TianLong clutch booster 1608ZB7C-010 was tested synthetically efficiency. The results show that the detection system meets the test requirements in contrast to the test data and curves measured by the foreign instrument.


Task arithmetic has recently emerged as a cost-effective and scalable approach to edit pre-trained models directly in weight space: By adding the fine-tuned weights of different tasks, the model's performance can be improved on these tasks, while negating them leads to task forgetting. Yet, our understanding of the effectiveness of task arithmetic and its underlying principles remains limited. We present a comprehensive study of task arithmetic in vision-language models and show that weight disentanglement is the crucial factor that makes it effective. This property arises during pre-training and manifests when distinct directions in weight space govern separate, localized regions in function space associated with the tasks. Notably, we show that fine-tuning models in their tangent space by linearizing them amplifies weight disentanglement. This leads to substantial performance improvements across multiple task arithmetic benchmarks and diverse models. Building on these findings, we provide theoretical and empirical analyses of the neural tangent kernel (NTK) of these models and establish a compelling link between task arithmetic and the spatial localization of the NTK eigenfunctions. Overall, our work uncovers novel insights into the fundamental mechanisms of task arithmetic and offers a more reliable and effective approach to edit pre-trained models through the NTK linearization.


certain test which measures the risk of thrombosis." If he is referring to arterial (platelet aggregate) thrombosis, then surely measurement of platelet malonyldialdehyde (MDA) content is the test that is required,' particularly as MDA formation by platelets is known to be an index of thromboxane A, synthesis. Such a study is quoted in the review (reference 36). A fluorimetric technique is preferred. Of course, one can measure plasma fibrinogen, fibrin monomer complexes, factor VIII antigen, ristocetin cofactor, sensitivity of the platelets to aggregation by ADP, and levels of 13-thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4, just to make life complicated. In the end it all comes back to free fatty acid levels,' which, as Nordoy has emphasised,3 determine how much arachidonic acid will follow the thromboxaneMDA-prostaglandin synthesis pathway. Several recent articles can be interpreted in this way.4 E N WARDLE


This thesis presents studies of novel terahertz photonic devices, including photoconductive optoelectronic devices and guided-wave components, aimed at the development of next-generation terahertz systems. In chapter 2, a scalable interdigitated THz transmitter is designed to increase the output power and compared with a conventional 50 μm coplanar transmitter. In chapter 3, we compare four different receivers with different antenna geometries in terms of bandwidth and sensitivity. Then we describe a photoconductive near-field detector with a subwavelength aperture and its system integration and characterization. In chapter 4, a parallel metal plate waveguide is designed with an integrated step inside the waveguide that can couple to higher order TM modes efficiently from the TEM mode. In this chapter, we also experimentally and numerically study a 2-dimensionally tapered parallel plate waveguide, by which a free-space THz beam can be focused into a deep subwavelength-scale volume. In chapter 5, a parallel thin dielectric film waveguide is used to explore the guiding mechanism of an antiresonant optical reflection waveguide. Cylindrical silica single capillaries and a microstructured capillary, which guide in a similar way, are characterized in terms of mode profiles and attenuation. In chapter 6, we study oblique transmission through freestanding thin nickel films, which are perforated with periodic conical hole arrays. Surface modes can be supported by both metallic surfaces with different nonlinear dispersion curves, which results in spectral interferences in a near-field region when the surface modes couple out of the waveguide into free space.


Affective activation, and the community engagement it fosters, is the driving mechanism of all fandoms, irrespective of the specific "objects of affection" around which they coalesce. These centralized objects of affection may hail from popular culture, such as in the form of sports teams, television shows, cartoon characters, or musicians. As fan scholars have increasingly recognized, fandoms can also emerge around profit-driven brands, specific politicians, and social movements. Much has been said regarding the dangers of the online conspiracy theory QAnon. However, these warnings have tended to overemphasize the rapidly evolving, amorphous beliefs of its adherents, rather than recognize the affective activation propelling the movement. Through its analysis of affect-driven communities, the field of fan studies can be productively applied to investigate the online discursive activities of QAnon community members. Framing QAnon as a fandom elucidates the functions through which the conspiracy theory radicalizes "normies" by exploiting the types of fan activities already well-established in mainstream fan communities. Underscoring the transferability of fan studies concepts to political movements and communities, this exploration outlines the societal stakes of QAnon's manipulation and normalization of the toxic emotions cohering its adherents into a fanatic community.


Little attention has been given to the potential role of faith-based institutions in fostering academic achievement through socialization; the purpose of this study is to reveal that link. For many African American students, the public education system has not successfully prepared them for citizenry in today's global community. An urgent need in research is to identify community resources that are readily available to address the underachievement of African American students enrolled in today's public schools. The purpose of this study is to discover how the social support efforts of black church goers positively impact the academic experiences of African American youth. This qualitative study, involving two black churches, will explore the prevalence of prophetic activism within black churches that address the social and academic needs of African American youth. In this study, the term prophetic activism is used to describe church activism that extends beyond the walls of the black church to reach all African American youth within the community in which the black church is anchored. The findings of this study illuminate how successful collaboration between educators and black churches leads to prophetic activism. This research has the potential to lend valuable insight into policies and procedures school leaders develop to forge community collaboration with black churches.


An analytical formula is developed to accurately represent the photoabsorption cross section of O i for all energies of interest in X-ray spectral modeling. In the vicinity of the K edge, a Rydberg series expression is used to fit R-matrix results, including important orbital relaxation effects, that accurately predict the absorption oscillator strengths below threshold and merge consistently and continuously to the above-threshold cross section. Further, minor adjustments are made to the threshold energies in order to reliably align the atomic Rydberg resonances after consideration of both experimental and observed line positions. At energies far below or above the K-edge region, the formulation is based on both outer- and inner-shell direct photoionization, including significant shake-up and shake-off processes that result in photoionization-excitation and double-photoionization contributions to the total cross section. The ultimate purpose for developing a definitive model for oxygen absorption is to resolve standing discrepancies between the astronomically observed and laboratory-measured line positions, and between the inferred atomic and molecular oxygen abundances in the interstellar medium from xstar and spex spectral models.


