A model allowing simultaneous determination of the detector dead time and the mass discrimination factor in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), as well as the corresponding uncertainties, is presented and compared for three representative isotope systems, namely magnesium, indium and thallium. The advantages of using the model presented are firstly that both the detector dead time and the mass discrimination factor can be obtained simultaneously and secondly that the sampling time can be spent entirely on the isotopes of interest.


Simple Summary Dehorning in cattle involves the manual removal of horns which causes acute pain. Although the long-term solution to removing horns is to breed polled cattle, limitations include the complex inheritance for polled Brahman cattle, and negative interactions with productivity in dairy cattle. Best practice pain relief in the form of a local nerve block, a sedative and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug prior to the procedure usually requires a veterinarian and may be impractical for some cattle production systems. Improved livestock welfare requires a practical and cost-effective pain relief strategy for dehorning that can be readily adopted commercially. We evaluated a modified topical local anaesthetic wound formulation that can be applied by farmers immediately following dehorning. While previous studies have demonstrated a reduction in wound sensitivity, there was no effect on cortisol concentrations. It is likely that the cortisol response reflects a combination of factors including the stress of handling, the initial pain of the dehorning procedure and haemorrhage. Abstract Dehorning causes pain and distress to cattle, and there is a need to provide effective and practical analgesia to improve animal welfare. We conducted an experiment to determine the effect of a modified post-operative topical wound management formulation containing two local anaesthetics (TA) on the plasma cortisol concentration (PCC) of scoop-dehorned calves. Two months old Holstein-Friesian heifer calves (n = 30) were randomly allocated to sham dehorning control (CON), scoop dehorning (D), or scoop dehorning with immediate post-operative application of the TA (DTA). Blood samples were obtained via jugular venepuncture prior to sham or actual dehorning, and 40 min, 1.5, 4 and 24 h later. PCC changed significantly over time (p < 0.01). There was a trend for lower PCC in DTA calves compared to D calves (p = 0.09), with the PCC area under the curve lowest in CON calves as compared to D and DTA calves (p = 0.02). Cortisol concentrations were similar between D and DTA at all time points. The TA did not reduce cortisol concentrations up to 24 h following treatment and the cortisol response likely reflects the pain induced by the procedure, the effect of handling and restraint, and haemorrhaging which limited adherence of the TA actives. A multimodal analgesic approach, as assessed through multiple pain indicators, should be the focus of future work.


Background and objectives: Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which the patient suffers with two or more unprovoked seizures. It is one of the most common neurological disorders worldwide, affecting more than 70 million people. Currently various modes of effective treatments are available, but still there are many cases that remain drug resistant. Hence, there is a need to explore herbal medications for the treatment of drug resistant epilepsy.


A large group of artworks can be usefully The second distinguishing feature these narclassified as narratives. These are works that tell rators have isfictionality. That is, these theorists stories. It is a far from easy task to set down claim that each novel's narrator is on the same criteria for membership in this genus, and I shall ontological level as its characters and events. not be attempting that here. Rather, taking Again, they are at pains to point out that the the genus of narrative artworks for granted, I claim is not that the narrator is a character in the will investigate one species: narrative literature. traditional sense (though this may be the caseA number of recent theorists-most notably for example, in most novels narrated in the first Seymour Chatman, Jerrold Levinson, and George person), merely that it is not to be posited at the Wilson-have argued that there is necessarily a level of actuality, but rather at the fictional fictional narrator in every narrative, a conclusion level.4 I call the ubiquity thesis. I shall argue that the Let me also make clear that I do not deny the ubiquity thesis is mistaken, since certain paradigexistence of fictional narrators. They most obvimatic novels and stories have no narrator in the ously exist in first-person narrated novels. sense these theorists employ.2 Though I limit my Indeed, it may be that most novels have ficdiscussion here to literary narratives, what I protional narrators. But I will argue that a certain pose could be adapted for other species of narracentral kind of novel has no fictional narrator, tive, a point I return to at the end of the paper. and that the ubiquity thesis is thus false. My strategy will be to investigate the main arguments for the ubiquity of fictional narrators in I. THE NATURE OF THE FICTIONAL NARRATOR novels. I make use of several observations that George Wilson makes in "Le Grand Imagier Before we investigate whether or not novels Steps Out"; oddly enough, Wilson is there a invariably have narrators, we should establish ubiquity theorist, yet I believe his criticisms the nature of the snark we are hunting. I shall be point toward a more restricted role for fictional disputing the ubiquity of a narrator understood narrators, one that he is simply unwilling ultias possessing just two essential features. The mately to accept.5 first is agency. Chatman, Levinson, and Wilson all point out that narration is an activity, something that gets done, and as such implies an II. THE ANALYTIC ARGUMENT agent. But their strongest motivation behind specifying agency as a feature of narrators is We have already touched on the first argument that it is a broader concept than humanity. It is for the ubiquity of fictional narrators-what I easy to point out that if novels have narrators, call the analytic argument. The authority to look they often know more than, and have powers to here is Chatman. He argues greater than, any human could. Thus, a ubiquity theorist must insist from the start that "human that every narrative is by definition narrated-that is, personality is not a sine qua non for narratornarratively presented-and that narration, narrative hood."3 presentation, entails an agent even when the agent


In this study, four Cr/CrN/CrAlN multilayer nanocomposite coatings with various Al content controlled by Al target power were successfully prepared on 316L stainless steels by plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering (PEMS). The surface morphology, chemical composition, phase structure and surface roughness of the coatings were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD and AFM, respectively. The micro-hardness, Young's modulus and adhesion of the coatings were measured by nano-indentation and nano-scratch, respectively. The friction and wear behavior of the coatings was investigated by a friction and wear tester. The effects of Al content on the microstructure, mechanical properties and wear resistance of the coatings were studied in detail. Results show that Al content in coatings increased with the increase of Al target power. The coatings exhibited the NaCl crystal structure. As the Al content increased, the hardness, Young's modulus, bonding force and wear resistance of the coatings increased first and then decreased. The Cr/CrN/CrAlN coating with Al content of 37.8% has the optimal comprehensive properties.


Depending on the nitrogen substituents of the 5,5',6,6'tetrachlorobenzimidacarbocyanine chromophore 1 two basically different types of J-aggregates are formed. One type having a single J-absorption band, like TDBC, shows the phenomenon of coherent energy migration well characterized by time-resolved spectroscopy in the past. The other type exhibits a Davydov-splitted J-absorption band whose spectroscopical features, like the non-exponential fluorescence decay, the decrease of its fluorescence lifetime with inreasing temperature, the strong dependence of its fluorescence lifetime on the emission wavelength, the dependence of the position and shape of its fluorescence spectrum on the time delay of measurement, the pressure dependence of its absorption spectrum, and its optical activity cannot be understood on the basis of coherent energy migration. A consistent description of all properties observed provides the theory of incoherent energy migration. Presumedly it is the degree of disorder which determines the kind of energy migration.


For EV charging applications, single phase Vienna rectifier operated using classical modulation approach has problems with significant variations in efficiency and input current ripples. Additionally, for the efficient operation of DC-DC stage, the design of an electric vehicle (EV) charger employing an LLC resonant converter necessitates active management of the intermediate DC link with wide operation voltage range. To address this problem, this paper presents the design of single-phase portable EV charger using Vienna rectifier and full bridge LLC converter (FB-LLC). Here, rectifier stage is controlled through an efficient modulation technique (EMT), which provides half switching losses, current ripples and wide regulation of rectified voltage over real time variation in the battery terminal voltage. The LLC stage is controlled with optimum efficiency point frequency modulation technique to provide high efficiency operation over complete battery terminal voltage range. For better power factor correction (PFC) under distorted grid voltage scenarios, a frequency fixed (FF) second order generalized integrator (SOGI) is utilized for grid angle generation. This technique provides healthy estimation of grid angle under the presence of DC offset, harmonics, frequency, and phase drift in grid voltage. With the integration of grid voltage angle estimation algorithm in the control of single-phase Vienna rectifier, this converter possesses better PFC performance under both weak and strong grid conditions. A 2 kW EV charger with a battery pack terminal voltage range from 240–550 V, is designed and simulated to validate the performance of the designed system.


In modern devices, such as smartphones and IoT, AI hardware implements different ML models to train massive amounts of data for various applications. However, based on the sensitivity of this data, privacy and security concerns, or both, may restrict users from accessing the data storage to conduct the ML training using conventional methods. Federated learning (FL) is consequently emerged to maintain training data distribution among smart mobile devices while aggregating locally processed updates. In addition to improving the model training performance as the number of clients rises, FL also creates a privacy-preserved shared data model. FL execution, however, can be time-consuming. This study proposes a parallelized approach to enhance the performance and privacy of the FL algorithm (FedAvg). In this regard, the FedAvg algorithm is expanded to our proposed model, distributed FedAvg (D-FedAvg), which enables several clients to collaborate concurrently and train a single learning model. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, we investigated the impact of various numbers of clients and training rounds on the result. To validate our findings, we conducted extensive experiments using MNIST datasets trained using two federated learning models, MLP and CNN. The results show our D-FedAvg can maintain data privacy and dramatically enhance the execution time of FL compared to traditional FedAvg. According to the study, the FL framework's time complexity increases as the number of clients and rounds increases, but parallelization allows it to operate 2–3 times faster than usual.


