Explicit theory about the process of economic development is notoriously scanty and underdeveloped.** Thus this paper will deal as much with emerging challenges to implicit theorizing and neglected areas in explicit theory as with trends in what explicit theory exists. Although the state of economic theory relevant to the agricultural sector of developing countries still leaves much to be desired, there have been some fascinating trends in the last ten years. Over the same period there have been fundamental changes in methodology as well. The central focus of those concerned with the course of economic change in developing economies is consideration of how the rate of economic development can be effectively increased and maintained. Economists working on the agricultural sector are most interested in theory that deals either with the relationship between change in the agricultural sector and change elsewhere in the economy, or with means of accelerating and sustaining development of the agricultural sector itself, of interest not only because the course of events in agriculture affects aggregate development but also because satisfactory progress in agriculture contributes to national goals other than development. Agricultural development affects development in other sectors of the economy in several ways: through provision of goods and services needed elsewhere in the economy and for export; through generation of rural purchasing power which can be a critical component of the stimuli needed to evoke satisfactory rates of development of other sectors; and through generation of savings, investment, and manpower needed elsewhere. Agricultural


An inhomogeneous thermal block model of man with 476 cubical cells has been developed. It incorporates inhomogeneous blood flow rates, metabolic heat production, specific heats, and thermal conductivities, obtained by volume-weighted averaging of the values for eleven different tissue types which constitute the human body. The transient heat conduction equation for the thermal model includes the effects of internal metabolic heat generation, electromagnetic energy deposition, heat conduction through the tissues, convective heat transfer by blood, evaporative heat dissipation by sweating and insensible perspiration, respiratory heat loss, and heat transfer to the environment by radiation and convection. The standard implicit finite difference technique has been utilized to solve the three-dimensional heat conduction equation.


. Let h ( x,y ) be a non-degenerate binary cubic form with integral coefficients, and let S be an arbitrary finite set of prime numbers. By a classical theorem of Mahler, there are only finitely many pairs of relatively prime integers x,y such that h ( x,y ) is an S -unit. In the present paper, we reverse a well-known argument, which seems to go back to Shafarevich, and use the modularity of elliptic curves over Q to give upper bounds for the number of solutions of such a Thue-Mahler equation. In addition, our methods give an effective method for determining all solutions, and we use Cremona's Elliptic Curve Database to give a wide range of numerical examples.


Social identity processes are central to social psychological theory and research. Social identity plays an important role in many individual and social phenomena, including health and well-being (e.g., C. Haslam, Jetten, Cruwys, Dingle & Haslam, 2018), educational achievement (e.g., Steele, Spencer & Aronson, 2002), and collective action and social change (e.g., van Zomeren, Postmes & Spears, 2008). In this chapter, we provide an overview of social psychological theories on social identity, including social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and self-categorization theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher &Wetherell, 1987). Prior to Tajfel's and Turner's seminal writings, two types of theory dominated explanations of intergroup relations and intergroup conflict. First, so-called 'prejudice' accounts proposed that intergroup conflict results from individual-level variation in a prejudiced personality (Son Hing & Zanna, 2010). Second, realistic group conflict theory (Campbell, 1965; Sherif, 1966) contended that negative intergroup relations stem from conflicting group goals and competition over resources or power (see Jackson, 1993, for a review). Compared to these explanations, social identity theory and self-categorization theory offered a unique and refined account of intergroup relations that remains important to this day. This chapter is dedicated to these interrelated approaches for understanding intergroup relations. Rather than present these theories chronologically—or focus on differences and similarities across the two theories—we take a more encompassing approach to what is often called the 'social identity perspective' (Abrams & Hogg, 2010). Beyond Tajfel's and Turner's seminal writings, we focus on more recent efforts to define social identification, and discuss how multiple categorization offer insights into the dynamics underlying intergroup relations. This chapter is organised into five sections. The first three sections define social categorization, self-categorization and social identification, and the latter


--Information on dispersal is critical for understanding the population dynamics of birds. We estimated breeding and natal dispersal in two studies of a population of the Puerto Rican Vireo (Vireo latimeri) that is in danger of local extirpation due to low reproductive success. From 7.1-29% of adult males and 12.5-25% of adult females changed territories between breeding seasons. The median breeding dispersal distance of 12 birds (7 males, 2 females, and 3 of unknown sex) was 370 m (range 110-560 m). Four fledglings dispersed a median distance of 490 m from their natal nests to breeding territories (range 300-2030 m). The implications of these data for population trends of the vireo in Gufinica Forest are


INTRODUCTION During the last century, there has been spectacular improvement in the field of pharmaceutical sciences. Research studies evaluated that only two third of population can get medical consultation on medical care behalf, However rest of the population have severe multiple type of diseases due to the medication they have taken. The untoward effects some times can have a sinister effects, which discriminates the distance between existence and bereavement. Some time there is a temporary aliment between the wellbeing and casualty. Patient even not aware about the cause either the drug and how can prevent from the 3,4 perilous effects of the drugs .


A new series of thermally stable, organic solvent soluble polyimides has been synthesized by reacting the tricyclic heterocyclic molecule 3,7-diaminophenothiazinium chloride, thionine, with four different dianhydrides. With the exception of the polyimide obtained from pyromellitic dianhydride and thionine, the polyimides were synthesized by a single-stage polymerization reaction at an elevated temperature. The polyimides were thermalyy stable up to 500°C in air


In the paper the novel noneigenvector approach which uses the special power basis is presented. The persymmetry property of the data covariance matrix is used. The ways of calculation of the threshold between signal subspace and noise subspace eigenvalues of sample covariance matrix without calculation of the spectral decomposition of data CM are considered. The performance of the proposed approach is verified by computer simulation. Some computer simulation results are presented


Objective To prepare a molecular imprinted polymer with specific recognition ability for artemisinin.Methods A molecular imprinted polymer was prepared by the molecular imprinting technique using artemisinin as the template molecular,acrylamide as the functional monomer,and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linking agent.The molecular imprinted polymer was investigated in equilibrium binding experiment to evaluate its adsorption property and selective recognition.Results Scatchard analysis showed that two classes of binding sites were formed in the artemisinin molecular imprinted polymer under the studied concentrations.The dissociation constant(Kd) and the apparent maximum binding constant(Qmax) were Kd1= 1.87 mmol/L,Qmax1= 27.99 μmol/g for high affinity binding sites and Kd2= 48.5 mmol/L,Qmax2= 334.4 μmol/g for low affinity binding sites,respectively.Conclusion The experiments of binding different substrates indicate that the imprinted polymer possess a high selectivity and a high recognition ability for artemisinin.It's likely to be a novel material for separation and purification of active ingredients from natural products.


Aims. With our low-resolution spectroscopic observing programme for selected blue proper motion stars, we tried to find new white dwarfs (WDs) in the solar neighbourhood.
Methods. We used the Lépine & Shara Proper Motion (LSPM) catalogue with a lower proper motion limit of 150 mas yr−1 and the Second US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC2) for proper motions down to about 90 mas yr−1. The LSPM and UCAC2 photometry was combined with Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) near-infrared (NIR) photometry. Targets selected according to their blue optical-to-NIR and NIR colours were observed mainly at Calar Alto. The spectra were classified by comparison with a large number of already known comparison objects, including WDs, simultaneously observed within our programme. Gaia DR2 parallaxes and colours were used to confirm or reject spectroscopic WD candidates and to derive improved effective temperatures.
Results. We found ten new WDs at distances between 24.4 pc and 79.8 pc, including six hot DA WDs: GD 221 (DA2.0), HD 166435 B (DA2.2), GD 277 (DA2.2), 2MASS J19293865+1117523 (DA2.4), 2MASS J05280449+4105253 (DA3.6), and 2MASS J05005185-0930549 (DA4.2). The latter is rather bright (G ≍ 12.6) and with its Gaia DR2 parallax of ≍14 mas it appears overluminous by about 3 mag compared to the WD sequence in the Gaia DR2 colour-magnitude diagram. It may be the closest extremely low mass (ELM) WD to the Sun. We further classified 2MASS J07035743+2534184 as DB4.1. With its distance of 25.6 pc it is the second nearest known representative of its class. With GD 28 (DA6.1), LP 740-47 (DA7.5), and LSPM J1919+4527 (DC10.3) three additional cool WDs were found. Gaia DR2 parallaxes show that four of our candidates, but also two previously supposed WDs (WD 1004+665 and LSPM J1445+2527) are in fact distant Galactic halo stars with high tangential velocities. Among our rejected WD candidates, we identified a bright (G = 13.4 mag) G-type carbon dwarf, LSPM J0937+2803, at a distance of 272 pc.


ABSTRACT One of the most urgent and widely discussed problems of international organisations is their need for democratic legitimacy. In this article, a novel approach is developed for the study of democracy in international context. This approach is borrowed from sociological theory and focuses on Shmuel Eisenstadt's and Niklas Luhmann's views on social differentiation and illustrated through the current debate over the democratic deficits of international arbitration. The proposed differentiation theory provides a dynamic and abstract explanatory framework which apart from offering a conceptual frame of reference for the judicialisation of international relations, makes the concept of democracy more specific and precise. Moreover, in contrast to other theories, it explains the claims for democracy arising out of both differentiation and dedifferentiation processes. Ultimately, this article argues that the claim for democracy is inadequate when applied to international arbitration and obscures its need for other forms of legitimisation.


