Significance Populations of large-bodied mammals are declining at an alarming rate. Their decline has serious ecosystem consequences because they have important functional roles that are not replicated by smaller-bodied animals. Understanding how their decline or potential extinction will influence ecosystem processes is critically important and time-sensitive. Here, we use the paleorecord as an analogy for modern biodiversity loss. We examine consequences of the terminal-Pleistocene megafauna extinction on a mammal community from the Edwards Plateau, Texas by characterizing changes in animal body size and dietary isotopic niche before and after the event. We find significant reorganization of the community, particularly among carnivores, a loss of ecological complexity, and many vacant niches. The loss of complexity likely meant a reduction in ecosystem resilience.


(Schaetzl and Anderson, 2005). As mentioned above, most of the tephra-derived soils in Japan are formed by upbuilding pedogenesis and may be described as multisequal soils. At the present day, theories concerning pedogenesis of tephra-derived soils in Japan are changing from long-established theories. The soils in the regions having numerous active volcanoes occur distinctive pedogenesis unlike in non-volcanic regions.


Simple Summary Mammary glands are exocrine tissue, capable of secreting adequate amounts of milk protein during lactation. Each mammary gland is occupied by numerous alveoli. Each alveolus is composed of a single layer of mammary epithelial cells, adipose tissue, and ducts. Recent studies indicate that mild heat treatment of mammary epithelial cells at 39 °C has activated milk production. These results suggest that temperature may influence the physiological functions of mammary epithelial cells. In this study, we found that the temperature-sensitive transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) was involved in the increase of β-casein and TJ protein-encoding gene expression in response to mild heat treatment. On the other hand, severe heat treatment (41 °C) reduced the cell viability. Moreover, the Trpv4 mRNA level was significantly increased at Day 15 of gestation when the mammary alveoli are formed. TRPV4 is activated not only by temperature but also by mechanical forces that guide mammary epithelial development in the normal mammary gland. Our data suggest that TRPV4 has a possible function in mammary gland development. Abstract Mild heat stress (39 °C–40 °C) can positively regulate cell proliferation and differentiation. Indeed, mild heat treatment at 39 °C enhances the less-permeable tight junctions (TJs) formation and milk production in mammary epithelial cells. However, the molecular mechanisms of this response have not yet been delineated. In this study, the involvement of temperature-sensitive transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) in the increase of β-casein and TJ protein-encoding gene expression in response to mild heat treatment (39 °C) has been explored using HCll mouse mammary epithelial cells. Severe heat treatment (41 °C) induced the transcriptional level of Chop (C/EBP homologous protein; proapoptotic marker) and reduced the cell viability. It is speculated that the difference in unfolded protein response (UPR) gene expression upon stimulation at 39 °C vs. 41 °C controls cell survival vs. cell death. The accumulation of Trpv4 mRNA was significantly higher in 39 °C heat treatment cells. The β-casein, Zo-1 (zona occludens-1), Ocln (occludin), and Cldn3 (claudin 3) transcript levels were significantly increased in response to the addition of a selective TRPV4 channel agonist (GSK1016790A) at 37 °C. TRPV4 stimulation with GSK1016790A also increased the X-box-binding protein 1 splicing form (Xbp1s) at the transcript level. The increase in the mRNA levels of β-casein, Zo-1, Ocln, and Cldn3 in response to 39 °C heat treatment was suppressed by XBP1 knockdown. Moreover, the transcript level of Trpv4 was significantly increased at Day 15 of gestation, and its expression declined after 1 day of lactation. TRPV4 is activated not only by temperature but also by mechanical forces, such as cell stretching and shear stress, which guide mammary epithelial development in a normal mammary gland. These findings provide new insights of the possible function of TRPV4 in mammary gland development.


Background: Painfully decreased cervical range of motion accompanied by muscle spasm is a common presentation of whiplash injury of the neck. Stiffness of the cervical muscles can be assessed by ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE), expressed in kilopascals (kPa). The hypothesis: SWE of the trapezius muscle is an objective measurement suitable for the initial screening and follow-up of patients who report whiplash injury. Methods and results: A total of 99 patients after whiplash injury were compared to 75 control participants. Mean trapezius stiffness was 82.24 ± 21.11 vs. 57.47 ± 13.82 for whiplash patients and controls, respectively. The cut-off value of SWE of 75.8 kPa showed 77% accuracy in correctly assigning patients to the whiplash or control group. To evaluate whether SWE can be used as a follow-up method of recovery after a whiplash injury, initial and endpoint SWE (after six months, n = 24) was carried out. Patients reporting no recovery showed similar SWE values as completely recovered patients. This finding refutes the second part of our hypothesis. Conclusions: SWE is a method that can be used for the initial screening of patients with whiplash injury, but we are still searching for an objective measurement that can be used in the follow-up of recovery.


Background: Chronic coccydynia is an annoying condition and is characterized by pain in the tail bone. Most cases are treated conservatively initially but failed conservative management calls for interventions of various type. One of the interventions in the armamentarium of the orthopaedic surgeon is a ganglion impar block. The present study aimed at assessing the outcome of ganglion impar block in chronic coccydynia.
Methods: This prospective study of five years duration included 27 patients with chronic coccydynia with failed conservative treatment. Visual analogue score (VAS) and Oswestry disability index (ODI) were used to quantify pain and the improvement in symptoms. Minimum final follow-up was two years.
Results: The mean VAS and ODI scores pre-injection were 5.98±1.86 and 52.13±2.13, respectively. The mean VAS and ODI scores at final follow-up were 2.47±1.65 and 23.59±2.34, respectively. The improvement in the above objective scores was found to be statistically significant with a p=0.00257 for VAS score and 0.00425 for ODI score. One patient developed syncope post-injection and one patient complained of superficial injection site pain which persisted for three weeks. No significant or major complication was encountered.
Conclusions: Ganglion impar block appears to be a very impressive modality of treatment for chronic coccydynia in view of the simplicity, ease and reproducibility of the technique along with minimal complication rates. However, randomized control trials with large sample size are recommended.


This paper describes a method which treats compound features by extending the feature modeling technique for primitive features. The compound features, that are user-defined features, are represented using symbolical description for topological and geometrical constraints similarly as that for the product model with Face-based representation. The compound features can be defined, displayed on the graphics, stored in or retrieved from the data base, attached to a product model and modified by changing parameters. Some techniques are demonstrated such as representing the feature model symbolically, preventing duplicated registration of the same type of feature, and retrieving the feature type according to the users' specification.


Data of Bouguer anomaly consist of superposition of local and regional components. Seperation has been done to obtain local and regional anomalies which not influence one to another so the interpretation could be taken more accurately. Polynomial Least Square under MATLAB was applied to separate local – regional anomalies. The result showed that second order polynomial is the best order which has been choosen to estimate the regional data anomaly of gravity data for study case in Bandar Lampung, and the interpretation has resulted good local anomaly. Keywords : Bouguer anomaly, polinomial least square, regional anomaly, local anomaly


SYNOPSIS. The embankment dams to Banbury Reservoir and Lockwood have a history of high level leakage, clay core repairs and TWL restrictions. Current TWL restrictions posed a risk of damage to the kneeler beam of Banbury Reservoir during storms, whilst on Lockwood Reservoir undermining of the kneeler beam and associated slabing due to exposure to wave action was actively occurring. In seeking relaxation of the restrictions to mitigate damage, and to recover potential storage capacity, Thames Water were requested by the AR Panel Engineer to complete a desiccation assessment. This paper describes the principles and techniques adopted for the desiccation assessment of the clay cores, including laboratory testing of high quality samples and the installation and monitoring of two arrays of GeO flushable piezometers. Visual inspection did not identify desiccation cracks within the cores, although there is evidence that the cores have previously been desiccated to greater depth. The potential of desiccation processes is highlighted, with the monitoring of pore pressures within the clay cores demonstrating the seasonal activity and depth within the clays cores to which suctions can be experienced.


Appropriate glycemic control is very important goal in diabetic patients receiving insulin therapy. Insulin is administered subcutaneously using an insulin pen or conventional syringe. The present study was carried out to compare the level of satisfaction of diabetic patients receiving insulin with insulin pen and conventional syringe. A descriptive survey design was used for the study. A total of 100 diabetic patients were selected randomly who were receiving insulin. 50 patients were using insulin pen and 50 were using conventional syringe device to receive insulin. A likert scale was used to assess the level of satisfaction of patient with use of insulin pen and conventional syringe for receiving insulin. Patients who were using insulin pen were significantly more satisfied with various aspects of insulin experience like convenient, easy to carry, dose accuracy, pain etc.


