Covid-19 marked as a deadly pandemic hit the world in the early 2020's. Stringent measures were implemented, to contain the virus. India first implemented lockdown on 25/03/2020 for 21 days (phase 1) and extended to 4 phases till 31 May 2020. During this lockdown, all socio-economic activities are put to a standstill. This resulted in a drastic improvement in the air quality. Although this being a temporary phenomenon, it plays a crucial role in studying atmospheric gases. This study makes an attempt to analyze the effect of the pollutants-PM2.5, PM10 and ozone combined with meteorological parameters-Relative Humidity (RH), Solar Radiation (SR) on the Ambient and Surface Temperatures (AT and LST). The data from 23 March 30 June for the consecutive years 2019 and 2020 have been considered. Each parameter is then plotted to study the trend for both the years and percentage differences are also calculated. To evaluate the synergic relation between the parameters, multiple linear regression analysis is done for each pollutant with meteorological parameters. Observations show a reduction in all the pollutants during the lockdown period. RH showed an increasing trend. Atmospheric temperature is reduced by 6o C to 10o C whereas the LST is noticed to increase by 3o C to 5o C. © 2021, World Research Association. All rights reserved.


The McCullouch-Pitts (M-P) model for a neuron is generalized to endow the axon threshold with a time-dependent nonlinear dynamics. Two components of the threshold vector can be used to generate a pulsed coding output with the same qualitative characteristics as real axon hillocks, which could be useful for communications pulse coding. A simple dynamical neuron model that can include internal dynamics involving multiple internal degrees of freedom is proposed. The model reduces to the M-P model for static inputs and no internal dynamical degrees of freedom. The treatment is restricted to a single neuron without learning. Two examples are included.<<ETX>>


Although conifers have very homogeneous wood anatomical structure, some of their features allow differentiation of genera or groups of genera. Softwood anatomy is reviewed and the authors have added contributions, grouping features in five blocks (axial tracheids, axial parenchyma, rays, resin canals and mineral inclusions), with special attention to their diagnostic value at the family, genus or species levels. The discussion addresses, in axial tracheids: growth rings, intercellular spaces, pit arrangement, presence of scalloped tori, torus extensions, notches, warty layer, organic deposits, helical and callitroid thickenings, bars of Sanio and trabeculae; in axial parenchyma: presence or absence, arrangement and type of transverse end walls; in rays: composition, type of horizontal and end walls and cross-field pitting; in resin canals: epithelium and the presence of normal or traumatic resin canals; and in mineral inclusions: presence or absence. Wood structure is characterised at the family level, discussing the main elements that can be used for diagnosis at the genus level or in groups of genera.


There are 30 blood group systems and more than 300 blood cell antigens currently known. The experience during the last years has shown that it will become increasingly more difficult to handle all these polymorphisms with serological methods alone. Furthermore, new blood cell antigens are being identified yearly. Therefore, the use of molecular genotyping to efficiently predict the presence of these antigens in blood donors and patients will be unavoidable.

Blood group DNA analysis in patients and donors can be used in the following situations:

i) managing the availability and usage of components of rare blood types by donor mass screening for high-frequency antigen-negative donors,
ii) typing of multiply transfused recipients,
iii) typing of transfusion-dependent patients with sickle cell anemia, thalassemia or other hematological diseases to facilitate the selection of units compatible for a broad spectrum of antigens or for unusual antigens,
iv) typing of patients with a strong direct anti-human globulin test (DAT),
v) typing of platelet and leukocyte antigens (HPA, HLA) of donors and patients,
vi) resolving ABO and RhD serological discrepancies in patients,
vii) identifying some of the RhD variants in blood donors that are at risk for anti-D-alloimmunization,
viii) determining RHD zygosity,
ix) confirming the true genotype when an antigen is weakly expressed (e.g. Del, Fyx),
x) genotyping donors for antibody identification panels, and
xi) fetal blood group diagnosis in maternal blood.

In addition, the lack of suitable immunohematological reagents favor the use of molecular methods. For instance, polyclonal antibodies are either not available or are too expensive, whereas monoclonal antibodies are often not able to detect all the variants.

In Switzerland, the present routine blood group testing for red blood cells (RBCs) relies primarily on serological tests, such as serological antigen testing, antibody screening and cross-matching. In addition to the above mentioned indications in patient diagnostics, we envisage the use of genotyping in the future in two main directions. On the one hand to identify donors with rare blood groups, by performing a broad spectrum donor genotypic screening, and on the other hand by performing a similar extended typing of patients with the aim of obtaining more systematically compatible blood products for a broad spectrum of antigens. This would limit the number of alloimmunizations that often occur with the present transfusion practices. In particular, if patients could be transfused with compatible blood for the blood groups Rhesus, Kell, Duffy und Kidd, it would be expected that over 90% of the current alloimmunizations would be avoided [1, 2]. The current molecular biological assays need to be improved, however, to the extent that donors and patients can be both efficiently and economically genotyped in a routine setting.

The Blood Transfusion Service of the Swiss Red Cross (BTS SRC) currently recommends that the RBC analysis of women in childbearing years and of patients requiring multiple transfusions are tested in addition for the blood group antigens Rhesus C, c, E, e and Kell, and for chronically transfused patients Kidd, s, S and Duffy (Fy). The Swiss hemo-vigilance report from 2007 showed that 13% of the reported transfusion-related adverse reactions are alloimmunizations [1]. From the cases observed in our own reference laboratory it is likely that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that the majority of the alloimmunization cases are not reported.

In Switzerland today the majority of RBC transfusions are only compatible for ABO and RhD, and because the recommendations in Switzerland are not mandatory, alloimmunization in those groups mentioned above will occur. Only about 30% of the RBC concentrates produced yearly are typed for the antigens Rh C, c, E, e and Kell. In our opinion this situation should be rectified soon so that all patients requiring blood products are typed for Rhesus, Kell, Kidd, Duffy and S/s. Blood donors on the other hand should be typed for a considerably broader panel of antigens, including for instance MNS, Kell, Kidd, Duffy, Lutheran, Dombrock, Cartwright and Colton. This would not only considerably reduce the number of alloimmunizations but would serve as a platform to build up a rare donor file. We foresee the typing to be done serologically for some antigens (ABO) and molecularly, perhaps using newer methods (e.g. chip technology), for others. If future molecular technologies permit a safe, affordable and efficient mass screening, then genotyping should be the preferred approach. Such mass screening would provide the best strategy to obtain enough broadly typed RBC concentrates and may be extended to the typing of other blood components such as platelet concentrates.

The Swiss Reference Laboratory for Immunohematology at the BST SRC Berne has set up a rare donor file for Switzerland. The data in this cohort however is at present not very comprehensive and does not yet cover the whole Swiss blood donor population. We predict that, if the data collected from a broad blood group genotyping analysis are merged with the rare donor file, the supply of blood for special patients would improve dramatically. The proposed broad genotyping of blood donors must, whenever possible, include a diverse selection of ethnic minorities residing in the region covered by the blood supply. In Switzerland today, as in many other western countries, there is already a large genetic divergence in the donor population.

Despite the proposed switching from phenotype to genotype in RBC antigen tests, a patient antibody screen before transfusion will be imperative as it is not feasible to prevent all possible alloimmunizations. The reasons for this are numerous. These range from antibodies against antigens which were not analyzed to cases where it was not possible to take into account all relevant antigens in the donor and patient. Such cases often occur during emergency situations in which a fully compatible RBC may be not available. If the patient antibody screening is negative, the blood will be applied as we do now with 'type and screen'.

The strategy envisaged above would certainly bring a higher level of immunological safety in blood transfusions. In order to improve the current transfusion practice, the new blood group genotype methods must be at least as safe as present phenotyping techniques and more cost-effective. Unfortunately, with the present technology it is difficult to judge the cost efficiency of such a proposal. The comparison should also take into account the costs occurring due to an alloimmunization which are often difficult to measure, against the extra costs sustained by a broad genotypic screening. Patient testing is not centralized and is performed in numerous hospital laboratories spread over the whole country. An electronic cross-match between a patient and a blood product could only be done if all these laboratories are electronically linked with a central reference laboratory. In Switzerland it is unlikely that this will be implemented in the near future.

In the not too distant future it will be possible to type on the genetic level for the most antigen polymorphisms, particularly if the introduction of the recently developed chip technology is realized. But one has to take into account whether it is useful to consider all the detected polymorphisms. The clinical significance of many polymorphisms is not yet clear; thus further observations need to be done on their possible consequences.

Blood donor genotyping will in the end lead to a safer blood product supply for transfusion. A parallel development in the information technology may result in the systematic introduction of an electronic cross-match. A possible positive spin-off of this for the blood donor could be the creation of a new blood donor pass incorporating the new genotype information. In an emergency situation requiring a transfusion it should be possible to supply such donors which an optimal blood product. Blood donors are thus likely to be more motivated to donate blood, and perhaps this could lead to the recruitment of new blood donors.


Within social simulation, we often want agents to interact both with larger systems of norms, as well as respond to their own and other agents norm violations. However, their are currently no norm specifications that allow us to interact with all of these components. To address this issue, this paper introduces the concept of violation modalities in CTL ∗ . These modalities do not only allow us to keep track of violations, but also allow us to define the usual deontic operators. On top of this, they give us a convenient way of linking together various different norms, and allow us to reason about norms with repeated violations and obligations. We will discuss various properties of the modalities and the deontic operators, and will also discuss some ways in which this formalization can guide an implementation of normative systems.