Older and popular methods of estimating the number of Negroes who pass over into the white group are no longer to be credited. Considerable misconception exists concerning passing itself, which is more frequently temporary and opportunistic than permanent and complete. In the absence of scientifically accurate counts, the lower estimates of passing are probably more reliable.


Interprofessional education, where students from two or more health professions learn from, with, and about one another, is one approach to prepare health professional learners for the collaborative practice-ready workforce currently desired in health care. Collaborative, interprofessional practice is necessary to provide safe, high quality, accessible, patient-centered care with improved outcomes for individuals, families, and communities. A review of the literature related to interprofessional education, competency-based education, and use of interprofessional education competencies in curriculum design is provided. To guide educators in developing interprofessional education experiences for health professional learners, the "Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice" has been developed. Additionally, the University of Toronto Core Competencies Framework provides motivation for educators to level (i.e., beginning, intermediate, or advanced) appropriate learning activities for different learners, based on their developmental stage. The purpose of this study was to gain consensus of interprofessional education experts on the leveling of interprofessional education competencies for health care learners using a Delphi approach. Eighteen panel experts completed the first round with 14 of the 18 completing the second and third rounds. All but one of the 39 Interprofessional Education Collaborative competencies were designated as beginning, intermediate, or advanced learners by experts in the field of interprofessional education. The results of the Delphi study provide a blueprint that utilized a developmental approach for planned, leveled interprofessional education learning experiences. Educators may use the suggestions of this expert group to develop educational offerings that are


.............................................................................................ii Acknowledgments .................................................................................iv List of Tables .......................................................................................vii List of Figures ....................................................................................viii Chapter 1. Statement of Problem ...............................................................1 Chapter 2. Literature Review ....................................................................3 2.1. Teenage Pregnancy as an Epidemic .....................................................3 2.2. The Causes of Teenage Pregnancy ......................................................4 2.3. What's the Problem?........................................................................6 2.4. Policy Recommendations at a Glance ...................................................7 2.5. What is Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Education?.................................8 2.6. What is Comprehensive Sex Education?.................................................8 2.7. History of Abstinence-Only Policies .....................................................9 2.8. Virginia's State Policy on Sexuality Education .......................................11 2.9. Federal and State Funding: Where's the Money?....................................12 2.10. Mathematica Policy Research, Inc Study ............................................12 2.11. Research on Sex Education: Is Abstinence Enough?...............................16 Chapter 3. Theoretical Aspects .................................................................29 3.1. Public Policy to Construct Reproductive Freedom ..................................29 3.2. Self-Determination and The Illusion of Freedom ....................................32 3.3. Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage: The Message Behind the Words ...............36 3.4. Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage: The Four Social Controls?......................37


A flexible and versatile method combining sputtering and electrospinning techniques was used to shape different palladium morphological structures with nanoscale features. The samples were prepared by dc-magnetron sputtering onto thermally degradable polymer templates. The sputtering parameters were chosen to deposit the metal under low adatom-mobility conditions. After deposition, the template was removed by heat treatment, thereby forming different palladium morphologies with shapes resembling ribbons and half tubes, amongst others. X-ray diffraction studies demonstrated that they are composed of crystalline palladium or palladium oxide, depending on the heat treatment. The cylindrical walls are composed of 30 nm or smaller crystallites, as measured from transmission electron microscopy images. A mathematical simulation demonstrate that the morphological structures obtained are a consequence of the sputtering line-of-sight deposition process. This fabrication process can be varied to modify three types of structures at the nanoscale level: the external shape, the columnar shape of the walls, and the nano-crystallinity. The external shape can be modified by controlling the deposition time and the fiber template diameter. The columnar shape of the walls and the nano-crystallinity can be modified by changes in the sputtering process parameters. The nanoscale morphologies created have potential uses in sensing and photonic applications.


Successful disease management requires an in-
depth understanding of the pathogens present in a region. Barley scald is a highly variable disease. Changes in virulence have been observed in a number of varieties at the adult stage in recent years, therefore a better understanding of the virulence profile present in sNSW is required. This experiment is beginning to characterise the reaction of Australian barley varieties at the seedling stage to scald isolates collected from southern NSW. It
complements the adult plant screening process.


The development of epoxy resin industry at home and abroad,the consumption situation in china and some problems were reviewed. Its application in coating,electronic element,adhesive,insulating material and FRP et al and some proposals were related in this paper.


Temperature plays an important role in plant growth and development. The increased temperature suddenly may cause severe consequences. This study aimed to observe the impact of temperature, exposure of duration, and the interaction between temperature and exposure duration at the germination phase and seedling growth of chili pepper. The research design used Factorial Completely Randomized Design. The first factor was the temperature consisted of five-level of temperature i.e: 35°C, 37°C, 39°C, and 41°C. The second factor was the exposure duration consisted of four hours, eight hours, and twelve hours. The Parameters observed were the percentage of seed germination, shoot length, root length, number of roots, seedling height, number of leaves, fresh weight of seedling, dry weight of seedling, and chlorophyll content. The results of this study showed that there is an interaction between temperature and duration of exposure, the rise in the temperature and duration of exposure decrease shoot length 35.15%, root length (23.23%), number of roots (29.82)%, fresh weight of seedling (40%), number of leaves (30%), chlorophyll content. As a result, the growth of Chili seedling showed a drastic reduction in shoot development, root development, and physiological parameters tested, the germination stage is very susceptible to raise the temperatures.


This paper proposes a novel method for anomaly and quality detection of marine mammal sounds using multitaper spectrogram and hydrophone big data. The proposed method is aimed to automatically detect anomaly, such as high-frequency vessel noise, Doppler noise, in sperm whale (SPW) sound as well as the quality of the sound. A new signature function derived from a multi-taper spectrogram is able to detect the anomaly in the data and a new anomaly distortion measure can detect the sound quality into good/bad. The proposed method, is tested with 1905 minutes of data spanning a single year, and using a human operator's annotations. The experimental results reveal that the proposed multitaper spectrogram based approach is efficient in detecting anomaly as well as sperm whale sound quality for hydrophone big data and high detection accuracy (>85%) is achieved for raw input hydrophone data.


Functional Programming (FP) sup BAC87 is an alternative to conventional imperative programming languages. This thesis describes an FP interpreter implementation. Superficially, FP appears to be a simple, but very inefficient language. Its simplicity, however, allows it to be interpreted quickly. Much of the inefficiency can be removed by simple interpreter techniques. This thesis describes the Illinois Functional Programming (IFP) interpreter, an interactive functional programming implementation which runs under both MS-DOS and UNIX. The IFP interpreter allows functions to be created, executed, and debugged in an environment very similar to UNIX. IFP's speed is competitive with other interpreted languages such as BASIC.


as a possible alternative to treat severe cases. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the studies that compared full thickness and circular POEM in treating achalasia patients. We performed a comprehensive search in the databases of PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from inception through April 20th, 2022. We considered randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, and case series. We excluded abstracts, animal studies, case reports, reviews, editorials, and letters to editors. From each study, we collected the number of patients who underwent full thickness and circular POEM. The primary outcome was clinical success. The secondary outcomes were the occurrence of subcutaneous emphysema, operation time, and post-procedure re fl ux symptoms. The random-e ff ects model was used to calculate the risk ratios (RR), mean di ff erences (MD), and con fi dence intervals (CI). A p value , 0.05 was considered statistically signi fi cant. Heterogeneity was assessed using the Higgins I 2 index. Results: Six randomized controlled trials involving 774 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The rate of clinical success was not statistically di ff erent between full thickness and circular POEM (RR 1.02, 95%CI 0.98-1.06,p 0.45,I 0%)(Figure1a).Therateof theoperationtime was also lower in the same group (MD -10.60 mins, 95% CI -19.60- -2.13, p 5 76%) and 1c). The of post-procedure re fl ux symptoms was not statistically di ff erent between the two groups (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.60-2.02, p 5 0.75, I 2 5 22%). Conclusion: Our meta-analysis demonstrated that clinical success was not statistically di ff erent between full thickness and circular PEOM. However, subcutaneous emphysema and


A morphologically different cell type to the typically smooth muscle cell has been found in the inner medial layers of the splenic artery. Besides the morphological differences, typical criteria for a smooth muscle cell are demonstrated, giving an account of their identity. Morphological details are described. The importance of these cells as regards lesions of the vessel wall is briefly discussed.


This text forms the introductory chapter to the 2018 Routledge book 'The Creative Critic: Writing as/about Practice', in the section on the Manifesto.

I first delivered this text in the context of a workshop on creative approaches to critical writing at the Society for Artistic Research in 2016. The length of the paper necessitated brevity, so my argument had to be succinct. The result was manifesto-like oratory, all strident, impassioned and rhetorical.