A synthetic entry to novel dyes based on the dipyrrolonaphthyridinedione core was developed via the Heck reaction. These weakly fluorescent compounds bearing double bond linkages between the core and the peripheral units absorbed strongly in the far-red/NIR region and possessed large values of two-photon absorption (TPA) cross-sections (up to 5180 GM). Additionally, analogous dyes bearing triple bond linkages were also efficient TPA materials with relatively large two-photon absorption cross-sections (up to 2840 GM) as well as two-photon brightness (up to 1450 GM). The centrosymmetric nature of both of these families of dyes is responsible for the location of the maxima of two-photon absorption being at much higher energy than the ones corresponding to the double wavelength of the lowest-energy one-photon absorption. Theoretical calculations clarified that the enhancement of the TPA by the peripheral substitutions arose through different mechanisms depending on either the electron-donating or electron-withdrawing ability of a given substituent to the ambipolar core. The change in the electron distribution of HOMO and HOMO-1 by the push-pull effect was found to govern the strength of the lowest-energy TPA-allowed transition. Importantly, compounds from both series possessed a beneficial ratio of σ2/MW (1.6-9.8 GM/g).


Since September 2000, Community and Mental Health Department Faculty of Nursing University of Indonesia, have developed Professional Nursing Practice Model (PNPM) on Psychiatric Nursing at Dr. H. Marzoeki Mahdi Health Hospital. PNPM at Marzoeki Mahdi Hospital is the first PNPM especially for mental health. The study was a quantitative cross sectional study conducted during the period February 4th to July 30th 2001 and covering 79 client. The aim of the study was to identify characteristics of clients at PNPM. It was found that most of the clients were males, aged 20-55 years, living in the area of Jabotabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi), especially in Bogor, the city of the hospital. Most of them had no job, with a senior high school education whereas the number with unmarried status was nearly the same with the number with married status and belonged to the Sundanese ethnic group. Characteristics of the family were mostly as followed: big family, with more than 2 children, closed communication and family meeting during meals. On health status it was found that clients were admitted to the hospital because of angry/violence, angry/violence and talking/laughing by themselves, whereas the number of clients in the group never nursed in a hospital before were nearly the same as the number in the group ever nursed before, with average length of staying in hospital 9 days. It was revealed that the problem of hallucination was mostly found among the nursing problems. Health education was mostly on efforts to eliminate paranoid problems and Activity Group Therapy was focused on efforts to socialize the clients. The medical diagnosis of most of the clients was paranoid schizophrenia. It was concluded that in this study characteristics of the clients in PNPM was very varied. For optimal nursing criteria of clients at PNPM who should be admitted should be established.


INTRODUCTION
Primary health care (PHC) is the foundation of healthcare systems around the world, recognized for its ability to deliver cost-effective, equitable, and high-quality care. Measuring and reporting on PHC performance allows decision-makers to ensure accountability and quality improvement. Rural areas, where residents are few and widely dispersed across vast areas, present special challenges for PHC delivery, and performance measurement systems need to acknowledge the ways rural PHC is unique. The objective of this scoping review is to establish the features of PHC that should be measured and reported in a rural versus a non-rural context.

METHODS
The electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL, as well as grey literature in the form of government reports and research institute publications, were searched for relevant studies. Identified articles were eligible for inclusion if they reported or described (1) rural primary health care; (2) healthcare practice characteristics or structures, provider scope of practice, provider practice patterns, or patient patterns of health care use; and (3) one of four 'pillars' of quality PHC outlined in the College of Family Physicians of Canada's 'Patient's Medical Home' model: accessibility, continuity, comprehensiveness, or electronic health records. Articles were excluded if they reported or described (1) specific patient populations, health concerns, or health outcomes; or (2) patient preferences or experiences with PHC. Data were extracted and analyzed to determine unique aspects of rural PHC. Twenty-six articles met inclusion criteria.

RESULTS
Results suggest important differences in aspects of rural PHC, particularly in how rural patients access such care and the types of services they receive from providers compared to non-rural patients.

CONCLUSION
These differences between rural and non-rural PHC will need to be considered in the design of performance measurement systems. Key words: Canada, health reporting, performance measurement, primary health care.


Recent development of corrosion resistant bulk glassy alloys such as Zr-, Fe-, Ni- and Cu-base alloys were presented. It was clarified that the enrichment of cations in the passive film, which is responsible to corrosion resistance, depends on both alloy composition and environment. TEM observation also made it clear that alloys lose their advantageous properties such as corrosion resistance when they are devoid of or lose amorphous structure even in part due to low glass forming ability or heating. These findings were essentially similar to those of conventional amorphous alloys.


The rotation in size appears to swing like a pendulum through the entire equity market. A bull market for large cap stocks not only suggests that the largest companies within the large cap market dominate, but also the largest companies within the small cap market. As the market moves in a direction in favor of small or large, it appears that the rotation in size cascades across the market like a domino effect. The high correlation between the small cap cycle and an equal-weighted versus a market-weighted index supports the marginal effect—or domino principle—that operates across the equity market. This finding leads to several powerful investment implications: The domino principle suggests that size or market capitalization operates on the margin. As a result, active investors, both small cap and large cap, are forced to take a position on size. This effect also appears to exist across country markets. Active, not passive, strategies work better as lower capitalization stocks outperform. Conversely, passive strategies dominate in a large capitalization dominant market.


The purpose of this paper is to study minimal modular extensions of braided fusion categories doing emphases in minimal modular extensions of super-Tannakian fusion categories. We define actions of finite super-groups on fermionic fusion categories and spin-braided fusion categories. Similar to the case of groups, our motivation came from the study of fusion categories containing the representation category of a super-group. We develop many analog results to the Tannakian case, including cohomological obstructions, relation with braided $G$-crossed categories and minimal modular extensions. We apply the general results to the construction and classification of minimal modular extensions of super-groups and braided fusion categories. In particular, we exhibit some examples of braided fusion categories without minimal modular extensions.