A Thomson scattering diagnostic is used in the RFX reversed field pinch experiment to measure single pulse, multipoint electron temperature (Te) profiles. Recent significant improvements have provided reliable and routine operation of the diagnostic. Custom developed CAMAC charge analog-to-digital converters have been introduced, which sample the plasma light 170 ns after the laser light and have greater sensitivity. The spectrometer configuration and the calibration procedure have been optimized. These upgrades have finally led to better fitted scattering spectra and more regular estimates of Te profiles, allowing the measurement of temperatures as low as 20 eV. The introduction of a second spectrometer has recently added a further ten positions to the original ten point profile, resolving the often steep Te edge gradient. On axis values are in good agreement with other Te measurements from SXR diagnostics (either SiLi and double filter method). Te profiles are typically rather flat, but some dependence ...


try) how psychoanalytic the psychology/psychiatry under discussion actually is/was. And psychoanalysis's influence gets overblown: 'scientific justifications for feelings of British superiority' (Deborah Jenson) were well established by Darwin and others, and did not need psychoanalysis (which in any case was heavily indebted to such views). But just how globalised is the psychoanalytic self? Technology and finance can clearly be seen as global. Mobile phones find their way into virtually every corner of the globe, and hardly any part of the globe is not hooked into the global marketplace, but the self? How influenced by psychoanalysis is the sense of self through most of China? In adherents of Islam? Even in evangelical Christians? There is something almost imperialistic about the exaggeration of psychoanalysis's proliferation that underpins much in this collection. Given that most of the contributors write from within the post-structuralist tradition, itself grounded in psychoanalysis, this exaggeration is perhaps inevitable. But while post-structuralism, like psychoanalysis, has furnished us with many valuable insights, it may be, in the second decade of the twentyfirst century, in need of a critical eye. That said, the collection remains an extremely important contribution to the understanding of the interaction of psychoanalysis and the colonial.


Organizational failure stigma may prove harmful for employees and managers, but research has yet to determine when stigma arises in the aftermath of failure. We study the existence of stigma in a setting characterized by recurrent failures and a wealth of information: in association football, several teams are relegated at the end of each season. We overcome the endogeneity of potentially lower ability players in relegated teams by exploiting the similarity of teams around the relegation line in a sharp regression discontinuity design to obtain a causal effect of team relegation on player market value. In the Spanish Primera División, this effect is negative, economically significant, and robust. We assess whether players on loan to relegated teams, expected to continue playing in the top tier, are also affected by relegation. We provide evidence that they are not, inconsistent with organizational stigma, but consistent with rational expectations of players' lower marginal product revenue in inferior leagues. The available information on player ability and the regularity of failure may explain the absence of stigma in this context. JEL Classification: D22, D84, J63, L83, Z22.


It has been shown recently that the stability of positively corona-charged polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) electrets is considerably enhanced as a result of a surface treatment with titanium-tetrachloride (TiCl4) vapor. In the present study, we investigate the influence of a gas-phase treatment with TiCl4 on the electret properties of tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene copolymer (FEP) films. FEP-film samples were treated with titanium-tetrachloride vapor by means of a nanotechnological chemical process that is based on molecular-layer deposition. Subsequently, the samples were poled in a positive corona discharge at room temperature. A very significant improvement of the surface-charge stability has been observed on the modified FEP films. The phenomenon is not restricted to the thermal stability of the surface charge, but is also found in long-term charge-decay measurements. Typical relaxation times for positive charge under isothermal conditions are at least one order of magnitude higher after the surface modification. Thermally-stimulated-decay data indicate that the half-value temperatures of the vapor-treated samples have been enhanced to almost 200°C. Thus, the thermal stability of positive charge in modified FEP films may reach values that were so far only obtained on negatively charged FEP electrets. The results are discussed in connection with the formation of deep traps on the chemically modified polymer surfaces and in the context of two-dimensional surface-layer nanodielectrics.


Graphic image (e.g., a cursor) for the object projected on a computer screen or a "virtual space" in the remote control and for controlling the positioning and the physical device, such as a robot kind; comprises a resiliently mounted plate bracket (3) is used on the control element or the holding means available bit member (2) and addressable using a laser beam and the sensor array (7) for determining the control element with respect to the spatial positioning of the reference surface means; further comprising means for indicating to their use electronic signals to the position information conversion, the signal is supplied to a control object apparatus.


The use of cogenerative dialogues in Science disciplines is a pedagogical approach bringing together the plethora of academic and cultural backgrounds of current community college students. Specifically, this project illustrates the effects of integrating cogens in a community college chemistry class for science majors. Cogenerative dialogues were implemented in a Hostos Community College spring 2011 chemistry class as follows: some students discussed class issues with the professor in an informal setting once a week. An integrative assignment connecting typical foods from different countries was used as a framework to reinforce the learning process and to unravel content misunderstanding. The project outcomes transcended spring 2011 semester. A new book has been adopted in the class as a result of the dialogue. Oral presentations, the use of masteringchemistry.com and a forum to create exam questions have been implemented. Office hours are now used to both develop specific class problems and to dialogue with students about learning styles. Overall, cogenerative dialogues have opened a venue to facilitate the learning of difficult science concepts while building an atmosphere of acceptance, respect, and collegiality between instructor and the students.
Key words: cogenerative dialogues, student diversity, college STEM teaching and learning.


5586 Background: Docetaxel, cisplatin and gemcitabine are active drugs in head and neck cancer. A phase II study was conducted to evaluate the activity of their combination in patients with relapsed or metastatic H&N cancer. Methods: Twenty-seven patients have been entered with median age 65, performance status (WHO) 0:15, 1:8, 2:4. Eighteen (67%) pts had local disease, 14 (52%) lymph nodes, 9 (33%) lung, 2 (7%) pleura and 2 (7%) bone metastases. Cisplatin (80mg/m2) was administered on d1, docetaxel (80mg/m2) on d15 and gemcitabine (1100mg/m2) on d1 and d15 every 4 weeks. Results: Among 21 patients evaluable for response there were 1CR and 6PRs for an ORR 33% (95% CI 22.4–55.1). The median duration of response was 8.9 months, the median TTP 6 months and the estimated median survival 8.1 months. A total of 107 cycles have been administered with a median of 4 cycles/pt. Nineteen (18%) cycles were delayed, dose reduction was performed in 16 (15%) and rhG-CSF support was administered in 60 (56%) cycles. Toxic...


Earlier eigenvalue inclusion regions are replaced by new regions which are tight and thus lead to sufficient and necessary stability conditions for uncertain linear multivariate systems in the presence of unstructured perturbations. The approach provides an exact and immediate assessment of gain and phase margins. When applied to systems with sector bounded but unstructured non-linearities, the inclusion regions produce a necessary and sufficient test for the circle criterion conditions to hold in the multivariable case; as such the resulting stability criterion gives the best possible Nyquist-type extension of the circle criterion to the multivariable case for unstructured non-linearities.


Videogames can be used as instruments to favour the acquisition of digital competencies. This article bets on its utilization with defined aims to get certain competencies such as: instrumental, resource management, multimedia environments, communication, critical reflexion and good social skills development.


Background.  To evaluate the frequency of tumor cell contamination in autologous peripheral‐blood progenitor cells from patients with ovarian cancer, and to determine the impact of infusing such cells on relapses after high‐dose chemotherapy.


Quantification of available surface water is one among the most important aspects of Water budgeting in the rapid changing climate and erratic rainfall conditions prevailing in India amidst the rapid human developmental activities. Though conventional methods are being employed for periodical estimation of existing surface water from water bodies, there is no standard Geospatial technology based simple methodology available for anytime-use by the planners and administrators. This research paper presents one such simple and accurate methodology for quantification of surface water from reservoirs and tanks using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. The results obtained in this study have been evaluated with the published data. Thus, it forms a basic model to further strengthen and make it useful for the administrators in water resource budgeting and proper distribution of it for sustainable development of the society.


The Journal 'Structural Control and Health Monitoring's has received its second year impact factor. The impact factor for 2008 has been published to be 1.178, an increase from 0.568 in 2007. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The C-13 NMR chemical shifts of (7,0), (8,0), (9,0), and (10,0) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with Stone-Wales (SW) defects have been studied computationally using a gauge-including projector-augmented plane-wave (GIPAW) density functional theory (DFT) method. A SW-defect substantially broadens the NMR signal of a particular tube, however, in general the average shift of the non-defect carbons does not differ greatly from that of the pristine species. "Parallel" orientations of the defect site yields shifts at around 150-160 ppm from atoms in the defect site which are separated from the rest of the NMR signal. Therefore, the results indicate that C-13 NMR might be able to detect the presence of, and perhaps even quantify the concentration of SW defects found in SWNTs. Differences in the NMR obtained for two defect orientations are analyzed by comparing the shifts of the defect atoms with those of planar and bent structures of the azupyrene mole Representative visualizations for the shielding tensors of the (8,0) SWNT with and without defects are also reported.


AbstractThe Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens is a fish species that was once dispersed widely throughout the Mississippi River drainage but was largely extirpated from the southern portions of its range by overfishing and habitat degradation. There is an ongoing restoration effort to reestablish the Lake Sturgeon to rivers of the southeastern United States. Reintroduced juvenile Lake Sturgeon now occupy several reservoirs separated from each other by hydroelectric dams along the upper Tennessee River. To complete their life history, Lake Sturgeon will migrate upriver from reservoir habitats to more lotic habitats and spawn over coarse rocky substrate, even in the tailwaters of impassable dams. Using low-cost, consumer-grade, side-scan sonar and a GIS, we mapped the substrate of four tailwaters that may be future spawning locations for Lake Sturgeon. We used video imagery collected from random locations within the mapped areas to validate our digitization of sonar imagery. We calculated the area of four ...