Dictionary data structures are very important structures in design of algorithms, and find much use in various applications such as sorting, searching symbol-table, and decision table implementations. Such a data structure consists of a set Sof data elements, each of which is composed of a key-record pair K = (k,r), where k is the key used for searching the data element K, and r is the associated record or a pointer to the record stored in a different set. A dictionary machine is required to support the following instructions: Insert, Delete, and Member. Insert adds a new element to S, Delete removes an existing element from S, and Member determines if a certain element belongs to S. Various solutions have been proposed to parallelise the operations of dictionary machines. these comprise of solutions in form of machine architectures designed to perform dictionary operations efficiently, and of algorithms that allow concurrent access to search data structures. It has been shown that if a dictionary operation is executed by a number of processors in parallel, then the best speed-up possible is logarithmic in the number of processors. This renders such an approach unattractive. The approaches, therefore, have been to increase the total throughput in dictionary operations by increasing the number of instructions that can be handled by the machine at the same time rather than to speed-up individual instructions. The work reported in this thesis first presents two methods based on general purpose computing platforms for multiple accesses to dictionary search structures. Next. certain characteristics of the algorithms for dictionary operations are noted and a new processor coupling architecture, MC machine, is presented on which those can he implemented efficiently. The presented architecture is shown to he useful for a number of other engineering and scientific applications. Finally, a dictionary machine based on MC machine is presented to show the simplicity of implementation and efficiency of its performance on this architecture. Most of the work in parallel dictionary operations has been done for single dimensional search problems. In this work we first present a lockcoupled solution for accessing a multi-dimensional search tree, viz., kHBtree, concurrently by a number of processes. One important aspect of the approach followed is that it reduces the accesses in the tree only to a small closed portion of the tree, also it has another advantage of having a fixed upper bound on the total number of locks held by a process. The proposed solution is clearly applicable for AVL trees which are kHB trees with k = 1. The solution is shown to be simpler and providing some improvements over the solutions proposed for AVL trees. Next, a method is presented to handle multiple accesses to B+-tree over an array of message passing processors. The method utilises pipelined access to the tree by distributing the tree levels among the processors in the array. The main ideas here were to develop a dictionary machine based on general purpose computing platform, and to do away with the problem of memory access contentions faced in shared memory systems. The objectives achieved in this method are, firstly, achieving a coarse grained dictionary machine with a small number of processors connected in a simple topology (linear array). And secondly, performing load balaricing among the processors along with the execution of dictionary operations which increases the pipeline interval only by a constant. This results in a an improvement in throughput which is linear in the number of processors. Timing measurements carried out by implementing this method verified the performance of this scheme. Based on an observation about a typical characteristic of most search


The aim of this work was to create a computer program, written in the MATLAB environment, which enables the visualization and analysis of hemodynamic parameters recorded during a passive tilt test using the CNS Task Force Monitor System. The application was created to help in the assessment of the relationship between the values and dynamics of changes of the selected parameters and the risk of orthostatic syncope. The signal analysis included: R-R intervals (RRI), heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (sBP), diastolic blood pressure (dBP), mean blood pressure (mBP), stroke volume (SV), stroke index (SI), cardiac output (CO), cardiac index (CI), total peripheral resistance (TPR), total peripheral resistance index (TPRI), ventricular ejection time (LVET) and thoracic fluid content (TFC). The program enables the user to visualize waveforms for a selected parameter and to perform smoothing with selected moving average parameters. It allows one to construct the graph of means for any range, and the Poincare plot for a selected time range. The program automatically determines the average value of the parameter before tilt, its minimum and maximum value immediately after changing positions and the times of their occurrence. It is possible to correct the automatically detected points manually. For the RR interval, it determines the acceleration index (AI) and the brake index (BI). It is possible to save calculated values to an XLS with a name specified by user. The application has a user-friendly graphical interface and can run on a computer that has no MATLAB software.


A new way of person authentication based on retina pattern is presented in this paper. It consists of retina feature extraction, template generation and finally matching the patterns. Our proposed method initially involves segmentation process to identify blood vessel intersection points in the retina, then the generation of template consisting of the bifurcation points in the blood vessels and finally matching of the intersection points in different patterns. The number of matched blood vessel intersection points between two patterns is used to quantify the degree of matching. The validity of our approach is then verified with the experimental results. Also we have made a performance analysis by using the DRIVE database and found that the proposed retina recognition method gives us 100% accuracy rate.


MANY DIFFERENT PLASTICS and processes are used to encapsulate and protect the sensitive inner workings of electronic devices. Thanks to a new technology, it is now possible to combine the encapsulation of the electronics and the production of the housing in a single step. Only one material is needed, namely polyurethane, as this product is ideally equipped to meet the many stringent specifications that relate, for example, to the mechanical and thermal properties. In the production of IT equipment, in automotive and mechanical engineering, in process engineering and in many other branches of industry, the number of electrical and electronic components such as plugs, cables, contacts and circuits is increasing at a rapid rate. The functions of such parts are becoming increasingly complex and, due to the trend towards miniaturization, the parts themselves are becoming smaller and smaller. In most cases, they also have complex geometries because their shape is governed by the available space. At the same time, the demands made on functional reliability are very high. For example, plug contacts have to be reliably protected from oxidation and moisture. The insulating layer of moving cables must be resistant to abrasion, and cable harnesses in the engine compartment, for example, have to be able to permanently withstand temperatures of up to 130 °C without any deterioration in their mechanical properties. In order to successfully combine such properties as sealing characteristics, temperature and chemical resistance, shaping, dimensional stability, abrasion resistance and electrical insulation, electrical and electronic components have, until now, been "packaged" in a wide variety of different plastics designed to meet specific requirements. Examples include rubber and nitrile sleeves, PVC, polyester and polyamide sheathing, polypropylene, corrugated hose and hot-melt casting compounds. For the manufacturer, this means he must be familiar with the processing of the respective plastics and must invest in the relevant technologies. This can mean enormous logistical expense. At the same time, he is under heavy cost and time pressure. Frequently, the electronic components are so small and delicate that it is virtually impossible to provide them with thermoplastic sleeves or sheathing accurately and cost-effectively.


Dynamic compaction is a very effective method of ground improvement,but the research of the deformation rules of the ground settlement improved by dynamic compaction is still not enough.The grey system theory then is deployed to analyse the various factors that affect the settlement of dynamic compaction,and also the field data is analysed and the results indicate that concerning to the influences all the factors imposed on accumulated settlement sequence in the order of influential power is as follows: drop height of hammer energy of tamping times of tamping diameter of hammer weight of hammer.An empirical formula of dynamic compaction accumulated settlement of enrockment ground can then be presented by comparing the actual results of further real on-site dynamic compaction with simulated results derived from former data.


Objective To investigate whether serum adiponectin is a risk factor of acute myocardial infarction(AMI). Methods By enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)methods,the fasting levels of serum adiponectin were measured in 28 patients with AMI accompanied with DM,33 patients only with AMI,25 patients only with DM,and 30 healthy controls.The fasting plasma glucose(FPG),total cholesterol(TC),triglyceride(TG),LDL-C,HDL-C were measured simultaneously. Results The levels of serum adiponectin were significantly lower in AMI patients accompanied with DM,AMI patients and DM patients than that in healthy controls(P0.05).The levels of serum adiponectin were positively correlated with HDL-C,but negatively with BMI,FPG,TC,TG and LDL-C.Low concentration of adiponectin was an independent risk factor of AMI. Conclusion Serum adiponectin is a risk factor of acute myocardial infarction.


The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, through the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), mandates increased use of biofuels, including cellulosic biofuels. The RFS is expected to spur the development of advanced biofuel technologies (e.g., new and innovative biofuel conversion pathways) as well as the construction of biorefineries (refineries that produce biofuels) using these technologies. To develop sustainable cellulosic biofuels, one of the goals of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) at the Department of Energy is to minimize air pollutants from the entire biofuel supply chain, as stated in their 2014 Multi-Year Program Plan (2014). Although biofuels in general have been found to have lower life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to petroleum fuels on an energy basis, biomass feedstock production, harvesting, transportation, processing and conversion are expected to emit a wide range of other air pollutants (e.g., criteria air pollutants, hazardous air pollutants), which could affect the environmental benefits of biofuels when displacing petroleum fuels. While it is important for policy makers, air quality planners and regulators, biofuel developers, and investors to understand the potential implications on air quality from a growing biofuel industry, there is a general lack of information and knowledge about the type, fate andmore » magnitude of potential air pollutant emissions from the production of cellulosic biofuels due to the nascent stage of this emerging industry. This analysis assesses potential air pollutant emissions from a hypothetical biorefinery, selected by BETO for further research and development, which uses a biological conversion process of sugars to hydrocarbons to produce infrastructural-compatible renewable diesel blendstock from cellulosic biomass.« less


Irradiation of solutions of the azepinoindole (1) in methanol or ethanol gives the 6- and 9-alkoxy-6,9-dihydroazepinoindoles (5), (24), (4), and (23); the other major products are the benzo[b]cyclobuta[hi]indolizines (6) and (25). Other substituted azepinoindoles (7)–(10) give correspondingly substituted methanol addition products. The 8-methylazepinoindole (9) also gives an 8,9-dihydro-8-methoxyazepinoindole (18), and the 7,9-dimethylazepinoindole (10) gives a 6,7-dihydro-7-methoxyazepinoindole (22). A mechanism is proposed for these reactions, and some confirmatory evidence provided by the irradiation of the azepinoindole (1) in methan[2H]-ol. The azepinoindoles (9) and (10) were synthesized by decomposition of the corresponding o-azido-phenylmethylbenzene.


A series of CeO2-ZrO2-Al2O3 oxygen storage materials were prepared by co-precipitation method and characterized by means of X-ray diffraction(XRD),low temperature nitrogen adsorption-desorption,oxygen storage capacity(OSC) and H2-temperature programmed reduction(H2-TPR).The results of XRD show that the phase structure of CZA are not changed by the addition of Y~(3+) and Bi~(3+),and all samples remain the single cubic fluorite structure after calcination at 600℃ and 1000℃.According to the results of low temperature nitrogen adsorption,the textural properties and thermal stability of Ce0.6Zr0.3Y0.1O1.95-Al2O3(CZYA)make a great progress after the introduction of Y~(3+),and after calcination at 1000℃ for 5h,specific surface area and pore volume of CZYA achieve 80.75m2/g and 0.22mL/g,respectively.The results of OSC and H2-TPR show that co-doping Y~(3+) and Bi~(3+) into CZA exhibit positive effect on OSC of the materials.The OSC of Ce0.6Zr0.2Y0.1Bi0.1O1.9-Al2O3(CZYBA)calcinated at 600℃ and 1000℃ reach 461μmol/g and 242μmol/g,respectively.Meanwhile the redox property of CZYBA is enhanced,the reduction peak temperature can be reduced from 546℃ to 429℃ after calcination at 1000℃ for 5h.


