Spiral phase contrast (SPC) imaging provides an effective way to isotropic edge detection for biomedical applications. Here, we present a computational SPC imaging method which combines the partially coherent illumination with the symmetry-breaking spiral phase filtering. Such an operation enables the SPC imaging to generate sharp, high-contrast and pseudo three-dimensional edge images that are almost free of speckle. The superior performance is demonstrated by imaging both amplitude and phase objects, and the speckle suppression is validated by comparing the coherent and partially coherent imaging results. This computational SPC method is expected to bring potential advantages to phase contrast imaging modality.


AbstractPipe piles are increasingly used to support embankments of high-speed railways. This study presents a series of static and cyclic axial loading tests on two industrial prestressed-concrete ...


The maximum drain current and the corresponding knee voltage that play an important role in determining the maximum power handling capability of a GaAs MESFET are defined in a practical manner. Simple and yet accurate enough expressions are derived for them in terms of device geometrical and material parameters. The relationship between the maximum and zero-gate-bias drain currents is also presented. Theoretical values of dc parameters are in excellent agreement with their measured values. Important findings on the temperature dependence of these parameters are also shown.


Isonicotinic acid hydrazide was administered to a group of 51 mentally ill tuberculous patients in an effort to assist in determining whether toxic effects to the liver, kidney and blood forming organs would be encountered during the course of treatment. Two patients had to be discontinued because of the lack of cooperation and one with severe pulmonary and superimposed renal tuberculosis died after a short period of treatment. All treated had known active tuberculosis at the time administration of the drug was begun. The conclusions reached as a result of this study are as follows:
 1) There was no demonstrable damage to the liver, kidney or blood forming organs after 90 days of treatment and it was not thought that those patients showing damage prior to treatment had any significant increase in impairment of function which could be related directly to the action of the drug. 2) Increase in appetite and weight and reduction in sedimentation rate were in keeping with findings as reported elsewhere but did not parallel in degree those published by other investigators. This probably is related in some way to the type of patient treated in this series. 3) Study of chest x-ray films and gastric washings after 90 days of treatment showed no consistent x-ray improvement but 22.9 per cent of cases treated showed change in sputum status. 4) An improvement in the mental behavior of psychotic patients under treatment with this drug was noted in a reasonably high percentage of cases.


In this comparative analysis of twelve focus groups conducted in Austria, France, and the Netherlands, we investigate how lay people come to terms with two biomedical technologies. Using the term ''technopolitical culture,'' we aim to show that the ways in which technosciences are interwoven with a specific society frame how citizens build their individual and collective positions toward them. We investigate how the focus group participants conceptualized organ transplantation (OT) and genetic testing (GT), their perceptions of individual agency in relation to the two technologies and to more collective forms of acting and governing, and also their understanding of the two technologies' relationship to broader societal value systems. Against the background of the sustained political effort to build common European values, we suggest that more fine-grained attention toward the culturally embedded differences in coming to terms with biomedical technologies is needed.


This paper analysed the condition of the contaning lead waste residue centralized treatment in Tongling Non-ferrous metals Industry co,the necessity,feasibility and relibility in the contaning lead waste residue centalized treatment were put forward.


"Fake News" have pushed up the agenda of discussions among journalists and are beginning to dominate debate about the future direction of journalism and its current ailments. Clearly, fake news is not only about alternative facts, but in some ways about how the media industry has been adjusting to new technologies and digital reality. It is also about how the democratising effect of the internet and horizontal news distribution is being exploited and reverted back to information dominance models by powerful interests at the time of geopolitical clashes. From the point of view of journalism, it is perhaps about applying journalistic principles and news values to alternative narratives in order to produce mental short-cuts required in the digital reality increasingly accepting only Twitter-length messages. But ultimately, the fake news phenomenon is about fast disappearing editorial processes - one of the most expensive manifestations of genuine journalism for which big media conglomerates and media-related companies no longer want to pay. In an ideological fight or a political conflict a hoax or a spoof story provides a convenient shortcut: rather than argue out your point of view against the arguments of the opponent, you demolish their narrative with carpet bombing or selective strikes of well crafted fake news. Brexit, US presidential election, and the Ukraine conflict have provided ample evidence that the culture of producing "alternative facts" is gaining the upper hand once the watchful eye of the media has been deprived of the power of the editorial lenses.


A case of "cat cry syndrome" in a one year and 5 months old male infant is reported. The infant had peculiar plaintive cat like crying, severe growth and mental retardation, and abnormal craniofacial appearance including microcephaly, hypertelorism, epicanthus, antimongoloid slant, broad nose bridge, low set ears and i5reauricular tags, and abnormal dermatoglyphics. A chromosome study showed a large ring B group chromosome. He died of infection and malnutrition. Autopsy revealed a hypoplastic larynx and a large patent ductus arteriosus.


This exploratory study reports on what engineering undergraduate students know and would like to learn about engineering information sources and access. Responses were obtained on selected performance measures within the framework of Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology (ACRL/ALA/STS 2006). The results are based on 70 sophomores who completed a four-page paper-and-pencil questionnaire on April 4, 2008 at UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The paper discusses implications of this study's findings in light of engineering education in general, and specifically with regard to instructing all engineering students in the proper use of a variety of pathways in accessing high quality engineering resources for numerous lifelong purposes.


Removing transportation trust funds from the federal budget would undermine efforts to reduce the federal deficit and to devolve decision making to the states. Supporters of the policy, moreover, overestimate the nations infrastructure problems and underestimate the costs that transportation users impose on society.


Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring a binary vector containing co-expressive genes pap and itp were used to introduce pap and itp into tobacco mesophyll cell K326.Pap-expressing transgenic plants were obtained by selection on Km-containing medium,being confirmed with PCR and RT-PCR.Data showed a transformation efficiency of the two genes at 25%,higher than pap gene alone,indicating that PAP cytotoxicity in transgenic cells was reduced by ipt expression.When the plants were infected with TMV,transgenic plants showed symptoms with a delay of 20 days,with mosaic leaves being mitigated,suggesting that the antiviral ability of transgenic plants was enhanced.


Introduction: Oral leukoplakia (OL) is considered a potentially malignant lesion of the oral cavity. Aim: This systematic review aims to evaluate effectiveness of different laser and surgical treatment in management of OL. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive search was done using the MeSH [medical subject headings] terms and keyword search in the electronic databases, namely PubMed and Google Scholar. The search was limited to articles published as full text in English, which were screened by two reviewers for eligibility. Results: The search yielded nine articles out of which seven articles were only included based on the inclusion criteria. The outcome measure evaluated blood loss, pain, malignant transformation, recurrence, healing, scarring, and adverse outcomes. Conclusion: Lasers are more effective in treating OL lesions, but further comparative studies needed to assess their long-term efficacy.


The exploration and production process of oil and its supporting operations always generates waste as by-product. If they are uncontrolled, it might decrease the environmental quality. Thus, it is necessary to manage and treat the waste in order to meet the regulation standard of quality and quantity. PT XYZ is an energy company, particularly oil and gas production, which its production activity generate a large amount of waste as well as produced water. Thus, PT XYZ must have facilities or produced water handling plant which could minimize pollution caused by produced water. PT XYZ already has a system of produced water handling with recycling principle. After oil and water separation including water treating at Water Treating Plant (WTP), produced water will be used for steam injection. This is the part of enhanced oil recovery by steam flooding in Duri Field. Besides, produced water could be used as backwash water at WTP, that is Oil Removal Filter (ORF) and Water Softener, which is called brine water. If the produced water and brine water is over load the capacity of oil enhanced recovery injection, it might be disposed through injection to Disposal Well and there are certain condition that produced water should be discharged into canal. The objective f this study is to analyze the performance of a water treating plant in PT XYZ. Water Treating Plant is a facility for treating produced water. Basically, WTP is on good condition and each unit has high efficiency for separating oil and water (60-99%). Horizontal velocity at pit #A of API Separator was larger than the design criteria. In addition, Water Softeners have efficiency until 99% for the hardness.


The Multi beam Antenna is a revolutionary design which is able to access a large number of users in cellular communication systems. The number of users increasing very rapidly day by day so that the communication systems are becoming more complex. This complexity can be reduced to some extent by the multiple beam smart antennas. Multiple beam smart antenna system covers a number of users simultaneously so that information can be received from more than one user at the same time. The antennas which are used for receiving information from more than one direction are called as Smart antennas. The main aim of this paper work is to design and develop a multiple beam antenna producing eight orthogonal beams simultaneously at the frequency of 2GHz. For this, eight element dipole antenna array is designed which is fed by Butler matrix. Specifications: Frequency: 2GHz, Relative  Permittivity er: 6.15, Characteristic Impedance Zo: 50Ω, H (thickness of the substrate): 1.27 mm.


A blockchain endpoint is a gateway where provides APIs to applications to read and write transactions on the blockchain network. As a result, endpoints such as Etherscan and BlockCypher make access to blockchain network easier and more flexible. However, we found that those centralized endpoints are unsafe and easy to be malicious and attacked. To address this issue, we present a decentralized endpoint named V-Endpoint which receives transactions from multiple endpoints and validates them based on Byzantine consensus. V-Endpoint is implemented based on Spark and evaluated on Hyperledger Fabric network. The experimental results show the throughput could be improved 240% on average in comparison with a centralized endpoint.