Electrophoretic deposition as a method for producing hydroxyapatite-coated metal implants has been studied using acetone as the medium. It showed that the deposition takes place on the cathode. There is a linear relation between deposition yield and parameters such as applied voltage, deposition time and concentration of the suspension. Electric current density varies linearly with variations in voltage but remains almost constant in different concentrations. The type of metals used as substrate did not affect velocities of particles. Heattreatments were carried out at about 1000-1200 °C in the presence of argon. Using XRD and SEM techniques, phase development in sintered samples as well as the microstructure and morphology of as-deposited and heat-treated HAp films were studied. The optimum ranges for sintering time and temperature were suggested according to developed phases. Hardness and adherence of the coatings were estimated through micro-hardness and wear resistance measurements.


A relation was noted between the degree of punctate basophilia and the decrease in red-cell fragility in this series, contrary to the usual views in the literature (Whitby and Britton, 1933). The results of the present study suggest that there is still a definite risk of occupational anaemia in the lead worker in this country, although there would appear to be no direct relationship between duration of exposure and the degree of toxic effect found; one may therefore presume that personal idiosyncrasy to lead exposure plays a large part. It should be noted that in the factory employing the Group B workers, in whom there was no lead poisoning, the floors are subject to constant spraying with water. This supports the observations of Rodier (1948) that miners engaged in working processes where the atmosphere was damp were less liable to lead intoxication; he took as his standard for lead intoxication a basophilia of 0.25 per thousand erythrocytes. Faure (1949) surveyed lead miners in Morocco, and stressed that not one of the washhouse men was affected; plumbism was here taken to be present if one or more basophilic red cells were present in 10 microscopical fields. The demonstration that all the workers in Group A showed evidence of intoxication suggests that other cases may be present in similar factories throughout the country. None of these workers had been notified as a case of lead poisoning before this investigation, as none had shown any obvious clinical symptom resulting from their occupation. It suggests that a stricter haematological control of those who work in cOntact with lead should be observed, using the evidence of a hypochromic anaemia and the presence of punctate basophilia, with or without decreased fragility, as diagnostic aids. It is necessary to keep in mind the other causes of punctate basophilia, such as phenylhydrazine poisoning in the treatment of polycythaemia, cirrhosis of the liver, haemolytic anaemias, etc., but the differential diagnosis should present no gross difficulty in the presence of collateral evidence and a routine haematological investigation. The men state that when they are paid as piece-workers their main aim is to do as much as possible in the shortest time. In so doing they find that the wearing of masks and the taking of full precautions cuts down their output, and therefore the temptation to be careless in such matters is great. It would seem reasonable to suggest that further prophylactic measures could be taken by (a) abolishing piece-work in the lead industry; (b) notification of and removal from exposure of those workers showing toxic manifestations; and (c) exercising stricter haematological control of the lead industry, especially by the punctate basophilic count.


The formation of cubic inverted spinel structures in the nickel‐zinc‐iron oxide system produces ferrites with high initial magnetic permeability. However, the electrical conductivity of nickel‐zinc ferrites, when prepared under oxidizing conditions, is extremely low. Consequently, the imaginary part of the dielectric constant is correspondingly low, and the resultant rf electric loss is small. Most loss is, therefore, associated with the imaginary part of the magnetic permeability, which declines inversely with frequency in the VHF‐UHF frequency regime. In this work, dielectric constant and magnetic permeability were measured for a series of nickel oxide‐zinc oxide‐ferric oxide compositions in order to identify the region of the ternary diagram associated with higher values of magnetic loss. Ferrites were prepared under identical conditions by a reactive sintering process at 1200 °C. Compositions corresponded to stoichiometric spinels (NixZn1−xFe2O4), or to spinels with the presence of excess or insuffici...


We describe an approximative implementation of bus-invert coding for LUT-based FPGAs driving an external bus through dual-data-rate outputs. The majority voter circuit, typically implemented as a tree of full-adders, is the performance-limiting unit, and is replaced by an inexact interval logic. For a 16-bit bus, logic depth is limited to five stages of 4-input LUTs. Compared to an adder-tree implementation, propagation delay of the inexact majority voter is approximately one half. The disadvantage is that signal transition statistic is suboptimal, and the maximum number of simultaneous signal changes is increased to 10 in rare cases.


In search for natural alternatives of plant disease control, mid sections of stems of Cereus deficiens (Cactaceae) collected at El Tocuyo, Lara State, Vene...


Background: Elderly population (age group with >60 years of age) is usually beset with multiple morbidities. Many medications (drugs) are generally prescribed for the management and care of such morbidities. For majority, consumption of such medications on a regular basis is not an easy option, therefore giving rise to nonadherence for medications. The study was conducted with the objective to assess adherence to medication for hypertension and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among rural elderly. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among all rural elderly (more than 60 years of age) being managed for hypertension and type 2 diabetes, using a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The number of female elderly was more than the male. Nearly 56% of the elderly with hypertension were not taking regular medication, whereas the comparative figure was 50% for elderly with T2DM. Compliance of treatment in geriatrics with both hypertension and diabetes in relation to the genders was found to be nonsignificant (P> 0.05). The main reasons identified for this were costs of medications, adverse events of drugs, fear of addiction, and declining memory. Conclusions: Nonadherence to medication among the elderly for hypertension and T2DM in this rural study was not uncommon.


AbstractThe following sections are included:INTRODUCTIONVANILLA BARRIER OPTIONSABSORBING AND REFLECTING BARRIERSUNRESTRICTED AND RESTRICTED DENSITY FUNCTIONSPRICING STANDARD BARRIER OPTIONSGREEKS OF VANILLA BARRIER OPTIONSSUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONSQUESTIONS AND EXERCISESAPPENDIX


Approaches to the study of individual group joining focus on either an individualistic calculus or articulate aggregate forces where individual agency is muted. The ideal theory provides room for both aggregate and individual-level forces. In this paper, we seek to contribute in just this way by analyzing how the social environment affects the individual group joining process. Specifically, we examine the twin forces of solidarity and discord that constrain and expand, respectively, the information people acquire about organized interests. People face significant information asymmetries defined by their social environments and are motivated to seek out new information when they face few trusted informants. To test these expectations, we use congregational survey data of a random sample of Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and Episcopal Church congregations in 2000 that include data on the political positions, group memberships, and group feelings of congregants and clergy, among many other things. We find variance across social contexts in available information about groups, which affects what people know, how they feel, and whether they join particular groups. These results add to a growing line of research that considers the multi-level forces that fuel the chaotic connection of citizens with organized interests.


The difference in the matrix present in soil samples from different areas limits the performance of nutrient analysis via XRF sensors, and only a few strategies to mitigate this effect to ensure an accurate analysis have been proposed so far. In this context, this research aimed to compare the performance of different predictive models, including a simple linear regression (RS), multiple linear regression (MLR), partial least-squares regression (PLS), and random forest (RF) models for the prediction of Ca and K in agricultural soils. RS models were evaluated on XRF data without (RS1) and with (RS2) Compton normalization. In addition, it was assessed whether using soil texture information and/or vis–NIR spectra as auxiliary variables would optimize the predictive performance of the models. The results showed that all strategies allowed the mitigation of the matrix effect to some degree, enabling the determination of their Ca and K contents with excellent predictive performance (R2 ≥ 0.84). The best performance was obtained using RS2 for the Ca prediction (R2 = 0.92, RSME = 48.25 mg kg−1 and relative improvement (RI) of 52.3% compared to RS1) and using an RF for the K prediction (R2 = 0.84, RSME = 17.43 mg kg−1 and RI of 24.3% compared to RS1). The results indicated that sophisticated models did not always perform better than linear models. Furthermore, using texture data and vis–NIR spectra as auxiliary data was promising only for the K prediction, which showed an error reduction in the order of 10%, contrasting with the Ca prediction, which did not reduce the prediction error by more than 1%. The best modeling approach in our study proved to be attribute-specific. These results give further insight into the development of intelligence modeling strategies for sensor-based soil analysis.


This paper presents a simple methodology to evaluate the stiffness and damping coefficients of an engine bearing over a load cycle. A rapid technique is used to determine the shaft 'limit cycle' under engine dynamic loads. The proposed theoretical model is based on short and long bearing approximations. The results obtained by present approximation are compared with those obtained by numerical method. The influence of thermal effects on the stiffness and damping coefficients is predicted by using a simplified thermal analysis. In order to illustrate the application of the proposed scheme, one engine main bearing and a connecting rod bearing are analysed.