A new kind of pre-aiming method is proposed in this paper. The method which based on image identification and curve scanning is used to realize terminal auto-pointing in ground laser communication validation experiment. Firstly, detect position of indication cursor and reference cursor according to the color character of image, and then estimate the diameter of target circle. Propose a predictable parameter Hough transform algorithm, it can effectively reduce the void detection and can accurately identify the location of center. Then calculate compensate angle between the centre and indication cursor. Simulation platform respectively drives azimuth and pitch motors rotation compensation angle, so that the indicate laser will target terminal. At last, compare four kinds of capture scan mode, and give a capture beacon process with rose curve scan. Experimental results indicate that this method can detect the target exactly, and the calculate time is 0.59s; also it has perfect anti-jamming character. The method satisfies the requirements of auto- detect and rapid point between two communicate terminal.


Pattern recognition systems that use optical systems are primarily oriented at using the inherent parallel processing capability of optical systems. Recent advances in marrying the parallel processing of optical processors and serial digital processing are optimizing the best of both approaches and providing a methodology for learning or adaptive processing systems. Examples of these hybrid system developments will be shown along with a generalized approach to modeling an adaptive processor with Weiner-Kolmogorov prefiltering.


To the Editor:

I read with interest the recent article by Weis et al1 that investigated the effects of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, or statins, on angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo. The report, along with recent publications,2-4⇓⇓ raised clinical interest in the potential use of statins for therapeutic angiogenesis to treat patients with ischemic diseases. On the other hand, there is a growing concern that statins may promote tumor growth, diabetic retinopathy, and atherosclerosis, by stimulating angiogenesis. If this were the case, we should reconsider the clinical use of statins, although recent evidence suggests that statins exert a number of beneficial effects, even in normocholesterolemic patients.

Statins have been widely used to lower cholesterol levels for >10 years …


Electrical breakdown and conduction of PET films has been investigated above room temperature. The breakdown process above 140°C has been discussed quantitatively with theoretical equations based on the theories of impulse thermal breakdown and hopping conduction. Besides, a significant space charge effect on the electric breakdown was observed below Tg.


This paper gives a online-calculation on the operating standard value of the main monitor parameters of thermodynamic system and lays emphasis on the difference from heater and the press loss of the extract steam pipe. The computing model of the spray desuperheating is put forward. On the base of them, a 300 MW-turbine set of a power plant is being studied and calculated. There is some significance of the standard value of the thermodynamic system for guiding operating, online analyzing and the monitoring fault.


Starting from immemorial time; peoples traditionally used herbs and plants to treat different human and animals ailments. This initiated scientists to investigate on traditional medicinal plants and herbs for biological activities by checking through bioassay and then isolating the bioactive constituents from biologically active medicinal plants and herbs. The different parts of Carissa carandas have been used for various human ailments. It has been used by traditional healers in the treatment of scabies, intestinal worms, pruritus, biliousness, snake-bite/poisoning, astringent, anemia, stomachache, diarrhea, rheumatism, earache, anthelmintic, female libido, hyperdipsia, anorexia, intermittent, mouth ulcer and sore throat, syphilitic pain, burning sensation fever, biliary dysfunction and also used as appetizer, antimicrobial, anti-fungal, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-scorbutic. Its biological activities have been reported by different researchers as hepatoprotective, neuropharmacological, anticancer, antioxidant, anticonvulsant, antiulcer, anthelmintic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular, antinociceptive, anti-diabetic, anti-pyretic, cardiotonic, histamine releasing, DNA damage inhibition, constipation, anti-diarrheal, antihyperlipidemic, antibacterial, antiviral, cytotoxic potential and diuretic. Its phytochemical constituents which impart medicinal value to the plant was reported as alkaloids, carbohydrates, glycosides, unsaturated sterols, phenolics, saponins, flavonoids, steroids, triterpenoids, tannins, proteins, cardiac glycosides, phytosterol, phlobatannins, leucoanthocyanin, chalcones, coumarin, anthracyanin, emodin, minerals acids, vitamins and anthraquinone glycosides. So far 14 compounds have been isolated from roots, 40 compounds from fruits and 19 compounds from leafs. These compounds include phenolic, alkaloids, sterols, terpenoids, simple acids, simple ester, sesquiterpenes, carboxylate, amino acids, glucose and galactose, sterols glycosides, phenolic lignin. Hence we reviewed the traditional uses, extraction methods, pharmacological uses and phytochemical constituents of Carissa carandas.


Physiology Understanding (PhUn) week is the American Physiological Society's K‐12 outreach program. In general, PhUn week consists of hands‐on activities and presentations, which incorporate the understanding of physiology through interactive fun. In 2017, our PhUn week activity reached 24 seventh‐grade students and they performed three activities using electronic physiology data acquisition systems (Biopac MP40). Even though previous PhUn week events were already structured, we wanted to reach more school‐grade students. Therefore, we collaborated with Tippin Elementary School in El Paso, Texas and its whole second grade (96 students) and teachers (5). Because of the larger demand, we designed 6 different activities to be performed at PhUn week: Reaction time, changes in heart rate with exercise, and electromyography activity with different exercises (Biopac MP40, previously performed) and three new activities (i.e. respiratory system, sensory system, and cardiovascular system). In addition, we recruited 14 more undergraduate students, from the Bachelors in Rehabilitation Sciences at UTEP, and trained them in the use of Biopac MP40 and the new activities. The UTEP undergraduate students that participated in PhUn week the previous year performed this training. The day of the presentation, the multipurpose room of the school was converted into a physiology activity room with six different stations (2 of each) for a total of twelve set up for the students to rotate between. The stations were the reaction time station, electromyography station, electrocardiogram station, a station where students built a working model of the diaphragm and lungs, a sensory challenge station where students searched in a bin of rice for miscellaneous objects, and finally an interactive working model of the heart. We were able to do 15‐minute rotations so all 96 second grade students were able to visit each station. The students, teachers, and other Tippin faculty, as well as UTEP students had a lot of fun and learned about physiology at the same time. We could see the excitement and effect the event left on the young students as many left excited about science, which is the main goal of PhUn week. Overall, it was a great experience that required a lot of preparation and training but was worth the impact it had on the students involved.


This article analyzes neologisms (occasionalisms) appearing in the Ukrainian-language segment of the social network Facebook, which is the most popular network in Ukraine nowadays. Neologisms proved to be the most numerous among the occasionalisms under analysis. They demonstrate negative evaluation connotation primarily that of contempt. The said negative connotations are explicated via word-forming transformations. The most productive and frequent transformations registered in web discourse are: intentional low-case spelling of proper names such as toponyms (official, historical, colloquial or borrowed names of countries and territories), polysonyms, anthroponyms, names of the highest state institutions; metatheses that distort word structure, paronomasic addition, replacement or capitalizing of letters, "graphic transcription", etc. The article focuses on novel secondary designation units that express negative evaluation denoting countries, citizenship, individual nicknames. The paper argues that neologisms generated and used in Ukrainian Facebook reflect individual pragmatics of expressing contempt towards constituents the surrounding reality. The article highlights various structural modifications and "word play" involved in the formation of respective secondary designation units


Treatment of the cluster [Os6(CO)18] with Me3NO in the presence of [OsH2(CO)4] affords the new heptanuclear cluster compounds [Os7H2(CO)22](1) and [Os7H2(CO)21](2), and the known compound [Os7H2(CO)20](3), which have been shown by X-ray diffraction studies to exhibit novel metal geometries; these clusters are interconvertible by stepwise loss (and, in one case, gain) of CO.


An analytic solution to the extended mild-slope equation is derived for long waves propagating over an axi-symmetric pit, where the water depth decreases in proportion to a power of radial distance from the pit center. The solution is obtained using the method of separation of variables and the method of Frobenius. By comparing the extended and conventional mild-slope equations for waves propagating over conical pits with different bottom slopes, it is shown that for long waves the conventional mild-slope equation is reasonably accurate for bottom slopes less than 1:3 in horizontal twodimensional domains. The effects of the pit shape on wave scattering are discussed based on the analytic solutions for different powers. Comparison is also made with an analytic solution for a cylindrical pit with a vertical sidewall. Finally, wave attenuation in the region over the pit is discussed.


The main purpose of this investigation was to rank, in hierarchical order, some soil chemical factors that impact the sorption parameters of fecal indicator bacteria and Salmonella sp, during their transfer from soil surface to the groundwater table. Sorption coefficients (Kf) and linearity exponents (Ϫ) were obtained using the Freundlich isotherm. When Salmonella sp was present alone, the values of Kf varied from 2.70 log units mg−1 to 7.84 log units mg−1 of soil, and Ϫ varied from 0.04 to 2.70. When the two fecal indicator bacteria were present, Kf varied from 0.48 log units mg−1 to 8.53 log units mg−1 of soil, and Ϫ varied from 0.06 to 1.19. When fecal indicator bacteria and Salmonella sp were mixed, Kf varied from 1.73 log units mg−1 to 7.70 log units mg−1 of soil, and Ϫ varied from 0.09 to 0.88. The predominant factors controlling each sorption parameter varied with respect to soil layer and the bacterial species involved.