This paper describes our current method of drinking water fluoride removal technologies,and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the existing drinking water fluoride removal technology.It proposes to develop efficient,low cost,easy operation and safe drinking water fluoride removal technology,which is the priorities and directions of decentralized water supply in rural areas fluorine removal technology research.


In order to improve the weak chain of closed-loop supply in remanufacturing,on the basis of risk type analysis,a risk index system of reliability was structured.The weight of various risk index was obtained through combining AHP with entropy weight method,therefore,the influence degrees was calculated and the subjectivity of expert's evaluation was reduced.It laid the foundation of improving closed-loop supply chain risk in remanufacturing.


We describe a procedure for constructing a model of a smooth data spectrum using Gaussian processes rather than the historical parametric description. This approach considers a fuller space of possible functions, is robust at increasing luminosity, and allows us to incorporate our understanding of the underlying physics. We demonstrate the application of this approach to modeling the background to searches for dijet resonances at the Large Hadron Collider and describe how the approach can be used in the search for generic localized signals.


The basic toxic components of the fulfilled gases of engines are nitrogen oxide. One of the most perspective methods of decrease in toxicity of diesel engines is the method not catalytic reaction restoration NOx by ammonia. The design procedure of the constructive sizes of neutralizer taking into account features of diesel engines is developed.


This study aimed to examine the paradoxical problems of the nation in Martin Aleida's Tanah Air short story. It also identified alternative spaces depicted in the story using a concept of spatial politics proposed by Upstone. By using textual analysis, the results showed that the meaning of the nation is problematic since the main characters glorify the nation, which in fact is a product of colonial culture. To overcome this problem, alternative spaces are present in the form of a journey as a nomad, exile, and migrant. The alternative space in the form of the most-free journey, as a nomad, is carried out as the character moves around from Indonesia, Egypt, China, and Belgium. As an exile, both grudge and nostalgia grow together in the inner self of the character with his background as a victim of the regime's atrocities. While as a migrant, the character emigrates from her origin country to the Netherlands.


The use of finite elements to discretize the time dependent Maxwell equations on a bounded domain in three-dimensional space is analyzed. Energy norm error estimates are provided when general finite element methods are used to discretize the equations in space. In addition, it is shown that if some curl conforming elements due to Nedelec are used, error estimates may also be proved in the $L^2 $ norm.


The invention relates to a light guide (100) for directing a light beam (110) to a measuring unit for measuring a material or gas concentration. The light guide (100) comprises a light guide (102) with a coupling-in section (104) for coupling the light beam (110) and a Auskoppelabschnitt (106) for coupling out of the light beam (110) in a beam path to the measurement unit. Furthermore, it comprises a light receiving unit (108) which is adapted to receive a link emitting the light beam (110) on the light guide passing (102) content (112) of the light beam (110) and / or in directing the light beam (110) to detect between the coupling-in section (104) and the Auskoppelabschnitt (106) coupled-transmission portion (114) of the light beam (110) and / or forward.


A sample of 91 children experienced with death from 50 families were interviewed along with parents to determine factors related to family influence in a child's understanding and adjustment to death. Variables studied include family cohesion, family adaptability, decisions-making about a child's participation in family rituals associated with death, and the child's cognitive ability to conceptualize death and adjust to loss. Significant differences were found between different family styles and a child's participation and adjustment. Highly cohesive families were less likely to allow children to participate and had less understanding about death.


Given equivocal results related to overall survival (OS) for patients with multiple primary melanomas (MPMs) compared with those with single primary melanomas (SPMs) in previous reports, the authors sought to determine whether OS differs between these 2 cohorts in their center using their UPCI‐96‐99 database. Secondary aims were to assess the differences in recurrence‐free survival (RFS). In a subset of patients, transcriptomic profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was performed to assess disease‐associated genes of interest.


From an empirical analysis of net-income sharing system implemented by Yellow River Chromium Salt Co.Ltd in Inner Mongolia,this paper finds that net-income sharing system can realize the unification of equity and efficiency.The economic form that combines employee stock ownership(which belonging to the form of ownership and management sharing) and net-income sharing system(which belonging to the form of income sharing),is a typical form of sharing economy with Chinese characteristics.


Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has been shown to specifically kill cancer cells in vivo. On the basis of this, TRAIL-receptor (TRAIL-R) agonists were devised for clinical use. However, to date, TRAIL-R agonists have only shown limited therapeutic benefit in clinical trials. This can most likely be attributed to the fact that most primary human cancers are TRAIL resistant. It is therefore important to identify potent and cancer-selective TRAIL-sensitizers that overcome TRAIL resistance. Recently, the combination of CDK9 inhibition with TRAIL was found to effectively induce apoptosis in a panel of TRAIL-resistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. Furthermore, tumors from NSCLC patients show high expression levels of CDK9, providing a rationale for targeting CDK9 in lung cancer. Here, we evaluate how effective the new TRAIL/CDK9 inhibition combination therapy is in treating lung cancer in an autochthonous mouse model (the KrasG12D/p53R172H) that closely recapitulates the human disease. We found that this combination was highly effective in vivo and led to a significant tumor regression and prolonged the survival of these mice. Our most recent results regarding these effects will be presented. Citation Format: Itziar Areso Zubiaur, Antonella Montinaro, Silvia von Karstedt, Johannes Lemke, Torsten Hartwig, Lucia Taraborelli, Silvia Surinova, Mona A. El-Bahrawy, Henning Walczak. The impact of combined CDK9 inhibition and TRAIL treatment on NSCLC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR-IASLC International Joint Conference: Lung Cancer Translational Science from the Bench to the Clinic; Jan 8-11, 2018; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(17_Suppl):Abstract nr B13.


A method for optical generation and long-distance transmission of millimeter-wave signals is proposed in this paper. Two phase-dependent dual-wavelength laser beams are generated by a dual-wavelength laser. After long-distance transmission through the optical fiber, A beat signal can be generated. In this study, the frequency of signal can reach 24.640 GHz within 1km transmission distance. Although the beat signals above 30 GHz cannot be observed due to equipment limitations, an uncomplicated method has been shown in generating and long-distance transmission of millimeter-wave signals. Also, the method has its unique advantages of avoiding interference and electromagnetic pollution.


This scientific commentary refers to 'Closed-loop stimulation of the medial septum terminates epileptic seizures', by Takeuchi et al. (doi:10.1093/brain/awaa450), and 'Medial septal GABAergic neurons reduce seizure duration upon optogenetic closed-loop stimulation', by Hristova et al. (doi:10.1093/brain/awab042).


It has been suggested that chiral spin state may serve as a starting point for a theory of superconductivity. Here we propose non-Abelian generalizations of the flux and chiral spin states in both two and three dimensions. In three dimensions, T violation may be manifest through the appearance of an electric dipole moment. We may naturally speculate that the T violation observed in particle physics may ultimately be connected to the opening and widening of mass gaps. In two dimensions, the effective long distance theory may include a non-Abelian Chern-Simons term.


The article discusses the creating of user interface using art works by artists of the post-impressionist era. A perception of colors is investigated. An experiment was conducted on two samples in three steps: collection of data on respondents, including a test to determine deviations in level of color vision, the test for recognition of the author of the image by compositional color scheme, the test for recognition of the author by non-compositional color scheme. A pilot experiment was conducted on 23 respondents, 45 people took part in main experiment. It was found that most respondents, both at the step of recognition by compositional color scheme and at the step of recognition only by noncompositional color scheme, recognize the works of some artists. According to results of comparing the data, it was revealed that the number of correctly recognized images depends on the deviations of color vision only when recognized by the non-compositional color scheme. The results of the study are used to create color schemes of user interfaces.


To assist in understanding the compensatory features of population changes, a detailed examination of the changes in numbers and age composition of a population of woodchucks (Marmota monax) was conducted from 1957 to 1960 inclusive at the Letterkenny Ordnance Depot near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The land is divided into areas of about 600 acres each. Changes in birthrate, mortality rate, and movement in an area from which large numbers of woodchucks were regularly removed were compared with the same kinds of changes in a reference area from which few woodchucks were removed. The woodchucks were captured in box traps that produced an unbiased sample on an age and sex basis but were more efficient in the spring (May). The population was estimated by an efficiency-of-capture procedure. The populations in the two areas remained numerically indistinguishable even though 1,040 woodchucks were removed from Area C and only 299 from Area D. The percentage of adults in Area C declined from 70 to 30 but in Area D remained at 70. Survival of young in C increased substantially. The birthrate increased in Area C from 1.29 to 1.63 and then declined to 0.93; in Area D it increased and remained high. Emigration from Area D was much greater than from Area C. Thus, in response to the removal of woodchucks, all three rates changed in directions that compensated for the losses. It is axiomatic that changes in the numbers of animals reflect changes in birthrates, death rates, and movement rates that result in turn from changes in the environmental factors. A detailed examination of the changes in numbers and age composition of a population of woodchucks was an integral part of a continuing study of the role of social behavior in limiting population growth. Changes in age composition are recognized as an important manifestation of changes in the population itself. The experiment to be described was designed to determine the quantitative effects of removal of animals on population parameters. Therefore, changes in birth, mortality, and movement rates in an area from which large numbers of woodchucks were regularly removed were compared with the same kinds of changes in a reference area from which few woodchucks were removed. High precision in estimating numbers has not been attained; hence the changes are indicated in magnitude and direction rather than in detailed counts. The woodchucks were studied on the Letterkenny Army Ordnance Depot near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, beginning in 1955. The research was conducted under 1Authorized for publication as paper No. 2728 in the Journal series of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station.