The remarkable output of Bruno Jasienski (1901-1939) bilingual prose writer, poet, dramatist, whose personal life and literary œuvre in both Russian and Polish were formed by divergent, often conflicting social and cultural traditions stands until today unevaluated in terms of the intrinsic continuity of his writing. Jasienski is acknowledged for his substantial contributions both to the Polish Futurist and the Soviet Socialist Realist literatures.1 Yet, because of the seemingly antinomic features of his works, he has generally been viewed by literary scholars in an exclusivist way: either as one of the most individualistic and innovative figures of Polish Futurism during the 1920s, or as an ideologically orthodox proletarian writer ready to serve the cultural policies of his second homeland, the Soviet Union, during the 1930s. Although he was both calumniated and lionized by the public and literary establishments in Poland, France and the Soviet Union, Jasienski remains diminished in his significance due to an incomplete assessment of his poetics. Viewed either as a flamboyant Futurist or a dogmatic Socialist Realist, he is a writer whose work as a whole has not received its due exegesis in tenus of the stylistic and historical avant-garde principles that inform it. The present paper is premised on the belief that Jasienski's writing offers insight into the relationship between the realm of belles lettres and political society, more specifically, the way ideological beliefs about the contemporary human condition aie conveyed through the postulation of fictional worlds by the only art form that is purely propositional imaginative literature. At the heart of the matter is the need to go beyond the outdated positivistic interpretation of Jasieriski that sees him as a writer who eventually "compromised his art in the name of ideology," a categorical view rooted in Platonic idealism which persists in liberal Polish circles today.2 Polish scholars have produced important and absorbing studies of Jasienski's early period but have been intellectually abashed in treating his Soviet period, seeing it as both the personal and literary martyrdom of a writer who succumbed to a well-intentioned but ill-placed ideological loyalty to Marxism a fate common to leading intellectuals between


Coverage of any issue in medicine depends on two provisions: on the research methods that we own, and on the dominant theoretical doctrine.


We use a simple perturbation theory argument and measurements of charmonium leptonic widths $\Gamma (\psi_{NS} \rightarrow e^+e^-)$ to estimate the ratio \mbox{$R_\circ \equiv {\vert \Psi _{\eta_{c1S}}(0) \vert}^2 /{\vert\Psi_{\psi_{1 S}}(0)\vert}^2$} in the general context of non- relativistic potential models. We obtain $R_\circ = 1.4 \pm 0.1$. We then apply well known potential model formulas, which include lowest order QCD corrections, to find $\Gamma (\eta_c \rightarrow \gamma \gamma )/\Gamma (\psi_{1S} \rightarrow e^+e^-) \approx 2.2\pm 0.2$. The central value for $\Gamma (\psi_{1S} \rightarrow e^+ e^-)$in the 1992 Particle Data Tables then leads to a (non relativistic) prediction $\Gamma (\eta_c \rightarrow \gamma \gamma )\approx 11.8\pm 0.8 $ keV. This prediction is in good agreement with a recent measurement by the ARGUS collaboration, is consistent with a recent measurement by the L3 collaboration but is significantly higher than several earlier measurements and than previous theoretical estimates, which usually assume $R_\circ =1$. The correction to $R_\circ =1$ is estimated to be smaller but nonnegligible for the $b\bar b$ system. Using the current central measurement for $\Gamma (\Upsilon_{1S}\rightarrow e^+e^-)$ we find $\Gamma (\eta_b\rightarrow \gamma \gamma )\approx 0.58\pm 0.03$ keV. A rough estimate of relativistic corrections reduces the expected two photon rates to about 8.8 keV and 0.52 keV for the $\eta_c$ and $\eta_b$ mesons respectively. Such corrections


Creativity is popularly related to innovation and new ideas. This invention‐cognition view of creativity is too narrow a concept for artistic creativity. Artistic creation is also about reproducing traditions and emotional ("affective") processes. Widespread use of the popular invention‐cognition view of creativity in arts advocacy obscures wider dimensions of artistic creativity. This article focuses attention on the affective dimension of artistic creation. It surveys "arts therapy" literature and investigates how lessons of this literature can be used to improve the persuasiveness of arts advocacy arguments that appeal to the concept of creativity.


This article describes the inclusion of Be a Fit Kid in the fourth-grade curriculum. Be a Fit Kid is a fitness-emphasized physical activity and heart-healthy nutrition education program for elementary school children. Five parent—education lessons were offered and nutrition workbooks were distributed to parents. Following the 10-week intervention, significant improvements in fitness, body fat, nutrition knowledge, dietary habits, and levels of lipids and lipoproteins were observed in the intervention group compared with baseline levels. Changes in fitness, body fat, and nutrition knowledge were significant compared with the control group. These findings suggest that comprehensive physical activity and nutrition programs included in the school curriculum may be effective for improving cardiovascular health and reducing future risk for lifestyle-related diseases.


This paper explores the relevance of distinguishing norms from normpropositions and, consequently, a genuine logic of norms from a logic of norm-propositions, in order to study the formal properties of normative systems. More specifically, it shows that with the aid of such tools it is possible to expose the flaws in the arguments used by Dworkin and Raz to maintain


Ammonia electrooxidation reaction (AmER) has attracted considerable attention due to its potential for hydrogen storage and transportation, as well as its possible application in direct ammonia fuel cells. In the...


Introduction
The diffusion of laparoscopic radical surgery of hydatid liver echinococcosis remains limited. There no published data on a comparative analysis of the immediate and long-term results of radical and conservative laparoscopic surgery for liver hydatid cysts. Comparison of the immediate and long-term outcomes after laparoscopic radical and conservative cystectomies was aimed.

Methods
HPB center (center 1) and general surgery hospital in endemic area (center 2) participated in retrospective study. Radical surgery included total, subtotal pericystectomy and liver resection. Conservative surgery comprised cystectomy without/with partial pericystectomy.

Results
The total number of patients was 204. Laparoscopic cystectomy was performed in 97 (47%) patients. Radical (n-40) and conservative (n-61) laparoscopic procedures were performed in center 1 and center 2, respectively. Twenty-five pairs of patients were matched. The length of hospital stay and time of abdominal drainage were significantly shorter after radical surgery before and after PSM. The rate of severe morbidity did not differ. The mean follow-up length was 34 and 45 months in center 1 and center 2, respectively. No differences were found in the disease recurrence rate.

Conclusions
Laparoscopic radical surgery leads to a reduction in the treatment time and can be recommended as the preferred treatment option in a specialized HPB center.


The V-and E-bands are considered for high data rate backhaul and front-haul transmission applications. This presentation reviews the benefits and drawbacks of a few leading antenna technologies in those bands and gives some perspectives on the market trends and specific features that would be required for their best use.


The present invention describes an embodiment of a gas, fluid and solid reaction of a fluidized bed reactor effect a strong heat exchanger inside. The switch is a modular concept, comprising a central tube having the separator, while allowing for conveying fluid and a cooling fluid collection portion of the needle of the needle module evaporated.


Timely conversion generated in the process of negative psychological adjustment of college freshmen is of great significance to promote their mental health and to achieve the role transition.Negative psychological adjustment of freshmen is a process which restrains suppress and eliminates the negative psychological,and produces and strengthens the positive psychology.This process is influenced by both internal factors and external factors such as educator and campus culture.Therefore,in the process of freshmen's negative psychological adjustment,the combined effects of the internal and external factors should be fully played in order to achieve good results.


Suggested citation for this article: Potter P. Much have I travel'd in the realms of gold. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 Oct [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1710.AC1710

1John Keats, "On First looking into Chapman's Homer," www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173746.


"In The Cartographer, the playwright Juan Mayorga recovers for the present, and in an original and oblique way, some of the events that took place in the Warsaw ghetto in the first half of the 1940s. The piece makes explicit a parallelism between cartographic art and theatrical writing and at the same time translates it into practice through its own architecture. The map and the human body become there means of resistance to the impositions of History and vehicles of a memory that strives to save a part of the past and which allows to look at it with a renewed gaze and as an invisible part of the present."


Our banking system is in crisis because we have been selling each other false securities. How did this come about? At a conference subtitled 'Beyond the false promises of security' (Federation of the European Schools of Psychoanalysis, 2008), Professor Richard Gombrich suggested that universities in the UK were autonomous until the 1980s but that notions of intellectual honesty and seeking truth for its own sake have been subsequently systematically destroyed. However, it is not only with university education that our notions of security have fundamentally changed. For what if one wants to speak of one's despair – not as a requirement, but what if one wants to? The danger is that those states that have championed the notion of choice and apparent deregulation may be ensuring that to speak one's mind in a therapeutic relationship with another is once again less likely. Instead, specific treatments are imposed that minimise such explorations. Whilst in some ways this cannot be compared with the psychiatric patient – who not so long ago had no choice but to have electroconvulsive therapy – some comparisons may now be justified. So what of therapeutic education? For Kierkegaard (1957) education by dread was recommended. Indeed, prior to the 1980s such cultural influences as existentialism enabled us also to stay with our alienation and angst. However, after the relative ascendancies of humanism and psychoanalysis, we are now in an era where CBT is the even more dominant form of treatment and frighteningly, it is now being introduced by the state. How has it come about that we could allow such a situation to develop? How is it that as a society we can no longer come to our senses, but have to rely on mechanistic tools such as 'risk management'? Perhaps it is even truer, as Oscar Wilde said, that we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. It would appear that we no longer know what we value, but is this all part of the way in which we are manipulated through the promise of false securities? To further develop such arguments here, it is as if we falsely hope that there can be external measures – including ones for client and therapist – so that we can ascertain our 'progress' against what is thought of as an external benchmark. Apparently measures are now being introduced whereby therapists can measure how well they have done after a single session (Jarrett, 2008)! Before the 1980s, we had rules of thumb, but we knew they were just that. Now, in order apparently to help us, we have a positivistic approach, which has fundamentally altered what many regard as research and what we might consider to be our wellbeing. Various technical tools are now used to govern us,


Negative publicity, defined as the public disclosure of a problematic incident associated with a brand, is a critical issue for fashion brands, as it vitiates the image of targeted brands and drives consumers' voice and exit behaviors. Despite the impact of negative publicity, few studies have compared the impact of product‐related versus personnel‐related negative publicity, or explored the extent to which brands' coping strategies can prevent consumers' anti‐brand behavioral intentions and recover brand equity. This study used multivariate analyses of variance to analyze responses from 594 American consumers, which revealed that when negative publicity is about a product‐related issue, none of the brand's different recovery efforts are effective in decreasing consumers' voice and exit intentions and protecting brand equity. However, for a personnel‐related issue, functional and informational recovery strategies were effective in decreasing consumer voice and exit intentions, and affective, functional, and informational recovery strategies positively impacted most domains of brand equity (brand judgement, brand feelings, and brand resonance). The following analysis of variance and post hoc analyses revealed the comparative effectiveness of specific recovery types. Discussions and implications of the findings are provided.