Recent studies of compressive microfracture have suggested strongly that stress-induced microcracks in competent rocks are tensile, rather than shear, are axial in orientation, and responsible for observed dilatant and hysteretic effects. The purpose of this note is to demonstrate, using existing results, that the growth of such microcracks can also explain the strain rate dependence of compressive strength in limestone, and probably in many other rock types as well. (Author/TRRL)


The effect of different barrier properties packaging materials (PE, PET, PVC) on the shelf life of the shelled fresh bamboo shoots were studied. The effection of packaging materials were assessed by the sensory evaluation and the changes of their moisture content, ash content, total sugar content and protein content during storage time. The results showed that the shelled bamboo shoots in conditions at 10 °C with the packaging of PVC and PET have the better quality and longer shelf life than which with the packaging of PE and no packaging at the room temperature.


Aggregated journal‐journal citations can be used for mapping the intellectual organization of the sciences in terms of specialties because the latter can be considered as interreading communities. Can the journal‐journal citations also be used as early indicators of change by comparing the files for two subsequent years? Probabilistic entropy measures enable us to analyze changes in large datasets at different levels of aggregation and in considerable detail. Compares Journal Citation Reports of the Social Science Citation Index for 1999 with similar data for 1998 and analyzes the differences using these measures. Compares the various indicators with similar developments in the Science Citation Index. Specialty formation seems a more important mechanism in the development of the social sciences than in the natural and life sciences, but the developments in the social sciences are volatile. The use of aggregate statistics based on the Science Citation Index is ill‐advised in the case of the social sciences because of structural differences in the underlying dynamics.


The creation of sacred spaces has played a central role during the evolution of christian faith and culture. The main source of inspiration has been the word of the Bible which describes the design of the Holy Place as told by God to the chosen ones at various times. The divine models have been filled with symbolic meanings by Holy Fathers and Byzantine theologians. Thus, the understanding of their writings and the Holy Bible come first when analysing the sacred spaces of the Eastern Church. This article presents the main concepts regarding the Church, it's architecture and spiritual meaning, of three Byzantine thinkers – Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor and Symeon of Thessalonike.


The rapid increase of the number of children being born in cohabitation appears to have an important impact on their lives, since they face a higher risk of parental breakup than children born in wedlock. This article aims to provide a cross-national overview of the living arrangements of children following breakup of cohabiting unions and to investigate whether the post-dissolution living arrangements differ between formerly cohabiting and married families. Analyzing the first wave of Generations and Gender Survey for 9 European countries shows that former cohabiters are not more or less likely to establish shared physical custody of their children than formerly married couples; however, formerly cohabiting fathers are somehow less likely to have sole custody of their children. The lower odds of sole-father custody among former cohabiters are caused by the selection of individuals into cohabiting unions (i.e., different demographic characteristics of cohabiting parents and union duration).


The critical loads of acid deposition for
ecosystems in South China are studied by combining ecosystem sensitivity with site specific
studies, which are done using MAGIC model. A critical load map of acid deposition for
ecosystems in South China with a resolution of 1°×1° is produced. The result showed that
the critical loads of sulfur for ecosystems in South China vary from 2.3~5.2 g/m 2a and
increase from the southeast to the northwest on the whole. The four most sensitive areas where
the critical loads are less than 3.0 g/m 2a are the south of Zhejiang Province, the areas
between Fujian and Guangdong Provinces, the southwest part of Guizhou Province and the
central part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.


Recent UNHCR (2015) figures indicate that 21.3 million people were identified as refugees in 2015 and that these numbers are the highest in the world since World War II.1 The vast majority of these individuals, 86 %, seek refuge within low-resource or "developing" countries neighboring areas of conflict. In 2015, there was an influx of over 1 million refugees traveling hazardous routes to get to Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among other countries. 25 % of these refugees were children (ibid.). The current role of media as a tool for teaching and learning among young people – children, adolescents, and young adults – who are refugees, as well as about the current refugee crisis for non-refugee young people, is both critical and complicated. In a digital media landscape, the dissemination and reproduction of content related to the refugee crisis ranges from news articles to video footage, to posts on social media and digital games. Each of these and other forms of information and communication are widely available through internetenabled mobile phones, tablets, and computers, as well as through more conventional forms of media like film, television, and radio. Each medium can influence how digital media users understand and interact with people experiencing forced migration as well as how media users understand the larger political context of this global problem. Critical media analysis of the refugee context matters because representations and information in the public domain inform public knowledge about refugees and can impact how refugee persons are treated, particularly in host communities; these narratives can also impact how refugee persons perceive themselves as valued (or undervalued) insiders/outsiders throughout their forced migration.


The authors first present an exact expression for the Prabhu general upper bound on error probability of the canonical binary system with noise and interference in terms of a modified Bessel function. This bound is tighter than the modified Chernoff bound and simpler than a recent approximation. Secondly, the new expression is used to evaluate the error rate of an optically preamplified direct-detection optical receiver and is shown to provide tighter estimates of the error probability than either the Chernoff or modified Chernoff bounds for amplifier gains of practical interest.


For the equation x" + q(t)x 0, let x(t) be a solution with consecutive zeroes at t = a and t b. A simple ipequality is proven that relates not only a and b to the integral of q (t) but also any point c e (a, b) where |x(t)j is maximized. As a corollary, it is shown that if the above equation is oscillatory and if q (t) e LP[O. oe), 1 (b a). Since (b a)2/4 > (t a)(b t) for t E (a, b), equation (2) that (3) (b a)2 fb q+(t) dt > (b a),


The iterative nature of Grover's quantum search algorithm may limit the feasibility of its implementation on quantum computers having relatively short coherence times. It may be possible to make a parallel version of the algorithm by extracting partial information about the solution after a limited number of iterations. Here we investigate the use of positive operator value measurements to reduce the coherence time requirements of Grover's algorithm. The utilization of single qubit measurements on multiple copies of the output after a single iteration is analyzed.


Summary
An animal trauma triage (ATT) scoring system was devised to provide stratification of veterinary trauma patient populations based upon severity of injury. A retrospective population of 101 trauma patients and a prospective population of 88 patients were used to evaluate the predictive power of the ATT scoring system for survival seven days after initial presentation of the emergency service. In Both groups, the mean ATT score for survivors was significantly lower than the mean ATT score for non-survivors. In a logistic regression mode, the ATT score was found to be a significant predictor of the likelihood of survival seven days after initial presentation for both populartions. Each point increase in the ATT score resulted in a 2.3–2.6 times decreased likelihood of survival. The ATT scoring system is a useful objective classification scheme for predicting the likelihood to survive a traumatic incident and can serve as prototype for severity of injuroy scoring systems for the veterinary trauma patient.


After industrial robots came into existence during 1960, the technology of robotics with the design and analysis of robots in various forms in industries as well as in domestic applications were developed. Nowadays, along with the automotive sector the robots are producing a great impact in the form of quality and production rate to register their existence reliable in various other sectors also. Robotic technology has undergone various phase translations from being tortured as humanoids to the present day manipulators. Depending upon the various forms of its existence, robot manipulators are designed as serial manipulators and parallel manipulators. Individually both types can be proved effective though both have various drawbacks in design and the kinematic analysis. The versatility of robots can be increased by making them work in an environment where the same work volume is shared by more than one manipulator. This work volume can be identified as co-operative work volume of those manipulators. Here the interference of manipulators in the work volume of other manipulators is possible and is made obstacle free. The main advantage of co-operative manipulators is that when a number of independent manipulators are put together in a cooperative work envelope the efficiency and ability to perform tasks is greatly enhanced. The main disadvantage of the co-operative manipulators lies in the complication of its design even for a simple application, in almost all fields. In this paper, a cooperative design of robot manipulators to work in co-operative work environment is done and analysed for its efficacy. In the industrial applications when robotic manipulators are put together in more numbers, the trajectory planning becomes the tough task in the work cell. Proper design can remove the design defects of the cooperative manipulators and can be utilized in a more efficient way. In the proposed research paper an analysis is made on such a type of cooperative manipulator used for climbing stairs with three leg design and anlaysis were also done on the mechanism integrated to the system. Kinematics of the legs are analysed separately and the legs are designed to carry a maximum of 175kgs, which is sustained by the center leg and shared by the dual wing legs equally during the walking phase. In the proposed design, screwjack mechanism is used as the central leg to share the load and thus the analysis on the load sharing capability of the whole system is analysed and concluded in terms of failure modes.


Evaluation is about change. As Carol Weiss reminds us, "Evaluation is a practical craft, designed to help make programs work better and to allocate resources to better programs. Evaluators expect people in authority to use evaluation results to take wise action. They take satisfaction from the chance to contribute to social betterment" (1998, p. 5). Speaking to this central purpose of evaluation, a broad range of topics related to utilization have been explored in the evaluation literature, including the conceptualization of evaluation use (Leviton & Hughes, 1981), concepts of research use (Cousins & Shulha, 2006; Hofstetter & Alkin, 2003), and empirical research on utilization (Cousins & Leithwood, 1986; Cousins & Shulha, 2006; Hofstetter & Alkin, 2003). At root, all of these contributions are about how evaluation brings about change, how evaluation contributes to social betterment. Sharing this overarching purpose, improvement science is an approach to increasing knowledge that leads to an improvement of a product, process, or system (Moen, Nolan, & Provost, 2012). Improvement science has experienced a surge of interest over the past 30 years—especially in the health sciences. Despite the rapidly expanding reach of improvement science in education, criminal justice, and social care, among other fields, published applications of improvement science are close to nonexistent in the evaluation literature. Indeed, many evaluators know little about improvement science. What is improvement science? What does improvement science look like in real-world applications? And what might we, as evaluators, learn from the theory and practice of improvement science? These and other questions are considered in this issue of New Directions for Evaluation. The primary motivation for the issue is to promote increased cross-talk and perhaps even cross-fertilization of ideas, techniques, and tools between evaluation and improvement science. Speaking directly to this aim, there are at least four areas where this cross-fertilization is particularly relevant: learning from error, examining variation, appreciating context, and focusing on systems change. Learning from error is both friend and foe in evaluation. To be sure, the idea of trial and error can be traced back to the early ideas of social engineering (e.g., Campbell's notion of the "experimenting society") and the distinction between theory and implementation failure is a staple of theory-based evaluation. We learn from error; evaluation is no exception. That being said, the heavy focus on outcomes and fervent pursuit of "what works" have also served to depress the room for error and, in effect, any learning that results from this, in the context of many contract-funded evaluations of public programs. The error as foe is even evident in the designs


Here developed the portable electronic nose system based on ARM7 and μC/OS-Ⅱ.This system includes sensor array,signal collection module,embedded system and pattern recognition module,in which LPC2214 and BP neural network were adopted as MCU and pattern recognition method respectively.For evaluation of pork freshness,the TGS822,TGS826,TGS800,TGS825 were integrated as sensor array to detect quality of pork stored at 5 ℃.The results show that the recognition accuracy of the system achieved an overall rate of 90.9%,and the system was also demonstrated very stable.Also this system displays the advantage of small size,low power consumption,easy to carry and so on.