ORESTES is speaking of himself and Pylades. Does he mean only some brogue or (as Verrall and Tucker would render fiurijv) some pitch, which is not shown in the written words of what be says to the porter and to his mother ? Those words ' are, of course, Attic', says Tucker; a bold assertion about any passage in Aeschylus, even in his trimeters. Is eicncpapa Attic, or itCp' airfffyiyv woda (11. 655, 676)? That word and that phrase, however, are doubtless not Phocian but Aeschylean, for he was an innovator in word and phrase. But what of KIW (680)? Outside Aeschylus the verb occurs nowhere in Attic apart from Plato's fanciful derivation of Kivrjiris : rj S« opx') <**° r o " *••'" ' |n>tKov 8e ravvoita, ' an «»attic word'. Even in Aeschylus the verb occurs thrice only besides ; two of the examples are melic; two are imperative, KW, one is optative, KUH. Both KU and JCI'OI can be aorist, as can every form of the verb in Homer : but KICK is of the present tense. ' Le present . . . est sans doute une creation poetique', says Meillet—a ' Parnassian' word, then, in one sense : but why not in another sense—a Parnassian or Phocian word ?


Three interface factors may influence thermally-sprayed coatings adhesion: interface morphology (as usual), thermal and chemical features. It was shown that these three aspects of adhesion mechanisms are shown to be dependent and very local. It is especially true for cold spray which is one of the most promising spray processes. As this spraying technique is based on rapid deformation, cold spray coating/substrate interfaces show local morphological, thermal and chemical features, in a way that none of them can be neglected. LASAT is particularly suitable for testing these coatings because it can be applied to small areas (~1 mm²). From this, it has the outstanding advantage to be sensitive to fine-scaled phenomena responsible for coating adhesion.


Field experiment was conducted for two successive years on sweet orange to evaluate the effect of multi-micronutrient on yield and quality attributes of sweet orange grown on Inceptisols of Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India. The result indicates that the number of fruits per tree increased with the application of balanced dose of NPK along with multi-micronutrient from 426 to 554. Similarly, weight of fruit per tree was ranged from 72.42 kg/tree in control to 143.80 kg/tree in the treatment receiving multi-micronutrients through soil. Productivity was also enhanced from 20.06 to 39.83 t/ha due to application of multi-micronutrients along with recommended NPK. The quality of the fruits in terms of juice, TSS, fruit girth, ascorbic acid content, reducing and non-reducing sugar increased with the application of multi-micronutrient and NPK either applied through soil or fertigation, whereas, acidity of the fruit juice was found highest in untreated control as compared to balance nutrient application.

 Key words: Multi-micronutrient, sweet orange, NPK, quality of fruit.


Edible insects are receiving substantial attention because of their potential as a significant future food source of high nutritional value and with important environmental benefits. As a result, there is a focus on the supply side to establish and optimize the insect production sector and develop the value chain. However, as the ultimate success of a product development depends on consumers' product judgement and acceptance, acquiring information about potential demand is of paramount importance for policy advice. In this paper, we aim to give a first insight into the potential demand for termite-based food products (TBFPs) in Kenya. We assess the demand in terms of consumer preferences and willingness to pay using a stated choice experiment method. A novel feature of this paper is that it focuses on how the termites should be presented and introduced, either as whole or processed, in a typical daily meal in order to increase consumer acceptance. Results from the latent class model reveal that consumers prefer and are willing to pay more for TBFPs with high nutritional value and when they are recommended by officials. In addition, results show that high to a very high food safety control levels of the TBFPs are valued positively by most consumers.


Flavonoids are the most common of the plant polyphenolics and are obtained from foods such as tea, citrus and other fruits. Laboratory and animal studies suggest that through anti-oxidant properties dietary flavonoids may reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer, and the few previous epidemiologic studies on flavonoid intake and pancreatic cancer risk have shown protective associations for specific types of flavonoids. We examined the association between total flavonoid intake, six flavonoid subgroups, flavonoid-rich foods and development of exocrine pancreatic cancer among 537,104 participants in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study with complete dietary data. Men and women aged 50 to 71 years completed a self-administered food frequency questionnaire at baseline (1995-1996) that ascertained diet and other lifestyle information. During follow-up through 2006 (median 10.6 years, max 11.2 years), 2379 incident pancreatic cancer cases were identified. Flavonoid intake was estimated from two databases developed from the USDA Nutrient Data laboratory. The distribution of flavonoid intake differed by sex (mean female intake 216 mg/day, range 0.41-9456; mean male intake 153 mg/day, range 0.95-6561); therefore, quintiles were based on sex specific cut-points. We used Cox proportional hazard models with age as the underlying time metric to calculate hazard ratios (HR) for pancreatic cancer. Models were adjusted for sex, smoking, diabetes, body mass index, alcohol use, and saturated fat and red meat intake. We found no association between total flavonoid intake (hazard ratio (HR)=1.09; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96-1.24) or the six flavonoid subgroups and risk of pancreatic cancer. Although there was no significant interaction by sex or smoking (p-interaction > 0.10), in stratified analyses we observed significant increased risks for total flavonoid intake among current smokers (Q5 versus Q1 HR=1.45, 95% CI 1.12-1.88, p-trend=0.002), while no such associations were evident among never (HR=1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.03) or former smokers (HR=0.99, 95% CI 0.98-1.01). Among smokers flavonol and isoflavone intakes were positively associated with pancreatic cancer comparing extreme quintiles, with HRs =1.38 (95% CI 1.05-1.82, p trend=0.019) and 1.39 (95% CI 1.03-1.86, p trend=0.022) respectively. It is possible that exposures correlated to smoking but not accounted for in our analysis explain the observed associations. Our results do not support the hypothesis that flavonoid intake plays a protective role in pancreatic cancer carcinogenesis. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 625. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-625


The procedure for obtaining air-speed and rate-of-climb measurements in performance tests of airships is described. Two methods of obtaining speed measurements, one by means of instruments in the airship and the other by flight over a measured ground course, are explained. Instruments, their calibrations, necessary correction factors, observations, and calculations are detailed for each method, and also for the rate-of-climb tests. A method of correction for the effect on density of moist air and a description of other methods of speed course testing are appended.


We consider the problem of reliably broadcasting information in a multi hop asynchronous network that is subject to Byzantine failures. That is, some nodes of the network can exhibit arbitrary (and potentially malicious) behavior. Existing solutions provide deterministic guarantees for broadcasting between all correct nodes, but require that the communication network is highly-connected (typically, 2k+1 connectivity is required, where k is the total number of Byzantine nodes in the network). In this paper, we investigate the possibility of Byzantine tolerant reliable broadcast between most correct nodes in low-connectivity networks (typically, networks with constant connectivity). In more details, we propose a new broadcast protocol that is specifically designed for low-connectivity networks. We provide sufficient conditions for correct nodes using our protocol to reliably communicate despite Byzantine participants. We present experimental results that show that our approach is especially effective in low-connectivity networks when Byzantine nodes are randomly distributed.