After the event, the written paper seemed flat and conventional in comparison, without the cadence and timbre of the piece 'as performed'. A re-editing and revision of the writing attempted to distill the key points from each section into the form of a classic art manifesto, modelled on - and in some cases directly appropriating from – Wyndham Lewis's Blast (Lewis, 1914), Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto (Marinetti, 1909), Claes Oldenburg's I Am for an Art (1961) and Oscar Wilde's The Critic as Artist (1888).

The lack of qualifying statements to support or substantiate the arguments emphasises the playful, bold and irreverent tone of the piece. There are a few clunky, obvious puns and art in-jokes scattered throughout the text too, so while the overall points I try to express are serious, the manifesto itself (perhaps by necessity, in adopting a form with such historical baggage) is intended to be somewhat wry or tongue-in-cheek. It my firm conviction that critical and creative writing need not be mutually exclusive endeavors, that criticality is often (whether deliberate or not) embedded in the form and style of writing as much as in its explicit 'content'.

In my own writing I have often attempted to resist the hierarchies and taxonomies imposed by academia or disciplinary convention, writing across a range of often hybrid genres and forms which neither reject nor privilege the creative or critical but attempt to synthesise the two.


Network infrastructure operation and management are becoming increasingly complex. This complexity is a result of multi-vendor devices, distributed platforms, and the numerous protocols for control and management present in the network. Previous studies indicate that shifting network functions from the core network infrastructure to the end hosts offers network benefits and reduces the dependencies on the core infrastructure. In this research, we propose a novel framework to enable network functions on end hosts by utilizing container virtualization technologies. The lightweight and flexible nature of containers facilitate simple deployment and management while enabling application-specific intelligence to reside on the end host relieving the core network infrastructure of these complexities. To achieve this, we implement software-defined networking (SDN) concepts and technologies to enable centralized control of end-host network functions. Functional validation of the proposed framework is performed using Voice over IP (VoIP), with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), as the network function and the experiment results indicate that the containerized VoIP functions can operate on the end host, simplifying network management and enabling a simple network core.


15546 Background: Picoplatin is a sterically hindered platinum analogue specifically developed to overcome platinum resistance and to improve on the safety and efficacy of other platinum-based drug...


The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a compound semiconductor light emitting element, for producing a compound semiconductor light-emitting element having the following features: a conductive thin film (8) of high transmittance, low contact resistance and a conductive thin film (8) low resistance. The compound semiconductor A method for manufacturing light emitting element of the present invention, comprising the steps of: a semiconductor layer made of a group III nitride semiconductor and comprises a light-emitting layer (3) formed on a substrate (1); the semiconductor layer and the substrate (1 ) step conductive film (8) in contact with a side opposite to the side formed; the conductive film (8) a step of annealing in an oxygen environment; an atmosphere containing oxygen without the conductive thin film (8 ) second annealing step; step is performed between the primary and secondary annealing step of annealing, the conductive film (8) the step of exposing the atmosphere.


The article describes an experience of projecting and installation clinical information system «Electronic registry» for www-booking patient to a physician


The invention relates to a cathode of a lithium ion secondary battery, comprising a current collector and cathode material smeared over and/or filled in the current collector. The cathode material comprises cathode active substance and cathode adhesive. The cathode active substance is the mixture of a natural graphite and an artificial graphite, wherein, the natural graphite is the natural graphite with a ball shape, the artificial graphite is the artificial graphite with a micro granule scaly shape, the particle diameter of the natural graphite with the ball shape is longer than that of the artificial graphite with the micro granule scaly shape, the difference in value of the median diameter D50 between the natural graphite with the ball shape and the artificial graphite with the micro granule scaly shape is 4-25 microns; the median diameter D50 of the artificial graphite with the micro granule scaly shape is 0. 3-6 microns; the proportion by weight between the natural graphite with the ball shape and the artificial graphite with the micro granule scaly shape is 1:0.05-0.2. The lithium ion secondary battery provided by the invention has good circle performance and discharging performance with a large rate and safety performance under the condition of high capacity.


Review of Peter Adamson Medieval Philosophy. A history of philosophy without any gaps , volume 4, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2019, 688 pages.


Storage and separation of carbon dioxide and methane are of practical interests in environmental engineering and energy engineering. The processes characteristics of the carbon dioxide and methane in zeolites of ERI, HEU and MOR are studied by computer simulation. The mechanism for the process was discussed and some conclusions for the process design were made.


In the scientific article the losses in asynchronous and synchronous reactive electric drives are compared. This comparison allows us to solve the problem of optimizing the weight and size of electric drives. A generalized computational model of losses in the magnetic circuit of a synchronous reactive electric drive was proposed. The comparison of the losses in synchronous reluctance and induction motor drives for the same electromagnetic loads, overheating of the synchronous motor is not higher than 100 degrees Celsius which is 20 degrees lower than with an asynchronous drive. This is explained by the absence of electrical losses in the rotor, since there are no electrical losses in copper.


It becomes difficult for students living in the interactive world, the world of technology, to adequately perceive the curriculum in a standard format. Thanks to the creation of new, modern methods of teaching and presenting information, it is possible to approach the educational process at a different level. The object of the research is the features of designing for students to increase motivation as well as creative and cognitive abilities and the results of their educational activities. The methodological basis of the research is the following: statement of the problem, analysis of existing solutions, choice of the topic of graphic support and its implementation for secondary and high school students, description of the developed product, and research results


Objective: To compare perinatal and short-term neonatal outcomes of adolescent, reproductive age, and advanced maternal age (AMA) pregnancies in a low-income region of İstanbul. Materials and Methods: Three hundred six adolescents, 301 reproductive age, and 303 AMA pregnant women who delivered in Süleymaniye Education and Research Hospital between January 1st 2007, and January 31st 2015, were recruited to the study population. The clinical, obstetric and short-term neonatal outcomes of the women were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Adolescent and AMA pregnancies were associated with severe adverse perinatal and short-term neonatal outcomes compared with reproductive-age women. Adolescent and AMA pregnancies had quite similar risks in obstetric outcomes. Adolescent pregnancies were related with severe adverse short-term neonatal outcomes when compared with advanced maternal age pregnancies. Conclusion: Adolescent and AMA pregnancies should be defined as high-risk pregnancies. Our research indicated that healthcare providers such as obstetricians, midwives, and family physicians should be alert in these populations.


The analytical understanding of microstructures arising in martensitic phase transitions relies usually on the study of stress-free interfaces between different variants of martensite. However, in the literature there are experimental observations of non stress-free junctions between martensitic plates, where the compatibility theory fails to be predictive. In this work, we focus on $V_{II}$ junctions, which are non stress-free interfaces between different martensitic variants experimentally observed in Ti74Nb23Al3. We first motivate the formation of some non stress-free junctions by studying the two well problem under suitable boundary conditions. We then give a mathematical characterisation of $V_{II}$ junctions within the theory of elasto-plasticity, and show that for deformation gradients as in Ti74Nb23Al3 our characterisation agrees with experimental results. Furthermore, we are able to prove that, under suitable hypotheses that are verified in the study of Ti74Nb23Al3, $V_{II}$ junctions are strict weak local minimisers of a simplified energy functional for martensitic transformations in the context of elasto-plasticity.


Background: Oral and general health status depends on a dynamic interplay of several factors, including the individual's personal knowledge, attributes, behaviors, and perceptions. Oral health knowledge is considered to be an important prerequisite for health related behavior and as age increases, knowledge must also increases. Aim: To assess the oral health knowledge, attitude, practices and self-perception of personal dental appearance among university female students. Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study among university students enrolled in female Zulfi colleges of Majmaaha University, KSA in the academic year 2016-2017. Using self-structured questionnaire to evaluate oral health knowledge, attitude, practices and self-perception of personal dental appearance Results: One fifth 20.9% know that regular dentist visit is necessary, one half 53.2% reported that tooth care is as important as care of any part of the body, 29.9% of them reported that dentist visit must be every 6 months, 36%of student was using brush and dental floss for tooth cleaning, only 42.4%was using brush twice/day, Half of the student either did not visit dentist or their last visit was since more than one year, finally only 20.9% of student reported regular visit to dentist. 19.8% reported being not afraid of dental instrument and procedure, and 69.1% reported either taking or sometimes taking sedative instead of going to dentist, 51.1% are satisfied with their tooth shape, 34.2% satisfied with tooth colour, 59.7% like their smile. Conclusion: College female student knowledge, attitudes, and practices about oral hygiene was deficient in many aspects. Recommendations: Oral health knowledge and education must be included in the early school life to build up good knowledge and practice by age.


The problem of designing controllers for achieving composite goals is well studied in the literature and is considered an open problem. In this paper we propose a controller architecture that builds on approaches for designing reactive decision making systems developed in the field of computer science. Specifically, we propose an extension of the Behavioural Programming (BP) approach that is tailored to allow controller design. As the name of the paper suggests, we identify the issue of "patience" as a key feature of the new approach - in many composite control problems it is not possible to advance all goals at all time, i.e., some goals need to "patiently" wait while others are being advanced. We demonstrate how the proposed approach is capable of handling elaborated multi-objective situations that include patience in an intuitive and effective way.