The bird resources of Shunhuangshan natural reserve had been investigated continually since 1998.The quantitative characteristic of bird community was investigated especially in 2005 summer.Total of 97 species of birds belonging to 12 orders,29 families were recorded,of which 60 species are Oriental birds,19 are widespread species and 18 palearctic species.There are 61 species of residents,22 of summer migrants,7 of winter migrants and 4 passages.2 species of them are first-class national protected species,15 are second-class national protected species and 51 provincial protected species.The summer bird diversity index is 1.404 and evenness index is 0.799,a new record of bird species Megalaima oorti was found in this investigation additionally.


This paper systematically reviewed the dynamic course of the '98 flood of the Yangtze River in China and the disasters induced. Contrasting the '98 flood with those worldwide in the past 100 years,It was concluded that '98 flood was characterized by longer duration, enormous rate of flow , force and unprecedented great damage which were partly due to decreasing drainage capacity of rivers and lakes. Affecting factors included atmospheric circulation, geological conditions, weakening resistance of rivers and lakes, and deforestation which result in lower regulating capacity of natural ecosystem. Based on these results, certain measures were put forward to prevent soil erosion and to promote ecological balances.


Social actors are drawn to ideological formulations that justify a defense or expansion of their own autonomy and power. Changes in distributions of power can close some avenues of ideological autonomy and open others; thus actors will have varying degrees of control over different issues within a given ideology. In response to the rise of liberal states in 19th-century Europe, the papacy was forced to avoid sociopolitical issues if it was to avoid persistent church-state conflict. Gradually reformulating Catholic ideology within the limited structural autonomy they had, popes subordinated sociopolitical issues to more purely religious and moral issues while constructing a new ideological opposition to liberalism.


We recently demonstrated a direct action of oxytocin (OT) on skeletal homeostasis, mainly mediated through stimulation of osteoblasts (OBs) formation and through the reciprocal modulation of osteoclast (OCs) formation and function. Thus, mice lacking the hormone or its receptor develop a low turnover osteoporosis that worsens with age in both sexes. The skeletons of OT (Ot) and OT receptor (Oxtr) null mice display a pronounced decrease in vertebral and femoral trabecular volume. At the cellular level, OBs from Ot KO and Oxtr KO mice exhibit lower mineralization activity and, at the mRNA level, all master genes for osteoblast differentiation are down‐regulated. Moreover, OT has dual effects on OCs: it increases osteoclast formation both directly, by activating nuclear factor kB (NFkB) and mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling and, indirectly, through the up‐regulation of receptor activator nuclear factor‐kappaB ligand synthesis by OBs. On the other hand, it inhibits bone resorption by triggering cytosolic Ca2+ release and nitric oxide synthesis in mature OCs. OT is locally produced by osteoblasts acting as paracrine‐autocrine regulators of bone formation modulated by oestrogens. The oestrogen signal involved in this feedforward circuit is nongenomic because it requires an intact MAPK kinase signal transduction pathway, instead of the classical nuclear translocation of oestrogen receptor. The ability of oestrogen to increase bone mass in vivo is to some extent OXTR‐dependent. Thus, Oxtr KO mice injected 17β‐oestradiol did not show any effects on bone formation parameters, whereas the same treatment increases trabecular and cortical bone in wild‐type mice. An intact OT autocrine‐paracrine circuit appears to be essential for optimal skeletal remodelling.


Near-simultaneous measurements in 11 wavebands between 1 micron and 2 mm of a sample of 13 'blazars' are presented. These measurements represent the first comprehensive attempt to determine the infrared-to-millimeter-wave properties of this class of object, which emit the bulk of their luminosity in the far-infrared region. Most of the sources have very flat millimeter/submillimeter spectra up to the highest observed frequency. However, 3C 279 and 3C 446 show evidence of turnovers in their submillimeter spectra. The 1-4 micron spectra can be characterized by simple power laws, all steeper than -0.9; several sources, however, show evidence of spectral beaks in the 10-20 micron region, suggestive of energy losses. It is shown that the spectral properties are consistent with synchrotron emission from relativistic jets aligned close to the line of sight and the observations are discussed in relation to such models.


During the last years the coupling of high pressure techniques and infrared spectroscopy has proven to be a very powerful tool in the study of conformational changes of proteins. Protein unfolding and monomerization are events that are expected to take place at high pressure due to the peculiarity of pressure to shift the system towards the state that occupies the minimum volume. We observed the growth of apparently cubic crystals at a pressure of about 4 kbar, subjecting to high pressure a solution of misfolded insulin. Even if high pressure is commonly used to tune the growth rate of crystals, protein crystallization at high pressure is not a well known process and no evidences of the particular case of insulin are present in literature.


In this book chapter I examine Bergson's writings and ideas in relation to the conception of 'philosophy as a way of life'. I take my cue from Pierre Hadot who revealed that for him as a young student of philosophy at the Sorbonne, Bergsonism was not an abstract, conceptual philosophy, but rather assumed the form of a new way of seeing the world.


not believe that education is the key to every social disease, but I do think as educators it is our moral obligation to improve education in times of peace and to put as much work, effort and inspiration as the Ukraine educators. Each project, study, collaboration with its variety of themes, pedagogies and methodologies contributes to the step by step improvement of education, and I our case, teacher education. The articles in this issue reflect this diversity, but also this main aim. He contribution show how teachers and teacher educators are dedicated to innovative pedagogies in teaching and teacher education, the empowerment of teachers and the reformation of systems. It also shows that research can be innovative too, showing respect of the voices of teachers and students and using challenging research methodologies. their personal professional development in meaningful ways. present their study about Implicit professional identity : A ssessment and relation with explicit professional identity and well-being of pre-service teachers . The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of implicit professional identity and its relationship with explicit professional identity and well-being of pre-service teachers. The results indicated that (a) pre-service teachers had positive implicit professional identity; (b) the correlation between the measures of pre-service teachers' explicit professional identity and implicit professional identity was not significant; (c) implicit professional identity significantly predicted well-being negatively, while explicit professional identity positively predicted well-being; and (d) implicit professional identity moderated the relationship between explicit professional identity and well-being. In the weak implicit professional identity and Anne Berit Emstad's article is about Comparing discourses on reflective practice in teacher education policy in Ireland and Norway: Critical reflection or performance management? They analysed policy documents relating to teacher education in Ireland and Norway from 2008 to 2016, representing periods of change in teacher education in both jurisdictions to explore the discursive construction of reflective practice. The study found that, while reflective practice was seen as important in both countries, they differed in terms of why it should be used. Overall, reflective practice was presented as primarily a competency required by teachers to evaluate and improve their practice, however the rationale for this improvement appeared to differ in the two contexts. In Ireland reflective practice was presented primarily as a tool for self-improvement. A similar focus was evident in the Norwegian documents. However they also emphasised the teachers' contribution to the school


Abstract This study was carried out to investigate the effect of welding parameters such as shielding gas compositions welding voltage and welding current on the pore formation in the weld beads of galvanized steel pipes produced with gas metal arc welding. The porosity was evaluated and rated by metallography and radiographic test in terms of weight percentage, number and distribution of pores in weld beads. The porosity increased with increasing welding voltage and current, in which Ar gas produced the most porosity while Ar+5%O 2 generated the least porosity. It was found that the porosity could be reduced by selection of the proper gas mixture composition such as Ar+5%O 2 and Ar+10%CO 2 and by using current (130~150A) and voltage(16~20V).Key Words : Galvanized steel pipes, Porosity, Welding parameters, Shielding gas, Voltage, Current, GMAW 1. 서 론 용융아연도금강은 강재의 표면에 아연(Zn) 코팅으로 방식처리되어 내식성이 우수하고, 가격이 저렴하며 경제적이기 때문에 구조물, 소방배관과 장비 구조 등에 사용되고 있다. 용융아연도금 강재는 용접 시 고온의 아크열에 의한 아연의 기화로 인해 용융지에 기포가 형성되어 기공(blowhole), 피트(pit)를 발생시킬 뿐만 아니라 아연가스 자체가 아크를 불안정하게 하여 스패터(spatter) 및 흄(fume)을 발생시킨다


Use of an agent for the disinfection of collecting toilet systems in aircraft, characterized in that it contains a synergistic active compound combinations of the components of the formula A and B, where R R R that it is aqueous concentrates, wherein the content of the active ingredients in the concentrate depending 1.5-10 mass%.