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Quantitative estimates of detection performance are presented for a broadband adaptively processed vertical line array with matched‐field replicas. The estimates were obtained with broadband and multitone signal data obtained in the shallow water evaluation cell experiment 3 (SWellEx‐3). The experiment was carried out in July 1994 west of Point Loma in 200 m deep water of complex bathymetry. The multitone test signal was transmitted from an acoustic source towed at various depths over complex propagation paths and consisted of five sets of ten tones, each set spanned 50–200 Hz. Each set was transmitted at various levels over 22‐dB dynamic range. The beamforming used sets of 8 and 16 hydrophones over 80‐m vertical aperture. Detection performance is estimated for various input signal‐to‐noise ratios by processing sets of frequencies corresponding to the various signal levels. Another set of 10 frequencies which excludes the signal frequencies form the noise only estimates. [Work supported by ONR, Code 321US.]


A company, planning to introduce tool support for enterprise architecture (EA) management, finds itself confronted with an ever changing market of tools and vendors from a variety of different backgrounds. This paper sketches the approach we have taken in a survey on these tools. The evaluation criteria used are related to tool requirements, which were developed in cooperation with EA management practitioners. Complementing these requirements, we detail on general results of the survey and outline important strengths and weaknesses of the tools, identifying distinct approaches for EA management as found in the tools. Concluding, we give indications on potential future topics in this area, interesting both for tool vendors and academia.


A novel framework for dextrous manipulation planning based on transformations between canonical grasp configurations is proposed in this paper. The proposed approach is inspired by the observation that human hand is capable of a large number of manipulative tasks with a few finger postures or grasps. It is postulated that the key to the control of manipulation tasks, therefore, lies in the combination of these grasps. The proposed framework first identifies important or canonical grasps, defined in terms of contact pairs between topological features of the hand and the object, and then obtains the possible transitions between the grasps. With the result expressed in the form of a grasp transformation graph, general manipulation tasks can then be planned by searching the graph for a path connecting the initial and final configurations of the tasks. The proposed approach is demonstrated by experiments using a three-finger hand performing object manipulation tasks.


This paper draws attention to the important role of supragingival tooth structure in providing resistance to displacing forces, particularly transverse forces, on crown posts. Evaluation of the success rate of crown posts has indicated that remaining tooth structure and post space configuration should be taken into consideration during treatment planning. To facilitate the recording of, treatment planning for, and communication about the restoration of pulpless teeth, a simple classification of the remaining tooth structure is proposed.


An impulse response function and a transfer function of use for partially coherent systems are presented. Partially coherent systems are those that transform a complex amplitude input to an output intensity and are encountered in many guises including optical systems, radiometers, scatterometers, astronomical radars, and synthetic aperture radar. (In the fully coherent or noncoherent limits, linear analysis and the associated system descriptions are well known in terms of amplitude or modulation transfer functions, respectively.) Properties are derived herein for partially coherent systems that describe performance dependence on system phase and amplitude match to input signal characteristics and to system and signal partial coherence. Such systems are shown to be energy conservative in the event of coherence variations. Output spectral properties that describe the dependence of multiplicative Rayleigh noise (speckle) on input signal coherence, system coherence, and phase match are presented. Unlike linear systems, partially coherent systems require both (1) the impulse response and (2) a quantitative measure of scene/system coherence to adequately describe their performance. The general formulation of this paper is applied to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging systems to derive closed-form results of importance for that discipline. It is shown that the mean output from a SAR for a random distributed scene input is not dependent on system focus, system coherence, or scene coherence, whereas imagery of scene detail is dependent on these same parameters. The speckle spectrum is a function of system coherence, but not a function of scene coherence or system focus.


A new venture, the Institute for System Level Integration (SLI), has been launched by four Scottish Universities. One of the key activities of the SLI Institute is a specialist graduate course, the MSc SLI. This course aims to equip engineers in industry, and appropriately qualified new graduates, with an academically principled, practically focussed, understanding of SLI and system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology. In this short paper the course is presented, with observations on its development.


Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has already become a mainstream technology in global planarization of wafer, but the mechanism of nonuniform material removal has not been revealed. In this paper, the calculation of particle movement tracks on wafer surface was conducted by the motion relationship between the wafer and the polishing pad on a large-sized single head CMP machine. Based on the distribution of particle tracks on wafer surface, the model for the within-wafer-nonuniformity (WIWNU) of material removal was put forward. By the calculation and analysis, the relationship between the motion variables of the CMP machine and the WIWNU of material removal on wafer surface had been derived. This model can be used not only for predicting the WIWNU, but also for providing theoretical guide to the design of CMP equipment, selecting the motion variables of CMP and further understanding the material removal mechanism in wafer CMP.


Scholarship on the use of contemplative practices in educational settings is overwhelmingly positive: Theoretical and philosophical pieces tout the benefits of meditation, while research reveals many positive outcomes. Based on their practice of classroom yoga, the authors found that yoga, as a contemplative mind-body practice, helped students transition from busy lives to focus on the learning process and develop an academic mindset. Additionally, they observed that successfully offering yoga in the classroom requires a responsive and iterative approach that flexibly adapts to conditions and environments that are continuously in flux.


Diphtheria is a potentially life-threatening infection in humans. The three species capable of causing diphtheria are: Corynebacterium diphtheriae, C. ulcerans and C. pseudotuberculosis. Although UK cases are rare, recently there has been an increase in reported toxigenic C. ulceransassociated with companion animals. Potentially toxigenic corynebacteria are sent to the National Reference Laboratory, Public Health England (PHE), London, UK for species confirmation, determination of presence of the diphtheria toxin gene by real-time PCR, and confirmation of toxin expression by the Elek test. We reviewed submissions of C. ulcerans between January 2006 and November 2019. Fifty-three isolates of toxigenic C. ulcerans were received, 29 from humans and 24 from animals. The most common animal hosts were dogs (15) and cats (7), but isolates were also received from a horse and a captive rhinoceros. Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) data were derived from whole genome sequencing. In three human cases, C. ulcerans was isolated from companion animals and in all three, typing data supported an epidemiological link between human and animal hosts. The sequence types (STs) for these linked isolates were ST331 (human and dog, human and cat) and ST551 (human and cat). Although MLST data are limited, the finding of the same ST (ST331) from canine and feline sources indicates that strains can be carried by both hosts. Management of diphtheria cases is an important public health issue. Typing data can support epidemiological linkage and identify possible sources, allowing the potential intervention and treatment of animals thus avoiding onward transmission.