Modernism's most contentious rivals, James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence, are traditionally seen as opposites. This is the first book to explore the resonances between the two writers, revealing that their lives, works, and careers have striking similarities. For starters, they shared the same literary agent, published in the same literary magazines, fought similar legal battles against censorship, and were both pirated by Samuel Roth. The parallels run deeper. This volume revels in two writers who share classic modernist paradoxes: both are at once syncretists and shatterers, bourgeois cosmopolitans, prudish libertines, displaced nostalgists, and rebels against their native lands. These essays consider mutual themes such as gender, class, nature, and religion, highlighting the many intersections among the issues that concerned both Joyce and Lawrence. Modernists at Odds is a long overdue extended comparison of two of the most compelling writers of the twentieth century.


This article outlines South Africa's comparative industrial performance over approximately the last two decades. It then examines the policies effected by the Department of Trade and Industry since 1994 to promote the development of industry. The focus is on the sector‐specific supports available to the auto and auto components and the clothing and textiles sectors. The final section locates these sector‐specific support measures within a broader discussion of industrial policy.


Intent interpretation is the process of forming a causal explanation of the observed actions of an agent in terms of the current purposes of the agent. Most of the current work in this area has dealt with interpretation of the actions of single agents without unresolved conflicts. This paper describes the use of the plan-goal representational approach as originally formulated in Geddes (1989) to interpret actions of multiple agents with unresolved conflicts. This situation is of importance in the practical world, arising often in cooperative team and organizational behavior as well as in overt adversarial behavior.<<ETX>>


The multiplication of a matrix by its transpose, ATA, appears as an intermediate operation in the solution of a wide set of problems. In this paper, we propose a new cache-oblivious algorithm (AtA) for computing this product, based upon the classical Strassen algorithm as a sub-routine. In particular, we decrease the computational cost to the time required by Strassen's algorithm, amounting to floating point operations. AtA works for generic rectangular matrices, and exploits the peculiar symmetry of the resulting product matrix for saving memory. In addition, we provide an extensive implementation study of AtA in a shared memory system, and extend its applicability to a distributed environment. To support our findings, we compare our algorithm with state-of-the-art solutions specialized in the computation of ATA. Our experiments highlight good scalability with respect to both the matrix size and the number of involved processes, as well as favorable performance for both the parallel paradigms and the sequential implementation, when compared with other methods in the literature.


The adventive root tip cells of a bulbous plant, Sternbergia lutea (L.) Ker-Gawl. ex Sprengel (Amaryllidaceae), were examined by LM (light microscope) and EM (electron microscope). At the meristematic area of the root tips, which was 1 mm in length, two types of cell were observed: meristematic cells and Ca-oxalate raphide crystal idioblasts. Ca-oxalate raphide crystal idioblasts were observed to lie in two lines between the inner and outer ground meristems. Some similarities and some differences were found between those cells in their ultrastructure. It was seen that the membrane thickness of crystal idioblasts and meristematic cells were the same. They were also found to be similar in cell content, both containing nuclei, cytoplasm, vacuoles, mitochondria and proplastids. However the organization of the cell contents, the numbers, the forms and sizes of vacuoles were different between these cell types. In some meristematic cells and idioblasts of certain roots, some degenerated changes were seen due to necrosis. Those changes were in the form of plasmolysis, karyolysis, karyorrhexis, chromatin roughness, karyopyknosis andorganelle loss.


Numerous recent publications have attested the significance of elevations in the levels of ammonia in the circulating blood of patients with certain liver diseases. 1 Stuporous phenomena have been observed when the ammonia-nitrogen level of blood has exceeded 200 meg. per 100 ml. The blood of a healthy person contains minute amounts of ammonia, which increase when blood stands in an open container exposed to room air. 2 In our laboratory, as in others, the ammonia level in the blood of a healthy person has been found not to exceed 50 meg. per 100 ml. Stupor, or coma, occurs not infrequently during or following episodes of esophageal or gastrointestinal hemorrhage in patients with liver disease when there is interference with the passage of portal venous blood through the liver. It generally is agreed that a prime source of the increased ammonia content of the blood is the extravasated blood acted


Quantitative targeted proteomics based approaches deploy state-of-the-art Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry LC-MS technologies and are evolving as a complementary technique to standard ligand-binding based assays. Advancements in MS technology, which have augmented the specificity, selectivity and sensitivity limits of detection and freedom from antibody generation, have made it amicable towards various clinical applications. In our current work, a surrogate peptide based quantitative proteomics assessment is performed by selecting specific signature peptides from the complementary determining region CDR region of trastuzumab (Herclon®, Roche products in India). We developed a double Stable Isotope Label (dSIL) approach by using two different surrogate peptides to evaluate the proteolytic digestion efficiency and accurate quantification of the target analyte peptide of Herclon® in human serum. Method validation experiments were meticulously performed as per bioanalytical method validation guidelines. The dSIL approach, using an LC-MS/MS based quantification assay demonstrated good linearity over a range of 5–500 µg/mL of Herclon®, and validation experimental data is in compliance with bioanalytical regulatory guidelines.


The successful negotiation of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaty inaugurated a new historical era in the Republic of Panama. Politically, the implementation of the Treaty from 1979 to 1999 transformed what, since 1903, had been a protectorate of the United States into a fully sovereign republic. Economically, the integration of the canal into Panama´s internal economy, and that of the country in the global market, created new opportunities for the development of the country. The treaty also put an end to the dispute between Panama and the United States over the control of the rent and revenues produced by the canal, transferring it to the government of the Republic of Panama, and so creating an unprecedented source of resources for investment. More than forty years on, however, Panama faced a combination of sustained (but uncertain) economic growth, persistent social inequity, constant environmental degradation, obsolescence of its institutional system, and increasing internal political tensions, all expressions of the contradiction between the natural organization of the territory of Panama, and the spatial organization of its economy, society and government imposed and maintained since the European conquest of the 16th century. This contradiction is also aggravated by the dispute over control of the canal rent between different sectors of Panamanian society. In short, the country is in a transition stage in its development, which may lead it to overcome the contradiction in developing into a prosperous and equitable republic, or into increasing conflicts that may worsen the contradictions inherent to a centralist and authoritarian tradition of governance.


Soil samples were collected from two different soil habitats-one agricultural and one brick field in the alluvial plains of northern West Bengal. Abunadance of microarthropod populations differed significantly between the sites (p<0.05). Seasonal fluctuation pattern was more or less similar. Soil acarines were the most abundant fauna at the sampling sites while, collembolans were the second most numerically dominant group. Oribatids were more abundant at agricultural sites while, the mesostigmatids were higher in abundance at the brick field.


Polyamine ligands are very versatile compounds due to their water solubility and flexibility. In the present work, we have exploited the binding ability of a polyamine molecular linker (L2−) bearing different functional groups, which favors the self-assembling of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) into 1D nanochains in aqueous solution. The chainlike assemblies of AuNPs and AgNPs were structurally stable for a long period of time, during which their characteristic optical properties remained unchanged. The mechanism of AuNPs and AgNPs chain assembly associated with the induction of electric dipole–dipole interactions arising from the partial ligand exchange of surface-adsorbed citrate ions by (L2−) was investigated. UV/Vis spectrophotometry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to determine timedependent structural changes associated with formation of the 1D nanoparticle structures. Finally, the sensing of Hg2+ in aqueous solution using AgNPs@(L)2− and AuNPs@(L)2− assemblies was also carried out in aqueous solution.


Identifying the qualities of primary care that have the potential to produce optimal health outcomes is only half the story. The MOCHA project has explored how to transfer these to other national contexts, but also which successful components should be transferred. It is important to assess the population criteria of the identified sociodemographic, cultural and social characteristics, and the population perspectives on a care system's components. The project analysed public experiences and perceptions of the quality of primary care for children from a representative sample of the general public in five EU Member States. The public perception of children's primary care services, in particular the perceived quality of care and expectations of children and their care is important to understand before MOCHA lessons can be effectively adopted in a country. We found that the socio-cultural characteristics of a country inform the population perceptions and preferences with regard to the care system. In the five countries surveyed there was agreement about aspects of quality of care – such as accessible opening hours, confidential consultations for children and timeliness of consultation for an illness; but there was a difference in opinion about giving priority to items such as making an appointment without a referral, or a child's right to a confidential consultation. The cultural context of transferability and the means of addressing this such as defining the target audience and the different means of disseminating important messages to the wider community to address contextual factors can act as barriers or facilitators to the introduction of new components of primary care models.


This subpart establishes emission guidelines and compliance schedules for the control of emissions from sewage sludge incineration (SSI) units. The pollutants addressed by these emission guidelines are listed in Tables 2 and 3 to this subpart. These emission guidelines are developed in accordance with sections 111(d) and 129 of the Clean Air Act and subpart B of this part. To the extent any requirement of this subpart is inconsistent with the requirements of subpart A of this part, the requirements of this subpart will apply.