In the following project, a proposal for architectural integration for a home photovoltaic system was developed through an integrated roof system. The proposal was applied to a family home in Falcon, Venezuela; location chosen for its great solar energy use potential, considering the climatic variables affecting the design of the facility. Finally, the profitability of the PV system was evaluated in order to identify the economic advantages and disadvantages of its implementation. As an integrated architectonic solution, an integrated module is proposed, based on existing sandwich roof panels on the market with the addition of the photovoltaic part, which can be assembled laterally and longitudinally to create a roof system with great aesthetic and energetic value. The results from the economic study, revealed that the PV system is profitable in the long term, with a rate of return on investment of 95%. Palabras clave: Solar photovoltaic energy, architectonical integration, construction, photovoltaic system, roof system, integrated module, BIPV. Diseño de una cubierta fotovoltaica integrada: Aplicación a vivienda aislada en Falcón, Venezuela


Water In, Ozone Out The danger of stratospheric ozone loss burst into public awareness in the 1980s, when the Antarctic ozone hole was discovered and described. Since then, the specter of ozone depletion in other locations, notably the Arctic, has been identified. Ozone loss is not confined to high latitudes, however, nor is it only the result of the addition of anthropogenic compounds containing chlorine and bromine in the stratosphere, as Anderson et al. (p. 835, published online 26 July; see the Perspective by Ravishankara) now demonstrate. Data from the atmosphere above the continental United States revealed that convective injection of water vapor into the stratosphere affects the free radical chemistry involving the (mostly anthropogenic) chlorine and bromine, thus accelerating ozone loss. This process could become important in the stratospheric ozone budget if the frequency and intensity of these water-injection events, which are most common in the summer, increase as a result of global warming. Convective injection of water vapor into the stratosphere increases the rate of ozone destruction there. The observed presence of water vapor convectively injected deep into the stratosphere over the United States can fundamentally change the catalytic chlorine/bromine free-radical chemistry of the lower stratosphere by shifting total available inorganic chlorine into the catalytically active free-radical form, ClO. This chemical shift markedly affects total ozone loss rates and makes the catalytic system extraordinarily sensitive to convective injection into the mid-latitude lower stratosphere in summer. Were the intensity and frequency of convective injection to increase as a result of climate forcing by the continued addition of CO2 and CH4 to the atmosphere, increased risk of ozone loss and associated increases in ultraviolet dosage would follow.


Diallel crosses among seven advanced yellow maize inbred lines derived from different maize populations without reciprocals were made in 2015 season at Mallawi Agricultural Research Station, Minia, Egypt. The resultant 21 crosses along with two commercial check hybrids i.e. SC 162 and SC 168 were evaluated in a Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications at two locations i.e. Mallawi and Sakha Stations, Egypt during 2016 summer season. Mean squares due to crosses, G.C.A. and S.C.A. were significant for all studied traits. The ratio of G.C.A. variance to S.C.A. variance exceeded the unity for all studied traits, except for number of kernels per row, indicating that the greater importance of the additive gene effects than the non-additive gene effect in the inheritance of these traits. The parental lines 3, 5 and 7 had significant positive GCA effects for grain yield, in addition lines 5 and 7 had significant negative (preferred) GCA effects for days to 50% silking. Also, inbred line 4 had negative significant GCA effects for both 50% silking and plant height. Nine crosses (P1xP3, P1xP4, P1xP7, P2xP6, P3xP4, P4xP5, P4xP7, P5xP6 and P6xP7) showed significant positive SCA effects for grain yield. Among these crosses, Three crosses (L1 × L4, L2 × L6, L4 × L5) exhibited the highest SCA effects and also its gave the highest mean performance for grain yield. These crosses may be released as commercial hybrids by the Maize Research Program after further testing and evaluation. Despite cross (L1 × L4) was insignificant higher than SC.168 but was significantly earlier and relatively shorter. The crosses (L1 × L7) and (L2 × L5) had higher yield, while, the first one was significantly earlier than SC.168, while the second one was significantly shorter than SC.168. These promising single crosses should undergo more testing across years and location before submission to the Varity Registration Committee, (VRC).


Background – Bullying is a widespread phenomenon in the workplace, and is considered one of the worst behaviours that affect employees and organizations. The literature of workplace bullying highlighted the effects of bullying at workplace behaviour, which beyond the individual and organizational performance and destroying the health of the victim and that will change the course of relationship with family and thus the society as a whole. Purpose – The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between role conflict, role ambiguity, and work pressure on workplace bullying among Jordanian nurses in public hospitals. Design– Five hundred and sixty two nurses working in big five public hospitals in middle region in Jordan, were selected randomly. Findings – The majority of sample recorded 54.3% females, and the majority of the respondent's age varied from 21 - 30 years old (61 %). The analysis found significant relationship between all job demand variables (role conflict, role ambiguity, and work pressure) and workplace bullying. Conclusions –This paper examined the antecedents of workplace bullying among Jordanian nurses, this will help nurses, nurse's supervisor/manager, and hospital mangers to understand workplace bullying behavior better. Also, managing stress will be through the role stressors role conflict, role ambiguity and work pressure, the person who have low role stressors can act positively with his colleagues, subordinates and managers; and the probability of being at risk of bullying behaviour, building policies, helpful for human resources specialists; by expanding their knowledge of workplace bullying . Furthermore, there are three direct significant relationships in this study and at the outset, the direct significant antecedents of workplace bullying are role conflict, role ambiguity, and work pressure. The present study contributes to the body of knowledge by examining the job demand factors as causes of workplace bullying from the perspective of nurses bullying.


THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN novel in the eighteenth century has never been entirely separable from issues of gender.' For two centuries, critics have associated the genre with differences between the sexes, from Enlightenment criticism linking the subject matter and affective aesthetics of fiction with feminine sensibilities,2 to the most recent theorizations of the novel's relationship to the gender categories it mobilized.3 Yet relatively little attention has been paid


To study the political forces behind the translation and its process has been one of the thrust areas in the field of Translation Studies. There is always a motivation behind a translation and its construction of meaning. This motivation may be sociocultural and political. From the very act of selecting a text to interpret it in translation is a conscious deliberate process which cannot resist sociocultural and political forces. This paper has studied some of the important motivating factors in translation, on translation and for translation. In other words, this paper will try to answer the following questions. How these forces act in translation? What happens in translation? What is the translation for?


The Superpave binder specification, AASHTO MP1, has introduced new concepts for selecting paving asphalt binders. The specification, in addition to using rheological and failure measurements that are more related to performance, is based on the idea that the criteria to maintain a satisfactory contribution of asphalt binders to the resistance of pavement failures remains the same but have to be satisfied at critical application temperatures. The test procedures require that the material be characterized within certain ranges of strains or stresses to ensure that material and geometric non-linearities are not confounded in the measurements. These new specification concepts have resulted in re-evaluation of asphalt modification by the majority of modified asphalt suppliers. The philosophy of asphalt modification is expected to change, following these new concepts, from a general improvement of quality to more focus on using modifiers based on the most critical need as defined by two factors: (1) The application temperature domain and (2) the type of distress to be remedied. The new specification requirements should result in a more effective use of modifiers as the amount and type of modifier will be directly related to the application environment and the engineering requirements.


in this work two dye polymer solar cells V-I characteristics were studied their stability .the Voltage-Current characteristics were studied for about one month ,the experimental results after (1,10,20,30) days was found that the open voltage current does not change while open circuit voltage changes slightly . this means that the cells does not affected by environment and some water may evaporate .evaporation is responsible for current decrease.


There are many kinds of computer technologies including digital image processing and database technology and computer control and software technology and multimedia computing and internet technology and artificial intelligence technology and so on.All the technologies are applied to environmental science on environmental impact assessment and monitoring analysis and pollution treatment and environmental planning and management and public participation etc.,.These technologies provide efficient methods of managing and calculating and emulating for environmental protection.


Variable generation from renewable energy resources, distributed generation, retiring conventional generation fleet and the threat of cyber attack mean that system operators require additional and alternative services for balancing and system security, to ensure the stability and reliability of the grid. Whilst modern combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) based on an industrial gas turbine are designed for multiple starts, modern system operation, as well as demand requirements often necessitate much faster response times that cannot easily be met by conventional resources. Combining fast response battery electrical energy storage systems with CCGTs provide solutions for economic and reliable supply of balancing services such as frequency response, system security services such as black start and fast ramping support to address spurious peaks.


ZnO is of interest for many applications, e.g. also for gas sensing. Here, sol-gel synthesized, nanosized ZnO is investigated with regard to its room temperature NO2 sensing behavior. It is shown that both doping and UV exposure shorten the response and the recovery times of the sensors. NO2 measurements were carried out with undoped, Sn-doped, and Al-doped ZnO sensors, respectively. The Al-doped samples provide the highest NO2-response. Furthermore, the effect of dry or humid atmosphere on the sensor response was investigated. The strong humidity influence on the sensor signal almost disappears with UV exposure. Hence, UV-light, nano-sized structure, and proper doping may be the key for room temperature NO2 sensing.


The normal hair development requires WNT signalling pathways. A constitutive activation of beta-catenin, one of the components of this cascade, induces an abnormal proliferation of hair matrix cells. This activation is observed in a human skin tumours called pilomatricoma. Mutations of the beta-catenin gene are detected in 75% of the tumours analysed.


The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) assesses more than 100 transportation projects annually for its State Transportation Improvement Program, one of the largest such programs in the country. Caltrans relies on benefit–cost analysis as one of several performance factors, and evaluations must be completed in a few weeks. Caltrans developed a spreadsheet model, Cal-B/C, to provide a common benefit–cost framework and facilitate rapid project evaluation. The model is based on extensive theoretical reviews but is intended to keep the analysis simple. Cal-B/C incorporates rules of thumb to accommodate projects with little upfront evaluation. It can also use summary data from microsimulation and travel demand models. Although this design supports analysis with minimal data, Caltrans has found that the need for accurate and consistent data complicates project evaluation. This paper presents an example of how California applies benefit–cost analysis for objective project appraisals. The paper describes the motivation for Cal-B/C, its structure, applications, and continued evolution. Particular attention is paid to a recent evaluation of projects proposed for a $4.5 billion infrastructure bond measure. The paper also offers lessons for applied transportation performance analysis and proposes areas for further research.