Do language means have the power to breach the information quality of news reporting? Yes, they do. Media organizations operate in the public space and hence they have the ability to impinge on public opinion! That is why the society demands socially responsible behavior from the media. The flagship of media activities is the production of news reporting. This is presented as a reflection of current reality and as such atrributed such positive values as being truthful, objective, and balanced. The team of researchers of Palacký University proves that via the language means the evaluation of news or preconceived emotional attitude towards them can be foisted upon the recipient.


Introduction The word "vulnerability" is often used by development agencies and scientists when speaking about human welfare in Southern Africa. It is known that increasing poverty, AIDS, and food insecurity are some of the threats that make households more "vulnerable" to different shocks and stressors But what does vulnerability really mean for a household in peri-urban South African townships, a family in Chikamba, a rural village in Malawi, or migrant workers in Durban? And how can it be used effectively in development work? These are some of the key questions that have driven this research. The aim of this study was to find out how parents are planning and acting to secure their children's future. The intention was to paint a broad picture of people's livelihoods to understand their perspectives and experiences, what is affecting their families and welfare, which interventions they are benefiting from, and how they are responding. Fieldwork in 2006 and 2007 consisted primarily of qualitative household-level comparative research on three field sites, namely: a rural site in Chikwawa district, Malawi, a peri-urban site in Amajuba District, South Africa and an urban site in Warwick Junction, Durban, South Africa. Purposive sampling of 10 households on each site was undertaken, according to the following key sampling criteria: 10 parents per site, of which 6 parents chronically ill and 4 parents not visibly ill; at least one child younger than 12 years in the household and at least 2 children present in the household; where possible, participation in a previous research project that the study built on. The field research involved a series of four semi-structured interviews per participant carried out over a five month period (the fourth interview consisted in a feedback module, whose purpose was in part to 'test' findings with respondents).


To improve the non-linearization of RF power amplifier,power-backoff,negative-forward,feed-forward and pre-distortion method are used usually.Compared with these linearization techniques,pre-distortion technique provides simple circuit design,good performance and relative low cost.In this paper,a new predistortion linearizer is proposed,which uses mixer and filter to generate IMD3 and IMD5 independently and complex gain adjuster to control the amplitude and phase of IMD3 and IMD5.A computer emulated result is also provided.Two tones test show that the improvements in IMD3 and IMD5 cancellations are 17 dBc and 12 dBc respectively.


PreMOn is a freely available linguistic resource for exposing predicate models (PropBank, NomBank, VerbNet, and FrameNet) and mappings between them (e.g, SemLink and the Predicate Matrix) as Linguistic Linked Open Data (LOD). It consists of two components: (i) the PreMOn Ontology, that builds on the OntoLex-Lemon model by the W3C Ontology-Lexica Community Group to enable an homogeneous representation of data from various predicate models and their linking to ontological resources; and, (ii) the PreMOn Dataset, a LOD dataset integrating various versions of the aforementioned predicate models and mappings, linked to other LOD ontologies and resources (e.g., FrameBase, ESO, WordNet RDF). PreMOn is accessible online in different ways (e.g., SPARQL endpoint), and extensively documented.


The effects of seven different silage additives on the chemical composition of grass silages were studied in three experiments using laboratory silos. In Experiment 1, four cuts were taken from a ryegrass pasture and ensiled without delay and after wilting for 24 hours. Wilted and unwilled grass was treated with seven levels of a formaldehyde-based additive (Sylade). Silage lactic acid content was slightly increased when the additive was applied at 2.31 t~l but was depressed in a linear manner with higher levels. The results suggest that the normal silage fermentation is almost completely suppressed when Sylade is added at a rate of 6.7 11~l or higher. In Experiments 2 and 3 additives were assessed for their abilities to reduce silage pH, and thereby improve the degree of preservation, relative to untreated grass and grass treated with 85% formic acid at 2.3 11_1. A dried lactic acid bacterial preparation was ineffective when used at the recommended level of 0.45 kg t?'. A dry powder containing phosphoric acid gave some improvement when used at 2.0 kg t?*; double this rate gave no further advantage. An additive based on milled barley and an enzyme (amylase), to hydrolyse the starch component to simple sugars, was effective when used at a rate of 15 kg t?[ and the same additive with cellulase added, worked well at a rate of 10 kg t~l. Milled barley alone at the level used with the two previous additives gave no improvement in silage quality. Whey concentrate, which provides additional carbohydrate, was applied in liquid form and significantly improved silage preservation at 45 1 t?* and higher. There were wide differences between cuts in Experiments 2 and 3 which gave rise to significant cut x treatment interactions.


The stethoscope reflex, a form of cutaneous reflex, was studied for its use in the assessment of gestational age in conjunction with the Robinson scheme. The reflex involves a pushing away of the stethoscope head with the hand or elbow of the newborn infant during cardiac and pulmonary auscultation. In the examination of 100 newborns of various gestational ages, the stethoscope reflex was shown to be positive in 30 per cent of the infants examined at a gestational age of 33 weeks, and to be negative before this age. Furthermore, 100 per cent of the newborns examined at a gestational age of 36 weeks presented this reflex. Despite the inherent limitations on the application of this reflex for ill newborns, it is recommended as a simple aid in the assessment of gestational age, since it is readily observed during routine auscultation of the newborn.


By the experiment modal research for unit structure, the natural frequency and mass of US by means of experimental modal analysis is explored. Experimental modal analysis on US was applied to achieve optimal US simultaneously to satisfy multiple conflicting performance requirements of mass and natural frequency of US. Then the structural parameters of US were optimized to increase natural frequencies and reduce mass. Experimental modal analysis is an efficient technique to accurately identify the dynamic behavior of a structure and provides modal parameters, such as natural frequencies and mode shapes.


Abstract Sixty-two of 66 (94%) Sylvirana supragrisea collected from 4 localities in Papua New Guinea harbored 1,137 endoparasies representing 15 known species and 1 new species. Proteocephalus papuensis n. sp. and the male of Desmognathiema papuensis Moravec and Sey, 1990, from the small intestine of the ranid frog Sylvirana supragrisea are described and illustrated. Proteocephalus papuensis is the second proteocephalid cestode to be described from New Guinea; it differs from P. niuginii in that it possesses a post-equatorial cirrus sac and 72–84 uterine pouches compared to an equatorial cirrus sac and 28–36 uterine pouches in P. niuginii. Desmognathiema papuensis is the third species assigned to the genus. It parasitizes ranid frogs of New Guinea, D. toyamai is known from an endemic Japanese frog, and D. nantahalaensis is a parasite of North American salamanders. In addition to these 2 species, gravid individuals of the nematodes Aplectana macintoshii, Cosmocerca novaaeguineae, Icosiella papuensis, Oswaldocruzia bakeri, Paracapillaria spratti, Pseudorictularia dipsarilis, Seuratascaris numidica and the acanthocephalan Acanthocephalus bufonis were found. Juvenile individuals of the nematode Abbreviata sp. (in cysts), unidentified cestode cysticerci, acanathocephalan cystacanths, and nymphs of a pentostome, Kirkicephalus sp., were also found. Sylvirana supragrisea represents a new host record for each of these parasites. Of the 1,137 endoparasite individuals, 638 (56%) were juvenile forms not capable of completing their life cycles in frogs. Of the 16 endoparasite species, no 2 collection sites had more than 7 species in common.


The implement ation of enterprise accounting system plays a positive role in standardizing the work of accounting check and improving the quality of accounting information especially.Its application arouses people's more attention.Some basic theories and practical problems need to be inquired into and thought over.


A channel phase measurement system based on stable quartz oscillators at the transmitter and at an I and Q receiver is presented. Observations of the phase behavior over a 910-MHz mobile radio channel in urban and semi-urban areas are made and related to the signals physical parameters. A method to characterize channel phase variations is proposed that corresponds to taking the second difference on the phase. Standard deviations of this phase variation measure are found to increase more or less linearly with distance in built-up areas, with a slope as high as 10/spl deg/ per km. Comparisons between measured and theoretical statistical distributions of the phase variations are made: while not meeting the /spl chi/-square test criteria, quadratic error tests supported by visual observation show that a Student's t distribution with two degrees of freedom, of the type used to describe the statistical characteristics of random FM, offers for practical purposes a useful statistical description of the measured phase variations.


The significant constraint for the applications of wireless power transfer is the low efficiency, compared to the traditional electric wired connection. In order to improve the transfer efficiency, a variety of compensation networks are proposed to reduce the reactive power transfer but parameter selection is only based on coupling coils and ignores the inverter loss. In this paper, compensation capacitor is designed and optimized to improve the efficiency of both the inverter and coupling coils. Based on the series-series resonant compensation network, the influence of resonant capacitor parameters on the efficiency of the system is analyzed. At the same time, the optimal values of capacitors are given considering super-capacitor constant current charging. Finally, the simulation results verify the analysis results.


OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The Association of Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) chartered a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee to prioritize activities to support, develop and report on metrics for measuring progress toward DEI goals. This poster aims to describe the formative process toward prioritizing DEI in society's efforts. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: In 2021, the ACTS chartered the DEI Committee. Two ACTS Board of Directors members chair the committee, and members represent 10 academic institutions committed to prioritizing DEI. Members participated in a Human-Centered Design process to develop the committee's mission, goals, and activities. The committee determined areas of opportunity for ACTS to increase DEI by identifying challenges to support DEI in clinical and translational science. The chairs facilitated a discussion using Mural to foster an interactive strategy to engage members in conversations that respected individual experiences, promoted a discussion of actions that ACTS as a society, and determining metrics for measuring DEI. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We plan to present the committee's efforts to create the ACTS mission statement and strategies to priority to DEI. We will describe current and future activities to engage historically underrepresented members and academic institutions in ACTS programs. Based on the committee's work, ACTS has taken systematic approaches toward social justice and is beginning to determine new ways of engaging members. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Scientific societies that prioritize DEI increases equity and belonging across members. ACTS is at the forefront of advocacy, policy, and social justice effort. The DEI committee is positioned to aid ACTS in increasing DEI across the clinical and translational science spectrum.


Purpose. The article studies the convergence between the regions of Ukraine in terms of the basic foodstuff consumption per capita during 2000–2019, taking into account the effects of spatial interaction across regions.
Methodology / approach. The convergence analysis between regions of Ukraine is based on the concept of β-convergence which can be tested using spatial econometric models namely spatial autoregressive models and spatial error models. The need for considering spatial interaction can be explained by the fact that regions are characterized by constant interaction with each other. Therefore, region should not be considered as isolated objects in space in empirical research with usage of panel data. Ignoring the spatial interaction between regions and using standard evaluation procedures can reduce the reliability and validity of the obtained results to some extent.
Results. The results of our calculation confirm the process of β-convergence of average per capita consumption of all food groups, which means that food consumption in regions with an initial low level of consumption is growing faster than in regions with high initial levels of consumption. Also, as part of the use of spatial econometric models the convergence process was determined to be influenced by spatial interaction between regions while the influence of neighbouring regions has a positive effect on food consumption in particular region.
Originality / scientific novelty. The article further develops the main ideas of modeling interregional differentiation based on convergence theory and for the first time, spatial econometric models were used to estimate β-convergence of Ukrainian regions by the levels of consumption of basic foodstuffs.
Practical value / implications. The approach proposed by the authors and the obtained results can be used both by state authorities on agrarian policy and food issues, and by enterprises of the agricultural sector in the analysis and forecasting of trends in the consumption of basic foodstuffs at the regional level; when planning the production, processing and delivery of agricultural products, when planning state or regional trade policy in the field of food. At the same time, the inclusion of spatial effects in the model of evaluating convergence will allow policymakers to take into account the geographical features of the convergence process and, accordingly, make more informed decisions to reduce the differentiation of regions of Ukraine by the levels of consumption of basic foodstuffs.


The nuclear magnetic shielding anisotropy of NMR active nuclei is highly sensitive to the nuclear electronic environment. Hence, measurements of the nuclear magnetic shielding anisotropy represent a powerful tool in the elucidation of molecular structure for a wide variety of materials. Quantum mechanical ab initio nuclear magnetic shielding calculations effectively complement the experimental NMR data by revealing additional structural information. The accuracy and capacity of these calculations has been improved considerably in recent years. However, the inherent problem of the limitation in the size of the systems that may be studied due to the relatively demanding computational requirements largely remains. Accordingly, ab initio shielding calculations have been performed predominantly on isolated molecules, neglecting the molecular environment. This approach is sufficient for neutral nonpolar systems, but leads to serious errors in the shielding calculations on polar and ionic systems. Conducting ab initio shielding calculations on clusters of molecules (i.e., including the nearest neighbor interactions) has improved the accuracy of the calculations in many cases. Other methods of simulating crystal lattice effects in shielding calculations that have been developed include the electrostatic representation of the crystal lattice using point charge arrays, full ab initio methods, ab initio methods under periodic boundary conditions, and hybrid ab initio/molecular dynamics methods. The embedded ion method (EIM) discussed here follows the electrostatic approach. The method mimics the intermolecular and interionic interactions experienced by a subject molecule or cluster in a given crystal in quantum mechanical shielding calculations with a large finite, periodic, and self-consistent array of point charges. The point charge arrays in the EIM are generated using the Ewald summation method and embed the molecule or ion of interest for which the ab initio shielding calculations are performed. The accuracy with which the EIM reproduces experimental nuclear magnetic shift tensor principal values, the sensitivity of the EIM to the parameters defining the point charge arrays, as well as the strengths and limitations of the EIM in comparison with other methods that include crystal lattice effects in chemical shielding calculations, are presented. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part A 28A: 347–368, 2006


Diamonds from eclogite in main hole of the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling Project ( CCSD-MH) on the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic ( UHPM) belt were formed by the deep subduction of continent crust,while diamonds from the Luobusa ophiolitic chromitites in the Yarlung Zangbo suture of Tibet were originated from the deep mantle. Thus,their formational background and mechanism are much different. A primary analysis of FT-IR show that UHPM diamonds are Ⅰ aAB type,and the ophiolitic diamonds areⅠaA type,both are different in the way of gather and evolvement for N-impurity. The FT-IRdata show that the diamonds from the two locations are natural diamonds,and the UHPM diamonds might formed earlier than the ophiolitic diamonds.


The invention discloses a file management method and a mobile terminal. The file management method includes judging whether a file hide process is selected on a file hide setting interface of the mobile terminal or not; labeling attribute of a hidden file when the file hide process is selected on the file hide setting interface of the mobile terminal, and saving storage path and hidden attribute of the hidden file through a hide file storage module of the mobile terminal; through a main control module of the mobile terminal, comparing information saved in the hidden file storage module of the mobile terminal to all file information saved in a memory card module of the mobile terminal, and determining the file having the same storage path and hidden attribute as the hidden file; and by the main control module of the mobile terminal, controlling a user interface display module of the mobile terminal not to link with the hidden file when the hidden file is set to be not displayed on a file browser of the mobile terminal. Since a file hide function is added in the mobile terminal, users can hide the private files conveniently and quickly as needed, and service requirements of the users are guaranteed.


Silicon-silicon adhesive wafer bonding has the ability to produce a defect free and high strength bond in a low temperature processing range making it an attractive option for a variety of applications. (1) Optimization of bonding parameters to develop a low temperature adhesive wafer bonding process producing a defect free and relatively strong bond in pairs of 6 inch silicon wafers was studied. MicroChem SU-8 was used as the intermediate adhesive. The Key Process Input Variables of soft bake temperature, UV exposure dose and bonding temperature were studied. Three different values were chosen for each process variable and the bonding process was repeated in random order for all possible combinations of process variables. The soft bake temperature and time combinations tested were 70 C for 60 seconds, 90 C for 30 seconds and 95 C for 300 seconds. UV exposure times of 5, 10 and 15 seconds at 10 mW/cm were used to produce exposure energies of 50 mJ/cm, 100 mJ/cmand 150 mJ/cm respectively. Bonding temperatures of 90 C, 115 C and 140 C for 30 minutes were studied to optimize the curing process. The quality of the wafer bonds was determined by two Key Process Output Variables: the fraction of interfacial area in intimate contact, measured by void area, and the strength of the bond interaction, measured by fracture strength. Bond characterization, including bond interface imaging to detect defects and measure void area, and tensile testing to calculate the fracture strength, was performed on all bonded pairs. The bonded wafers were scanned using a Sonoscan Scanning Acoustic Microscope (SAM) and C-Scan images were used to determine void area. The bonded wafers were diced into 5mm x 5mm test specimens and each was scanned using SAM to determine the bond area. Tensile testing was done on the diced test specimens from each bonded pair to calculate the fracture strength. A general linear statistical model was developed to perform analysis of variance to determine the impact of the process input variables on the process output variables. Figure 1 shows the influence of two factors on void area. Figure 2 shows the influence of two factors on fracture strength. The bonding parameters soft bake temperature, UV exposure dose and bonding temperature were successfully optimized to develop an adhesive wafer bonding process for 6 inch silicon wafers that produces defect free, strong bonds using SU-8 as an intermediate adhesive layer. The optimum conditions are soft bake temperature of 90 C, UV exposure of 100 mJ/cm and bonding temperature of 115 C.