This insightful and original book considers the evolution, aims and developments of EU antitrust policy, and focuses on the way in which the European Commission has sought to combat cartels. Lee…


Objective To investigate the influence of preexcitation syndromes on the outcome of pregnancy.Methods Clinical data of 38 pregnant women complicated with preexcitation syndromes who delivered in Peking University Third Hospital form January 1993 to June 2009 was reviewed.Results The incidence of supraventricular tachycardia(SVT) in pregnant women with preexcitation syndromes was 13.16%(5/38).The most common period at which the episode of SVT occurred was 28 week to 36 week(51.72%,15/29) and the midtrimester(34.48%,10/29). The incidence of pregnancy-induced increasing of supraventricular arrhythmias in preexcitation syndromes was 10.53%(4/38). Four of seven women who had prior history of SVT with preexcitation syndromes had no episodes of SVT during pregnancy.There were twenty-nine attacks of SVT during pregnancy in five patients, in which 24.14%(7/29) were successfully treated with parasympathetic maneuvers, 62.07%(18/29) were terminated by verapamil or propafenoe and 13.79%(4/29) by transesophageal cardiac pacing. There was no difference in average delivery week, birth weight and delivery method between pregnant women with preexcitation syndrome with or without SVT.Conclusions Only minority of women complicated with preexcitation syndrome experienced pregnancy-induced increasing supraventricular arrythmias which maybe related to the rapid increasing of plasma volume during pregnancy.The outcome of preexcitation syndromes during pregnancy are optimal in most patients with standard medical therapy.


Relevance. Physical and mental health indicators play a major role in assessing patients' quality of life. The quality of life deteriorates with the development of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), and it directly affects patients' health.
Objective: to investigate changes in indicators of quality of life among patients with PTSD.
Materials and methods. 22 young patients participated in the study. The MOS SF-36 International Quality of Life Questionnaire and the Mississippi Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Rating Scale (civilian version) have been used.
Results. According to the results of the Mississippi Scale, the patients were divided into three groups: 1 (n=4) – without PTSD symptoms, 2 (n=13) – with mental disorders, and 3 (n=5) – with PTSD symptoms. In each of the above mentioned groups, the MOS SF-36 quality of life test has been conducted. According to its results, it was determined that group 2 had lower quality of life indicators (physical and mental health components) compared to the first group, but higher compared to the third group.
Conclusion. Manifestations of PTSD directly affect the quality of life of patients. Patients with PTSD and mental disorders reported lower indicators of physical and mental components of health.


Summary A method of preserving monkey malaria parasites for as long as 70 days by rapid freezing, storage at −76°C, and rapid thawing without loss of viability is described.


Sports star is a mass consumption culture product in time of consumption culture.Its special personality charming and potential values of economic and cultural attract people's emotion investments.It satisfies people's esthetic demands for exuberant vitality.Sports star is a mass media to connect individual consumer with cultural world.The closed connection between consumption and sports star is a kind of cultural phenomenon.It reflects the two-way interacting and significance constructing of people,society,and culture in social transforming times.


A set of items was developed to assess fear of activities which produce physical sensations (e.g., exercise) based on clinical observations that individuals with panic disorder fear such activities in addition to agoraphobic situations. Factor analysis of a 32-item pool based on responses from 438 subjects confirmed three distinct factors which were labelled: agoraphobia, social phobia, and interoceptive fears. Evidence was obtained to support the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity of all three factors. Importantly, the interoceptive factor demonstrated a slightly different pattern of relationships with other constructs to the agoraphobic factor, even though the two were highly related. The present questionnaire will help to expand current assessments of panic disorder for both clinical work and research.


The Bark of Juglans regia has anti-inflammatory,analgesic,antioxidant,anti-tumor and the other pharmacological effects.At present,there is a few development of the studies on this materials,especially in the aspect of anti-tumor.The further research on the toxicology and pharmacological effects of the Bark of Juglans regia′s anti-tumor chemical constituents will help the development of new drugs and make full use of natural medicinal resources.


A Dual printing system is a mechanism used in normal printer to reutilize not only print medium but also print media. This mechanism involves three different procedures which works according to sensors used in it. A waste paper sheet full of texts or images or scratches, is given as an input to the printer to erase all the rough text and reutilize the waste page. These texts or images or scratches are done by using pen or pencil or printer text. Also we can abstract and reuse printed text ink obtained during the Heating procedure. In this whole system three procedures are involved. In the first process, pencil made rough work on the paper/waste paper erased by using erasable toner. In second procedure normal printer ink made or ball pen made texts and images erased using heating mechanism. Printed text ink melted during heating procedure is fused by applying cold air through head2. After that fused ink particles are abstracted and collected in the black ink container and same container can be reused for next printing in the printer. If texts or images are not erased during erasable toner and heating process then third technique (white ink spreading) is applied over the pixels of the character or pattern to get blank sheet. By applying all above techniques printing medium and print media are reutilized without affecting paper quality to save paper cost, printer ink, carbon emission and environment.


Roughly two-thirds of all breast cancers are ERα-positive and can be treated with the antiestrogen, Tamoxifen, however resistance occurs in 33% of women who take the drug for more than 5 y. Aberrant DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism that alters gene expression in cancer, is thought to play a role in this resistance. To develop an understanding of Tamoxifen-resistance and identify novel pathways and targets of aberrant methylation, DNA from MCF-7 breast cancer cells and Tamoxifen-resistant derivatives, TMX2–11 and TMX2–28, were analyzed using the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. Normalizing against MCF-7 values, ERα-positive TMX2–11 had 4000 hypermethylated sites and ERα-negative TMX2–28 had over 33 000. Analysis of CpG sites altered in both TMX2–11 and TMX2–28 revealed that the Tamoxifen-resistant cell lines share 3000 hypermethylated and 200 hypomethylated CpGs. ZNF350 and MAGED1, two genes hypermethylated in both cell lines, were examined in greater detail. Treatment with 5-aza-2′deoxycitidine caused a significant reduction in promoter methylation of both ZNF350 and MAGED1 and a corresponding increase in expression in TMX2–28. A similar relationship between methylation and expression was not detected in TMX2–11. Our findings are indicative of the variable responses to methylation-targeted breast cancer therapy and highlight the need for biomarkers that accurately predict treatment outcome.


The invention discloses a method and a device of screen image clipping and a touch screen mobile device. The method of the screen image clipping includes: step 1, when an operation on a preset screen capture button of a user is received, obtaining a whole screen image, and framing a current screen to the screen image; step 2, when the situation that fingers of the user scratches on a touch screen is received, recording the coordinates of current touch points in real time until the sweep is over, and obtaining a clipping area according to the coordinates of the touch points through a preset algorithm; and step 3, obtaining the image positioned in the clipping area in the screen image. An image area needing clipping can be clipped through the sweep of the fingers on the touch screen of the touch screen mobile device, for example a circular area or a rectangular area, the content in the area in the image is clipped, the defect that in the prior art, only a whole screen can be clipped is avoided, flexibility is higher, and practicability is stronger.


A Raman method is studied experimentally for potential optical-wave group velocity reduction in resonant medium. Specifically, we show that the proposed method can achieve significant group velocity reduction comparable to the conventional electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) method that had been exclusively used to date. In addition, we show that this method has a significantly lower loss compared to the EIT method, and has rich dynamics such as probe pulse narrowing. Such features have applications in the domain of telecommunication technology.


This original research investigated and revealed some of the reasons, perceptions, and impact related to the high percentage of women in HR, and the comparatively low percentage of women at the executive and boardroom levels. This study has been conducted to articulate the complexity of the topic by introducing the opinions and experiences of several professionals and students of HR. This research study offers recommendations, and has been designed to motivate healthy dialogue. Timely and relevant literature research from published professionals is included in this study. This study also included both qualitative and quantitative data from convenience interviews with six HR professionals. In addition, a Likert Survey was conducted with twenty-eight members of Cohort 12 and Cohort 13 from the Organizational Learning & Human Resource Development Masters Program at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. Document Type Thesis Degree Name MS in Organizational Learning and Human Resource Development


To study the effect of consolidation stress ratio on soil dynamic strength and dynamic pore water pressure,firstly the related previous research results were reviewed,then the dynamic triaxial tests with saturated gravel samples from the foundation of a rockfill dam were performed.The results of dynamic strength tests showed that there was a turning point of consolidated stress ratio Kc′.When KcKc′,dynamic strength increased while dynamic deformation and dynamic pore water pressure decreased with the increase of Kc.When KcKc′,dynamic strength decreased while dynamic deformation and dynamic pore water pressure increased with the increase of Kc.The value of turning point Kc′ depended on the soil properties and stress condition.The approximate value of Kc′ was equal to 2.8 in this test when Kc=0.5~3.0.When Kc=0.7~1.3,final pore water pressure could be equal to confining pressure,and when Kc exceeded or equaled 1.5,the possibility of liquefaction of samples depended on whether the dynamic stress σd could stretch samples or not.