A high gain antenna with controlling electromagnetic surface propagation and radiation for terahertz application is proposed based on a holographic artificial impedance surface. The artificial impedance surface is composed of sub wavelength square metallic patches on a grounded dielectric slab. The effective surface impedance depends on the size of the patches and can be varied as a function of position and direction. Using the holographic technique enables the desired direction radiation and high gain to be achieved. The detailed design procedure of impedance modulation and the simulation results are presented.


A general method is proposed which measures the increase in uncertainty when sampling effort is reduced in sediment fingerprinting. The method gives quantitative measures of how reduced sampling of material in one of the source areas, and/or of suspended sediment in streams, increases the uncertainties in the proportions of sediment contributed from the sources. Because the proportions of sediment contributed by the source areas must add to one, standard errors of the estimated proportions cannot be used as the usual measures of uncertainty: the paper uses instead the volume of the joint 95% confidence region for the estimated proportions. The paper shows how the uncertainty in this volume changes as numbers of suspended sediment samples, and the numbers of samples collected from cropped fields, are reduced by successive steps from 24 (20, in the case of cropped fields) to 16, 12, 8, 4 and 2 samples. As expected, uncertainty increases rapidly as the number of samples – whether of suspended sediment or from cropped fields – is reduced drastically. The pattern of increasing uncertainty is similar both for reductions in suspended sediment sampling, and for reduced sampling from cropped areas. When the number of suspended sediment samples, and the number of samples from cropped fields, are reduced to the same values, the increase in uncertainty from fewer suspended sediment samples was always slightly greater than the increased uncertainty from the reduced sampling of cropped areas, although this finding took no account of differences in the costs of field sampling and laboratory analysis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The presence of neutral species in a plasma has been shown to greatly affect the properties of magnetohydrodynamic waves. For instance, the interaction between ions and neutrals through momentum transfer collisions causes the damping of Alfvén waves and alters their oscillation frequency and phase speed. When the collision frequencies are larger than the frequency of the waves, single-fluid magnetohydrodynamic approximations can accurately describe the effects of partial ionization, since there is a strong coupling between the various species. However, at higher frequencies, the single-fluid models are not applicable and more complex approaches are required. Here, we use a five-fluid model with three ionized and two neutral components, which takes into consideration Hall's current and Ohm's diffusion in addition to the friction due to collisions between different species. We apply our model to plasmas composed of hydrogen and helium, and allow the ionization degree to be arbitrary. By analyzing the corresponding dispersion relation and numerical simulations, we study the properties of small-amplitude perturbations. We discuss the effect of momentum transfer collisions on the ion-cyclotron resonances and compare the importance of magnetic resistivity, and ion–neutral and ion–ion collisions on the wave damping at various frequency ranges. Applications to partially ionized plasmas of the solar atmosphere are performed.


Every EU enlargement signified a step towards Central and Eastern Europe, therefore, the 2004 "big bang enlargement", followed by the one in 2007, modified the geopolitical context within the "old continent" and also increased the importance of the European Union regionally, as well as globally. Integrating the ex-soviet countries into the EU meant taking them out of the Russian sphere of influence, as well as attempting to super size the EU territory in order to increase the European power on a long term. Despite the weakening of Russia after the Cold War, the federation still represents a challenge regarding "pax europea", as Russia still has an amazing military capacity, as well as important natural resources. The entrance into the Russian sphere of influence, the European energetic dependency on Russia, the conflicts within the separatist regions situated at the EU eastern borders are just few of the many challenges regarding the relations between the European Union and Russia.


we cannot be ignorant to the corporate acts that are harmful to s ociety as we do possess our own responsibility at first place. If someone is harming us in a direct way or indirect, we should be the one raising our voice against it without just waiting for someone else like an NGO or the government to observe the issue and tackle with it. Corporate Accountability is not a new issue but its gaining speed in discussion and implementation these days. This paper after giving a brief introduction about the corporate accountability gives some definitions from the literature, then the problems regarding Corporate Accountability has been discussed. Need for corporate accountability and then some recommendations are also provided in later sections.


Three pairs of specific primers were designed according to the conserved regions on the sequences of Haplosporidium sp.,Perkinsus sp.and Marteilia refringens in GenBank.A multiplex polymerase chain reaction(multiplex PCR) was developed to simultaneously detect the three pathogens,Haplosporidium sp.,Perkinsus sp.and M.refringens in shellfish.The specific band of 244bp,596bp and 478bp were amplified from the samples with Haplosporidium sp.Perkinsus sp.,and M.refringens,respectively,but no specific band was amplified from other shellfish pathogens by this multiplex PCR.As little as 10pg DNA of Haplosporidium sp.,Perkinsus sp.and M.refringens was detected.The results showed that this multiplex PCR could be used as a sensitive tool to detect Haplosporidium sp.,Perkinsus sp.and M.refringens in clinical samples.


The water proton resonance frequency (PRF) is temperature dependent and can thus be used for magnetic resonance (MR) thermometry. Since lipid proton resonance frequencies do not depend on temperature, fat suppression is essential for PRF‐based temperature mapping. The efficacy of echo‐shifted (TE > TR) gradient‐echo imaging with spectral‐spatial excitation is demonstrated, resulting in accurate and rapid, lipid‐suppressed, MR thermometry. The method was validated on phantoms, fatty duck liver, and rat thigh, demonstrating improvements in both the speed and precision of temperature mapping. Heating of a rat thigh with focused ultrasound was monitored in vivo with an accuracy of 0.37°C and a time resolution of 438 msec. Magn Reson Med 42:53–59, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Cyber defence exercises are crucial for training readiness and awareness within the cyber domain. This new domain is acknowledged by NATO, alongside land, sea, air and space. Alliance nations are endorsing the development of both defensive and responsive cyber capabilities. This paper discusses designing and building a reliable availability scoring system for a large international cyber defence exercise, Locked Shields. The system provides essential input for scoring the exercise participants to spark some friendly competition and motivate players. The previous solution was replaced by a modular setup that is built around a well-known open-source IT monitoring software called Nagios Core. Before embarking to develop a new system, we studied available research and looked at various other CDXs for similar implementations. Unfortunately, we did not find such fullblown scoring systems in use at the time. At least not according to the information that was provided to us. We therefore relied on best practices and prior experience to develop an automated availability scoring system. The paper provides some background information on the exercise, describes the requirements, design process and implementation of the scoring solution. The current system has been under continuous improvement since 2014 and has successfully provided the automated scoring checks for the past five exercises. In addition to success stories, several issues and problem workarounds are addressed. As such, this paper serves as a valuable resource for cyber defence exercise managers and practitioners looking to implement similar scoring solutions.


It is shown, that research of vacancies of various structure and pores in diameter less than 100 A (10 nm) in the materials used in nuclear materials science and electronic technics, according to measurement of time distributions of annihilation photons (TDAP) has quite certain prospects.


To the Editor—The presence of drug-resistant organisms and their variability between hospitals and even within different areas of the same hospital requires a good knowledge of local microbiological epidemiology. The development of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) in the hospital setting has been encouraged by scientific societies worldwide," and they have proved to be an essential measure in controlling bacterial resistance and antibiotic expenditures. ASPs establish mechanisms for monitoring and control by the microbiology laboratory by measuring the frequency of isolation of microorganisms with greater importance in the context of nosocomial infection. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of measuring the frequency of isolations per year


With the rapid development of national economy, our demand for power resources has also increased rapidly, associated with such development, the grid structure has evolved in development led to investment in technology and equipment to control the data, store the specifications grid increasingly more complex. Smart grid is one of the new energy systems in which application information technology, tools and technical solutions to the power system operate more efficiently. In this paper the application of cloud computing technology for smart grid to manage the collection and storage of information, parameters of the grid on the cloud system and aims to reduce investment costs of data storage devices of the power sector with purpose reduce the investment costs of data storage devices of the electricity industry, allows the operating can push parameters or update the information of the grid on the cloud system in a flexible and high security. With that application, it will solve the economic problem when investing in storage equipment infrastructure and reduce the amount of calculation application software on the computer system when the power grid structure is increasingly developing. Developed to meet the demand for electricity in each country. Keywords— Cloud; Cloud Computing; Smart Grid; Service; Station Automation; Power System.


The 2.1D sketch is a layered representation of occluding and occluded surfaces of the scene. Extracting the 2.1D sketch from a single image is a difficult and important problem arising in many applications. We present a fast and robust algorithm that uses boundaries of image regions and T-junctions, as important visual cues about the scene structure, to estimate the scene layers. The estimation is a quadratic optimization with hinge-loss based constraints, so the 2.1D sketch is smooth in all image areas except on image contours, and image regions forming "stems" of the T-junctions correspond to occluded surfaces in the scene. Quantitative and qualitative results on challenging, real-world images—namely, Stanford depthmap and Berkeley segmentation dataset—demonstrate high accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of our approach.