In this paper the quality of the higher education in Colombia measured through ECAES of Economy of 2004 is analyzed. A multilevel analysis was made with data of 2377 students and 59 located programs of Economy in 52 universities around the country. One determined that significant differences between the average result of the universities and the ones obtained by the students are explained by the characteristics associated to the students and by the characteristics of the institution they belong to.


The aim of this paper was to measure the broadband dielectric properties of sawdust. Knowledge of dielectric properties is important in improving understanding of a material and can lead to the development of methods for determining physical properties such as moisture and salt content. The broadband dielectric properties of sawdust were measured with an open-ended coaxial-line dielectric probe. Measurements on granular materials with the dielectric probe are dependent on the density of the measured region, which may differ from the average density of the sample. In this paper, a method was developed for determining the actual density for measurements with the dielectric probe. It consists of measurement of the dielectric constant with a different method (in this instance, a free-space transmission method) at a frequency common to both methods and identifying a relationship between the measured dielectric constant and density. The dielectric properties of sawdust samples with moisture content levels between 13% and 45% are presented for frequencies between 0.5 and 15 GHz.


It is possible that prose translations of verse actively assisted in the progressive prosification of European lyrical expression in the nineteenth century. This "prose-effect hypothesis" implies that prose translations did not merely reflect developments in the prose poem, vers libre and poetic prose, but were causally related to these developments. As such, the hypothesis is properly historical in that it identifies a change process, it constructs an explanatory narrative, it is potentially falsifiable on the basis of empirical evidence and it addresses a contemporary problematic (it is pertinent to the position of any translator faced with a choice between verse and prose as target forms). My problem here is not with defending the hypothesis as such, but with explaining its apparent incompatibility with several widely held beliefs according to which nineteenth-century translating was predominantly "literalist", "mimetic" or oriented towards "formal equivalence". According to these beliefs, 19th-century translators should massively have rendered verse as verse, and the prosification of genre systems should only have been affected by the transfer of existing forms. That is, although it is possible to see certain modes of prosification as having been assisted by mimetic translation practices (for example, the transfer of blank verse from English into German and Dutch, or Laforgue's formally mimetic translation –of Whitman as a major step towards the vers libre), the prose-effect hypothesis insists that some translations were more than mere repetitions and actually participated in a process of historical change. Either the hypothesis is wrong or trivial, or there is something fundamentally wrong or trivialising in some contemporary approaches to translation history. I shall defend the latter opinion.


The electronic Lande g factors for four energy levels in Ge I and Sn I have been recalculated by an empirical method without assuming the Slater ratio of the term intervals in the p2 configuration. Improved agreement with observation is obtained.


Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) have been recognized throughout developing countries as an engine todevelopment and a vehicle towards fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In Kenya MSEs playsan important role in the socio-economic development of the country. Its significance can be seen in terms ofcontribution towards economic growth, employment creation, poverty reduction and development of anindustrial base. They are also breeding grounds for entrepreneurship, innovations and inventions. Althoughpublic procurement is huge, it is dominated by large enterprises at the exclusion of local MSEs. This is despitean affirmative policy of reserving 25 per cent of all government procurement to MSEs. The main objective ofthis study was to analyse the challenges facing MSEs in Kisumu city, Kenya in accessing public procurementand contracts. Specifically, the study sought to: examine the practices adopted by MSEs in accessing publiccontracts; examine how the challenges facing MSEs affect their access to public contracts and; to test for thechallenges facing MSEs in access to public contracts. The study adopted a descriptive survey since this allowedfor the study to define variables as they are during the time of the study. A sample size of 68 (10%), wasselected from a population of 680 MSEs. The theoretical framework was based on Wuyts (2001) theory, whichconsiders the nature of policies on the sector to depend on the extent to which the sector is demand or supplyconstrained. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from proprietors of sampled MSEs. By use ofsimple random sampling, data captured were both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Quantitative datawere analyzed using descriptive statistics where tables and figures were used. Frequency distributions,percentages and cross tabulations were also used to show the distribution of the responses. Inferentialstatistics was by chi – square test of independence. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis byextracting themes from the responses. The study found out that despite their immense contribution toeconomic development, MSEs in Kisumu city are faced by daunting tasks in accessing public contracts: hightender purchase prices, lack of adequate working capital, Non-Tax Compliance, stringent pre-qualificationprocedures, lack of information on existing public sector contracts, and inadequate policy framework. Thestudy concludes: majority of MSEs are unable to access public contracts as represented by 62 (91.17%) ofrespondents. The study recommends: need to review the definition of MSEs by basing it on the number ofstaff to the net worth of the business, and MSEs to form consortiums from which their participation in thepublic sector is to be enhanced. The study is significant to both the Central and County governments, civilsociety, Business Community and the academia, involved in the promotion of MSEs for national economicdevelopment


I would like to thank professor François Tremblay, my supervisor, Yekta Ansari, and Anthony Remaud, for their professional guidance and constructive recommendations throughout this project. I would also like to the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program for this invaluble and unique experience. Finally, special thanks should be given to all participants. Participants (Young healthy Adults) Gender Handedness Age (Mean ± SD)


We analyze the energy balance climate model with CO2‐dependent outgoing radiation, and obtain the steady‐state solution for very wide range of the atmospheric CO2 partial pressure and the thermal diffusion coefficient. We propose a phase diagram of the climate on the parameter space of the atmospheric CO2 and the thermal diffusion coefficient for the latitudinal heat transport, which may be useful to understand the climate change through the history of the Earth. It is shown that the formation of polar ice caps can be caused by decrease in the atmospheric CO2 and the latitudinal heat transport. The different history of glaciation in each hemisphere through the Cenozoic might be the result of difference in the heat transport in each hemisphere. Understanding of the small ice cap instability might be important to interpret the oxygen isotope record at the Eocene‐Oligocene boundary.


Shock compression experiments were used to obtain an enthalpy–pressure–volume equation of state of the Rice and Walsh form for liquid CCl4 in the pressure region below 16 kbar. Existing zero pressure data were used to introduce a temperature dependence into the specific heat at constant pressure and into the partial derivative of volume with respect to temperature at constant pressure. Sonic velocities and Hugoniot temperatures calculated from this equation of state agree well with data obtained by other investigators. Carbon tetrachloride apparently exists in the liquid state for the 1–20 μsec duration of shock experiments even though the equilibrium liquid–solid phase line has been crossed.


Background of the study: The paradigm shift in the management of scientific journals from print to electronic also has an impact on accreditation policies that were initially oriented towards print scientific periodicals to the accreditation of electronic-based scientific journals. Purpose: This study aims to identify and explain the traditions and innovations in the management of accredited scientific education journals in PTKIN. Method: This research is a qualitative research with the type of field research with the orientation of empirical data collection in the field. The researcher directly reviews the documents related to management, and observes the physical / non-physical facilities used in the management of scientific journals. Findings: The results showed that of the 9 (Nine) accredited education journals of PTKIN before 2018, the most widely cited is Dinamika Ilmu Journal, amounting to 251 (two hundred fifty one) times. This has happened because Dinamika Ilmu Journal has entered the age of 18 (eighteen) years. While the Edukasia Journal is the least quoted, which is 5 (five) times. Even though the age of Edukasia Journal enters the 13th (thirteenth) year. Conclusion : From the 9 (nine) journals, only the Edukasia Journal still maintains to use the Indonesian full text even though it has been nationally accredited. While Edusains Journal, JPI Journal, Tarbiya Journal, and the Dinamika Ilmu Journal use English full text. This was done in order to support the vision of going international for his journals.


The present Project was madden in Guayaquil city, province of Guayas, the main objective was to analyze the acceptation level of introducing a food product that use as raw material a root which scientific name is Xanthosoma Saggitifolium (Malanga) into the Guayaquil market, this root is part of the nontraditional products in Ecuador, in consequence this is a non local exploited product because the lack of knowledge. The present project was justified because it owns a theory value and it can be achieved. Methodologically the investigation was taken from the non-probabilistic perspective and a sample for convenience with the application of a field investigation where the Guayaquil population was taken like the base, getting a sample of 400 people from the calculation of the infinitive population formula with a trust level of 95%. The processed data determined that 87% of the analyzed sample would like to consume the product "Malangas listas para freir" and that the implementation of this project is possible to do and could be rentable.


Good heavens: what a broad question. I say a fair bit about this in an essay I wrote for one of George Yancy's early edited volumes, The Philosophical I. Here's the short version: in something like the way Lou Outlaw puts it in On Race and Philosophy, I'm someone who made the mistake of thinking that the world should make sense, and of noticing that it routinely and stubbornly didn't do so when it came to black folk in the US. And then I made the mistake of thinking philosophy was uniquely positioned to help. (It might help, but so might lots of other things, like good literature, bad movies, and fine whiskey; and it takes a lot of work on philosophy to make it fit for working on other things.) But by the time I realized these were mistakes, the die was cast.


This article will be of interest to librarians, particularly those in consortia that are evaluating OpenURL link resolvers. This case study contrasts WebBridge (an Innovative Interface product) and LinkSource (EBSCO's product). This study assisted us in the decision-making process of choosing an OpenURL link resolver that was sustainable to maintain and, most importantly, made it easier for users to access the full text of an article. This case study does not propose that one product is superior to another; however, the criteria and methods used to evaluate the products will be of use to those seeking to improve user access.