By folding Ta2O5 dielectric material into layer arrangements, the charge-storage area of a folded capacitor chip could be easily enhanced. Different from the stack and trench capacitors, such folding configuration could offer a simple geometric structure for lithographic patterning to ensure high quality of the step coverage for each layer. In this study, the capacitance density above 30 fF/µm2 could be obtained by depositing three folded Ta2O5 dielectric material layers separated by 15 nm from each other. The breakdown electric field of a folded capacitor was nearly independent of the layer number. However, the leakage current density was enhanced with increasing number of folding layers because more convex folding corners are first to break down, providing conducting paths for leakage current. The annealing temperature should not exceed 600°C because TiN barrier layer failed to prevent the diffusion of aluminum metal into Ta2O5 films above this temperature.


One of the crucial tasks in the study of speciation is to explain the genetic basis of reproductive barriers between diverged taxa. Despite the best endeavours of generations of evolutionary biologists since Darwin andWallace, our understanding of the genetics of speciation has lagged behind other fields of evolutionary biology. The reason may be simply that the greater the reproductive isolation, the less cross progeny we have to work with, butmore probably it is because the genetic factors involved are numerous, with complex interactions. Indeed, it appears that except for a few cases (Coyne and Orr, 2004) reproductive isolation arises in many small steps rather than a few strongly selected mutations, in agreement with theoretical predictions (Walsh, 1982; Barton and Charlesworth, 1984). Obviously, the more genes with small effect that are involved in reproductive isolation, the more difficult will be their identification, making traditional laboratory hybridization experiments and association studies challenging. It seems only common sense, therefore, to search for alternative approaches. One promising alternative is to study naturally occurring hybrid zones. The seeds for progress were sown by Barton and Hewitt (1985, 1989), who suggested the majority of hybrid zones were 'tension zones' (Box 14.1). While initially received with scepticism in some quarters, the tension zone paradigm now dominates the hybrid zone literature and is arguably the main justification for the view that hybrid zones are 'natural laboratories' (Hewitt, 1988) and 'windows on evolutionary process' (Harrison, 1990). The reason this paradigm is so important is that it unifies hybrid zone process over a diversity of species, geographic scales, and histories of contact into a single analytically tractable framework (Box 14.2) with intuitive, testable results and predictions that have been borne out repeatedly over the subsequent decades. Tension zones are measured relative to the scale of


Respir Investig 2018;56:136–143. 13. Arai T, Kida H, Ogata Y, Marumo S, Matsuoka H, Gohma I, et al.; Osaka Acute Exacerbation of Interstitial Pneumonia Research Group. Recombinant thrombomodulin for acute exacerbation in idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. Respirology 2019;24:658–666. 14. Ebina M, Taniguchi H, Miyasho T, Yamada S, Shibata N, Ohta H, et al. Gradual increase of high mobility group protein b1 in the lungs after the onset of acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Pulm Med 2011;2011:916486. 15. Scotton CJ, Krupiczojc MA, Königshoff M, Mercer PF, Lee YC, Kaminski N, et al. Increased local expression of coagulation factor X contributes to the fibrotic response in human and murine lung injury. J Clin Invest 2009;119:2550–2563.


The indexes of development have been matter of political, academic and social discussion. There is abundant literature on the concept of social development, its meaning and its historical and cultural dependence. We present a summary description of the most significant indexes, highlighting the theoretical dimensions and their specific methodologies.


The composition and properties of vegetable oils are presented.The research progress of modification of vegetable oils as lubricant-oil in recent years is summarized.The characteristics and mechanisms of methods to improve the performance of vegetable oils,such as chemical modification,addition of additives,or biological modification are discussed,and the urgent task of study in this field in China is presented.


City and regional planners exist in an environment where they must satisfy numerous contending pressure groups. This paper illustrates an application of utility and decision theory in one such situation: the selection of a "land-use plan" for a large rural area in a southeastern state. The planning group was required to generate a utility matrix for a set of alternative plans consistent with their perceived hierarchy of needs for the region in question. Subsequently, expected value calculations were used to determine the optimal plan. The examination concludes with a discussion of the reliability and sensitivity of this approach, along with an exploration of areas for possible utilization and the problems attendent thereto.


The present invention relates to a method for producing at least one nanostructure (9) on a substrate (17). There are bridged in a particularly simple and effective way long distance and branched structures are created. In this case, should have a multiple of the length of a single nano-object, the nanostructure generated (9). The object is achieved by a multi-electrode construction (11), wherein the projecting electrode portions electrode fingers (21), the ends (5) facing away from the electrode are so arranged along a line, that the electrode fingers (21) do not engage, and in which at least three electrodes (1; 13, 15) are formed. There is a separate dielectrophoretic deposition of nano-object collections (7) respectively along the line between the adjacent ends (5). In this way, particularly advantageous long nanostructures can be produced.


A simplified tight-binding calculation of the energy bands and the densities of states in nonmagnetic and magnetic iron-rhodium alloy is presented. The existing experimental measurements can be explained to a good extent with the help of the present band scheme.


0.6- mu m CMOS technologies were developed on thin SIMOX film and applied to a 16 K gate CMOS gate array. High-speed operation with low power consumption characteristics was verified with ring oscillators on the thin SOI CMOS gate array with V/sub D/=3 V, compared with bulk-Si ring oscillators with the same dimension. Parasitic capacitances in thin SOI and bulk-Si circuits were estimated to clarify the origin of the speed gain from the propagation delay times of the ring oscillators with various kinds of controlled load capacitances. Full functional operation was achieved for a 16 b*16 b multiplier on the SOI CMOS gate array with 1.4 times higher speed operation and 0.8 times lower power consumption than the multiplier on a bulk-Si substrate. >


In this article, I discuss the assumptions of constructivism and how it can influence teaching practices in promoting critical thinking and empowering students to become active and engaged citizens. I emphasise the role and significance of constructivist education in minimising the possibility of shaping students with submissive, uthoritarian and ideologically susceptible personalities. In the article, I argue that constructivism can be a powerful tool for dealing with any manifestation of ideological thinking and promoting a liberal attitude among students, making it an effective strategy for promoting freedom, a deliberative attitude, and critical thinking.


Surface wave based seismic techniques, like the spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW), have been primarily used in modulus profiling of layered systems, like soils and pavements. Typical analysis involves generation of the dispersion curves using the spectral analysis and backcalculation of the profile, or in cases where a large number of receivers are used, the analysis is conducted through data presentation in the frequency-wave number domain. Wavelet transforms have significant advantages over a typical spectral analysis, since the data can be presented, as a function of both time and frequency, in terms of wavelet maps. Several applications and advantages of the wavelet transforms are presented. The first application deals with the use of harmonic wavelet transform (HWT) in generation of the surface wave dispersion curve. The advantages of the wavelet approach include more stable phase velocity calculations than using the traditional phase unwrapping, and simultaneous calculation of phase and group velocities. The second application deals with detection and characterization of cavities and objects buried in the ground using continuous wavelet transforms (CWT). Finally, use of wavelet transforms in characterization of layer interfaces, with respect to layer dipping and abrupt interface changes is illustrated.


Teaching is an important component of counselor education. However, there is a lack of literature exploring the developmental progress of counselor educators as teachers. In the following article, we review the research on doctoral-level teaching preparation in counselor education, present a synthesized model of teacher development informed from thirteen historic teacher developmental models, discuss our model in the context of counselor education, and provide limitations and recommendations for future research. Through this manuscript, counselor educators will learn the developmental trajectory of doctoral students and counselor educators. This will lead to a better understanding of the ways we facilitate and strengthen counselor educators development as teachers.


A series of acid–base bifunctional heteropolyacids (HPAs) (C6H15O2N2)3−xHxPW12O40 (abbreviated as Ly3−xHxPW) have been designed using different ratios of HPAs with amino acid lysine in order to control their acid–base properties. The amino acid group facilitated the HPAs forming micellar assemblies in choline chloride–fructose deep eutectic solvents. In the dehydration of fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), Ly3−xHxPW exhibited different catalytic activities because of their different acid–base properties. Among all the HPA catalysts, Ly2HPW gave the best results with 93.3% conversion and 92.3% HMF yield within a very short time, i.e. 1 min under the conventional temperature of 110 °C using choline chloride (ChCl) as solvent, and this was almost the best result by far. The highest activity and selectivity of Ly2HPW came from the synergistic effect between certain acidic and basic capacities, which provides ready accessibility to the nucleophilic (–NH2) and electrophilic (H) sites. Moreover, this catalyst was tolerant to highly concentrated feedstock (∼66.7 wt%) with the additive ChCl. Ly2HPW performed as a heterogeneous catalyst in the ChCl system and could be recycled by simple washing treatment.