Abstract Family integrated music therapy approaches may contribute significantly to the prevention and management of procedural pain in infants, and the discipline of music therapy requires more sophistication in understanding how and why. In this perspective article, we advocate for the unique role parents play in neonatal pain management and for the importance of supporting and educating parents to actively engage in music therapy as procedural support. Infant-directed singing can be an apt medium for parents and infants to communicate in affective mutual relationship during painful procedures. Music therapists can collaborate with parents in a way that positions parents as experts and assures they are empowered in their roles. In doing so, music therapy both coordinates with and extends the interdisciplinary team's initiatives to provide individualized, family integrated developmental care. Neonatal pain research is an interdisciplinary field where music therapy has just started to publish results. Theory development is essential in advancing music therapy research and practice in this field. In our perspective paper, we present the theoretical underpinnings of a family integrated approach to music therapy as neonatal procedural support where parents are the primary (re)sources for nurture and pain alleviation. Keywords: music therapy, parental infant-directed singing, family integrated care, procedural support.


Determining vessel function - an analysis of absorbed organic residues in Late Iron Age potsherds and a Viking Period burial vessel from Vendel


A new version of the Regional stratigraphic chart for the Silurian of the Western Sayan and explanatory note, compiled in accordance with the Russian Stratigraphic Code, introduce changes, additional and specified data in comparison with the previous (first edition) chart. The Interdepartmental stratigraphic meeting held at Novosibirsk in 1964 approved the old version of the chart and later it was validated by the USSR Interdepartmental Stratigraphic Committee as the official stratigraphic base for all types of the regional geologic activities. Since 1964 meeting, the stages of the Silurian chart were changed. Thus, former stages Llandovery, Wenlock, Ludlow and Pridoli become series. New stages Rhuddanian, Aeronian, Telychian, Sheinwoodian, Homerian, Gorstian and Ludfordian were adopted for the three former series. For the presented stratigraphic chart the new standard Silurian stages were used.


Introduction: The effect of a curriculum without compulsory courses in palliative medicine on students' knowledge, kills and attitudes towards the care of dying patients and decisions at the end of life was investigated. Methods: In a cross sectional, questionnaire based survey at the medical school of Bonn 1st, 3rd and 5th year students had to grade their knowledge and skills in items concerning palliative medicine. Attitudes towards end of life decisions were queried. Results: The return rate was 78%. Significant increase in self estimation of certainty comparing 1st to 5th year students were detected for the items distinction between palliative and curative medicine (p <0.001), symptom control (p <0.001), pain management (p =0.001) and communication (p =0.036). No significant differences were recorded for the items accompaniment of dying patients, breaking bad news and integration of spiritual aspects. The low overall certainty is reflected in poor knowledge. A significant decrease of the approval for euthanasia by request was evident (p =0.012). Discussion: A medical curriculum without compulsory course does increase confidence in some of the core competencies in palliative care, but the overall results at the end of the training are poor. The WHO claims that palliative care has to be "compulsory in courses leading to a basic professional qualification" has still to be fulfilled in Germany. This study can serve as a baseline to evaluate the effect of mandatory courses in palliative care.


On the example of a model collection of Tajik literary works, the problem of the possibility of determining the authorship of a fragment of the text of the minimum size extracted from the collection is studied. A model collection of texts in the Tajik language composed of works of classical poetry and modern prose in Cyrillic graphics is considered. Each piece is associated with a digital portrait - the distribution of the frequencies of symbolic bigrams. To solve the problem of identifying the authors of texts, bigrams are quite acceptable quantitative characteristics. A γ-classifier is used as a tool for implementing the task, which allows the authors of textual information to be identified by the frequency of elements of alphabetic bigrams with a sufficiently high degree of efficiency. The mathematical model of the γ-classifier is represented as a triad. Its first component is a digital portrait (DP) of the text - the distribution of the frequency of bigrams in the text; the second component is formulas for calculating the distances between the DP texts and the third is a machine learning algorithm. The tuning of the algorithm using a table of paired distances between all products of the model collection consisted in determining an optimal value of the real parameter γ, for which the error of violation of the "homogeneity" hypothesis is minimized. It was also found that with the help of a γ-classifier by a digital portrait, it is possible to identify the authors of works in the Tajik language. By using the metric classifier and the method of the nearest (in terms of distance) neighbor, it was possible to identify the authors of decreasing sequences of text fragments from 7000 words (40,000 characters) up to 20 words (100 characters). The minimum volume of a sample of words or symbols for recognition of the author of a Tajik text has been determined. The results of experiments with a minimum sample size of words (characters) for recognizing the author of a text are described.


Background : This study was designed to investigate gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors with an emphasis on their clinicopathological characteristics. Methods : Sixty-five cases were reviewed and classified as typical carcinoid (TC), atypical carcinoid (AC), large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) and small cell carcinoma (SmCC). We performed immunohistochemistry to characterize the expression of the immunoreactivity for synaptophysin, chromogranin, gastrin, somatostatin, thyroid transcription factor-1, p53 and Ki-67. Results : Most commonly, the tumors were located in the rectum (54%), followed by the stomach (23%) and colon (9%). Histologically, the tumors were classified as 49 TCs, 4 ACs, 6 LCNECs and 6 SmCCs. Most tumors were stained positive for synaptophysin and/or chromogranin. Four LCNECs and one SmCC were p53-positive. The carcinoids revealed a low level (<5%) of reactivity for Ki-67, while ≥30% of the cells showed reactivity for Ki-67 in the majority of LCNECs and SmCCs. Six patients with metastatic carcinoids were older than those patients without metastasis (64 vs 48 years, respectively, p=0.004). Furthermore, the size of tumors was larger for the patients with metastatic carcinoids than for the patients with nonmetastatic carcinoids (2.3 vs 0.5 cm, respectively, p=0.005). Conclusion : Old age, large tumor size and muscle invasion are associated with high grade neuroendocrine tumor and lymph node metastasis for those patients with carcinoids.


Polymorphisms in the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene have been confirmed to be one of the key determinants of the occurrence of cancer. Among them, rs2853677 (A > G) is one of the most widely studied polymorphisms. Yet, the reports are controversial. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the association of rs2853677 (A > G) with cancer susceptibility. Potential relevant case-control studies were retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to verify the strength of the association in the dominant, recessive, homozygous, heterozygous, and allele models. A total of 11 articles met the eligibility criteria for inclusion in this meta-analysis, involving 7545 patients and 10129 controls. Overall, the results showed that rs2853677 (A > G) is not statistically associated with the risk of cancer under all genetic models but that it is associated with an increased susceptibility to lung cancer in the subgroup analyses. However, a decreased digestive system cancer risk was observed in the recessive model. Based on the analysis of the ethnicity, an increased cancer risk was found in Asians in five genetic models. However, the opposite result was observed in Caucasians. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that rs2853677 (A > G) might be a risk-conferring factor for the occurrence of lung cancer, and for cancer in Asians, but it might be a protective factor for digestive system cancer, and for cancer in Caucasians.


We present a formalism of the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) approximation to study the ground state properties of deformed nuclei. An application of such formalism for Sr isotopes is shown.


Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) are electric fields that disrupt cellular processes critical for cancer cell viability and tumor progression. TTFields are administered through two pairs of capacitive arrays placed on the patient's scalp. The effect of TTFields has been shown to be dose dependent. An in-silico study based on imaging and survival data from the phase 3 EF-14 study demonstrated a correlation between simulated field intensity and overall survival. Novocure is developing a simulation-based patient-specific treatment planning system aimed towards maximizing TTFields dose delivered to the patient's tumor. Different options are presented to the treating physician that are ranked based on dose. To create patient-specific planning, physicians are required to segment the pathological tissues on a T1-weighted MRI. These tissues may include the enhancing tumors, resection cavity and necrotic core. Segmentation of medical images is an error-prone procedure. Such errors may influence the calculation of expected TTFields dose delivered to the tumors. In this work, we examined how different segmentations of the tumors affect the delivered dose, by placing mock tumors of different compositions within a simplified ellipsoidal model. Simulations were then used to assess field distributions in these tumors. Tumors of different enhanced volumes were then compared by LMiPD values. Our results show that 10% differences in the segmented enhancement result in less than 5% relative error in LMiPD. To enforce the validity of the simplified model, we performed the same analysis for two patient specific models. In both cases, the relative difference in segmentation was about 5%, and consequent errors in LMiPD was <5% as well. In conclusion, when using a simulation-based TTFields treatment planning system, small differences in the segmentation of the enhancing component of mock glioblastoma tumors in both simplified ellipsoid and patient specific models lead to small differences in LMiPD.


This paper reported an experiment of biogas produced from banana peel.The result showed that the potential of biogas production with banana peel was 752.16 ml/gTS or 975.05 ml/gVS.It was different of the experiment of biogas produced from banana peel and plant body.


A robot vision system is developed based on an intelligent image gathering card that contains an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) as main calculators. Two real-time visual modules are developed through the cooperation of hardware logics on FPGA and software on DSP. First, with edge images extracted by the FPGA, a highly efficient algorithm is designed to extract a line object on the ground with DSP on real-time. Second, an image matching algorithm based on gray variance forms is designed, which is robust to illumination changing. Real-time computation is achieved by implementing this algorithm on FPGA, and object recognition is realized further.