This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of contextual preexposure on the freezing of rats. 45 albino rats were first placed in an experimental chamber for 5 min. without electric shock (contextual preexposure) for a few days (0, 3, 5, 10, or 15 days). Then they received a shock (1 mA, 2 sec.) for 6 consecutive days. After receiving one shock, the rats which had been contextually preexposed for some days froze more frequently than the rats which had not experienced contextual preexposure. The contextual preexposure facilitated the conditional freezing of rats following one-trial context-shock conditioning; however, there were no differences in freezing between them after receiving more than two shocks. It seems that a few conditioning trials overcame the facilitating effect of contextual preexposure.


In order to investigate how local ideological forces affect the activities of human rights organizations and help determine our conception of human rights, in this paper I compare Physicians for Human Rights USA with its Israeli equivalent. Drawing on the insights of Antonio Gramsci, I show that the ideological differences between the United States and Israel influence the activities of each organization, prompting the two groups to privilege certain rights and to de-emphasize others. By positioning local human rights activism vis-a-vis the international inventory of rights, the paper's first part reveals that in the domestic sphere the conception of universal human rights is constituted through a series of exclusionary practices. It also demonstrates that frequently rights organizations not only appropriate a limited conception of human rights but actually reinforce this conception within the sphere in which they operate. While the empirical analysis focuses on two domestic settings, building on the work of Judith Butler I go on to show that in the international arena human rights are also contaminated by exclusionary ideological forces, arguing that their universality should also be conceived as provisional rather than absolute. Human rights, I conclude, are still a vital reference point for judging the morality of political, social, and economic practices, but they cannot be taken for granted and must be continuously subjected to critical assessment, particularly by the rights NGOs themselves.


Allergic Fungal Sinusitis (AFS) resembles allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, resulting from hypersensitivity reaction to fungi mediated by IgE & IgG. A study of 20 patients from 1990 to 1998 suffering from AFS revealed that all presented with nasal polyps. Most had atopy with raised serum IgE and high eosinophil count. Sandwiched between polyps are dark greenish brown concretions with high metal contents. A high concentration of glycoproteins and macromolecular protein was found in the contents. The lesion showed high attenuation on CT and void signal on MRI due to the presence of metals. Aspergillus was the most frequently found fungus followed by Bipolaris, Helmenthsporium and Curvularia. Polyps are surrounded by allergic mucin and Charcot-Leyden crystals interspersed with fungal hyphae. The eosinophilic host response to the fungi in the susceptible individuals leads to cascade of inflammatory reactions initiating IgE mediated hypersensitivity, specific T-cells HLA receptor expression and aberration of local mucosal defense mechanism resulting in AFS


The asphaltenes flocculation proceeds with changes of oil composition and causes significant losses in petroleum industry operations. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the reliability of the densitometry technique in studying experimentally the mechanism of aggregation and flocculation of asphaltenes occurring in crude oils. As asphaltene flocculation threshold in crude oils or mixture can be achieved by addition of n-heptane, various n-heptane concentrations were added to crude oil, and their effects have been investigated trough density measurements. Thereby, measurements were based on mixture of crude oil + toluene and cyclohexane + n-heptane, respectively. While asphaltene aggregates form clusters and flocculate, the mixture volumetric mass change and the reduced density of non-Newtonian fluids under investigation have been pointed out as one of appropriate measures of flocculation process. In particular, the curve representing the reduced density as function of the ratio between n-heptane concentration and concentration of crude oil under study featured a break point that well characterizes the flocculation threshold. Besides the quantity needed to initiate and to aggregate asphaltenes within crude oils, the amount required to completely achieve deposition of asphaltenes has also been identified. A quantity of 4 and 20 g of n-heptane per gram of crude oil was found necessary.


Aiming partially to fill a significant lacuna in the scholarship on scholastic understandings of predestination, this essay seeks to show that the doctrine set forth in the Summa Halensis, though dependent upon Augustine's well-known definition, diverges essentially from the African bishop's mature teaching. Specifically, the Summa teaches that predestination is God's eternal 'volitional knowledge' of those humans who will, by their free wills, use grace well to attain finally to glory. In contradistinction to the popular modern perspective that sees predestination as arbitrary and irrational, the Summa understands God's 'volitional knowledge' as perfectly 'rational' (rationabilis) precisely in that it carves out room for the human to will freely and to participate authentically in God's salvific plan. In this way, the Summa served to defuse the theological dynamite of the late Augustine's predestinarian teaching. Predestination stands as one of the most constitutive doctrines of the Catholic theological tradition and, at the same time, has been one of the most misunderstood and controversial among modern commentators.1 In his assessment of Augustine's theological influence, the prominent English church historian W.H.C. Frend, for example, maintained that the Bishop of Hippo 'left the Middle Ages with a theological legacy of arbitrary predestination, which sacrificed the vast majority of mankind to everlasting torment in the name of the righteousness of an inscrutable God.'2 For Frend, Augustine was a 'crusted old pessimist' concerning post-lapsarian human nature and free will, which led him to develop a doctrine of predestination whose essence was 'fatalism unrelieved'.3 Like most people today who give any thought whatsoever to predestination, Frend betrays an understanding of the doctrine that generally aligns with the definitive Reformed interpretation propounded by John Calvin and codified at the Dutch Synod of Dordrecht, or Dort, in 1619.4 According to this Calvin For a brief introduction to the doctrine that notes some of the contemporary difficulties and confusions, see Matthew Levering, Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). For a fuller consideration, see Peter J. Thuesen, Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).  W.H.C. Frend, The Early Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1982), 198.  Frend, The Early Church, 207.  See John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion III, chs. 21–2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Library of Christian Classics, 21 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 920–47; and Carlos M.N. Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450– 1650 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), 295–6 and 572–4. The Synod of Dort affirmed double predestination and proposed a doctrinal summary that came to be known as Five-Point Calvinism, which can easily be memorized OpenAccess. © 2020 Lydia Schumacher, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110685008-007 ist view, the eternally existent God actively and inscrutably wills either salvation or reprobation for each human before all time and supervenes upon human freedom such that each one is ineluctably moved by divine imperative toward either final salvation (and the grace such movement requires) or everlasting damnation (and the grave sin it demands).5 Calvin and his followers did not create this understanding out of whole cloth, of course. They intended themselves as faithful disciples of both Scripture and Augustine. And, indeed, their doctrine is generally thought to comport with that of the late Augustine in particular—the Augustine who disputed with the Pelagians from 412 onward. The Calvinist doctrine is, to use Gerald Bonner's description, 'essentially Augustinian theology'.6 In such late anti-Pelagian writings as Contra Iulianum (c. 422), De praedestinatione sanctorum (c. 429), and De dono perseverantiae (c. 429), for example, Augustine definitively rejects the notion that God elects based on foreseen merits.7 Recognizing that Scripture and the theological tradition sometimes designate predestination by the name foreknowledge, Augustine denies that divine predestination is reducible to what God eternally knows each human will do with the gifts of faith and grace that God might provide. Predestination is not simply or primarily God's foreknowledge of what humans are going to do; rather, it is foreknowledge of what God Himself is going to do. Augustine's teaching here effectively ensures that predestination is wholly dependent on an immutable and inscrutable divine agency.8 'God's gratuitous initiative in the predestination of people ends up in an apartheid-like form of salvation,' Donato Ogliari notes, 'reserved to the by means of the acronym TULIP: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints (Eire, Reformations, 572).  See Thomas Joseph White, 'Catholic Predestination: The Omnipotence and Innocence of Divine Love,' in Thomism and Predestination: Principles and Disputations, ed. Steven A. Long, Roger W. Nutt, and Thomas Joseph White (Ave Maria, FL: Sapientia Press, 2016), 94– 126, esp. 97; and Herbert McCabe, 'Predestination,' in Herbert McCabe, God Still Matters, ed. Brian Davies (London: Continuum, 2002), 182–6, who summarizes the Calvinist view thus: 'So it looks as though each one of us is born with a destiny. (...) And God has arranged all this beforehand; there is obviously nothing we can do to alter our destinies. Whether we get to heaven or not, it seems, has nothing to do with what we choose to do: it has all been fixed beforehand by God' (McCabe, 'Predestination,' 182).  Gerald Bonner, Freedom and Necessity: St. Augustine's Teaching on Divine Power and Human Freedom (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007), 14.  See, e.g., Augustine, Contra Iulianum 5.4.14 (PL 44:791–93); Augustine, De praedestinatione sanctorum 10.19 (PL 44:974–75); and Augustine, De dono perseverantiae 18.47 (PL 45:1022–23). In De praedestinatione sanctorum 3.7 (PL 44:964–65), Augustine explains that his current view represents a break with his former thinking, set forth in such works as Expositio quarundam propositionum ex epistula apostoli ad Romanos 60 (c. 395; PL 35:2078–79), according to which God chooses to give grace to those humans whom He foreknows will have faith so that, by performing good works, they might attain to eternal life.  See Donato Ogliari, Gratia et certamen: The Relationship between Grace and Free Will in the Discussion of Augustine with the So-called Semipelagians (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2003), 330–4. 74 Franklin T. Harkins


We have developed a crystalline infrared fiber using silver halide to transmit a CO2 laser beam. The most preferable composition for the fiber was investigated and found to be 43 weight % AgCl and 57 weight % AgBr; the fiber of this composition exhibits the most superior mechanical strength. Then we examined to find the most suitable conditions and method of the fiber extrusion. The fiber thus obtained exhibits superior physical characteristics, a transmission loss as low as 0.2 dB/m, the minimum bend radius of 2cm and so on. We found some weak points of the fiber under high humidity and unfiltered fluoresent light. If the fiber could be protected from the weak points by structuring a cable, it is ideal for medical use.