Decisions regarding organizational IT security are often approximated by models drawing on normative statistical decision theories even though several IS researchers and studies in cognate disciplines have argued for the importance of contextual aspects. Based on findings in organizational and behavioral science and 25 expert interviews, this paper proposes a framework, postulating that IT security (investment) decisions are largely influenced by such contextual aspects: organizational, environmental, economic, and not least of all by cognitive and behavioral aspects of decision-makers. Subsequently, we review organizational IT security literature building on Straub and Welke's Security Risk Planning Model and the previously postulated conceptual framework. This critical literature review highlights the scarcity of studies analyzing IT security decision-making from a behavioral, environmental, and organizational perspective and thus argues for the importance and future consideration of contextual aspects regarding IT security decisions.


A SiO2 glass-cladding cerium-doped yttrium aluminum perovskite YAlO3 scintillating fiber with 0.3 at% Ce3+ ions was fabricated using the modified rod-in-tube method. The optical and structural properties of the as-fabricated fiber samples were investigated using refractive index, Raman, transmission loss, and photoluminescence measurements. The radioluminescence intensities of the scintillating fiber spliced with a commercial multimode fiber have been studied using calibrated collimate 60Co gamma sources (mean quantum energy 1.25 MeV) in the dose range from 5.9 to 292.5 cGy. A good linear response as a function of dose was found, suggesting possible practical applications in remote radioactive monitoring and dosimetric systems for radiotherapy.


The hardness of theatre translation lies in how to adapt the translated version to the need of stage performance,while reserving the literary work's function of cultural transmission.Thunderstorm,of high artistic values,is not only Cao Yu's representative work,but a milestone in the development of Chinese modern dramas.In 1985,the English version of Thunderstorm translated by Wang Zuoliang and Barnes was published and received highly praise.Based on a case study of this version,this paper studies the function of naturalization and dissimilation strategies in theatre translation.


This article from preparation befor the job, blind pipe with fixed and waterproof plate laying geotextile, analysis of waterproof board laid before the preparatory work, waterproof board laid process related indicators of control, and offer reference for the construction of the tunnel.


In this contribution, we demonstrate that spectral beam combining in an external cavity (EC), a technique which has been applied previously to shorter wavelength diode laser bars [1], is also applicable to mid-infrared QC lasers. Within this concept, the output of multiple emitters from a 4.6 μm emitting QC laser chip is combined in a single, collinear beam. The average power of an EC-QC laser module realized that way surpasses the output of a corresponding single emitter by more than a factor of 4. Furthermore, the EC-concept allows a certain degree of wavelength tuning during operation. The EC, consisting of a collimating lens, a grating and a partially reflecting outcoupling mirror, forces each laser to emit at a unique wavelength defined by its offset relative to the main optical axis. The EC approach further ensures the collinear directional and spatial overlap of the individual QC laser output beams forming a single combined output beam.


We demonstrate a framework for improving the availability of cluster based Internet services. Our approach models Internet services as a collection of interconnected components, each possessing well defined interfaces and failure semantics. Such a decomposition allows designers to engineer high availability based on an understanding of the interconnections and isolated fault behavior of each component, as opposed to ad-hoc methods. In this work, we focus on using the entire commodity workstation as a component because it possesses natural, fault-isolated interfaces. We define a failure event as a reboot because not only is a workstation unavailable during a reboot, but also because reboots are symptomatic of a larger class of failures, such as configuration and operator errors. Our observations of 3 distinct clusters show that the time between reboots is best modeled by a Weibull distribution with shape parameters of less than 1, implying that a workstation becomes more reliable the longer it has been operating. Leveraging this observed property, we design an allocation strategy which withholds recently rebooted workstations from active service, validating their stability before allowing them to return to service. We show via simulation that this policy leads to a 70-30 rule-of-thumb: For a constant utilization, approximately 70% of the workstation failures can be masked from end clients with 30% extra capacity added to the cluster, provided reboots are not strongly correlated. We also found our technique is most sensitive to the burstiness of reboots as opposed to absolute lengths of workstation uptimes.


Master Prodution Schedule (MPS) is an important component of MRPII system. Due to the features of MPS, the functions of MPS and handling processing are described detailedly in this paper. Base on Petri net, a processing model is also given.


V. Karapetoff: The use of exponential expressions for heating and cooling curves of machinery is quite old. I published a complete theory of such curves in my Laboratory Notes in 1906. See also my "Experimental Electrical Engineering," second edition, Vol. II, pp. 69 to 74. For a number of years we had at Cornell a student experiment on temperature rise in transformers using and checking exponential curves. However, the discrepancy with the observed results was so considerable that we dropped the theory and left only the measurements. As a result of study of various Institute papers on temperature rise in electrical machinery, I have come to the conclusion that the exponential theory, in the simple form used by the author, is inadequate to represent the observed facts even in simple stationary apparatus, not to speak of revolving machinery. therefore am omitting this theory from the third edition of my laboratory book.


Plasma nitriding was performed on the 2205 duplex stainless steel samples at 400 V with a gas mixture of H2 and N2 for 15 hrs with changing N2 percent, temperature and adding various amounts of CH4. After treatment the behavior of the surface layer was investigated by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, GDOES analysis and micro-hardness testing. Potentiodynamic polarization test was also used to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the samples. With increasing both N2 percentage from 10% to 25% and nitriding temperature from 370°C to 430°C, the thickness of nitrogen expanded austenite (S-phase) layer and surface hardness increase up to 16 μm and 1200 HV0.1 at the treatment temperature of 430°C with 25% N2, but decreases the corrosion resistance due to the formation of Cr2N and γ`(Fe, Cr)4N. Thus in order to further increase the thickness of S-phase layer and the corrosion resistance, the influence of adding various amount of CH4 (1% to 5%) in the nitriding atmosphere was investigated. Adding CH4 in the nitriding atmosphere increases the layer thickness compared with that of nitrided sample. The highest thickness can be obtained at 1 % CH4, but addition of CH4 beyond 1 % slightly decreases the layer thickness. Moreover, when nitrided at 400°C with 10% N2 and 5% CH4 content, best corrosion behavior is obtained which also have around 10 μm layer thickness and about 870 HV0.1 surface hardness.


This paper introduces the traditional soft and hard threshold wavelet denoising and its improved algorithm,and denoise a dam's deformation data with MATLAB programming. Compared with previous methods, the improved algorithm improves the de-noising effect quite a lot, the RMSE is obviously decreased while the signal-to-noise is obviously increased,the improved algorithm's comprehensive precision is higher. Finally,we made a prediction for the results of improved threshold function wavelet de-noising with the use of Kalman filter model and got a good prediction effect,demonstrates that the improved method is an effective denoising method,and shows certain superiority through comparison.


The 21 st century's dramatic technological revolution requir es graduating more engineers to cope with new global exigencies and to develop new manufacturing processes and products, as well as manage energy, transportation and communications systems t o prevent new and redress old environmental problems, create pioneering health care devices, an d, in general, make technology respond to ever increasing demands (Flexner Report, 2007, Arnett and Van Horn, 2009). Despite this increased need for engineering professionals, the numbers of students studying engineering have declined in recent years, both in the United States and globally (Johnson and Russell, 2006). Many factors have contributed to this decline ‐ including the difficulty of the curr iculum, lack of well-prepared K-12 Sience , Technol ogy , Engineering and Math(STEM) teachers, and the attractiveness of alternate paths to good technical job s and uncertain employment paths for engineering graduates (Besterfield-Sacre Atman, & Schulman, 1997). Building student passion for engineering and science from an early age is one of the most important factors to prepare younger generations to become future engineers. Students need knowledge and inspiration in K-12 math and science classrooms , particularly in K-12 schools. Teachers can integrate their math and science knowledge into eng ineering principles in ways that engage learners in the world of the engineer. This paper will discuss the curricular innovations developed by Dr. Darwish to respond to the needs of in-service middle school teachers (master's students) who are integrating engineering principles into their curricula.


The purpose of this study was to assess changes in milk yield (MY), daily weight gain (DWG), dry matter intake capacity (DMI), feed intake (FI) and energy intake (ME) of Borgou cattle in separate feeding systems. Performance records of 48 lactating cows, raised at Okpara State farm, were analyzed. The cows were distributed in three treatment groups, corresponding to three feeding systems: grazing on natural pasture (FSI); grazing on natural pasture plus supplementation with 2 kg cottonseed cakes (FSII); and rationing with 20 kg Panicum maximum C1, 2 kg Brachiaria ruziziensis , 1 kg Aeschynomene histrix and 2 kg cottonseed cakes (FSIII). Mean estimates were 392.0 ± 28.7 g/d, 1.77 ± 0.84 L/d, 7.88 ± 0.39 kg DM, 118.16 ± 8.59 g DM/kg 0.75 and 71.62 ± 4.47 Mj for DWG, MY, DMI, FI and ME, respectively. Analyses of variance revealed the significance of non-genetic factors such as feeding system, age at calving, season of calving, stage of lactation, parity number, and feeding system by calving season interaction (p < 0.05) on DWG and MY. The greatest impact on DWG and MY was obtained in FSII with 664.7 ± 30.9 g/d and 2.00 ± 0.95 L/d, respectively, followed by FSIII with 318.9 ± 24.9 g/d and 1.90 ± 0.93 L/d.


It is found that three ion acoustic modes propagate in electron-ion plasma with velocities which are almost independent of the drift of the plasma and the frequency of the ion waves. It is also seen that the adiabatic ion acoustic mode which is present under the usual five moment treatment splits into two separate fast and slow modes when higher moments are taken into account.


We develop a wavelet domain learning based technique for single image super resolution (SISR). First, we learn a mapping between a patch of approximate coefficients (ACs) and the detail coefficients (DCs) corresponding the center location of the patch using Neural Networks. We then obtain an SR image by using an approximate version of the original image (scaled as per the DWT size requirements of the final image) as ACs and by predicting the corresponding DCs using the mapping thus learnt. Our results compare favorably to both mature techniques and state of the art other learning based techniques.