A study of an experimental intervention that evaluated the impact of an educational activity in schools to promote tolerance and respect for differences is reported. A total of 300 children participated, divided into three groups: one control (without intervention), and two experimental groups (drama and audiovisual presentation of a children's story, focusing on the topic of preferences for soccer teams). The intervention was assessed before and after, with a semantic differential scale range in which children attributed positive and negative adjectives to their own team as well as the opposing team. The results showed: (1) a more favorable evaluation of one's own team maintained during the two specific moments, (2) the initially more unfavorable evaluation, towards the opposing team, improved significantly after the intervention. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the school social function of improving students' social-emotional development, as well as the importance of evaluating pedagogical alternatives addressing this objective. Some limitations regarding this study and also research referrals are presented. CITE AS: Del Prette, Z.A.P., Domeniconi, C., Amaro, L, Benitez, P, Laurenti, A. & Del Prette, A. (2013). La tolerancia y el respeto a las diferencias: efectos de una actividad educativa en la escuela. Apuntes de Psicologia, 31, 59-66.


A female baby was born to a nonconsanguineous Caucasian couple with no significant family history. The mother was 27 years old. She previously had a miscarriage at 12 weeks and a live-born healthy child. In this pregnancy, the mother had her first ultrasound scan at 29-weeks gestation. This revealed a mass arising from the hard palate and a univentricular heart. She developed polyhydramnios at 33 weeks and following a therapeutic amnioreduction, the baby was delivered vaginally at 34 weeks. As expected, the baby had a large mass protruding from her mouth. The mass had an irregular surface and was covered with mucus membrane at the proximal end of the mass and with skin at the distal end (Fig. 1). The lower jaw was retracted. The baby had dysmorphic features attributed to distortion by the tumour. Echocardiogram confirmed a complex congenital heart defect. She was ventilated through a tracheostomy and, at 30 days of age, the mass (9 6 6 cm) was excised (Fig. 3). Histology confirmed the mass to be a teratoma. Her PDA was ligated with pulmonary artery banding at 10 weeks.


This paper aims to resolve problems of uncertain information and generous data of urban information systems based on Rough-set theory, and spatial date processing of urban information. Form the basic concepts of the Rough-set theory, the knowledge expression system of decision-making table is described, and arithmetic of the minimal decision-making regulations is proposed. Finally, the reduction attribute of decision table with the theory is processed and the mining of the hidden knowledge, urban spatial information system for instance is discussed. The minimal decision-making regulations are deduced.


Europäische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Home About the Journal Peer Review Editorial Board For Authors Reviewer Recognition Archive Contact Impressum EWG e.V. Crossref Member Badge Erfolgreich durch internationale Zusammenarbeit OBSTETRICS DOI 10.35630/2023/13/4.817 Received 11 July 2023; Accepted 19 July 2023, Published 15 August 2023 THE ROLE OF UTEROCERVICAL ANGLE IN DETERMINING THE THREAT OF PRETERM BIRTH Ufuk Atlıhan orcid id logo , Umit Derundere orcid id logo Private Karatas Hospital, Izmir, Turkey download article (pdf) firstname.lastname@example.com ABSTRACT Preterm labor is one of the leading causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is thought to complicate approximately 10-12% of pregnancies. Defined as birth before 37 weeks of gestation, preterm labor is one of the most common obstetric complications worldwide. Although the pathogenesis of preterm labor is not fully understood, intraamniotic infection or hemorrhage, uteroplacental ischemia, uterine overstretching and immunologic processes have been proposed in its etiology. However, there is still no definitive prediction tool. Sonographic assessment of the cervical structure by measuring cervical length (CL) has been used as a popular prediction tool to predict preterm labor. The uterocervical angle (UCA) is defined as the angle between the lower anterior uterine segment and the endocervical canal. Recently, UCA has been proposed as an alternative to CL for predicting preterm labor. In recent years, several studies have investigated the potential impact of UCA for preterm labor prediction. Our study aimed to determine whether the uterocervical angle, a new ultrasonographic marker for predicting preterm labor, is associated with the risk of spontaneous preterm delivery. The present study included 186 singleton pregnant women who gave birth in our hospital between January 2018 and December 2022. The data of the included patients were retrospectively evaluated from the hospital database and patient files. Regarding the primary outcome of our study, we found that there was a statistically significant difference in UCA and cervical length between women who delivered spontaneously preterm and women who delivered at term (p<0.05). In the second trimester ultrasonography evaluation, the mean UCA was wider and the mean cervical length was shorter in the preterm group. Contrary to other studies in the literature, smoking and history of preterm delivery as risk factors were not included in our study. The exact reasons for some of the differences between our findings and the studies reported in the literature are not clear, but may be attributed to several factors. First, the patient type was heterogeneously selected in the cited studies. There are large differences in terms of sample size and studies that may be attributed to such heterogeneity. In conclusion, wider UCA and shorter cervical length in the second trimester are associated with spontaneous preterm delivery. Measurement of UCA is a reproducible technique and the UCA value was found to increase from the first trimester to the second trimester. We recommend the inclusion of UCA in current clinical practice in addition to cervical length measurement as a predictive factor that can be used in decision-making regarding the management of women at risk of preterm delivery. However, future studies are needed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of this index and should specifically consider the use of thresholds and related outcomes (preterm birth rates based on specific gestational weeks).


This paper illustrates the use of a recently developed Stata procedure ipdpower (Kontopantelis, E.) in designing a cluster randomised trial. The trial required to compare change pre and post between intervention and non-intervention care homes. Forty nine residential care homes ranging in size from 3 to 112 beds (median 27 beds) were available to take part. Primary outcome measures were tooth cleaning (a dichotomy) and the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI, a continuous score). As is common in this situation it was required to explore the effect on sample size and power of a range of values of cluster sizes, within cluster correlation, between group variation, and intraclass correlation. Ranges of parameter values for a number of runs of the simulation procedure were obtained from published results of studies with similar features, transformed where necessary through standard formulae. The final design resulted in a recommendation of use of 16 homes with estimated statistical power of 80% for comparison of intervention with non-intervention participants, adjusting for baseline values. Simulation can be recommended as a valuable approach since it takes account of all features of the design, it facilitates communication among members of the study team in balancing design features and it provides a clear sense of the size required for the necessary statistical power.


Spin-lattice relaxation times (T1) of Si in Ce(Ru1−xRhx)2Si2 (x=0, 0.03 and 0.05) were measured in the temperature range between 0.35 K and 60 K. Temperature dependences of T1 do not obey the Korringa relation, and are well described by the effect of spin fluctuations based on the SCR theory. The best fitted parameters to the observed T1 are close to the values obtained by the specific heat and the susceptibility measurements. Si NMR and Ru NQR observed below TN ∼ 2 K for x=0.05 have shown the characteristic line shapes associated with the occurrence of longitudinal incommensurate SDW.


ABSTRACT In contrast to microbial metagenomics, there has still been only limited efforts to benchmark performance of virome analysis approaches in terms of faithfulness to community structure and of completeness of virome description. While natural communities are more readily accessible, synthetic communities assembled using well-characterized isolates allow more accurate performance evaluation. Starting from authenticated, quality-controlled reference isolates from the DSMZ Plant Virus Collection, we have assembled synthetic communities of varying complexity up to a highly complex community of 72 viral agents (115 viral molecules) comprising isolates from 21 viral families and 61 genera. These communities were then analyzed using two approaches frequently used in ecology-oriented plant virus metagenomics: a virion-associated nucleic acids (VANA)-based strategy and a highly purified double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs)-based one. The results obtained allowed to compare diagnostic sensitivity of these two approaches for groups of viruses and satellites with different genome types and confirmed that the dsRNA-based approach provides a more complete representation of the RNA virome. However, for viromes of low to medium complexity, VANA appears a reasonable alternative and would be the preferred choiceif analysis of DNA viruses is of importance. They also allowed to identify several important parameters and to propose hypotheses to explain differences in performance, in particular, differences in the imbalance in the representation of individual viruses using each approach. Remarkably, these analyses highlight a strong direct relationship between the completeness of virome description and sample sequencing depth which should prove useful in further virome analysis efforts. IMPORTANCE We report here efforts to benchmark performance of two widespread approaches for virome analysis, which target either virion-associated nucleic acids (VANA) or highly purified double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). This was achieved using synthetic communities of varying complexity levels, up to a highly complex community of 72 viral agents (115 viral molecules) comprising isolates from 21 families and 61 genera of plant viruses. The results obtained confirm that the dsRNA-based approach provides a more complete representation of the RNA virome, in particular, for high complexity ones. However, for viromes of low to medium complexity, VANA appears a reasonable alternative and would be the preferred choice if analysis of DNA viruses is of importance. Several parameters impacting performance were identified as well as a direct relationship between the completeness of virome description and sample sequencing depth. The strategy, results, and tools used here should prove useful in a range of virome analysis efforts. We report here efforts to benchmark performance of two widespread approaches for virome analysis, which target either virion-associated nucleic acids (VANA) or highly purified double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). This was achieved using synthetic communities of varying complexity levels, up to a highly complex community of 72 viral agents (115 viral molecules) comprising isolates from 21 families and 61 genera of plant viruses. The results obtained confirm that the dsRNA-based approach provides a more complete representation of the RNA virome, in particular, for high complexity ones. However, for viromes of low to medium complexity, VANA appears a reasonable alternative and would be the preferred choice if analysis of DNA viruses is of importance. Several parameters impacting performance were identified as well as a direct relationship between the completeness of virome description and sample sequencing depth. The strategy, results, and tools used here should prove useful in a range of virome analysis efforts.