The multicollinearity in multiple linear regression models and the existence of influential data points are common problems. These problems exert undesirable effects on the least squares estimators. So, it is very important to introduce some alternative biased estimators of the robust ridge regression to overcome the influence of these problems simultaneously. In this paper, alternative biased robust regression estimator is defined by mixing the ridge estimation technique into the robust least median squares estimation to obtain the Ridge Least Median Squares (RLMS). The efficiency of the combined estimator (RLMS) is compared with some existing regression estimators, which namely, the Ordinary Least Squares (LS); Ridge Regression (RR) and Ridge Least Absolute Deviation (RLAD). The numerical results of this study show that, the RLMS regression estimator is more efficient than other estimators, based on, Bias and mean squared error criteria for many combinations of influential data points and degree of multicollinearity. Keywards: Influential Data Points; Multicollinearity; Ridge regression; Ridge Least Absolute Deviation; Ridge Least Median Squares estimation; Bias and Mean Squared Error criteria


The holographic parameters of purple membrane-polyacrylamide films obtained from a mutant form of Halobacterium salinarum (originally Halobacterium halobium) were measured. The synthesized films have an absorption of around 2.5 at 532 nm and a pH of 8.65. The results show that diffraction efficiencies of about 1.2 % (measured at 633 nm) can be achieved with writing intensities in the range of 200-400 mW/cm2 (532 nm), and these values remain constant after saturation. Pump-probe experiments were also used to measure the M state lifetime and our PM films were found to have the lowest M state lifetime described at this pH.


A spectrum of 24 benign and malignant nerve sheath tumors and 10 non-neural spindle-cell tumors were studied by light microscopy for the presence of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity by the peroxidase-antiperoxidase (PAP) technique. In 8 cases, these results were compared to their electron microscopic appearances. Seventy percent (7 of 10) of benign schwannomas and 50% (4 of 8) of benign neurofibromas demonstrated focal to diffuse GFAP immunoreactivity. None of the malignant nerve sheath tumors nor any of the non-neural spindle-cell neoplasms contained demonstrable GFAP immunoreactivity. Similarly, no GFAP immunoreactivity could be detected in Schwann cells in normal peripheral nerves. The solitary benign schwannoma available for electron microscopic study demonstrated diffuse and abundant cytoplasmic intermediate filaments, and this tumor displayed diffuse and intense GFAP immunoreactivity. Two benign neurofibromas showed a more variable content of intermediate filaments ultrastructurally, and their GFAP immunoreactivity was variable. All five malignant nerve sheath tumors studied by electron microscopy displayed a variable complement of intermediate filaments; however, none of these tumors possessed GFAP immunoreactivity, suggesting that these intermediate filaments are either members of a different class of intermediate filaments or may perhaps represent "altered" GFAP not recognized by these antisera.


On a world scale, oil palm is in the process of becoming the main source of vegetable oil. Its cultivation is of vital importance for populations in West and Central Africa. However, vascular wilt, a fungal disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. elaeidis (Foe), is one of the main factors likely to limit its production. Oil palm vascular wilt was reported for the first time in the Belgian Congo (Wardlaw, 1946 a and b), and was then observed in Nigeria (Wardlaw, 1948) and in Cote d'Ivoire (Bachy and Fehling, 1957). In the 1980s it was the most serious oil palm disease in Africa and remains potentially so. Indeed, it is endemic from Cameroon to Zaire and from Zaire to Cote d'Ivoire (Meunier et al., 1979; de Franqueville and Renard, 1990). It was reported in Brazil (Van de Lande, 1983) then in Ecuador, where that focus has now died out. In infested zones, vascular wilt can destroy 25% to 80% of oil palms depending on the type of soil and material planted (Guldentops, 1962; de Franqueville. 1984). In general, oil palm vascular wilt is a disease that occurs at a late stage in first generation plantings set up after land clearance. However, in replantings. if the previous palms expressed the disease. the new palms are faced with a strong inoculum and vascular wilt is expressed in young palms (Guldentops, 1962; de Franqueville and Renard, 1990; Renard et al., 1993, de Franqueville and Diabate, 1995). Selecting material that is resistant to vascular wilt is currently the only satisfactory control method. This is therefore an important objective for Africa, but the material obtained needs to maintain high productivity to conserve the competitiveness of oil palm cultivation in this zone. In order to achieve such a long-term objective, it is necessary to have access to a sufficiently broad genetic base. Indeed, concentrating sources of resistance in just a few origins complicates the task of breeders who cannot carry out a sufficiently large number of generations on a perennial plant within a reasonable time span. Numerous populations have been assembled at the La Me station (Cote d=lvoire) over the last 70 years and data on the resistance of most of them are now available. Several individuals from each population have been tested and this sample provides an idea of mean population resistance. Exploitation of the results and ways they can be used by breeders will be discussed during this presentation. (Resume d'auteur)


It is well understood that political participation is stratified by socio-economic characteristics. Yet it is an open question how this finding bears on the normative evaluation of the democratic process. In this paper we argue that the equality of opportunity (EOp) concept furnishes an attractive framework to answer this question. Drawing on the analytical tools developed by an expanding empirical literature on EOp we investigate to what extent political participation is determined by factors that lie beyond individual control (circumstances) and thus is unfairly distributed. Using rich panel data from the US, we find that a lack of political opportunity is particularly pronounced for contacts with officials, participation in rallies and marches, and membership in political organizations. These opportunity shortages tend to complement each other across activities and persist over time. While family characteristics and psychological dispositions during childhood emanate as the strongest determinants, genetic variation is a small yet significant contributor to unequal political opportunities in the US.


A thermal-hydrologic-natural-ventilation model is configured for simulating temperature, humidity, and condensate distributions in the coupled domains of the in-drift airspace and the near-field rockmass. Meaningful results are obtained from the model for a practical application in which the beneficial effects of unheated drift sections are analyzed. Sensitivity to the axial dispersion coefficient is also studied with the model.


To prepare ready-to-use rice flour as de novo material for processed rice foods, glutinous(W) and normal rice grains (N) were soaked for 1, 8, and 12 hours prior to processing. One half (DG) was air-dried and milled, and the other (WG) was milled and air-dried. General, morphological and pasting properties of the flours (NDG, NWG, WDG, WWG) were compared to those of a control (raw milled rice without soaking). The general compositions of the rice flours varied with soaking. Crude ash was considerably decreased at the beginning of soaking (1 hour). With the soaking, the rice flour, having polygonal shaped particles and a layered surface, acquired particles with smooth edges, which were then uniformly distributed. Additionally, the WG flour was lighter and had a lower value than the DG flour, due to a higher L and less +b as a result of soaking. Compared to the control, the WBC of the normal rice flour was decreased significantly with soaking, and the WG flour had significantly lower WBCs than the DG flour. Stirring number (SN), an indicator of activity, was highly and significantly correlated with WBC (r=-0.85, p=0.0001) in the normal rice flour. At , the SP and solubility of all the soaked rice flours were much higher than those of the control. Positive (r=+0.85, p=0.0001) and negative (r=-0.61, p=0.02) correlations between the SP and solubility of the normal and glutinous rice flours were found, respectively. Using RVA, the pasting temperature of NDG was lower than that of NWG (p


The objective of the present investigation is to fabricate the CdS based polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites which are prepared using chemical oxidation technique) with APS as oxidant by the simple polymerization reaction. Further, the chemical structure, morphological study and electrical properties such as FT-IR, XRD, and D.C electrical conductivity analysis are studied. The TEM is used to find the shape and composition of CdS nanoparticle. The electrical conductivity of CdS composite are determined using fore Probe methods. The Activation energy is calculated using the formula of different wt percentages' of cds nanocomposite and compare the result with bulk Polyaniline.


Could groups ever be an understanding subject (an epistemic agent ascribed with understanding) or should we keep our focus exclusively on the individuals that make up the group? The way this paper will shape an answer to this question is by starting from a case we are most willing to accept as group understanding, then mark out the crucial differences with an unconvincing case, and, ultimately, explain why these differences matter. In order to concoct the cases, however, we need to elucidate what it means to be attributed with understanding and what makes up an epistemic agent. I shall argue that it is abilities, above all, that guide our attributions of understanding. While it is true that understanding must go beyond single acts, this is not going beyond as in going behind them (to private occurrences which are impossible to discern and don't themselves contribute anything of value), but beyond as in considering what people could and would do: their discernable and valuable abilities. To conceptualize whom the abilities belong to, I will specify what it means to be an epistemic agent. I shall argue that it is being a successful target of the epistemic stance. The epistemic stance (heavily inspired by Dennett's intentional stance) forms an instrumental abstraction by attributing epistemic properties (i.e., beliefs, epistemic aims, problem-solving tactics) to an entity to explain or predict its behavior. Macro-systematicity (a higher-level pattern which a theory can exploit) is what makes the epistemic stance's abstraction an explanatory powerful one (regardless of how that macro-systematicity is realized) and emergence (the lack of a straightforward mapping-relation between the micro and the macro) is what makes its power unique to a particular level of explanation. To end, I suggest two kinds of mapping-relations and walk through the shift from reducibility to emergence.


We apply a quantum-mechanical approach to study critical current suppression in a superconductor (SC) due to injection of spin-polarized carriers from a ferromagnet (FM) through a FM/SC tunnel junction. It is found that for a given bias voltage, the superconductivity suppression depends strongly on the polarization of the injection current, on the spin-diffusion length in the SC, and on the insulating barrier strength at the FM/SC interface.


Safety critical planning and execution is a crucial issue in autonomous systems. This paper proposes a methodology for controller synthesis suitable for timeline-based planning and demonstrates its effectiveness in a space domain where robustness of execution is a crucial property. The proposed approach uses Timed Game Automata (TGA) for formal modeling and the UPPAAL-TIGA model checker for controllers synthesis. An experimental evaluation is performed using a real-world control system.