Abstract: In the swiftly evolving landscape of cryptography, the advent of quantum computing poses unprecedented challenges to the established security paradigms. This research embarks on an extensive exploration into the resilience of the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, a linchpin of contemporary cryptographic infrastructure, against the looming threat posed by quantum computers. Our principal aim is to comprehensively assess the susceptibility of SHA-256, especially within the context of its critical role in ensuring the security and immutability of the Bitcoin blockchain. As quantum computing's potential to break classical cryptographic systems becomes a tangible concern, this research proposes SPHINCS+ as a potent post-quantum alternative, capable of safeguarding digital transactions and communications in the quantum era. By delving deep into the inner workings of both SHA-256 and SPHINCS+, this research contributes significantly to the expanding knowledge base surrounding post-quantum cryptography and its implications for securing the digital landscape


Top coat is one of important factors affecting the physical properties of the car seat leather which is needed more and more on the market nowadays.Different types and different amount of additives were added to recipes for top coating of leather,and then the physical properties of the films were tested and compared.It is helpful for improving the physical properties of coat to increase the amount of the cross-linker within certain extension,but the additives can not be used too much,otherwise,would reduce some physical properties of coat.So when the effect on cost of leather has to be concerned,the amount of the cross-linker in the recipes for coating is controlled rigidly.The appropriate amount for the experiment for example,is 75 shares(total 1 000 shares).Feeling agents affect evidently the physical prosperities of coat,and the difference of the properties is great.


The important theory of the"Three Represents" has been confirmed as a Marxist Programmatic document of the theory of the party building in Jiang Ze-min's report at the 16th National Congress of the CPC. From the angles of horizontal connection vertical develop-ment, this article makes a systematic exposition of the main contents , basic principles , gener-al programme, spirit of Jiang Ze-min's thought on the party building . This article can get a deeper understanding about the great significance of the party building , "the gigantic project", in the new century.


This research aims to examine whether tax compliance is affected by transparency, trust, and tax knowledge. This research used attribution theory from the theory of planned behavior to investigate the effect of behavior that limits taxpayers in carrying out tax avoidance on tax compliance. This object of this research is tax office (KPP) in Jepara and the data collection conducted in January 2019, then it was analyzed by using multiple regression tests. The research result showed that transparency dan tax knowledge has a positive significant effect while trust has no significant effect.


On the basis of theoretical computation model of influence range along the urban rail transit,the authors first perfects an entire trip by expressing accessibility which uses generalized travel cost and replenishing transfer ways.Then an amendatory model is established.This new model is used to compute the impact area of Suzhou rail transit Line 1.The comparison between the above results and the results calculated by real estate HPM model confirms the amendatory model is reliable.Thus relatively inference is acquired.The impact area of rail transit changes along with the accessibility to centre zones.Farer the stations apart from centre zones are,bigger the impact areas are.


Abstract: This chapter outlines the possibility of designing raw materials for use in geopolymers. The opportunities presented by the development of one-part 'just add water' geopolymer formulations complement the potential of the traditional two-part (solid plus alkaline activator solution) mix design. The key roles played by network-modifying (alkali and alkaline earth) cations and alumina in rendering glassy precursors favourable for geopolymerization are discussed, and the potential value of ASTM Class C ashes in synthesis of high-performance geopolymers becomes evident. This provides a significant step towards the commercial application of geopolymer binders in the construction industry worldwide, and raises a number of important challenges for researchers in the field of geopolymer and cement technology.


An authoring tool for creating an electronic document, a method for creating the electronic document, a data storage medium for instructing a computer to execute the method for creating the electronic document and a data storage medium for instructing a computer to display the electronic document. The authoring tool comprises: a template module for selecting a template for the electronic document, the template comprising one or more display pages; a content management module for arranging one or more media files on each display page with selected interrelationships between the media files; a generating module for creating an electronic page file for each display page, wherein the media files are embedded in the respective electronic page files based on the selected interrelationships and in a manner such that each electronic page file includes interrelationship data defining the interrelationships of the embedded media files in said each electronic page file with other media files in said each electronic page file and with other media files in other electronic page files of the electronic document; and a binding module for electronically binding the respective electronic page files so as to create the electronic document.


The method for synthesizing dimethyl carbonate by using urea and methanol and adopting heterogeneous catalyst includes the following steps: under the condition of 600-1300 deg.c 10X10 to the power 5-1X10 to the power 5 pa and air or oxygen gas atmosphere calcining carbonate or hydroxide of alkali metal and alkaline earth metal for 1-10 hr. to obtain catalyst, adding urea and methanol into high-pressure reaction still, and adding catalyst, heating to 120-180 deg.c under the condition of magnetic stirring, low-temp. resistion time is 2 hr-10 hr. more heating to 180-240 deg.C, high-temp. reaction time 2 hr-20 hr, cooling to room temp. and making separation so as to obtain the invented roduct.


Background: Malaria is an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium, which is a one-celled living creature that belongs to the group of protozoa, malaria is transmitted through the bite of a female anopheles mosquito containing plasmodium in it, plasmodium carried through mosquito bites will live and multiply in human blood cells. Pregnant women belong to the group that is prone to malaria due to the decrease in various pathological conditions in pregnant women and the fetuses they contain. The implementation of malaria control towards elimination is carried out gradually from one island or several islands until all islands are covered in order to realize a healthy living community and free from malaria transmission until 2030. The use of insecticidal mosquito nets is one of the preventive efforts towards malaria elimination. Public knowledge, especially pregnant women, about the use and benefits of insecticidal mosquito nets is an obstacle. Objective: Knowing pe.
Methods : The design of this study is an experimental research with a type of quasy experiment with the approach of One Group Pre Test / Post Test Design. The population in this study was pregnant inu who visited the Sentani Health Center with sampling techniques using Non Probability Sampling selected by Perposive Sampling consisting of 30 respondents. The variable measured in this study is the knowledge of pregnant women. This study used the Wilcoxon signed rank test (a<0.05). Result: The results showed that pregnant women's knowledge about the use of berymunu berisktiside after being carried out was higher than before. with a value of p=0.005. Thus it can be concluded that the accepted hypothesis means that there is an influence of the knowledge of pregnant women on the use of insecticidal mosquito nets. Conclusion : there is an influence of pregnant women's knowledge on the development of the use of synsecticide mosquito nets.

keywords : Knowledge, Insecticidal Mosquito Nets


The present invention discloses a method of identification and tracking of excessive application of capsaicin food capsaicin one heavy metal, which is the first load capsaicin excessive heavy metals in food, qualitative detection of capsaicin by heavy metal track identification excessive food; the present invention for the first time as the use of heavy metals exceeded food capsaicin marker, and loading a special way in the capsaicin food heavy metals exceeded, the effective realization of heavy metals exceeded tracking identification grain, which is simple, no need to take complicated testing equipment, low cost, ecological environmental protection; effective solution to the current difficulties of monitoring and management of heavy metal excessive food, improve operational accuracy and tracking.


Malaysia is working on achieving Universal Health Coverage for its people. On the other hand, the migration of experienced doctors from the public to private sectors is a significant hurdle to achieving universal health access. The scenario harms health systems worldwide, including Malaysia, where many public doctors have resigned from the Ministry of Health. One ground reason for their withdrawal was concerns about the justice system. A review of the literature revealed that a positive perception of organisational justice could inversely impact the level of turnover intention. This serves as a precursor that leads to actual turnover among organisational employees. To a certain extent, organisational citizenship behaviour and personal norm of reciprocity could determine the nature of the interaction between the variables with their mediation or moderation roles. Therefore, this conceptual paper aims to investigate to what extent the mediation of organisational citizenship behaviour and moderation of personal norms of reciprocity could significantly alter the interaction between organisational justice and turnover intention among Malaysian public doctors. The authors believe this is the first study of its kind to integrate organisational citizenship behaviour and personal norms of reciprocity in a moderated-mediation model involving Malaysian public health professionals, particularly doctors.


Database caching techniques promise to improve the performance and scalability of clientserver database applications. The task of a cache is to accept requests of clients and to compute them locally on behalf of the server. The content of a cache is filled dynamically based on the application and users' data domain of interest. If data is missing or concurrent access has to be controlled, the computation of the request is completed at the central server. As a result, applications benefit from quick responses of a cache and load is taken from the server. The dynamic nature of a cache, the need of transactional consistency, and the complex nature of a request make database caching a challenging field of research. This thesis presents a novel approach to the shared and parallel execution of stored procedure code between a cache and the server. Every commercial database product provides such stored procedures that are coded in a complete programming language. Given a request in form of such a procedure, we introduce the concept of split twin transactions that logically split the procedure code into two parts, say A and B, such that A is executed at the cache and B at the server in a simultaneous and parallel manner. Furthermore, we analyse the procedure code to detect suitable parts. To the best of our knowledge, this has not yet been addressed by any existing approaches. Within a detailed case study, we show that our novel scheme improves the performance of existing caching approaches. Furthermore, we demonstrate that different load conditions of the system require different sizes of the parts A and B to gain maximal performance. As a result, we extend database caching by a new dimension of optimization, namely by splitting of the procedure code into A and B. To solve this problem of dynamically balancing the code execution between cache and server, we define the maximum performance of a database cache over time and propose a stochastic model to capture the average execution time of a procedure. Based on the execution frequencies of primitive database operations, the model allows us to partially predict the response times for different sizes of A and B, hence providing a partial solution to the optimization problem.