The purpose of writing this review on floating microspheres was to compile the recent literature with special focus on various gastro retentive approaches that have recently become leading methodologies in the field of orally controlled drug delivery to overcome physiological adversities such as short gastric residence times and unpredictable gastric emptying times. Floating microspheres enhances drug bioavailability; reduce drug excretion and controlled drug delivery and better patient compliance.


Commercial banks play a vital role in the economic development of a country like India. Indian economy in general and banking services in particular have made rapid strides in the recent past. However, a sizeable section of the population, particularly the vulnerable groups, such as weaker sections and low income groups, continue to remain excluded from even the most basic opportunities and services provided by the financial sector. To address the issue of such financial exclusion in a holistic manner, it is essential to ensure that a range of financial services is available to every individual. A predominant role is being played by financial inclusion policy for inclusive growth all over the world to transform financially excluded population which is numbered as 2.5 billion, of which, one third is populated in India. Financial inclusion is originated from the initiatives of United Nations, which extensively reported the key goals of the policy as access to wide range of financial services to all at an affordable cost, which started its operation effectively in India in the year 2015-16.
KEYWORDS: financial inclusion programme, commercial banks, financial inclusion, India.


Today`s retail brands find architectural solutions to emphasize their brand characters and differentiate brand identity from that of competitors`. This study is about the entrance design of retail stores that is the first impression of the store and the conclusion was drawn from the analysis of the case study. The case study is done mainly with the stores of SPA (SPECIALTY store retailer of Private label Apparel) brands that are located in the large scale shopping malls. The subjects of analysis are the location of the entrance, shape, signage, display window, and illumination. The result of the analysis showed that the entrance location is decided upon the access and identifiability. The shape, signage, and display window are based on the opening method and their position. Lastly, the illumination is decided based on its intensity by light distribution and atmosphere of the space. In conclusion, the result of the analysis showed that the entrance design influences sales directly with the visual and physical experience of the customer.


The establishment and optimization of regeneration systems via somatic embryogenesis has centered traditionally on the study of the culture medium components, with little attention to other factors of the in vitro environment like the composition of the gaseous atmosphere. This work was realized with the aim to determine the embryogenic potential and the expression of arabinogalactanproteins (AGPs) in embryogenic cell aggregates of Coffea arabica cv. Caturra Rojo under influence of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). Concentrations of 2.5% and 5.0% of CO 2 stimulated a greater formation of somatic embryos (307 ES/50mgMF and 277 ES/50mgMF respectively) in semisolid culture medium with better results to the controls with passive interchange and forced ventilation (195 ES/50mgMF and 107 ES/50mgMF) whereas a concentration of 10.0% of CO 2 inhibited the process of somatic embryogenesis (95 ES/50mgMF). In cell suspensions the formation of somatic embryos was greater with a concentration of 2.5% of CO 2 (130x10 3 ES.l -1 ) in comparison with 5.0% and 10.0% of CO 2 (116x103 ESl -1 and 15x10 3 ES.l -1 ) and the controls with passive interchange and forced ventilation. With a concentration of 2.5% CO 2 there was a greater synthesis of Arabinogalactanproteins (AGPs) at the cellular level (0.068 mg.gMF- 1 ) and the excretion in the culture medium (2.10 mg.l -1 ), which coincided with the highest values of production of somatic embryos. Key Words: embryogenic cell suspensions, in vitro environment, molecular markers, somatic embryo, somatic embryogenesis


In the aftermath of recent global financial crisis, many firms consider changing their strategic thinking. Such change includes the reassessment of current business practices that may not necessarily add the maximum value to the supply chain process and may not bring the maximum possible return from the allocated resources. Thus, outsourcing strategy which allows the firm to focus on its core competency has gained popularity over the years. One of supply chain essentials that are often outsourced is an information system (IS) which plays an increasingly important role in facilitating business transactions, aiding decision-making processes, and visualising assets throughout the supply chain. To help the firm better leverage IS outsourcing, this paper examines whether or not IT outsourcing enhances the firm's supply chain performances. Based on the exploratory analysis, we found that supply chain performance is significantly influenced by: 1) the size of an outsourcing firm; 2) the degree of the firm's recognition of supply chains as its competitive advantage; 3) the extent of prior IS outsourcing experiences.


This paper describes our experience of managing a two‐year research project that involved University staff from two different disciplines and three industry partners. It describes the benefits we gained from the involvement of multiple parties, such as the ability to call upon diverse expertise, the capacity to study a complex issue and the ability to make a direct contribution to industry practice. It also describes some of the difficulties such as managing across University structures, maintaining the collaborators' interest in the project, gaining approval from multiple ethics committees and managing the expectations of various stakeholders. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for senior University staff and for researchers and points to ways universities could better facilitate involvement in these types of complex research projects.


The airgap of a specific semisubmersible platform subjected to irregular waves is considered. Detailed model test results for both motions and airgap time histories are used to verify analysis results. The effects of various methods of including second-order diffraction contributions are demonstrated. A new method is proposed for use in post-processing second-order hydrodynamic transfer functions in which those transfer functions that are unavailable or believed to be unreliable are replaced with those of an undisturbed second-order Stokes wave. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Airgap modeling is of concern for both fixed and floating structures, but it is particularly challenging in the case of floating structures because of their large volumes and the resulting effects of wave diffraction and radiation. Standard airgap response prediction uses linear theory, which generally does not effectively reproduce measurements from model tests. First-order diffraction is considerably less demanding than second-order, so use of only first-order diffraction merits some consideration. Second-order diffraction effects are expected to better reflect observed data. However, these radiation /diffraction panel calculations are very sensitive to the numerical modeling. The cost of increasing the airgap for a semisubmersible is considerably higher than that for a fixed structure. Hence, instead of increasing the still-water airgap, it may be less expensive to strengthen the underside of the deck to withstand rare negative airgap events. In order to know the wave load and location of impact, reliable prediction tools are important. Model tests are often performed as part of the design of a new semisubmersible. If so, these calculations are needed to determine the locations for placement of airgap probes on the model. Here, the numerical impact of modeling second-order diffraction effects is assessed by comparing various predictions of the statistical behavior of the free surface with model test results. Diffraction results come from an industry-standard, state-of-theart computer program that applies second-order panel diffraction theory. All analysis and model test results presented here are relevant to the Veslefrikk semisubmersible, whose plan view is shown in Fig. 1. Other relevant particulars for the vessel as analyzed include: draft, 23 m; displacement, 40,692 t; airgap to still-water level, 17.5 m; and water depth on location, 175 m. AIRGAP NOTATION AND VESLEFRIKK MODEL The airgap, a t , can be considered a linear combination of 3 terms: a0, the still-water airgap distance; Y t , the wave surface Received May 13, 2002; revised manuscript received by the editors July 12, 2002. The original version was submitted directly to the Journal.


Although there are several open-source Arabization projects, as well as individual and collective initiatives by many volunteers for the Arabization of software interfaces, operating systems, and web sites, etc. the quality of Arabization is still very poor and does not meet the minimum quality standards we found in other localized software. In the case of major software companies like Microsoft and IBM, and many other localization companies, we still find the quality level is barely adequate. There are many reasons for being in such a state, and this paper is intended to highlight some of the main issues concerning the Arabic Language and the Arabization process.


We sampled stream fishes within and at varying distances from beaver ponds for two years in two southeastern blackwater streams. Our objectives were to determine whether species showed ontogenetic or seasonal shifts in habitat use involving impounded and free-flowing stream reaches and whether assemblage structure and dynamics varied between ponds and streams and as a function of upstream distance from ponds. Age-0 and adults of most of the more abundant species (15) were collected in either streams or ponds, suggesting no ontogenetic or seasonal shifts in habitat use for these species. The proportions of age-0 to adult fish of four species were higher in ponds than streams, suggesting movement of adults to ponds to breed. The proportion of age-0 to adult Erimyzon oblongus was higher in streams when compared to ponds, suggesting adults of this species supplement food resources by feeding in ponds. Assemblage structure was less stable in ponds when compared to streams. In streams, age-0 and adult fish densities and population coefficients of variation (CV) declined with upstream distance from ponds. Because high CVs were typical of species occurring in streams throughout their life, and habitat structure and variability were not related to upstream distance from ponds, interactions between pond boundaries and fish movement are probably responsible for the patterns we observed in streams adjacent to ponds. STREAM fishes often use different habitats


A sufficient and necessary condition in terms of the compactness of super-distance space is given based on the property of super-distance space and the related theory of compactness.Furthermore,some other related properties of compact super-distance space are discussed in the paper.


This study examines market efficiency and market reaction to political events in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) using a sample of 40 major political events of the emerging market of CSE which represents different industry sectors from 2008 to 2012. Standard event study methodology is employed to find the results.  The results reveal biggest impressive negative AARs of -2.27 percent and strong negative significant (t=-3.27) at 1% level which produced on the political event date. This result shows that political events indicate significant negative information to the CSE. On average, market reacts negatively to market related informational event. Further, largest negative cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs) of -1.71 percent is found during the 21 days window period. In this negative CAARs, investors' overall believe that this event result in incremental negative future cash flows of the stock exchange of Sri Lanka. In addition to these findings, this speed market response support to the efficient dissemination of information to stock market participants since stock price adjusts very quickly to political risk information. Furthermore, stock market participants cannot earn abnormal returns by trading in the stock after the event day. Despite, the event day is unprofitable, the market is informational efficient under the market related informational event. Keywords: Abnormal Returns, Event Study, Market Efficiency, Political Event, and Window Period