From the Publisher:
The computer has been hailed as the greatest innovation of the 20th century, and there is no denying that these technological marvels have dramatically changed our everyday lives. They can fly airplanes and spaceships, route millions of phone calls simultaneously, and play chess with the world's greatest players. But how limitless is the future for the computer? Will computers one day be truly intelligent, make medical diagnoses, run companies, compose music, and fall in love?
In Computers Ltd., David Harel, the best-selling author of Algorithmics, illuminates one of the most fundamental yet under-reported facets of computers—their inherent limitations. Looking only at the bad news that is proven, discussing limitations that no amounts of hardware, software, talent, or resources can overcome, the book presents a disturbing and provocative view of computing at the start of the 21st century. Harel takes us on a fascinating tour that touches on everything from tiling problems and monkey puzzles to Monte Carlo algorithms and quantum computing, showing just how far from perfect computers are, while shattering some of the many claims made for these machines. He concludes that though we may strive for bigger and better things in computing, we need to be realistic: computers are not omnipotent—far from it. Their limits are real and here to stay.
Based on hard facts, mathematically proven and indisputable, Computers Ltd. offers a vividly written and often amusing look at the shape of the future.

About the Author:
David Harel is William Sussman Professor of Mathematics at The Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel. One of the world's leading computer scientists, he is the author of the critically acclaimed Algorithmics, which has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide.


Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is heralded by some marketing academics and practitioners as the new paradigm of marketing. CRM is the implementation of an effective customer-centric strategy within an organization in order to create superior value that is required for sustenance of the exchange process between the organization and its target customers in a competitive market. Companies are becoming increasingly aware ofthe many potential benefits provided by CRM. Despite the intense growth in the adoption of CRM by organizations all over the world and the widely accepted conceptual underpinnings ofCRM strategy, conflicting opinions and increased pessimism about the value of CRM abound the marketing literature. To this effect, scholars have called for more rigorous studies to establish the usefulness of CRM as a strategic orientation. The general objective of this study was to determine the impact of CRM practices on organizational competitiveness within the setting of commercial banking sector in Kenya. In particular, the study sought to address the following seven specific objectives: 1) assess the influence of the banks' CRM practices on their competitiveness, 2) establish the influence of the banks' CRM practices on their marketing productivity, 3) determine the effect of marketing productivity on the banks' competitiveness, 4) establish the moderating effect of organizational factors on the relationship between the banks' CRM practices and marketing productivity, 5) assess the effect of organizational factors on the banks' marketing productivity, 6) assess the effect of organizational factors on the banks' competitiveness, and 7) evaluate the collective influence of CRM practices, marketing productivity and organizational factors on the banks' competitiveness. Relevant hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study utilized a descriptive correlational research design. Data was collected from 34 out of the target population of 43 registered commercial banks in Kenya; a response rate of 79 percent. Data analysis and interpretation were based on descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics mainly correlation, factor and linear regression analyses. The study found statistically significant positive linear relationships between CRM practices and organizational competitiveness, CRM practices and marketing productivity, marketing productivity and organizational competitiveness, organizational factors and marketing productivity and in the moderating role of organizational factors on the relationship between CRM practices and marketing productivity. However,. the linear relationship between organizational factors and organizational competitiveness as well as the collective influence of CRM practices, marketing productivity and organizational competitiveness on organizational competitiveness were found not statistically significant. The overall conclusion of the study was that organizational competitiveness is not significantly influenced by the mere existence of a range of organizational factors within the firm such as age, size, and ownership structure, type of customers served, corporate reputation, and duration of CRM implementation or even technology level. Rather, organizational competitiveness is achieved through appropriate CRM practices and marketing productivity. However, organizational factors positively facilitate the relationship between CRM practices and marketing productivity thus indirectly enhancing organizational competitiveness. The results of this study have significant managerial and academic contributions. In particular, the study gives managers invaluable insights on how to effectively build their CRM strategy and leverage on their organizational factors to enhance the influence of CRM practices on marketing productivity and organizational competitiveness. The findings of the study are also useful in addressing the increasing pessimism about CRM validity and existing research gaps on the need to develop elaborate conceptual frameworks of CRM strategy and test them empirically. In addition, the study offers valuable scholarly contribution on the impact of CRM practices in the commercial banking sector in Kenya. However, the study is not without a few limitations. First, the variables included in the study's conceptual framework are certainly not exhaustive. Future researchers could include more variables and alternative measures to assess the effectiveness of CRM strategy. Second, the study did not seek to establish the antecedents of organizational CRM practices. Further limitations of the study included using a crosssectional research design, relying on self-reporteddata mainly from the firm's perspective alone and using a single industry setting. Future research could seek to address these limitations by establishing the antecedents of CRM practices; using a longitudinal research design; assessing external respondents such as customers, competitors and distributors on CRM strategy performance besides internal finn respondents; and using multiple industry settings to conduct their studies. This will enhance the validity and generalizability of future research findings on CRM strategy. Although this study has the few cited limitations with respect to conceptualization and methodology, it will nevertheless stimulate intellectual curiosity and serve as a useful reference for future research and managerial undertakings on CRM strategy.


The usefulness of the Pariser–Parr–Pople molecular orbital method for the identification of near-infrared absorbing pigment candidates for photogenerator applications is outlined. Several pigments based on the well-known class of photogenerators N,N′-dialkyl-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimides were investigated and pigments of the dibenzoperylene, bisanthene, and zethrene classes were identified as the most promising candidates of the series. On the basis of the predictions, 7,8,15,16-dibenzo[a, j]perylenetetracarboxylic diimide was prepared and the validity of the calculations was verified. Keywords: photoconductor, near-infrared, Pariser–Parr–Pople calculations, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, aceanthrene green.


The research objectives were analyze business / fi ctional fi lms about Violence Against Woman (VAW). The selection of fi lms was systematic and carried out in specialized sites on the subject (AdoroCinema, Cinepop etc.), across terms like "violence" and "woman" (N = 19). The analysis assumed three steps: observation of motion pictures; data entry observed in spreadsheets; simple frequency ratio concerning VAW scenarios with theoretical aspects pointed out by the literature (quantitative and qualitative approach). The aggressor were strangers (n = 11, 39%), husbands (n = 9, 33%), boyfriends (n = 4, 14%) and others (n = 4, 14%). There were performances of the following types of violence: psychological (n = 19, 27%), physical (n = 18, 25%), sexual (n = 16, 22%), moral (n = 12, 16%) and patrimonial (n = 7, 10%). The fi lmic representations showed general signs of psychological traumatization in characters (n 1 Endereço para correspondência: Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, Departamento de Psicologia. Avenida Getúlio Guaritá, 159, 3o andar. Nossa Senhora da Abadia. CEP 38025-440, Uberaba, MG, Brasil. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com e email@example.com Financiamento: Programa Institucional de Bolsas da Universidade Federal de Goiás (PIBIC-UFG/ Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científi co e Tecnológico [CNPQ]). Santeiro, T. V., Schumacher, J. V., Souza, T. M. C. 402 = 17, 37%). The studied fi lms are illustrative of the reality of women in situations of violence; as such can be converted to amplifying teaching tool for discussion and refl ection on gender issues and on health promotion in the context of VAW.


their own respective contexts, the extent to which each concentrated on or privileged violence over their brethren in the pursuit of sovereignty is surely up for debate. Fratricide may well have been a means to the end of sovereignty during the violence which followed partition in 1947, but the relevance of fratricide specifically, as opposed to mere enmity and anti-imperial resentment, to discourses of sovereignty in the decades which came before could perhaps be developed further. Furthermore, there remains a jarring absence in the book of South Indian contribution to the 'Indian Age' that lies at the bedrock of Kapila's thesis. While a small piece on Tamil revolutionary VVS Aiyar features in the second chapter, the focus on actors and regions attached to the northern expanses of the subcontinent does seem to somewhat weaken the general geographical applicability of what is otherwise a novel, hard-hitting thesis. Drawing inspiration from recent histories of the British Empire and from a wide variety of source material, Kapila's wide-ranging exploration nonetheless makes for a gripping historical account of Indian intellectual thought during the later colonial period. Presenting and comparing the ideas of political figures from Tilak to Ambedkar to Patel, Kapila highlights the need to journey beyond the discourses of liberalism, socialism, and Marxism to understand how Indian political thought came to be preoccupied by questions of fraternity, violence, and sovereignty. Turning these political actors of the age into political thinkers, Kapila demonstrates how the protagonists of her work moved in and engaged with both Indian and global political circles and so calls attention to the intricacies of political thought within a subcontinental context. Background knowledge of the developments in India's transition to independence is a prerequisite for those who seek to engage with Kapila's argument. Nevertheless, Kapila's book will be of interest to scholars interested in exploring alternatives to traditional accounts of modern Indian history.


When the Second World War approached its end, it was widely assumed in American and Allied military and government circles that National Socialism would continue to be a force in Germany, particularly among young people who had been indoctrinated for more than a decade.' The contrary proved to be true: the overwhelming majority were "fed up" with Nazism, the young people in particular were adverse to any "ideology." This at least was the predominant attitude discovered by opinion surveys in West Germany. Ten years after the end of hostilities this writer, having spent about nine months in Germany, found no signs of an immediate chance for a revival of Nazism. Democracy seemed firmly established, although one could see some danger points inherent in the German system of parliamentary government.2 One attempt by former Nazis to form a radical nationalistic party had failed: the Deutsche Reichspartei had won only very limited support in some areas and was finally prohibited in 1952 as being in violation of the Constitution. However, the rise of an aggressively nationalistic movement would remain a possibility as long as the division of Germany lasted and as long as there seemed to be a chance to recover territories under Russian and Polish control and to restore the