Establish a nonlinear membership function of slope stability taking the case of six different sliding blocks on a typical slope and do a second class fuzzy comprehensive evaluation on the determinate membership. Comparing the result of stability evaluated with former result determined by extension classified method, it shows that it is basically conforming to evaluate slope stability using membership function which is established according to the changing rules of impact factors of slope such as quality of rock, massiveness of rock mass and dip angle of rock. This method can be referential in a qualified sense for the forecasting and preventing of landslide disasters.


In developing countries in particular, services are often delivered through unorthodox organisational arrangements that cannot simply be dismissed as relics of 'traditional' institutions, or as incomplete modern organisations. Some have emerged recently, and represent institutional adaptations to specific political and logistical circumstances. We need to expand the range of organisational categories that are considered worthy of study and develop a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of unorthodox arrangements. The concept of institutionalised co-production provides a useful point of entry. Institutionalised co-production is defined as: the provision of public services (broadly defined, to include regulation) through a regular long-term relationship between state agencies and organised groups of citizens, where both make substantial resource contributions. We explain some varieties of institutionalised co-production arrangements; explore why they appear to be relatively so widespread in poor countries; and relate the concept to broader ideas about public organisation.


An attempt has been made to describe brightness and color discrimination in the framework of a fluctuation theory. The fluctuation theory states that a difference between two stimuli will be just noticeable if it exceeds, by some factor, the average of the fluctuations in the stimuli. If the statistical fluctuations in the number of quanta absorbed are considered as the determining factor, the de Vries–Rose law (ΔB/B~1/B^½) is unforcedly explained. The deflection from this law into Weber's law (ΔB/B=const) becomes understood in the same framework, provided the statistics are applied on the neural coding rather than on the quantum incidence, considering a refractory period in the nervous transmission. Overfilling of the nervous channels, adaptation of the receptors and fluctuations in the refractory period are indicated as possible causes of the fall in contrast sensitivity at high levels of brightness. Adaptative effects like shrinking of the information-collecting time and area or changes in coincidence mechanisms with increasing luminance, may be reasons of deviations from the basic laws when large areas or exposure times are involved. The application of the fluctuation theory to chromaticity discrimination is elaborated for the case of tritanopia and illustrated for the general case of trichromasy. The agreement between theory and experiment is satisfactory.


An all-digital on-chip clock skew measurement system via subsampling is presented. The clock nodes are subsampled with a near-frequency asynchronous sampling clock to result in beat signals which are themselves skewed in the same proportion but on a larger time scale. The beat signals are then suitably masked to extract only the skews of the rising edges of the clock signals. We propose a histogram of the arithmetic difference of the beat signals which decouples the relationship of clock jitter to the minimum measurable skew, and allows skews arbitrarily close to zero to be measured with a precision limited largely by measurement time, unlike the conventional XOR based histogram approach. We also analytically show that the proposed approach leads to an unbiased estimate of skew. The measured results from a 65 nm delay measurement front-end indicate that for an input skew range of ±1 fan-out-of-4 (FO4) delay, ±3σ resolution of 0.84 ps can be obtained with an integral error of 0.65 ps. We also experimentally demonstrate that a frequency modulation on a sampling clock maintains precision, indicating the robustness of the technique to jitter. We also show how FM modulation helps in restoring precision in case of rationally related clocks.


The book examines some of the characteristics of technological/engineering models that are likely to be unfamiliar to those who are interested primarily in the history and philosophy of science and mathematics, and which differentiate technological models from scientific and mathematical ones. Themes that are highlighted include: the role of language (the models developed for engineering design have resulted in new ways of talking about technological systems); communities of practice (particular engineering communities have particular ways of sharing and developing knowledge); graphical (re)presentation (engineers have developed many ways of reducing quite complex mathematical models to more simple representations); reification (highly abstract mathematical models are turned into 'objects' that can be manipulated almost like components of a physical system); machines (not only the currently ubiquitous digital computer, but also older analogue devices – slide rules, physical models, wind tunnels and other small-scale simulators, as well as mechanical, electrical and electronic analogue computers); mathematics and modelling as a bridging tool between disciplines


This thesis explores the limits and possibilities for community development practice to maintain dynamism and integrity in a professional context. There is a particular emphasis upon reflexivity and its relevance in processes of accountability towards both communities and state policy. The study was born out of dissonance surrounding the researcher's community development practice mid-way through New Labour's 1997 to 2010 administration. It argues that New Labour's social functionalist approach proved to be problematic for the maintenance the reflexive and personal commitment necessary to the central dynamic of community development work.
Although not specifically designed to consider feminist community development approaches, the questions emerged from the researcher's feminist analysis of contemporary practice and the research itself was designed from this perspective. The design of the methods applied to the empirical research for this study are based upon those used in reflexive and transformative community development practice.
The empirical work involves a case study surrounding the conditions for community development professional practice in North East England in 2007, ten years into New Labour's last administration. This consisted of semi-structured interviews with a sample of twenty-four self-defined community development practitioners. Focus groups were conducted in 2009 to share the findings and to assist the researcher to take the analysis further.
Aiming to generalize from a particular historical moment when the Government seemed to be supportive of community development work, during New Labour's 1997 to 2010 administration, the thesis highlights some inherent tensions within the relationship between the state and the dynamism of community development and illustrates lessons that are widely applicable to its everyday practice.
In conclusion this thesis argues that for community development practice to maintain dynamism and integrity in a state policy context it is vital that its personal dynamic is integral to forming future conceptions of professionalism. Moreover that supporting the personal and relational elements of community development practice requires the creation of liminal spaces where self-determination and the agency can be exercised. For, it is only under these practice conditions that the intersubjective relationships necessary for bilateral and horizontal professional accountability can be nurtured and developed.