Although there is a plethora of methods to acquire traffic data, the ability to accomplish it at large-scale, low-cost, low-maintenance, high accuracy and on continuous basis, is far from achieved. Despite the difficulties, the conventional wisdom in traffic management has been that one should acquire as much traffic data as possible for effective automated control. In this paper, we investigate this assumption to understand how much data collection can be avoided without adversely affecting traffic monitoring objectives. We empirically find that a significant proportion of traffic segments can be predictable and furthermore, they can be identified with substantially less data than may be blindly collected today. This lays the basis for collecting traffic data using people as sensors. We explore what kind of information may be sought from citizens and present a method to use it to measure the scale of traffic. This is particularly advantageous in situations of emerging countries where traffic complexity and data quality needs make traditional data collection methods insufficient and costly, while people are already sharing traffic information.


Biochips can fail because of a wide variety of reasons, ranging from electrical defects (shorts, opens, and so on) to material properties, unexpected fluidic flow patterns, and chemical or biological contamination. This article describes the way to detect and locate various types of faults in biochips. This article describes analog and digital microelectronic fluidic (MEF) arrays design and testing methods.


The retropubic colposuspension in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence has been rescued with the laparoscopic route. Some authors have reduced the number of stitches, from two to one, due to the difficulty of suturing by this route. To what extent can this modification compromise outcome? To answer this question, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis on the MEDLINE/PubMed and LILACS/SciELO databases between 1990 and 2015. We included randomized clinical trials, cohort studies and case-control series comparing laparoscopic versus open Burch, and two versus one stitch in laparoscopic Burch, with a minimum follow-up of one year. Fourteen studies compared laparoscopic versus open Burch, in which we found no differences between the two techniques using one stitch (Relative Risk - RR - of 0.94, 95% CI 0.79-1.11) and two stitches (RR of 1.03, 95% CI 0.97-1.10). Only one study compared one stitch versus two stitches in laparoscopic Burch, with cure rates of 68% versus 87%, respectively (p-value= 0.02). We did not identify differences when compared open technique with two stitches versus laparoscopic with one stitch and open technique with two stitches versus laparoscopic with two. The study comparing one versus two laparoscopic stitches demonstrated superior results with the latter. Although there is no robust evidence, when Burch surgery is performed laparoscopically, the use of two stitches seems to be the best option.


Expanded time-scale recordings of the water level in a well in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, show many of the familiar seismic phases, including Love waves which in theory have no associated dilatation. Comparison of seismograms from distant earthquakes recorded by the well seismograph at Milwaukee and by conventional inertial instruments at Palisades demonstrates the superior response of the well, relatively, to waves of long periods.


The overwhelming evidence of inequalities in health outcomes and in the use of health services calculated and disseminated by the World Bank and other development agencies in the last 10 years has energized global efforts to address the needs of the poor and socially vulnerable. These efforts have led to a renewed interest at the global and national levels in both understanding the causes of health sector inequalities and developing policies to tackle them. It is time to synthesize the new knowledge being generated from research and experimentation on addressing inequality. The main purpose of this book is to make available the accumulated knowledge of successful policy and analytical tools in this fight to reverse the vicious circle of income-poverty and ill health. The book presents both a practical set of analytical tools for understanding the causes of inequality in the use of health services and a menu of proven pro-poor policy actions. It is based on the evaluation of 14 successful policy changes in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and a review of the published literature on inequality in the health sector.


In medical diagnostic studies, verification of the true disease status might be partially missing based on results of diagnostic tests and other characteristics of subjects. Because estimates of area under the ROC curve (AUC) based on partially validated subjects are usually biased, it is usually necessary to estimate AUC from a bias‐corrected ROC curve. In this article, various direct estimation methods of the AUC based on hybrid imputation [full imputations and mean score imputation (MSI)], inverse probability weighting, and the semiparametric efficient (SPE) approach are proposed and compared in the presence of verification bias when the test result is continuous under the assumption that the true disease status, if missing, is missing at random. Simulation results show that the proposed estimators are accurate for the biased sampling if the disease and verification models are correctly specified. The SPE and MSI based estimators perform well even under the misspecified disease/verification models. Numerical studies are performed to compare the finite sample performance of the proposed approaches with existing methods. A real dataset of neonatal hearing screening study is analyzed.


We discuss the CP nature of the Yukawa couplings of the Higgs boson in the framework of a complex two Higgs doublet model (C2HDM). After analysing all data gathered during the Large Hadron Collider run 1, the measurement of the Higgs couplings to the remaining SM particles already restricts the parameter space of many extensions of the SM. However, there is still room for very large CP-odd Yukawa couplings to light quarks and leptons while the top-quark Yukawa coupling is already very constrained by current data. Although indirect measurements of electric dipole moments play a very important role in constraining the pseudo-scalar components of the Yukawa couplings, we argue that a direct measurement of the ratio of pseudoscalar to scalar couplings should be one of the top priorities for the LHC run 2.


Accessibility to basic educational attainment has been identified as collateral for economic development in the 21st century. It has a fundamental role in moving Africa countries out of its present tragic state of underdevelopment. This article examines the situation of basic educational services in Amhara region of Ethiopia in terms of availability and accessibility at both primary and secondary levels. It revealed that there is a gross inadequacy in the provision of facilities and personnel to adequately prepare the youth for their future, in Amhara region. It also revealed the inequality of accessibility to basic education services among the eleven administrative zones in the region with antecedent impact on the development levels among the zones and the region at large. It thus called for serious intervention in the education sector of the region, if the goal of education for development is to be realized, not only in the region but in the country at large.. Keywords : Accessibility, Basic Education, Development, Inequality, Amhara, Ethiopia Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences Vol. 3 (2) 2008: pp. 11-26


Iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) possesses unique advantages over other nanoparticles in the use of cancer imaging and therapy. Specifically, it has drawn great attention in the emerging research field of photothermal cancer therapy. Herein, we developed doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded liposomal IONP (Lipo-IONP/DOX) and evaluated in vitro and in vivo their applicability for combined chemo-photothermal cancer therapy. The Lipo-IONP was synthesized by the thin-film evaporation method. The prepared Lipo-IONP was observed as about a 240 nm-sized agglomerate of globular-shaped nanoparticles. The TEM and FT-IR data evidenced the successful formation of liposomal IONP. The superparamagnetic property of the Lipo-IONP was confirmed by the SQUID analysis. The DSC data showed a transition temperature of about 47–48 °C for the mixed lipids composing the Lipo IONP, and the DOX release studies revealed the feasibility of induced burst release of DOX by laser irradiation. The Lipo-IONP/DOX possessed a plasma half-life of 42 min, which could ensure sufficient circulation time for magnetic tumor targeting. The in vivo magnetic targeting enabled a significant increase (6.3-fold) in the tumor accumulation of Lipo-IONP/DOX, leading to greater photothermal effects. Finally, the preliminary efficacy study evidenced the applicability as well as the safety of the Lipo-IONP/DOX for use in combined chemo-photothermal cancer therapy. Overall, the study results demonstrated that the Lipo-IONP/DOX might serve as an effective and safe agent for combined chemo-photothermal cancer therapy.


The concepts of customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) have been recently gaining wide attention in business and academia. Both approaches focus on allocating resources to supportive business activities in order to gain competitive advantages. CRM focus on managing the relationship between a company an its current and prospective customer base as a key to success. A good relationship with the customer leads to higher customer satisfaction. Content customers are loyal and therefore more valuable customers. This directly affects the revenue stream. KM sees the knowledge available to a company as a major success factor. Through superior knowledge companies can accomplish their results faster, cheaper and with higher quality than their competition. Knowledge about customers, markets and other relevant factors of influence allows faster utilization of opportunities and more flexible reaction to threats. From the perspective of a process owner both CRM and KM approaches promise positive impact on the cost structure and revenue streams for a company in return for allocating resources from the core business into supportive functions. This investment is not without risk as many failed projects in the areas of CRM and KM demonstrate. In this paper we show that the benefit of using CRM and KM can be enhanced and the risk of failure reduced by integrating both approaches into a customer knowledge management (CKM) model. Managing relationships requires managing knowledge for the customer, knowledge about the customer and knowledge from the customer. KM takes the role of a service provider for CRM, managing the four knowledge aspects content, competence, collaboration and composition to satisfy customer requests within stated budget restrictions. The findings are based on literature analysis and six years of action research, supplemented by case studies and surveys.


In this study, the feeding behavior of Nellore heifers receiving supplements containing mineral salt, conventional urea and slow release urea during the grazing stage at Brachiaria brizantha-based pastures during the dry period of the year was evaluated. Fifty-six heifers with approximately 284.72 ± 27.48 kg of body weight were used, distributed in a completely randomized design with four different treatment types: mineral salt; Urea - supplementation with 8.18% conventional urea; Mixed urea - supplementation with 4.09% conventional urea and 4.39% slow release urea and slow urea - supplementation with 8.78% slow release urea. Animals supplemented with mineral salt had longer grazing times compared to those supplemented with mixed urea, slow urea and regular urea. The dry matter intake, neutral detergent fiber and total digestible nutrients presented a similar effect, with higher values for heifers consuming supplements containing regular urea and slow urea compared to those of mixed urea. However, when the efficiency of hourly intake was evaluated, the animals that received urea supplement were more efficient in relation to the other treatments. The number of grazing periods for heifers receiving slow urea supplementation was higher compared to heifers receiving salt and mixed urea. The duration of grazing and rumination periods was longer for heifers receiving salt supplementation and mixed urea than those receiving regular urea and slow urea. It is recommended to use supplements at the level of 0.3% of body weight for heifers receiving conventional urea.