Abstract Ecotones are considered as unique environments. The concepts of edge effect and ecotone species (flora and fauna) are widely used. Considering the fact that the majority of the species found in ecotones are usually at their physiologically determined limits of distribution, how they react to global climate changes becomes crucial. Ecotones are reputed to be more biologically diverse than areas close to them, and therefore possesses a high conservation value, yet little is known on how soil properties vary across ecotones. In this paper, we firstly highlighted the roles ecotones play in assessing the effect on global climate change, the mediatory role they play in the movement of material (water and nutrients) into and out of the region. Secondly, we reviewed studies on how soil properties change across ecotones and it is worthwhile to note that soil properties tend to differ across various ecotones (e.g. increasing pH and decreasing P & N across forest–glade ecotones, decreasing pH across ancient–recent forest ecotones) in a manner that defines the character of the ecotones existing.


The measurement and control of cleanliness for critical surfaces during manufacturing and in service provides a unique challenge for fulfillment of environmentally benign operations. Of particular interest has been work performed in maintaining quality in the production of bondline surfaces in propulsion systems and the identification of possible contaminants. This work requires an in-depth study of the possible sources of contamination, methodologies to identify contaminants, discrimination between contaminants and chemical species caused by environment, and the effect of particular contaminants on the bondline integrity of the critical surfaces. This presentation will provide an introduction to the use of optical fiber spectrometry in a nondestructive measurement system for process monitoring and how it can be used to help clarify issues concerning surface chemistry. Correlation of the Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopic results with Optical Stimulated Electron Emission (OSEE) and ellipsometry will also be presented.


From the synthesis of small biomolecules to complex macromolecular structures, click chemistry is one of the most promising and straightforward methodologies owing to its easy accessibility and high efficiency. A...


: Vital sign monitoring is becoming a part of our daily lives, emerging as a trend of smart wearable devices used to manage health. Cardiac arrhythmia is any variation in the normal heartbeat rhythm, causing the heart to beat improperly. This work presents a study on the classification of cardiac arrhythmias in 4 classes, Normal (N), Supraventricular Ectopic (SVE), Ventricular Ectopic (LV), and Fusion of Normal and Ventricular (F). Using the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database and the Classification Learner App from MATLAB ® for training, it was possible to investigate 24 models, where the Subspace KNN Ensemble obtained the best accuracy (74.4%) and was later used for implementation in the suggested user interface application.


In the spring of 1999, an effort was started to write a free Fortran 95 compiler. The goal of the project is to produce a Fortran compiler capable of compiling modem Fortran programs. Prior to this, a free Fortran 77 compiler, g77, had been available from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for several years and still is. While g77 is no longer being actively maintained except for bug fixes, it has been stable and reliable for years and is the most prevalent Fortran compiler at the author's institution.


God and Gold in Late Antiquity. By Dominic Janes. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1998. Pp. xii, 212;13 b/w halftones, 1 color frontispiece.) This little book consists in five chapters. Chapter 1 is actually an introduction to the book overall; the chapter skims several subjects: public display of wealth, early Christianity and wealth, gift exchange and gift giving, the so-called jeweled style, Jewish iconophobia (presenting a view that is fifty years out of date), moral opposition to wealth and luxury, luxury commodities as social markers, power, representing God in gold, sex, symbolism. All this (and there is more!) in seventeen pages. Chapter 2.1 concerns the Roman Imperial application of luxury goods (precious metals, selected colors [notably purple], textiles, gemstones, pearls, coins, `precious substances,' colored marbles, gold tesserae, opus sectile, silver plate) as traditional markers of power (all clearly borrowed from Hellenistic models, although Janes does not mention this); the author lumps this omnium gatherum under the rubric "secular": a problematic if not downright misleading term, given the context. Chapter 2.2 concerns the early Christian appropriation of the materials outlined in Part 1; the result, we are told, is the creation of a church built on the so-called treasure society mentality. This is without doubt a reasonable judgment. Chapter 3 is based on literary sources and attempts to explain how early Christianity managed to reconcile the evangelical call to poverty with the ecclesiastical commitment to building up the Church on the model of a treasure society. Much of this chapter focuses on Latin metaphorical and allegorical readings of the Song of Solomon and John's Revelation-the time frame of this interpretative exercise (as Janes presents it) extends well beyond the Late Roman period into medieval western Europe. Chapter 4 treats iconographic issues, mosaic iconography (with particular attention to Christian appropriations of Imperial types and the use of gilded tesserae) along with an examination of the so-called golden aesthetic "from Antiquity to the Middle Ages." The author deigns to share his view ("gaudy") of the jeweled cross in the apse of Sant'Apollinare in Classes bumpkins like the present reviewer probably will continue to admire this image despite Janes's peremptory dismissal. This concluding chapter returns to what I take to be the book's main theoretical crux, namely how the early Christians reconciled their commitment to voluntary poverty with their church's wealth. …


Clinical trials in drug development are commonly divided into 3 categories or phases. The first phase aims to find the range of doses of potential clinical use, usually by identifying the maximum tolerated dose. The second phase aims to find doses that demonstrate promising efficacy with acceptable safety. The third phase aims to confirm the benefit previously found in the second phase using clinically meaningful end points and to demonstrate safety more definitively. Dose-finding trials—studies conducted to identify the most promising doses or doses to use in later studies—are a key part of the second phase and are intended to answer the dual questions of whether future development is warranted and what dose or doses should be used. If too high a dose is chosen, adverse effects in later confirmatory phase 3 trials may threaten the development program. If too low a dose is chosen, the treatment effect may be too small to yield a positive confirmatory trial and gain approval from a regulatory agency. A well-designed dose-finding trial is able to establish the optimal dose of a medication and facilitate the decision to proceed with a phase 3 trial. Selection of a dose for further testing requires an understanding of the relationships between dose and both efficacy and safety. These relationships can be assessed by comparing the data from each dose group with placebo, or with the other doses, in a series of pairwise comparisons. This approach is prone to both false-negative and false-positive results because of the large number of statistical comparisons and the relatively small number of patients receiving each dose. These risks can be mitigated by combining data from patients receiving multiple active doses into a single treatment group for comparison with placebo ("pooling"), but only if it is possible to reliably predict which doses are likely to be effective. In general, dose-response relationships are best examined through dose-response models that make flexible, justifiable assumptions about the potential dose-response relationships and allow the integration of information from all doses used in the trial. This can reduce the risk of both false-negative and false-positive results; incorporating all data into the estimates of efficacy and safety for each dose produces more accurate estimates than evaluating the response to each dose separately. In this issue of JAMA, Gheorghiade et al 1 report the results of


News is one of the main targets of critical discourse analysis,and intertextuality theory is an effective tool to reveal the hidden ideology in the news.This paper gives a critically comparative analysis to English news discourse and its Chinese version,using intertextuality by Fairclough,with the purpose of revealing the complex relationship between intertextuality,power and ideology and ideological diversity caused by the translator during the process of news translation.


The invention discloses a medical magnetic tongue depressor flashlight which comprises a flashlight, a tongue depressor connector and a tongue depressor. A head of the flashlight is round. A set of LED lamps are evenly distributed on the periphery of the head. A magnet is disposed at the center of the circle of the head. A power button is disposed at the tail of the flashlight. The tongue depressor connector comprises a support rod and a tongue depressor socket. One end of the support rod is round, and the other end of the support rod is fixedly connected with the tongue depressor socket. Tongue depressor slots are arranged on two sides of the tongue depressor socket. The support rod is made of metal material. The medical magnetic tongue depressor flashlight is simple in structure, practical and convenient.


(Ma et al., 2019) It is necessary for theoretical studies to further examine solution modes of a sharing economy that focus on social issues and how to promote social innovation and entrepreneurship by means of sharing values and concepts to verify the relationship between social innovation and social value creation and understand various problems, such as how social innovation and entrepreneurship and sharing values and concepts can realize interactive promotion. [...]it is necessary to explore how we can break through the conceptual limitations of the "means-ends" relationship in the economy and society, so as to not only improve the survival ability of social organizations but also prompt enterprises and organizations to return to their essential attributes: social subjects. [...]nonprofit organizations engage in voluntary public welfare or mutual assistance activities, which can make up for the shortcomings of the government and other public departments and help them provide more effective social services to meet social needs while creating social value. Theoretical studies based on the concept of sustainable development have addressed the issue through paradigms of active social changes, such as CSR, the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) and SE (Mair et al., 2016;Zahra and Wright, 2016). [...]increasingly more organizations are beginning to pay attention to economic value and social value simultaneously. [...]according to the organizational paradox theory, in theoretical studies, we must first recognize that these two value goals have long existed in enterprises and are interrelated and contradictory. [...]the paradox theory advocates treating the tension of contradiction as an organizational opportunity and finding innovative ways to solve complex problems, such as sustainable development, through the exploration of the relationship between the relevant elements of the contradiction (Hahn et al., 2018;Smith and Lewis, 2011), which is becoming the focus of theoretical studies.


Steps to ease pressure on emergency departments are being taken by hospitals after MPs warned care will be in crisis unless urgent action is taken.