ABSTRACT Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a human herpesvirus which has been studied intensively for its role in certain human tumors. It also serves as a model of herpesviral latency because it establishes an immediate, latent infection in human B cells. When EBV infects quiescent, primary B cells it induces their continuous proliferation to yield growth-transformed B-cell lines in vitro. The lytic or productive phase of EBV's life cycle is induced by the expression of the viral BZLF1 gene in latently infected cells. The BZLF1 protein is a transactivator, which selectively binds to two classes of distinct DNA sequence motifs. One class is similar to the motifs that are bound by members of the AP-1 transcription factor family to which BZLF1 belongs. The second class, which contains CpG motifs, is predominant in viral promoters of early lytic genes and is BZLF1's preferred or exclusive target sequence when methylated. The BZLF1 gene is transiently expressed in newly infected B cells but fails to induce EBV's lytic cycle, potentially because the virion DNA is unmethylated. Here we report that the lack of 5-methylcytosine residues in CpG sites of virion DNA prevents the expression of essential lytic genes indispensable for viral DNA amplification during productive infection. This finding indicates that BZLF1 transactivates these promoters in a methylation-dependent fashion and explains how progeny virus synthesis is abrogated in newly infected B cells. Our data also reveal that viral lytic DNA synthesis precludes CpG methylation of virion DNA during EBV's lytic, productive cycle, which can be overcome by the ectopic expression of a prokaryotic cytosine methyltransferase to yield CpG-methylated virion DNA. Upon infection of B cells, randomly CpG-methylated virion DNA induces high expression of essential lytic genes in contrast to virion DNA free of 5-methylcytosine residues. Our data suggest that unmethylated virion DNA is part of EBV's strategy to prevent the viral lytic phase in newly infected B cells, allowing it to establish its characteristic latent infection in them.


GH insensitivity may be an inherited condition or may arise as a consequence of disease or malnutrition. Laron syndrome is the most severe form of GH insensitivity, arising from an absent or defective GH receptor. Less severe forms of GH insensitivity, however, may exist, resulting in short stature but in few other features of Laron syndrome. We have identified a heterogeneous group of children with short stature and either high basal(>10 mU/L) or high peak GH levels (>40 mU/L) on GH provocation testing, to examine biochemical markers of GH sensitivity. These children received 4 d of GH (0.1 U/kg) and the increment in IGF-I, IGF binding protein (BP)-3, and GHBP was determined. Eight GHD children, commencing GH therapy, were recruited as positive controls. The two groups could not be differentiated by age, height SDS (SD score), height velocity SDS, or body mass index. IGF-I and IGFBP-3 generation were correlated in all children (ΔSDS IGF-Iversus ΔSDS IGFBP-3, r = 0.49, p = 0.03). Neither basal GHBP levels or the increment in GHBP were predictive of the IGF-I or IGFBP-3 response to GH. The GHI group had a significantly reduced IGFBP-3 response to stimulation with 4 d of GH (median percent increment in IGFBP-3, 26%, versus 72% in the GHD group, p = 0.03); their IGF-I response to GH was also reduced (median% increment in IGF-I 75%versus 144% in the GH deficient group), but this did not achieve significance, p = 0.06. In all children, the percentage rise orΔSDS in both IGF-I and IGFBP-3 inversely correlated with the GH peak obtained on provocation testing, the latter being the most significant determinant of GH peak. We propose that the "IGF generation test," in particular IGFBP-3 generation, can be used in the investigation of partial GH insensitivity. Further work, however, is required to establish diagnostic criteria for partial GH insensitivity.


The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has changed the content and frequency of medical assessments required by the Respiratory Protection Standard. The revised Standard contains a mandatory questionnaire to be used for preplacement evaluation of all users. The requirement for periodic reevaluations has been replaced by a requirement to reevaluate users when they experience difficulty with respirator use, or when their workplace changes in such a way as to significantly impact the physiologic stresses of the job. The experience of medical surveillance programs for respirator users suggests that routine surveillance is not necessary. The frequency of disease sufficiently debilitating to preclude respirator use found through medical surveillance is low; adverse outcomes experienced by respirator users, although potentially tragic, are not outcomes for which medical surveillance plays a preventive role. In an effort to better use resources once spent on repetitive examination of asymptomatic respirator users without compromising their health, this article proposes an approach for addressing symptomatic respirator users in which the respirator components are evaluated before the user is subjected to medical investigations.


Successive-relaying-aided (SR) cooperative multicarrier (MC) space-time shift keying (STSK) is proposed for frequency-selective channels. We invoke SR to mitigate the typical 50% throughput loss of conventional half-duplex relaying schemes and MC code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) to circumvent the dispersive effects of wireless channels and to reduce the SR-induced interference. The distributed relay terminals form two virtual antenna arrays (VAAs), and the source node (SN) successively transmits frequency-domain (FD) spread signals to one of the VAAs, in addition to directly transmitting to the destination node (DN). The constituent relay nodes (RNs) of each VAA activate cyclic-redundancy-checking-based (CRC) selective decode-and-forward (DF) relaying. The DN can jointly detect the signals received via the SN-to-DN and VAA-to-DN links using a low-complexity single-stream-based joint maximum-likelihood (ML) detector. We also propose a differentially encoded cooperative MC-CDMA STSK scheme to facilitate communications over hostile dispersive channels without requiring channel estimation (CE). Dispensing with CE is important since the relays cannot be expected to altruistically estimate the SN-to-RN links for simply supporting the source. Furthermore, we propose soft-decision-aided serially concatenated recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) and unity-rate-coded (URC) cooperative MC STSK and investigate its performance in both coherent and noncoherent scenarios.