We develop novel single-GPU parallelizations of the Smith-Waterman algorithm for pairwise sequence alignment. Our algorithms, which are suitable for the alignment of a single pair of very long sequences, can be used to determine the alignment score as well as the actual alignment. Experimental results demonstrate an order of magnitude reduction in run time relative to competing GPU algorithms.


Whole brain segmentation with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enables the non-invasive measurement of brain regions, including total intracranial volume (TICV) and posterior fossa volume (PFV). Enhancing the existing whole brain segmentation methodology to incorporate intracranial measurements offers a heightened level of comprehensiveness in the analysis of brain structures. Despite its potential, the task of generalizing deep learning techniques for intracranial measurements faces data availability constraints due to limited manually annotated atlases encompassing whole brain and TICV/PFV labels. In this paper, we enhancing the hierarchical transformer UNesT for whole brain segmentation to achieve segmenting whole brain with 133 classes and TICV/PFV simultaneously. To address the problem of data scarcity, the model is first pretrained on 4859 T1-weighted (T1w) 3D volumes sourced from 8 different sites. These volumes are processed through a multi-atlas segmentation pipeline for label generation, while TICV/PFV labels are unavailable. Subsequently, the model is finetuned with 45 T1w 3D volumes from Open Access Series Imaging Studies (OASIS) where both 133 whole brain classes and TICV/PFV labels are available. We evaluate our method with Dice similarity coefficients(DSC). We show that our model is able to conduct precise TICV/PFV estimation while maintaining the 132 brain regions performance at a comparable level. Code and trained model are available at: https://github.com/MASILab/UNesT/wholebrainSeg.


Fourteen commercial pooled human γ-globulin (HGG) preparations varied widely in their ability: a) to sensitize tanned sheep red cells for agglutination with rheumatoid arthritis serum (RAS), b) to precipitate with RAS, and c) to inhibit agglutination of sensitized tanned sheep red cells by RAS. The inhibitory power of any given γ-globulin preparation paralleled its sensitizing and precipitating capacity. There was little correlation between these reactions and the amount of aggregates present in the γ-globulin preparations.
 Different preparations of aggregated HGG also varied in their inhibitory power and precipitating capacity but, when the aggregates were heated, their reactivity increased to about the same level in all cases.
 The inhibitory power of purified aggregated HGG was found to increase with the heating time employed in their preparation. When the aggregates were dissolved in alkali, this effect was abolished and reactivity decreased to a uniform level.
 Purified 7 S HGG, when denatured under conditions that avoided aggregation, was also found to be reactive with RAS.
 From these results it has been concluded that reactivity of pooled HGG for serum rheumatoid factors is primarily due to denaturation. Subsequent aggregation of the denatured globulin enhances its reactivity, probably because of decreased solubility of the rheumatoid factor-γ-globulin complex.


This paper deals with an important issue concerning the relationship between Islamic sharia rules in the field of combating theft, the scientific development in the field of computers and the internet, and their uses in the evolution of methods of committing digital theft crime. The paper is divided into four sections that look into the question of the applicability of the financial condition, the provision of taking money, the condition defining the security and protection of wealth, and the requirements of proving the crime of theft in Islamic Law. The researcher concluded the possibility of applying the Islamic rules related to theft crime to electronic money in theory, and the difficulty of that in practice or reality due to some problems related to the nature of electronic money in some cases (information or data and programs). Other problems are related to proving the crime. Therefore, the researcher recommends the necessity of legislative intervention to indicate the provisions applicable to this type of theft, and whether the rulings on this type of crime relate to the prescribed punishment for theft in Islamic Law or discretionary punishments.


This paper reviews the contribution that can be made to land‐drainage and flood‐defence practice by consideration of the sediment transport system of river catchments. It also outlines the problems posed by not monitoring sediment transport over wider and longer time and space scales than are conventionally adopted. The contribution made by geomorphology to this aspect of river management is identified, and examples of its application to flood‐defence problems are given.


We discussed the physical background of the unified scaling law in spiral galaxies, and qualitatively obtained the power index of the empirical relation among the luminosity L, radius R and the rotation velocity V. We also discussed the possible causes for the data dispersion on the plane in three-dimensional space of these parameters.


Despite more than a century of efforts to eradicate and control malaria, it still remains a major risk to public health and economies of countries in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Control of malaria has been based on eradication of the vector, mosquito, by use of pesticides. In order to reduce malaria incidence, some African countries are re-introducing the banned dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), however, organophosphates are known to have far more immediate toxicity than organochlorines and other related products. Chlorpyrifos is a wide spectrum organophosphate used to control range and forage insect pests as well as sediment dwelling grubs, rootworms, borers and subterranean termites and could therefore be used to replace DDT use in mosquito larval control, however, its persistence in the mosquito larval habitats and toxicity towards the mosquito larvae, in comparison to DDT is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the degradation rates of these two pesticides in the various mosquito larval habitats and their toxicity on mosquito larvae in Maseno, an area in western Kenya characterized by endemic malaria. Water, moist sediment and Justicia flava leaves, the selected common habitats, were spiked with DDT and chlorpyrifos and samples were thereafter collected after 0, 2, 4, 6 hours and then at longer intervals of time up to 2120 hours, and analyzed separately using Gas chromatography to determine their environmental persistence. The dissipation of the pesticides were rapid and half-lives of DDT in moist sediment, Justicia flava leaves and water were; 15.4 days, 3.1 days and 6.1 hours and 7.8 days, 2.0 days and 6.3 hours, respectively, for chlorpyrifos. Toxicity tests of the pesticides against Anopheles gambiae larvae from Maseno using WHO standard test method in the laboratory were done, based on the LC50 and LC90 in water. The LC50 after 24 hours exposure were; 0.0014 ppm and 0.0398 ppm for chlorpyrifos and DDT respectively, while the LC90 were; 0.0132 ppm and 0.19 ppm respectively. Chlorpyrifos had a shorter dissipation half-life than DDT. Chlorpyrifos was more toxic to Anopheles gambiae than DDT. Chloropyrifos can therefore be used effectively in controlling both mosquito larvae formerly controlled by DDT. The information obtained in this study is most useful to the ministry of public health and researchers involved in malaria vector control work for planning malaria control on lethal doses and their persistence in the environment.


Quasi-two-dimensional hydrogenic impurity levels in quantum wells under the influence of magnetic fields are investigated. Experimentally, 1s to np (n=2, 3, 4) transition energies in quantum wells of various widths are measured by the photoconductivity technique for magnetic fields up to 9 T. Theoretically, these energies are calculated by a new variational method that is valid for the whole range of magnetic field strengths, from the zero-field limit to the high-field limit. Good agreement is achieved for every transition for well widths up to approximately 300 AA, for which the confinement effect is appreciable. Consistent discrepancies found for 450 AA are expected to be accounted for by including subband mixing because of the wide width and small subband separation. Our study demonstrates that the simple variational method can produce good results for highly excited levels in magnetic fields provided that the confinement due to the quantum well is sufficiently strong.


The soft-input-soft-output (SISO) MSK demodulator is a key component in the iterative receiver for coded MSK systems. To reduce the complexity of the optimal SISO MSK demodulator using the BCJR algorithm, a low complexity suboptimal MSK demodulator was developed by K. R. Narayanan et al. However, our investigation on the symmetric information rate of MSK with the suboptimal demodulator shows that it incurs a significant information rate loss compared with the BCJR demodulator. To avoid the rate loss, a low complexity SISO MSK demodulator is derived based on a new factor graph for MSK, which is found to have comparable complexity to the suboptimal demodulator. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is equivalent to the BCJR algorithm and thus achieves optimal performance. Simulation results for LDPC coded MSK systems are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


Social media have become increasingly central to civic mobilisation and protest movements around the world. Emotions, symbols, self-presentation and visual communication are emerging as key components of networked individualism and connective action by affective publics challenging established political norms. These emerging repertoires have the potential to reignite civic engagement, although their coherence and sustainability have been questioned. We explore these phenomena through an examination of Instagram use during the 2014 Romanian presidential election. Voting irregularities during the 1st round, particularly affecting the diaspora, gave rise to an impulsive civic movement utilising social media to express solidarity and drive turnout in the 2nd round. Using an original coding framework, we look at how narratives of identity, community and engagement were visually constructed by users on Instagram; the activities, settings, spaces, objects and emotions that comprised this multi-authored story. Our analysis reveals the creation of a loose "me too" collective: an emotionally charged hybrid of self-presentation and participation in a shared moment of historic significance, which otherwise lacked particular norms, political agendas or hierarchies. The civic movement on Instagram materialised primarily through photos documenting the act of voting; an imagined community that combined co-presence in physical space with virtual solidarity through photos of ballots, flags and landmarks. The platform appears to favour impulsive, symbolic and affective expression rather than rational or critical dialogue. As in other cases of post-systemic grassroots engagement, individuals came together for a short period of time and expressed the need for change, although this remained largely an abstract signifier.


Under the backdrop of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative, the study on the international development of China's marine biopharmaceutical industry based on factor allocation is of great practical significance for industrial sustainability and building the industry into a leading international player in the global market. In this paper, we first identify the leading factors that influence the development of the marine biopharmaceutical industry, namely, resources, technologies, talents, investments and policies. Furthermore, the hierarchical structure model of these factors was established and analyzed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The importance ranking of these constraints was identified, as follows: technologies > talents > resources > policies > investments. Then, based on the theory of comparative advantage and game theory, we analyzed the necessity of China's marine biopharmaceutical industry going global, that is, international cooperation may lay a solid foundation for the win-win outcome of this industry in countries along the Maritime Silk Road. According to the status quo of China's marine biopharmaceutical industry, based on these findings, an international factor–allocation cooperation path was designed, and the path chart of the international development of the marine biopharmaceutical industry was drawn. Finally, methods for the development of China's marine biopharmaceutical industry were proposed, which covers efforts to protect marine resources, promote R&D for core technologies, establish a strong talent pool, encourage more investments, provide policy support and promote worldwide cooperation. It is the first report to investigate the path of the sustainable exploitation of the marine biopharmaceutical industry from the perspective of factor allocation amidst the backdrop of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative.