This paper introduces the hypergeo package of R routines for numerical calculation of hypergeometric functions. The package is focussed on efficient and accurate evaluation of the Gauss hypergeometric function over the whole of the complex plane within the constraints of fixed-precision arithmetic. The hypergeometric series is convergent only within the unit circle, so analytic continuation must be used to define the function outside the unit circle. This short document outlines the numerical and conceptual methods used in the package; and justifies the package philosophy, which is to maintain transparent and verifiable links between the software and Abramowitz and Stegun (1965). Most of the package functionality is accessed via the single function hypergeo(), which dispatches to one of several methods depending on the value of its arguments. The package is demonstrated in the context of game theory.


Semiconductor element having metallic surfaces (1a) and non-metallic surfaces (2a), which are provided with a molding compound, wherein: - the non-metallic surfaces (2a), a separate layer is applied as a spin-on-glass having irregularities (3), which increase the adhesion between the non-metallic surfaces (2a) and the molding compound, - the distance between the irregularities (3) in the range of 1 to 30 nm is located, and - the depth of the irregularities (3) in the range of 10 to 80 nm.


In recent years, lots of organizations face the problem about the understanding and evolution of legacy system, it has become more and more important in software research field. Reverse engineering can aid systematic evolution by providing a better understanding of subject system's design and overall structure and it is one of the crucial techniques in the maintenance and evolution of legacy systems. This paper introduces the terminology of reverse engineering, gives the progresses of reverse engineering analysis techniques. A discussion of the drawbacks of reverse engineering analysis techniques, and a comment on the future of the techniques is presented.


Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a growing health problem globally — the incidence of patients reaching end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has more than doubled in Europe and the US during the past two decades. According to the UK renal registry, 774 people per million of the population required renal replacement therapy (RRT) in 2008, which was an increase of 4.4% over the previous year. About 2% of the NHS annual budget is specifically allocated to RRT (both dialysis and transplantation), a spend which is likely to continue.


From the perspective of evidence law,the fundamental reasons for the unsatisfying practice of the couple's common debts presumption rule are the following: exceptions to the presumption are too limited and effect of the presumption is too strong. Accordingly,in order to improve the current presumption,two actions should be done,i. e. increasing the number of exceptions to the presumption and alleviating the validity of the presumption. Consequently,a debt borrowed by one party should be deemed as an individual debt,provided that it was borrowed without a prior consent from the other party and was not used for their common life. What is more,the burden of proof applied to this scenario should be modified to the extent that the current presumption regarding mandatory requirement on shifting objective burden of proof be changed to a presumption regarding mandatory requirement on shifting subjective burden of proof.


Abstract : The 42nd Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy was convened at Ohio State University during the period 15-19 June 1987. Over 300 scientists attended, representing research organizations from the U.S. and fourteen foreign countries. Topical areas included electronic characteristics of molecules, energy transfer, infrared and microwave spectra, liquid and solid state phenomena, laser spectra, Raman spectra, molecular beams, vibrational analysis, and experimental techniques. As planned, special emphasis was placed on the spcectroscopy of van der Waals molecules, and there was a special session on probing and modeling the earth's atmosphere.


Thai corporate governance (CG) practices have been reformed and heralded by the market regulators; the Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), from time to time since 2001. CG scorings of voluntary listed companies are announced once a year around the fourth quarter. This study examines the linkage of CG scoring and market reactions. In addition, this research aims to find out whether the market players in the SET recognize the value of getting a CG scoring of the listed firm. The objects of this research are firstly to examine whether market players react to CG scoring announcement and secondly to investigate whether in Thai capital market abnormal returns can result from CG scoring announcement. To answer the said questions, this paper conducts event study employing 3 methodology models; mean-adjusted returns, market-adjusted returns and market-model-adjusted returns, to test the effect on stock price as a result of addition (deletion) to the CG scoring during the period of 2009 to 2013. This study finds that the market players value the CG scoring, resulting that the abnormal returns are detected for both additions and deletions. For the additions, the market price shows significant positive average abnormal returns (AAR) and cumulative average abnormal returns (CAAR) in the first announcement day. For deletion, the market price shows significant negative AAR and CAAR in the first announcement day. However, the effects of both addition and deletion slightly die out the next 2 days after announcement (after day+1). This study, also, find that among 3 methodology models; mean-adjusted returns, market-adjusted returns, and market-model-adjusted returns, the market-adjusted returns methodology is more powerful to detect the statistical significance abnormal returns than others.


The invention relates to a screening method of a specific antibody pair for ELISA (enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay). The method is characterized by comprising the following steps: firstly, marking at least two antibody molecules to be screened as a biotin marked antibody molecule and a color-developing compound marked antibody molecule; secondly, detecting whether the biotin marked antibody molecule and the color-developing compound marked antibody molecule are marked successfully; thirdly, pairing individual biotin marked antibody molecules selected from the biotin marked antibody molecule and individual color-developing compound antibody molecules selected from the color-developing compound marked antibody molecule two by two respectively, carrying out ELISA according to an antigen to be detected, and collecting an antibody pair detecting signal; and fourthly, screening at least two antibody molecules to be screened according to the strength of the detection signal. The method is designed systematically, comprehensively and efficiently, the optimal antibody pair can be screened out, and a method for ELISA on the antigen to be detected, established by use of the screened antibody pair, has high sensitivity.


In the context of sustainable development and environmental protection, green innovation is an inevitable choice for enterprise development. Previous studies mainly discussed green innovation from the organizational level, but neglected the individual green innovation behavior. From the perspective of "leadership behavior", this paper explores the mechanism of ethical leadership on employees' green innovation behavior by using social learning theory and social identity theory. Thus a theoretical model is constructed, which includes four variables: ethical leadership, employee green innovation behavior, green organizational identity and strategic flexibility. It is proposed that ethical leadership not only positively affects employee green innovation behavior, but also transmits through the mediation role of green organizational identity. At the same time, strategic flexibility plays a moderating role between ethical leadership and green organizational identification. We hope to have a further understanding of the formation mechanism of employees' green innovation behavior.


Based on the analysis of historical. statistical yearbook and field survey materials, this paper draws some conclusions on the trend of land use change and its impact on the environment of Urumqi City in Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region. The results indicated that, during the period 1988 to 2004, the land-use structure of Urumqi changed dramatically. For instance, the orchards area and construction land area have been increased by 128. 9%, and 206. 4% respectively, and the farmland area and unused land area decreased by 6.6% and 1.3%. The land use intensity increased significantly both in the agricultural and construction land. Such an intensive land use/cover change has caused many serious environmental problems, including intensive soil erosion, increasing deterioration of water quality, biodiversity loss, serious air pollution and frequent occurrence of geological disasters. However, the eco-environmental quality of unused land in some region has been improved by replacing with rationally develop land with high ecological value. On the basis of our analysis, we proposed some suggestions to Urumqi which is rapidly developing, for its harmonious development between the environment and human society: 1) de-emphasis extensive expansion and focus on decentralized model. 2) to alleviate the contradiction between construction land and green spaces, orchards and farmland should be protected as urban green space. 3) the afforestation of bare hills should be continued.


Summer program registration typically starts in January or February—it's not too soon to think about summer! A s parents, we often worry about our oversched-uled children. How much is too much? Should they have time off during their breaks from school? Should they attend academic, music, or sport camps? Hang out with friends? Vacation on Grandpa's farm? Go to the beach? Of course, children and adolescents need time alone to just be themselves, but how many of us have heard, " I'm bored. I don't have anything to do, " after a week of downtime? This article provides an overview of current research and a look at the sampling of available enrichment programs for gifted children and adolescents. Research has shown that summer learning based in family and community activities increases stu-dents' school achievement. Students who participate in summer learning activities—whether camp-based, community-based, or family-based—score higher on their fall achievement tests than students who are left to their own devices during their free time (Alexan-der, Entwisle, & Olsen, 2007). This research suggests that the achievement gap is substantially linked to unequal learning opportunities in children's home and community environments, especially during summer months. Although learning gains during the school year for students who participate in out-of-school activi-Content is copyright protected and provided for personal use only-not for reproduction or retransmission. 17 ties is nearly equal for those who do not, students who do not participate in learning activities often lose more than 2 months of reading achievement during a typical summer vacation. The authors also found that all students lost more than 2 months grade-level equivalency in math over the summer , even those participating in learning activities. Finally, Alexander et al. (2007) found that as much as two thirds of test score differences could be traced to summer learning differences during elementary school and that these differences continued into high school and even college. Note that studies do not suggest we should put our children into the traditional school setting year-round (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). Activities during school vacations should include games, field trips, enrichment, and fun. These activities should connect to academics, while not necessarily resembling a typical classroom setting. Successful out-of-school learning experiences combine new ideas, places, relationships, hands-on opportunities, application of knowledge, and encouragement for students (Quinn, 2002). Many of the summer programs available for gifted students combine content acquisition with creative and critical thinking …


A simulation model to estimate the moisture content of a blister-packaged, moisture-sensitive pharmaceutical tablet was developed. The model was based on the unsteady state mass transfer of water between the package, the tablet, and external environment at constant temperature. The product's moisture content as well as that of the packaging material were given as a function of storage time, environmental conditions (temperature and humidity), and package design parameters (material, area, and thickness). A computer program was written to solve the equations using the finite difference method. Computer results are presented for several values of diffusion coefficient, solubility of water in the packaging material, and diffusion coefficient of water in the tablet.