Land is an important natural resource which is present on earth in limited amount. The degradation of this natural resource is one of the most serious problems of the world today. Land degradation implies the temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land. Land degradation occurs due to natural or anthropogenic factors. Soil degradation is recognized as major aspect of land degradation. In India, bricks are usually made of clay, and are generally produced in traditional, unorganized small scale industries. Bricks are important building material and about 140 billion bricks are annually produced by these industries. Brick industries are essential for economic development as they provide employment to nearly 12 million people. Due to increase in population, demand of houses and infrastructure is increasing, as a result use of bricks is also increasing. An important step in brick making is firing of bricks in brick kilns causes serious environmental pollution and health problems. Brick burning largely influence the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Impact of brick industries on air pollution, vegetation and human health has been studied by many workers who have shown that brick industries cause air pollution and land degradation besides decreasing herb density and causing nutrient disorders in plants/trees in immediate vicinity. Brick making consumes large amount of clay which leads to top soil removal and land degradation. Large areas of lands are destroyed every year especially in developing countries due to collection of soil from a depth of about 1 to 2 m from agricultural land. These affected areas are expanding rapidly due to increase in brick production. The topsoil nutrient elements and soil biota are also destroyed through brick burning and brick burning also alters the physicochemical properties of soil. The present study has been undertaken to assess impact of brick making on the degradation of land in Khejuri where about 25- brick kilns and 23- tile fields have been developed during last 10-15 years along the adjacent location of Hijli River, Rasulpur River and tidal channels. Intensive questionnaire survey has been conducted taking significant number of samples from each of the villages in Khejuri C. D Block. Secondary data sets have also been collected from the Block Development Office and Panchayat Offices. Generated soil data and other data have been analyzed and compiled by necessary Statistical and Mapping Methods along with GIS Techniques. Those data have been compiled and analyzed. Hence, the results of the study clearly indicate that the land degradation scenario in terms of environmental cost of brick manufacturing is much higher than the economic returns readily available.


Abstract: Asian redtail catfish (Hemibagrus nemurus Valenciennes, 1840) is one of Indonesian native fish species with high economic potency. However research on genetic variation of Asian redtail catfish in Indonesia is very limited. Therefore, this study purposed to identify and analyze the mitochondrial gene polymorphism 16S of Baung fish (H. nemurus) from the Progo River, Magelang, Central Java. The method used in this study was the PCR method with universal primers 16Sar and 16Sbr. Intraspecific genetic variation was conducted by combining mitochondrial gene 16S sequence data of five Asian redtail fish (H. nemurus) samples from Progo River (BGM 02-06) and five Asian redtail fish samples from GenBank. BLAST, DnaSP, DNASTAR, GeneStudio,, MEGA, Mesquite, and NETWORK programs were used to analyze the data obtained. The results showed there were no genetic differences among the Asian redtail fish from Progo River indicating no intrapopulation genetic variation of the fish species. Conversely, the intraspecific genetic divergence was between 0.20% and 2.21% with an average of 0.92%. Analysis of intraspecific genetic variations detected 5 different haplotypes and 15 variable sites with 5 parsimony informative sites. Haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity values were 0.756 ± 0.130 and 0.00812 ± 0.00294 respectively. Analysis of phylogenetic and haplotype network revealed BGM 02-06 formed a specific haplotype that was separated from other haplotypes. Molecular markers for Asian redtail fish (H.nemurus) from the Progo River, Magelang, Central Java based on the 16S mitochondrial gene can use this specific haplotype.


Recent studies are unravelling the impact of microorganisms from the roots and rhizosphere on interactions between plants and herbivorous insects and are gradually changing our perception of the microorganisms' capacity to affect plant defenses, but the reverse effect has seldom been investigated. Our study aimed at determining how plant herbivory influences the dynamics of root and rhizosphere microbial community assemblages and whether potential changes in root metabolites and chemical elements produced during herbivory can be related to microbial community diversity. We conducted our study on oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and its major belowground herbivore, the cabbage root fly (Delia radicum). We further assessed the influence of initial soil microbial diversity on these interactions. Different microbial diversities based on a common soil matrix were obtained through a removal-recolonization method. Root and rhizosphere sampling targeted different stages of the herbivore development corresponding to different perturbation intensities. Root bacterial communities were more affected by herbivory than some rhizosphere bacterial phyla and fungal communities, which seemed more resistant to this perturbation. Root herbivory enhanced the phylum of γ-Proteobacteria in the roots and rhizosphere, as well as the phylum of Firmicutes in the rhizosphere. Herbivory tended to decrease most root amino acids and sugars, and it increased trehalose, indolyl glucosinolates and sulfur. Higher abundances of four bacterial genera (Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Pseudomonas and Stenotrophomonas) were associated following herbivory to the increase of trehalose and some sulfur-containing compounds. Further research would help to identify the biological functions of the microbial genera impacted by plant infestation and their potential implications in plant defense.


Anxiety has an important role in teaching and learning. If teachers can recognize which kind of tests create high anxiety then they will be able to omit these kinds of tests. Then, the results of test can probably show the students' knowledge more carefully. The subjects of the present study were sixty Iranian female junior university students. They were given three kinds of test: an anxiety test, a C-test and a Cloze-test. Descriptive statistics for subjects' performance on the Cloze-test and C-test were used to compare the mean score of the subjects in both tests. Finally, the results of anxiety test and C-test were correlated and then the results of anxiety test and Cloze-test were also correlated. The anxious students feel more anxiety while taking C-test than Cloze-test.


We present a candidate Reference Method for determining the concentration of serum creatinine. The method is based on HPLC combined with enzymatic determination. Creatinine plus 14[C]creatinine is extracted by cation-exchange chromatography, subjected to reversed-phase HPLC, and finally quantified enzymatically. Enzymatic measurement ensures no interference from co-eluting compounds, which has been a problem for some reported HPLC assays relying on ultraviolet detection. The average corrected recovery was 100.1% (SEM = 1.1%; n = 15). The accuracy was verified by assaying five sera with target values determined by isotope dilution mass spectrometry. The total interassay CV was less than or equal to 2.5%. We applied the method to study the specificity of HPLC-ultraviolet detection, using 72 plasma samples from hospitalized patients; no interference was noted. Thus, HPLC-ultraviolet detection appears to be specific, provided that sample cleanup is based on cation-exchange chromatography. Our diode-array detector studies of peak homogeneity supported this conclusion. Still, combined HPLC-enzymatic determination ensures even greater accuracy, ranking close to that by isotope dilution mass spectrometry.


from liver. Intestinal and bone alkaline phosphatases apparently occur only occasionally. Possible diagnostic application has arisen in the differential diagnosis of jaundice. Moreover, metastases occurring simultaneously in liver and bone gave rise to a serum activity pattern corresponding to bone disease and so jaundice resulting from metastases can be differentiated from hepatocellular disease.