The authors have studied 50 Ivorians and 50 Europeans people, all living in Abidjan for at least 10 years. Platelet aggregability with increasing ADP concentration (0.6, 1.2, 2.4 mumoles/l), collagen (0.4 mg/l), or ristocetin (1 g/l) was examined. Fibrinolysis and the euglobulin test were also studied before and after anoxia. Other blood parameters measured were: hematocrit, hemoglobin level, platelet count, bleeding time, Howell coagulation test, cephalin tests, prothrombin activity ratio, fibrinogen level. Metabolic tests included: glycemia, cholesterolemia, triglyceridemia, uricemia, A1 and B apoproteins, protidemia, gamma globulinemia. Environmental factors such as physical activity, alcohol and smoking habits, fish consumption, chloroquine prophylaxis were evaluated. The most evident result was lower platelet aggregability in Ivorian people as compared to Europeans. A more precocious and important fibrinolysis activity, either spontaneous or after anoxia was noted in the Ivorian group. Lower platelet number, fibrinogen level, and prothrombin activity were present in the Ivorian group as compared to the European people. The authors eliminated the influence of age, and considered environmental factors as predominant in the genesis of such difference, i.e., hypocholesterolemia, lower smoking and drinking levels. They emphasized the higher fish consumption in Ivorian people.


This study examines and analyzes the participation of NGOs in tourism development in Bukit Lawang Tourism Village Plantation. This study used a descriptive-qualitative method with data collection tools in the form of observation and interview. The results of this study describe that the role of NGOs in developing ecotourism in Bukit Lawang has been carried out by Project Wings by carrying out activities that have succeeded in collecting 325 kg of waste. The Kelas Hijau Institute has also conducted weekly class activities which are held every week for around 60 to 100 local children or classes about the environment and English education for children aged 5 to 12 years. At the Environmental Center stage, they have a contribution in providing information and building cooperation with community protection in efforts to conserve and manage the environment wisely as well as advocating for environmental preservation. The success of the role of NGOs in tourism development is also influenced by the appropriate expertise in terms of quality, honesty and consistency of each party involved.


Organic electrode materials are promising for electrochemical energy storage devices because they have a high theoretical capacity, structural diversity, and flexibility. In addition, they are light weight, inexpensive, and environmentally benign. Organic electrode materials are a promising alternative to conventional inorganic materials. Various organic materials, such as conducting polymers, organodisulfides, nitroxyl radical polymers, and conjugated carbonyl compounds, have been studied as electrode materials for lithium batteries. Among them, small organic carbonyl compounds and polymers containing carbonyls have been widely studied as electrode materials because of their high theoretical capacity, fast redox kinetics, and structural diversity. However, these materials have intrinsic drawbacks, such as solubility in electrolyte media and a low conductivity. Herein, methods to solve these problems by increasing the polarity are discussed. The polarity of small molecules could be increased by forming salts. In addition, the conductivity could be enhanced using a chemical doping strategy or forming a composite with a conductive additive. This review provides guidance for the design of a new type of organic material for next-generation rechargeable batteries.


BACKGROUND
Exposure to industrial irritants is believed to have contributed to the increasing prevalence of asthma worldwide. We examined the associations between occupation and asthma among women in a case-control study nested in the population-based Shanghai Women's Health Study cohort in China.

METHODS
Cases were 1,050 women who reported a physician-diagnosed asthma as adults. Controls were 4,200 women matched to the cases by year of birth and age at diagnosis. Lifetime occupational histories were obtained. Logistic regression was applied to estimate odds ratios (ORs) adjusting for smoking, education, family income, and concurrent chronic bronchitis.

RESULTS
Asthma is more prevalent in production industries for metal tools (OR = 2.4; 1.3-4.7), metal products for everyday use (OR = 1.6; 1.1-2.4), ships (OR = 2.6; 1.0-6.8), and clocks (OR = 1.9; 1.0-3.4), and in occupations as farm workers (OR = 4.0; 1.2-13.0), laboratory technicians and analyzers (OR = 2.2; 1.2-3.9), and installation and maintenance workers for weaving and knitting machineries (OR = 2.4; 1.1-5.4). Other associations less commonly reported were identified for electricians (OR = 2.1; 1.1-4.1), performers (OR = 3.2; 1.4-7.4), administrative workers in organizations and enterprises (OR = 1.8; 1.1-2.8), and postal and telecommunication workers (OR = 3.5; 1.6-7.6).

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that occupational exposures contribute to the development of asthma in women.


Power consumption reduction has become a first-order requirement for modern IC design, and techniques of high level power estimation are urgently in need for the sake of achieving maximal power reduction with minimal cost by optimizing the design early in the design process. This paper presents a high level power estimation model for system-on-chip (SOC) architectures on FPGA. Working with a system-level SOC synthesis framework, the proposed model takes primary power data as foundation and power estimation is conducted with regard to major event signatures such as bus and memory read/write. Besides, the anomalistic change of LUT numbers in the hardware implementation process is then taken into account, which allows more accurate and efficient power estimation providing invaluable directions for further optimization process. With the proposed model, SOC architectures are designed, and power estimation results of the model are compared with the results from real measurements on a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA board.


Paris--The most pronounced health impact on the general population of exposure to radiation from the Chernobyl accident is a sharp increase in childhood thyroid cancer in the most contaminated regions. The increase surprised many researchers because it began earlier and was much larger than expected. This has led some researchers to wonder whether some groups in the exposed population are genetically susceptible to radiation damage.


In this paper I first review the sources that have accounted for growth of agricultural production in the past. I then examine the more recent evidence on the contribution of research to growth in agricultural production. Finally, I present some of my own perspectives on issues related to the support for agricultural research and the focus of agricultural research effort over the next several decades.


Abstract. The author discusses the relevance of foreign language learning in Russia in the period of political instability. Even though the relationships between Russia and the West have recently worsened, Russia continues to take part in cross-cultural relationships, carries out international projects, and hosts world cultural and educational events. Thus the study of foreign languages remains an important necessity for Russian people, while foreign language illiteracy may lead to negative implications. The author believes that any large-scale social and administrative measures, aimed at improving linguistic competence of Russian population in today's reality will not be spontaneous or chaotic, but will be systematic and planned for the long prospective. These measures should be addressed to the life-long needs of the language learner, should be socially effective in the long run and officially become a part of the federal educational policy in the future. Keywords: linguistic education, modern situation, re-orientation, international interrelations, regional linguistic policy


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, and cryoballoon ablation was developed as a new treatment modality for symptomatic AF. Gastroparesis is rarely reported as a transient complication of ablation, and its frequency and risk are not clear. We experienced a rare case of gastroparesis after cryoballoon ablation followed by medication-induced recovery within 6 months.


The relative contributions of soil moisture heterogeneities, a stochastic boundary‐layer perturbation scheme and varied aerosol concentrations representing microphysical uncertainties on the diurnal cycle of convective precipitation and its spatial variability are examined conditional on the prevailing weather regime. To achieve this, separate perturbed‐parameter ensemble simulations are performed with the Consortium for Small‐scale Modeling (COSMO) model at convection‐permitting horizontal grid spacing for 10 days during a high‐impact weather episode in 2016 in Central Europe. We consider hourly precipitation amounts and their spatial distribution, focus on ensemble mean and spread aggregated over strong and weak forcing conditions, and employ spatial evaluation techniques. The convective adjustment time‐scale diagnostic is used to distinguish the different precipitation regimes. While the total amount of daily precipitation is hardly changed by the different perturbation approaches (less than 5%), the spatial variability of precipitation exhibits clear differences. Soil moisture heterogeneity primarily introduces variability during convection initiation causing a steeper increase in normalized rainfall spread prior to the onset of afternoon precipitation. The stochastic boundary‐layer perturbations lead to the largest spatial variability impacting precipitation from initial time onwards with an amplitude comparable to the operational ensemble spread. Similarly, perturbed aerosol concentrations impact spatial precipitation variability from the model start onwards, but to a smaller degree. Soil moisture heterogeneity shows the strongest weather regime dependence, with the greatest impact on convection during weak synoptic forcing. All types of perturbation increase dispersion of precipitation while maintaining the domain‐averaged precipitation rates.


This paper describes the application of Origin's generic simulation architecture and complementary toolset to a demonstrator facility for planning in satellite constellations. The architecture was designed to support widespread applicability of real-time simulation technology on low-cost platforms like PCs with Windows NT. The goal of the facility is to simulate and analyse planning problems that will occur in constellations of autonomous satellites. We present an innovative concept for mission planning based on a distributed planning algorithm. We find that Origin's generic simulation architecture is well suited for building a distributed planning tool.


Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab) is a biofilm-forming, multi-drug resistant, non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pathogen increasingly found in Cystic Fibrosis patients. Antibiotic treatment for these infections is often unsuccessful, partly due to Mab's high intrinsic antibiotic resistance. It is not clear whether antibiotic tolerance caused by biofilm formation also contributes to poor treatment outcomes. We studied the surface glycolipids and antibiotic tolerance of Mab biofilms grown in Artificial Cystic Fibrosis Sputum media in order to determine how they are affected by nutrient conditions that closely mimic infection. We found that Mab biofilms grown in ACFS display more of the virulence lipid trehalose dimycolate than biofilms grown in standard lab media. Biofilms in ACFS media also afford more protection against clinically important antibiotics than biofilms grown in lab media. These results indicate that Mab cell physiology in biofilms depends on environmental factors, and that nutrient conditions found within Cystic Fibrosis infections could contribute to both increased virulence and antibiotic tolerance.


Temporal and spatial regulation of actin-based cytoskeletal organization and focal adhesion formation play an essential role in cell migration. Here, we show that tyrosine phosphorylation of a focal adhesion protein, paxillin, crucially participates in these regulations. We found that tyrosine phosphorylation of paxillin was a prominent event upon integrin activation during epithelial-mesenchymal trans-differentiation and cell migration. Four major tyrosine phosphorylation sites were identified, and two of them were highly inducible upon integrin activation. Paxillin exhibits three distinct subcellular localizations as follows: localization along the cell periphery colocalized with circumferential actin meshworks, macroaggregation at focal adhesions connected to actin stress fibers, and diffuse cytoplasmic distribution. Tyrosine phosphorylation of paxillin localized at the cell periphery and focal adhesions was shown using phosphorylation site-specific antibodies. Mutations in the phosphorylation sites affected the peripheral localization of paxillin and paxillin-containing focal adhesion formation during cell migration and cell-cell collision, accompanied by altered actin organizations. Our analysis indicates that phosphorylation of multiple tyrosines in paxillin alpha is necessary for the proper function of paxillin and is involved in the temporospatial regulation of focal adhesion formation and actin cytoskeletal organization in motile cells.


Although there are many reports on surgical repair for umbilical hernia, there is no standard procedure at present. Since 2012, we have performed surgery with transumbilical repair using an original procedure. With this procedure, a longitudinal incision is made in the umbilicus, and the fascial defect is closed. Excess skin is excised at a fixed length. The fascia and dermis are sutured vertically over a length of 15 mm. A total of 424 patients with pediatric umbilical hernia who underwent this procedure between September 2012 and December 2020 were reviewed. The mean operative duration was 52 minutes. All patients were followed up to 6 months after surgery. Postoperative complications included infection in 15 patients and wound granulation in 5 patients. The morphology of the umbilicus is natural and satisfying. We conclude that this procedure is safe and simple and the results are satisfactory.


This paper examines the epistemological arguments about markets and planning that emerged in a series of unpublished exchanges between Hayek and Neurath. The exchanges reveal problems for standard accounts of both the socialist calculation debates and logical empiricism. They also raise questions concerning the sources of ignorance and uncertainty in modern economies, and the role of market and non-market organisations in the distribution and coordination of limited knowledge, which remain relevant to contemporary debates in economics. Hayek had argued that Neurath's work exemplified the errors of rationalism that underpinned the socialist project. In response Neurath highlighted assumptions about the limits of reason and predictability that the two theorists shared and attempted to turn those assumptions back against Hayek in a defence of the possibility of socialist planning. The paper critically compares Neurath's and Hayek's criticisms of rationalism and considers how far Neurath is successful in his attempt to employ Hayek's assumptions against Hayek himself.


I review the changing advertising landscape and suggest that the definition of advertising has inherently changed. Using the current advertising context, I develop research questions that consumer behavior scholars are well poised to address. This research agenda is rooted in real-world observations about advertising and can help us develop new theories about when, how, and why advertising influences and persuades consumers. A recurring theme in this article is that consumers may be misled due to information overload from multiple channels and sources. I use the advertising-as-conversation metaphor to derive hypotheses and test one such hypothesis in an experiment. I end with a summary and discussion of advertising impact measurement.


OBJECTIVE
To outline the rationale for implementing training in structured problem solving as a primary prevention strategy for major mental disorders.

METHOD
The evidence that training people in a structured method of solving their personal problems is an effective strategy in the treatment of established cases of schizophrenic and major mood disorders, is selectively reviewed.

RESULTS
Most of the relevant research focused on the prevention of major recurrent episodes of psychosis. There is some evidence to support the hypothesis that this strategy may assist many people to achieve a full and sustained recovery from the clinical and social impairments of these disorders, especially when patients are taught to use structured problem solving with members of their personal resource groups, and they continue to take optimal doses of psychoactive medication. There is support for the hypothesis that the key therapeutic factor associated with these benefits is the improved efficiency of the management of life stress.

CONCLUSIONS
The simplicity of problem solving, the educational methods used, and the widespread application to a person's lifestyle would appear to make this a possible candidate for a primary prevention program for major mental disorders. Guidebooks and teaching aids have been developed and show excellent consumer acceptance.


This study selected three types of agglomerated wood charcoal (Agglomerated wood charcoal with charcoal powder, Carbonized wood briquette, Ignition-type of perforated charcoal) that are in circulation in Korea among fuel-type wood products and analyzed the fuel characteristics, harmful substance content, and emissions of air pollutants generated by combustion. The first results showed that charcoal-grilled carbon, which is the raw material of charcoal, produced higher CO than saw-billed carbon. The second result is that the emission standards of air pollutants generated by the combustion of molded wood coal are not up to the emission standards of nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides in the entire product, compared with the emission criteria of the atmospheric environment preservation method (based on 2019, carbon monoxide: 200 ppm, nitrogen oxides, 150 ppm sulfur oxides: 100 ppm), but the carbon dioxide moulding and carbon dioxide levels were not up. Based on the analysis of combustion gas generated during combustion derived from this study, future research is needed for comparing with the emission standards of pellets, which are wood products for fuel, among the existing biomass burning standards and for reducing carbon monoxide generated during incomplete combustion of agglomerated wood charcoal.


In evaluating the quality of table eggs and the developmental stages of embryonic eggs, spectroscopic techniques provide greater efficiency than traditional, time-consuming and laborious approaches. This review summarises recent developments in the spectroscopic analysis of table eggs, including the determination of the chemical composition (ratios of performance to standard deviation of 4.38, 2.25, 2.28, 2.31, and 3.03 for fat, moisture, and protein in egg yolk and moisture and protein in egg albumen, respectively, have been reported). A Haugh unit detection accuracy RMSEP (root mean square error of prediction) for quality of 6.29 was obtained by hyperspectral imaging) for table eggs and fertility detection (for white-shell eggs, fertility detection has been realised at a promising rate of 93.5%) and gender determination in hatching eggs. In conclusion, hyperspectral imaging generally outperforms visible or near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy when evaluating both consumption eggs and hatching eggs, and near-infrared reflectance Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy exhibit a strong potential for gender determination prior to hatching. Scientists have attained a correct sexing rate above 90% at 3.5 d of egg incubation without removing the inner shell membrane. In the detection of blood-spot eggs or fertile eggs, eggshell colour proved to be a negative factor.


Connectionist expert systems are being developed for decision making in various disciplines. In such systems the subject knowledge has to be represented by neural networks. A fast method is developed for modelling of data in a mathematical form, compatible with neural network representation. The algorithm is used for modelling several oceanic data sets. The error of approximation is very small in all the cases considered.


The microwave sensors have been successfully used for permittivity measurement. These sensors suffer from limited sensitivity and environmental effects. This article presents a novel T-junction highly sensitive microwave sensor for permittivity measurement of low-loss solid materials. The proposed sensor operation principle is based on downshifting the transmission zero (TZ) of the outputs of T-junction with the coupling of the material under test (MUT). The sensing section consists of an interdigital capacitor (IDC) located in between the lines of the T-junction. IDC is directly connected to output arms of T-junction, so that it could disturb the outputs strongly. Any change in electric field concentration in IDC directly is transmitted to the outputs and is translated as TZ change. Design steps including T-junction and IDC effects on outputs are presented in detail. The sensor operation principle is described through an equivalent circuit model, which is validated by simulation and experimental results. Two outputs of the proposed sensor show the same electrical performances, which allow differential operation mode. Hence, cross sensitivity due to environmental factors can be tolerated by the sensor. Measurement results of the fabricated prototype show 112-MHz frequency shift per unit permittivity change and a normalized sensitivity of 3.9%, which are larger than available similar sensors. The proposed sensor is implemented on a 22.22 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 18.76 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 1.6 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathrm {mm}^{3}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> printed circuit board.


In this article, we address the question of regional development by arguing that a new approach motivates government policies at this level. We present the case study of a cooperative representing a strategy of a community trying to better control its socio-economic destiny. By taking charge of its destiny and influencing the rules that will preside over its socio-economic development, the community (including employees) is thus able to influence the orientation of its development according to the larger needs of the community. In other words, an opportunity is created to define socioeconomic development according not only to economic demands, but also to cultural and social ones within the community. Many situations present themselves on the continuum that goes from strictly private entrepreneurship that first and foremost satisfies the needs of the owners, to collective entrepreneurship geared towards serving the association of workers and the community's interests. Our case study demonstrates the role played by the mobilization of certain social actors in the community, in the creation of a collective enterprise. It also shows how the conditions of this entrepreneurial effort may prevent the redefinition of economic rules that would not easily allow a development based, at least in part, on the larger demands of the community.