Submitted for the MAR07 Meeting of The American Physical Society Prediction of Creep Behavior in PMMA JAMES CARUTHERS, REBECCA MARTIN, GRIGORI MEDVEDEV, Purdue University — Recently proposed thermoviscoelatic constitutive model (TVEM) of Caruthers et al. [1] has shown promise in being able to describe within a single set of material parameters a wide range of experiments including yield, stress and enthalpy relaxation, and nonlinear stress-strain behavior under complex loading histories. The TVEM program consists in performing a number of linear relaxation experiments (i.e. for small deviations from equilibrium in relaxing quantity) in order to determine the shear, bulk, and enthalpy relaxation spectra which serve as input to the TVEM constitutive equations. Once these memory functions have been set, TVEM must be able to predict results of a non-linear experiment under an arbitrary thermal and loading history without any further adjustment of model parameters. Following this program we carried out an extensive study of relaxation behavior of lightly cross-linked PMMA using TMA, DMA, and DSC techniques. The nonlinear experiments chosen for validation of TVEM were the creep experiments below Tg where we studied the dependencies on load, temperature, and aging time. We also performed multi-step loading-unloading experiments in both linear and non-linear regimes. In this report the predictive capabilities of TVEM are presented and critically analyzed. 1. J.M. Caruthers, D.B. Adolf, R.S. Chambers, P. Shrikhande Polymer, 45, 4577 (2004) James Caruthers Purdue University Date submitted: 04 Dec 2006 Electronic form version 1.4


To meet the improvement of blade aerodynamic performance,blade-twist of coaxial rotors in hover design method was proposed.In this method,geometric installation angle was set for single rotor blade-twist,and the simulation results show reasonable bladetwist design can improve the rotor performance by 7.0%.In order to achieve hover coaxial rotor blade-twist design,the installation angle of upper and lower blade tips and rotors must be corrected,according to the blade tip vortex's impact,as well as coaxial rotor aerodynamic characteristics.Finally,the simulation results of coaxial rotors method show wing-twist lift is increased by 10.3%than that without twist of rectangular wing.


The studied wave process transverse vibrations of a rope, taking into account the Flexural rigidity and stiffness of the substrate. Using known solutions such as run-ing waves found private class of solutions describing traveling waves are not distorted as a product of two periodic functions, one of which describes the fast roscellinus wave, and the other is a slow change of the envelope. This property can be used to study the resonance characteristics of objects of variable length.


to the boundary problems of the discipline, novice educators cannot take shortcuts. They have to grow into being teachers, scholars, and researchers by becoming more sensitive and aware and by experiencing their field for themselves, despite the contrary wishes of politicians and managers. Whereas mathematicians can often trace their intellectual lineage very precisely, educators find it difficult to build on each other's work. Bringing the two domains together generates tensions, for whereas mathematics develops by reducing the problematic and creative to established procedures and techniques, effective education enables students to reconstruct and regenerate those procedures from their own understanding. Mathematicians struggle to make the problematic routine, and educators struggle to encourage students and teachers to engage with the problematic and resist the attraction of the routine. Mathematics and education together produce a domain of inquiry that is of interest to psychologists of every hue, psychometricians, sociologists, philosophers, educators, teachers, mathematicians, and policy makers.


Based on Serbian medieval sources and early Turkish cadastral censuses, the paper reconstructs the scope of the Serbian medieval episcopate Branicevo and its schematism in the first half of the 15th century: the number of monasteries, parishes and churches.


Objective: To evaluate the clinical performance of the BTA stat test and the BTA TRAK assay in the diagnosis of bilharzia–related bladder cancer and to calculate a new 'Egyptian' cut–off value for the BTA TRAK (quantitative) assay. Methods: Urine samples of 149 individuals were tested for the presence of the human complement factor H–related protein, the antigen detected by the BTA stat and BTA TRAK tests. The group consisted of 53 healthy volunteers, 20 patients with active bilharziasis, 11 patients with other urologic disorders including prostate cancer, and 65 patients with histologically proven bladder cancer. All samples were obtained prior to surgery or therapy. Results: The BTA stat test was positive in 64 of 65 samples from patients with bladder cancer, for an overall sensitivity of 99%. With a BTA TRAK assay cut–off of 60 U/ml (set at 97% specificity in the healthy population), the sensitivity of the TRAK assay was 94%. There was no statistically significant difference between the sensitivities of the two BTA tests in patients diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma and those with transitional cell carcinoma. The overall specificity of the BTA stat test was 67% ranging from 15% in patients with bilharziasis to 94% in healthy volunteers. The overall specificity of the TRAK assay was 66%, again with negative results in 15% of the patients with bilharziasis. Conclusions: The BTA stat test and TRAK tests are extremely sensitive in the detection of bladder cancer in the Egyptian population. Positive results (85%) are also observed in patients with active bilharziasis, which often leads to bladder cancer. Longitudinal follow–up of these positive cases is needed to determine whether these positive results are false or predictive of bladder cancer.


In this paper, we propose a unified account of the semantic polyfunctionality of the present progressive in English (involving temporal, aspectual, and modal usage types) in terms of epistemic contingency or non-necessity. More specifically, by means of a corpus-based study of spoken American English we show how the observed modal usage types can be derived, directly or indirectly, from this construction's most schematic meaning, which we argue is modal as well. This analysis is carried out within the framework of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991), which provides both the conceptual analytical tools and the theoretical assumptions underlying the analysis.


Objective To construct the recombinant plasmids containing the fragments of Pf332 genes with or without the Sequence encoding the Signal Peptide of Kappa Chain of Mouse IgG.Methods Three fragments of Pf332 genes.P332-R0,P332-41 and P332-R2,were amplified by PCR from genomic DNA of p.fisolate FCC1/HN.The Sequence encoding the Signal Peptide of Kappa Chain of Mouse IgG was synthesized by PCR amplification.Then the P332-R0,P332-R1,P332-R2 and the Sepuence encoding the Signal Peptide of Kappa Chain of Mouse IgG were linked and inserted into pcDNA 3 vector to construct pcDNA 3-s-P332-R0?pcDNA 3-s-P332-R1?pcDNA 3-s-P332-R2.And the p332-R0,p332-R1 and p332-R2 were inserted into pcDNA 3 vector to construct pcDNA 3-P332-R0?pcDNA 3-P332-R1?pcDNA 3-P332-R2.The positive clones were screened and identified by agarose gel electrophoresis,endonuclease digestion,PCR and sequence determination,Results Three,fragments of pf332 genes of p.fisolate FCC1/HN,0332-R0,0332-R1and 0332-R2 with sizes of 489 bp,429 bp and 393 bp respectivelywere specifically amplified by PCR.The Sequence encoding the Signal Peptide of Kappa Chain of Mouse IgG,about 63 bp in size was synthesized by PCR amplfication.The two kinds of correct recombinant plasmids were obtained byidentification of agarose gel electrophoresis,endonuclease digestion,PCR and sequence determination.Conclusion Two Kinds of Eudaryotic Expression Recombinant Plasmids Containing Fragments of Pf332 Genes of Plasmodium Falciparum with or without the Sequence encoding the Signal Peptide of Kappa Chain of Mouse IgG,were constructed successfully.


Abstract : This report presents the results of four investigations which have as their common goal, the development and application of techniques for determining near-source contributions to the observed variations in short-period P wave amplitudes, travel times, waveforms and coda for underground explosions. A waveform modeling analysis of long-period teleseismic SH and SV waves from two large underground explosions at the Southern Novaya Zemlya test site indicates that the appropriate equivalent double couple orientation for the tectonic release is vertical strike slip. complete waveform modeling of the SV signals using the method of Baag and Langston allows us to distinguish between the strike slip and 45 deg. dipping thrust geometries. The resulting mechanism and associated F-factors indicate that teleseismic P waves from these events are probably not strongly affected by tectonic release radiation, consistent with the previous coda and P wave amplitude analysis we conducted under our previous contract.


Abstract : Two topics presented at recent annual meetings of The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP), Subgroup K, are documented and discuss accomplishments and theory of group complementary coding for pulse compression in a radar system. (Author)


The Nordic peacekeeping model rose as a result of: selection criteria that limited the number of troop contributors to a select group of small and middle-sized states; common as well as national interests that made support for UN peacekeeping the logical policy; and the low-cost/high pay-off nature of the enterprise. Its fall in the 1990s was caused by the vast increase in the number of troop contributors, a strong reluctance to use force beyond self-defence and the growing involvement of the EU and NATO. A Nordic resurgence would have to be based on civilian contributions, but the will to establish such cooperation is unlikely to be mobilized in the near term.


5053Background: Genomic aberrations associated with resistance/response to AA/P are not known. In a prospective study we assessed whole-exome/RNA-seq based aberrations in CRPC metastatic biopsies f...


Contrary to the claims of McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal, our method does not estimate the ideal points of moderates significantly less accurately than the ideal points of extremists. This is true for at least two reasons: (1) there is significant randomness in voting; as a consequence, on a lopsided vote moderates often vote with the extremists; and (2) our data set includes some roll calls that require a supermajority for passage; for these we define a 50%–50% roll call as lopsided. We also show that the classification-success method of McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal severely understates the presence of party influence. Furthermore, we show that a proper interpretation of some of their results reveals a significant amount of party influence in Congress.