Regionalism is a process of regional cooperation amongst the countries sharing a common border, common values, homogeneity of culture, and common vested interests. While the western world adopted this paradigm early after World War II in the form of the EU, South Asian Region is still deprived of such models. The establishment of SAARC in 1985 by the efforts of the late Bangladeshi President Zia-ur-Rahman although raised certain hopes of regional connectivity in South Asia still the fate of this region lingers in the sky. While using secondary sources of data collection, this paper tries to attempt the underlying challenges and the palpable prospects responsible for the better integration of this region. It further analyses the failed regional cooperation and the role of India under the assumption of the Neo-Realist Paradigm of Kenneth Waltz that emerged in late 1970.


Traditional cognitive testing for detecting cognitive impairment (CI) can be inaccessible, expensive, and time consuming. This dissertation aims to develop an automated online computerized neuropsychological testing system for rapidly tracking an individual's cognitive performance throughout the user's daily or weekly schedule in an unobtrusive way. By utilizing embedded microsensors within tablet devices, the proposed context-aware system will capture ambient and behavioral data pertinent to the real-world contexts and times of testing to compliment psychometric results, by providing insight into the contextual factors relevant to the user's testing efficacy and performance.


The emerging genre of autotheory has been tied to a longer lineage of feminist and queer writing. Valerie Solanas's SCUM Manifesto (1967) forms an important context for contemporary autotheoretical practices not only as an influence but also as a cautionary tale. Published in 1967, just one year before its author shot Andy Warhol, the SCUM Manifesto was quickly overdetermined by readings that saw the shooting as a fulfillment of the manifesto's vision, rewriting the manifesto as a kind of autotheory-in-reverse. Tracing SCUM's afterlife in a range of cultural texts, including riot grrrl zines and Andrea Long Chu's autotheoretical work Females (2019), reveals consistent anxieties about the relationship between the manifesto and the shooting. As a parallel cultural formation arising alongside autotheory, SCUM's afterlife shows how anxieties about interpretation drive the autotheoretical impulse.


The thermal stability, purity and compatibility of some fluoroquinolones, including sparfloxacin HCl (SPAR), besifloxacin HCl (BESI), gemifloxacin mesylate (GEM), and their excipients have been successfully studied using thermal analysis techniques. Thermogravimetric analysis (TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to study the thermal behavior of these drugs. The melting points of SPAR, BESI and GEM were 261.33, 270.04 and 287.13 °C, respectively. The melting point values show satisfactory results in comparison with those obtained by using the official method. The Ozawa method was employed to determine the activation energy values of the thermal decompositions of these drugs. Comparison of the activation energy values suggests the following sequence of thermal stability: SPAR > BESI > GEM. Semi-empirical molecular orbital calculations (PM3 method) were used to confirm the thermal decomposition steps and the order of stability of these drugs. The purity value of SPAR (99.98%) was determined by DSC indicating similarity to that found by the reported method (99.95%). The results obtained are useful for these drugs, since they show good interpretations for their thermal decomposition and stability.


In this study, the concentrations and characteristics of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) contamination in sediment samples were investigated using aqua regia extraction and Tessier's five-step sequential extraction. Based on the concentration of metals, the influence of the Hapcheon-Changnyeong weir on sediments in the Nakdong River was assessed. The origins of the contaminants, their bioavailability, and their mobility were determined using sequential extraction. Greater concentrations of heavy metals were found in samples collected closer to the weir. The largest proportion of Cu was identified in the residual fraction based on sequential extraction, whereas Zn was predominantly found in the reducible fraction. Iron-manganese in the reducible fraction of Zn has the potential to leach back to the water body. In addition, the combined concentration of fractions 1 and 2 of Cu comprised more than 20% of total amount that still has potential to affect the water quality. The results of this study were compared with existing sediment standards set out by the NIER (National Institute of Environmental Research), Canada, and US EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) guidelines, as well as the risk assessment code (RAC). The concentrations of heavy metals exceeded the standards set by the Canadian guideline by up to four times in particular samples, highlighting the need for continual monitoring.


That small-scale farmers benefit from large-scale land investments (LSLIs) in developing
countries is an argument put forward by supporters of LSLIs, which include governments in
target countries and development partners, such as the World Bank. The aim of this study
is to examine the interactions between LSLIs and small-scale farmers and to evaluate the
extent to which these investments support or undermine innovations in small-scale farming,
and how they do so. It employs an innovation system framework as an approach to explore
interactions between small-scale farmers and LSLIs. With an emphasis on qualitative
methods, it combines household surveys, in-depth interviews and group interviews in a
mixed method research design. The findings highlight that the government's paternalistic
attitude towards small-scale farmers encourages implementation of LSLIs as a development
strategy. However, the findings reveal a complex picture of LSLIs, presenting features of
both development opportunities and land grabbing. These two qualities of LSLIs are also
related to the cropping system insofar as technological interactions characterise LSLIs and
small-scale farmers' interactions in the vegetable sector, whereas land conflicts are
important as a feature of their interactions in the sugarcane sector. The findings concerning
the social relations of production in both vegetable and sugarcane sectors indicate that
distribution of tasks and responsibilities, within households and associations, are based on
age and gender. The older and male village inhabitants are able to control main sources of
cash income whereas the female members of the community are for the most part engaged
in subsistence agriculture and perform a secondary role in situations in which agriculture is
the main source of cash for the household. In addition to this, the way in which small-scale
farmers are organised within associations, i.e., as a collective farm in the sugarcane sector
and as individual production units in the vegetable sector, affect how and the extent to
which LSLIs contribute to innovation in small-scale farming.


Double compound modification was carried out for hypereutectic Al-24Si alloy. The experiment showed that double modification with phosphorus and rare earth can fine the structure of alloy. The complex modifications of phosphorus and rare earth make the coarse block primary silicon obviously refined and the large needle eutectic silicon modified to the fine fibrous or lamella ones. Phosphorus mainly refines the primary silicon. Rare earth can well refine the primary and eutectic silicon, but its modification effect on the eutectic silicon is more obvious. The alloys with the additions of 0.10% phosphorus and 0.9% rare earth have the optimal microstructure. Compared with the unmodified alloy, the primary silicon of alloys can be refined from 93.5 μm to 24.1 μm and the eutectic silicon can be refined from 8.5 μm to 5.3 μm. Mechanism of double compound modification with phosphorus and rare earth is discussed as well.