Since the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991, Westerners have been speculating about the future of its vast and long-oppressive economy. Politicians, economists, and businesspeople alike have watched with great interest as the new Russia has scrambled to get on its feet. As support for the communists has waned and waxed, Westerners have worried: Are Russia's troubles merely the growth pains of a rich new market waiting to take off? Or should businessmen and tourists stay away? The bottom line, argue Richard Layard and John Parker, is a healthy and strong one. Democracy and free markets have taken root in Russia for good. The authors offer a soup-to-nuts analysis of the Russian economy, along with its political and social underpinnings, to demonstrate just how successful the reforms have been and what they mean for Western businessmen. Layard and Parker argue that Russia has passed the crucial point of dependency on Boris Yeltsin; it has built a successful multiparty democracy; and it has passed through the worst of the economic aftershocks of communism. Inflation is finally under control, and with the growing success of privatization, many opportunities have emerged for both Russians and foreigners. Political shifts notwithstanding, Layard and Parker foresee a bright future for Russia, graced by strong economic growth, based on private enterprise. They argue that Russia's economy will grow faster over the next twenty years than most emerging markets, and that foreigners will reap good returns from investing in its markets and its amazing natural resources. "The Coming Russian Boom" introduces Westerners to a Russia that is far healthier and more promising than the one they have read about in the papers, and shows how the greatest political-economic challenge of the post-Cold War world has become a resounding and exemplary triumph. It offers specific suggestions and guidelines for entrepreneurs, investors, and analysts. And it uses underlying economic structure to illuminate the surface confusion that will always be Russia.


This study investigated the incidence of diarrhea among HIV seropositive individuals, the enterobacterial species associated with HIV seropositivity and the antibiotic resistance profiles of the bacteria. The most frequently isolated organism was E. coli, recovered from 65 (22%) of the samples, followed by Proteus, with a frequency of 53 (18%) representing P. vulgaris 38 (13%) and P. mirabilis 15 (5%). The next in occurrence was Klebsiella pneumoniae with a frequency of 49 (17%). The genus Shigella had overall occurrence of 10% {S. dysenteraie (8%) and S. flexneri (2%)}. Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus had occurrences of 10% and 9%, respectively, while Salmonella paratyphi, S. typhi, Enterococcus faecalis and Enterobacter aerogenes had occurrences of 4%, 2.4%, 4%, and 3%, respectively. Citrobacter freundi had an occurrence of only 0.3%. Over 75% of each bacterial type isolated was from individuals with CD4 counts less than 400 cells/mm. The overall incidence of diarrhea was 27% and about 66% of these cases were in individuals with CD4 counts below 100. The bacteria predominantly associated with diarrhea were E. coli > Klebsiella pneumoniae > Shigella dystenteriae and Proteus vulgaris. Over 40% of the isolates were resistant to erythromycin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, augmentin and cotrimoxazole (trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole; TMP-SMX). Conversely, there was less than 8% resistance to ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin and


at L,.,, leaving 6 cm in the epidural space and the remainder was securely attached to the patient's back using Opsite spray and a Tegaderm dressing. The distal end of the catheter was taped up the centre of the back using a strip of Mefix dressing. On awakening, the patient was in some discomfort; when an attempt to give a bolus dose was made complete resistance to injection was encountered. On further inspection, a I .5 cm section of the catheter beneath the Mefix dressing was found to bc acutely narrowed and flattened in cross-section (Fig. l), associated with a distinct shoulder on the side proximal to the patient. The affected length of catheter was cut off, the patient end cleaned and a new filter re-attached, following which further injections were freely made and a subsequent infusion was used without difficulty. The residual portion of the catheter was removed after 48 h and appeared unaffected on visual inspection. We postulated that during the attempted or successful cannulation, the Tuohy needle was removed over the catheter but, unfortunately, the needle was not pulled in line with the catheter. Using a fresh catheter and needle we have found that if an acute angle is made between the bevel of the Tuohy needle and the direction of the catheter and further force is applied, it is possible to recreate the appearance shown in the photograph. In extreme cases the catheter may break. If the damage occurs close to the skin entry point a new catheter and approach will be required. The potential hazards of withdrawing a catheter through Fig. 1.


The Alberta government will award a total of $12 million to four projects that seek to transform carbon dioxide from waste into an asset. Two of the projects, from Solidia Technologies and CarbonCure Technologies, sequester CO2 by injecting it into concrete during the curing process. Mangrove Water Technologies, a spin-off from the University of British Columbia's chemical engineering department, is developing a reactor that converts CO2 and saline wastewater into chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and carbonate salts. And working with the Canadian start-up Lumenfab, McGill University seeks to produce fuels from CO2 and wastewater with the help of solar power.


Any learning activity, according to Celce-Murcia (1992) and Mohammed, that focuses the learner's attention on the form of a message and gives the learner the rules of usage constitutes formal grammar instruction. Grammar, however, denotes the patterning of word order and word forms indicating the relationships between concepts, ideas and objects (Heafford). The present paper looks at some approaches related to formal grammar instruction and their development in recent years, as well as some theories or conceptions for or against formal grammar teaching in the EFL/ESL classroom setting. This is an important issue, because it addresses the question of the role played by grammar. It is also an important educational issue, as language pedagogy has traditionally operated on the assumption that grammar can be taught. Grammar was taught as if it were the same as the language and as if the language were only grammar. This paper will begin with a historical review followed by a discussion of relevant issues and research. This will serve as the background for a reformulation of the role of grammar in language teaching and conclude by suggesting ways in which the evolution of grammar instruction can contribute to the related disciplines.


Abstract The Sanga Sanga PSC contains four large to giant hydrocarbon fields in Middle and Upper Miocene deltaic sandstone reservoirs. The fields are located in NNE-trending structures of the Mahakam fold belt. Section balancing of depth converted seismic lines and scaled physical modeling were conducted to determine a viable structural model for the evolution of the Mahakam fold belt. The scaled physical modeling involved testing five, previously proposed, tectonic models. A combined model of differential loading followed by contraction was also tested. The scaled physical modeling shows that gravity glide and strike-slip models do not simulate the observed structures. Contractional (thrust), inverted extensional faults and simple differential load models only partially simulate the structures. The combined tectonic model resulted in re-activation and inversion of delta growth faults to form inverted graben structures. It is the most successful model being geometrically, kinematically and mechanically viable for the evolution of the Mahakam fold belt. This is termed an inverted delta growth fault model. Section balancing indicated that the change from an overall extensional system to one of contraction started at 14.0 ma. The inversion is directionally controlled where the structures trending NNE are close to perpendicular to the applied stress and become inverted. The paleo-reconstructions indicate that, at times, structural development controlled sedimentation patterns resulting in channel orientations parallel to, or deflected by, the developing structure. The timing of growth for each structure was combined with VICO geochemical models to determine the timing of hydrocarbon generation, migration and entrapment.


Via experimental study, we illustrate how TCP modulates application traffic in such a way as to adversely affect network performance in a heterogeneous computing system. Even when aggregate application traffic smooths out as more applications' traffic are multiplexed, TCP induces burstiness into the aggregate traffic load, and thus hurts network performance. This burstiness is particularly bad in TCP Reno, and even worse when RED gateways are employed. Based on the results of this experimental study, we then develop a stochastic model for TCP Reno to demonstrate how the burstiness in TCP Reno can be modeled.


A radial basis function network (RBFN) based power system stabilizer (PSS) is presented in this paper to improve the dynamic stability of multimachine power systems. The proposed RBFN is trained over a wide range of operating conditions in order to re-tune the parameters of the PSS in real-time. Time domain simulations of a multimachine power system with different operating conditions subject to a three phase fault are studied and investigated. The performance of the proposed RBFN PSS is compared to that of conventional power system stabilizer (CPSS). The results show the good damping characteristics of the proposed RBFN PSS over a wide range of operating conditions.


Resonance Raman spectroscopy and multi‐photon tomography were used in vivo to analyse the influence of sun exposure on the cutaneous carotenoids and collagen/elastin fibers. Comparing Berlin (low sun exposure) and Monegasque (high sun exposure) volunteers, it could be demonstrated that extended sun exposure significantly reduces the cutaneous carotenoids and collagen/elastin concentration (p < 0.05). The tendency towards correlation (R2 = 0.41) between the dermal collagen/elastin (SAAID) and carotenoids confirms the important role of antioxidants in the protection against sun‐induced negative effects. The application of sunscreen was shown to be effective, protecting cutaneous carotenoids and collagen/elastin from being damaged subsequent to sun exposure. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Abstract This article describes chiShona verb meaning using the event-based semantics approach. The analysis adopted in this article is couched within the framework first introduced by Davidson and then developed by many other scholars including Parsons, Dowty, Rapoport, Landman and Rothstein. The main aim is to have an appreciation of secondary predication as one way of dealing with verb semantics. This outline will use chiShona to show what true depictives are and how they behave, as well as proving that certain features of depictives, highlighted in literature, are not found in other languages of the world. It will be argued that in the chiShona language the subject and object orientation of the depictives is influenced by the overt agreement marking system. While in other languages, like English, it is argued that object-oriented depictives of activity verbs are ungrammatical, chiShona provides evidence as one of the languages where both subject-oriented and object-oriented depictives are grammatical. The arguments raised here inform future work on chiShona semantics and event semantics in general.


Given the serious situation of school violence detected in the IES "Albariza", it was decided to measure the classroom climate on a sample of 895 students by questionnaire Arora (1994) replied that only 601 subjects (303 girls and 298 boys). Descriptively analyzes the data to find some empirical evidence on the significant difference of hostility between the sexes. It also presents preliminary data on the validity, reliability and normative values of the protocol Arora (1994) in a Spanish sample, with the purpose of their adaptation and application for evaluation of bullying in our country.