This chapter will explore some of the more personal questions that climate change raises for individuals and their families.
 How will climate change impact you and your family in the coming decades?
 The transition to a low-carbon economy is inevitable this century, and indeed...


In this paper risk assessment for ship to ship LNG bunkering is carried out by exploiting the results of the projects "Risk management system for design and operation of installations for LNG refuelling" (TRiTON) financed by the Greek government, and the "SUstainability PERformance of LNG-based maritime mobility – Plus" (SUPER-LNG PLUS) financed by Interreg-Adrion. Ship to ship bunkering constitutes a simple method when it is difficult to install new storage tanks in the port areas. In brief, risk assessment is conducted including five basic steps: a) hazard identification, b) accident sequence modeling and quantification, c) damage states identification, d) consequence assessment, and e) risk evaluation. First, the Master Logic Diagram (MLD) technique is used to identify the initial events that create a disturbance in the installation and may lead to an LNG release. Corrosion in tanks, pipelines and other parts, and excess external heat owing to a nearby external fire are some of the identified initial events. Moreover, safety functions and systems for preventing LNG release, such as emergency shut-down and pressure safety valves, are identified. Event trees are developed to describe the accident sequence from the initial event occurrence until the LNG release and define the final damage states. By exploiting available failure rate data, the frequency of each damage state is estimated. In parallel, the consequences of LNG release are assessed on the basis of the heat radiation or overpressure dose an individual receives. Finally, risk is calculated by combining the frequencies of the various damage states with the corresponding consequences. A case study for a Greek port is, herein, presented.


This article summarizes the methods of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT),including the CVT, P&O, INC and intelligent control, and merits and demerits are narrated in detail. Their recent research results are analyzed, finally the prospect of the development trend in MPPT photovoltaic power generation system is discussed.


Femtocells are attracting a fast increasing interest nowadays, as a promising solution to improve indoor coverage, enhance system capacity, and lower transmit power. Technical challenges still remain, however, mainly including interference, security and mobility management, intercepting wide deployment and adoption from mobile operators and end users. This paper describes a novel handover decision policy for femtocell network, towards reducing energy consumptionwhile taking users priority in mind. The first study is about a AWGN mono-channel scenario, whereas the last section is about a more realistic multi-path channel.


This paper reports a preliminary stylistic study of classifiers.It is proposed that different types of classifiers serve different stylistic functions.This study examined the distribution and morphological features of stylistic words in classifiers.


This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a 3-DOF (3-degree of freedom) highly sensitive soft-contact tactile (SCT) sensor, which utilizes micro force moment sensing (MFMS) chip. The MFMS chip is working based on the piezoresistive effect in silicon. The MFMS chip has been packaged to produce 3-DOF SCT sensor, which has the contact part is made of silicone rubber. The sensor can independently detect three components of force (Fx', Fy', Fz') acting on the soft contact part of the sensor. The MFMS chip and the SCT sensor have been calibrated. The outputs were linear and the crosstalk was small.


We study the impact of the host on dwarf galaxy properties using four new Milky Way-like, ultra high-resolution simulations, ($N_{\rm part} >10^7$) from the NIHAO project. We split our sample in satellite ($R 2.5 R_{\rm 200}$) galaxies. Simulated galaxies from all three groups are in excellent agreement with Local Group dwarf galaxies in terms of: stellar mass-velocity dispersion, stellar mass-metallicity relation, star formation histories, and stellar mass functions. Satellites and nearby galaxies show lower velocity dispersions and gas fractions compared to field galaxies. While field galaxies follow global abundance matching relations, satellites and nearby galaxies deviate from them, showing lower dark matter masses for given stellar mass. The reason for this deficit in dark matter mass is substantial mass loss experienced by satellites and $\sim80$\% of the nearby galaxies, while orbiting inside $R_{200}$ at earlier times. However, both satellites and nearby objects fall back onto the relation for field galaxies if we use the maximum of their virial mass instead of the present-day value. This allows us to provide estimates for the peak masses of observed Local Group galaxies. Finally, using radial velocities, distances, and the velocity dispersion-stellar mass relation from our simulations, we derive a metric to distinguish between galaxies harassed by the central object and unaffected ones. Applying this metric to observed objects we find that even far away dwarf galaxies like Eri II ($D\approx$ 370 kpc) have a strong probability ($\approx 83$\%) of having been affected by the Milky Way in the past. This naturally explains the lack of gas and recent star formation seen in Eri II.


The invention discloses a method for manufacturing a medical PE thin film four-side tear-off air-permeable adhesive tape. The method comprises the step of: perforating the surface of medical PE thin film on which a medical adhesive is coated by heating a burr roller by utilizing a heat transfer oil carrier. The method is characterized in that: a circulation path of heat transfer oil is changed; the interlayer of the inner wall of the roller is removed from the internal structure of the roller of the burr roller; the heat transfer oil flows in the roller directly; the diameters of the inlet and the outlet in the heat transfer oil circulation path are expanded so as to expand the channel of the heat transfer oil; the roller is filled with the heat transfer oil; the heat transfer oil flows smoothly to speed up the circulation speed of the heat transfer oil so that the burr roller is heated uniformly; and holes pressed on the medical PE thin film has the characteristics of uniform size, regular shape and orderly arrangement. The times for washing the roller of the burr roller and the heat transfer oil circulation path are reduced greatly, namely once per year; and the longitudinal direction, the transverse direction, the upper, lower, left and right surfaces of the medical PE thin film manufactured by the method of the invention can be torn linearly.


In order to understand how global warming effects on ecosystem primary production may change depending on nutrient enrichment, a new classification is proposed to disentangle and recognize the combination of interactions among several factors, based on the effect direction (positive, negative, or neutral) and its changes induced in it by the other factor (synergizing, antagonizing, inducing no change, or changing it in some other way). Marine macroalgae were chosen (as primary producers for which there is the most experimental information available) to review the relevant studies on which this new classification can be tested. It was observed the positive effects of elevated temperature and nutrient enrichment often synergized each other within the temperature range between relatively low and optimal growth levels. However, the negative effect of further temperature elevation from optimal to higher levels was antagonized by nutrient enrichment in some studies but was synergized in others, depending on the range of temperature elevation. The positive effect of nutrient enrichment was antagonized (but still positive) by temperature increase above the optimum in many cases, although the effect sometimes switched to a negative effect depending on the magnitude of nutrient enrichment. These results predict that global warming will enhance bottom-up effects on primary production in cold seasons and areas, and there will be a negative warming effect on production in hot seasons and areas, but it may be possible to mitigate this effect by appropriate levels of nutrient enrichment.


Stalk rot sorghum caused by Dickeya dadantii (syn. Erwinia chrysanthemi) is a devastating sorghum disease and is highly detrimental to sorghum cultivation in tarai region of India. The bacterium disrupts and disintegrates vascular bundles of sorghum stem manifesting slimy soft rot symptom. In vitro studies on bioagents and chemicals revealed that among bioagents assessed Pseudomonas fluorescens strain Psf-173 and Trichoderma harzianum strain Th-14 surpassed the other biological control agents whereas among chemicals, oxytetracycline and tetracycline were outstanding than other chemicals and their combination products used for the control of stalk rot of Sorghum caused by D. dadantii. Field trial with pre-plant soil application had maximum reduction in disease severity in treatment with antibiotic oxytetracycline (28.18%) whereas trial with pre-plant soil application with one (34.49%) and two foliar spray (37.03%) showed maximum reduction in disease severity in treatment with P. fluorescens strain Psf-173. All the three field trials involving pre-plant soil application, pre-plant soil application and one foliar spray and trial with pre-plant soil application and two foliar spray revealed that biological control agent P. fluorescens strain Psf-173 alleviates symptom of stalk rot of sorghum and stimulates seed germination and plant growth.


We compare the microlocal Levi forms of a pair of real submanifolds of class C 2 of a complex manifold, and discuss their geometric meaning under contact transformation.


Traditional 3D NoC router may encounter the situations of congestion and hot spot. And it also doesn't have the function of multicast. In this paper, we present a new routing arithmetic called Multicast Rotational Routing Arithmetic (MRRA). It can handle several destination addresses at the same time, recombine packets, sent the same data to the different destination nodes, and avoid the congestion. The proposed algorithm is implemented by the new multicast 3D NoC router which is also proposed in this paper. The 3D NoC router is designed in Verilog HDL, simulated by Modelsim, synthesized and prototyped by Synplify and FPGA respectively. The experiment results show that the multicast router of MRRA can achieve a very good performance in terms of throughput and delay. The increased area utilization also can be tolerated.


A stochastic control problem with finite-fuel constraint, of the type studied by Benes, Shepp and Witsenhausen (1980), is solved explicitly. It is shown to be reducible to "simpler" stochastic optimization problems, such as optimal stopping and singular control for Brownian motion with unlimited fuel.


19.7% of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions come from domestic transportation [1]. We demonstrate the benefits of carbon footprinting and how it helps to improve rail as a carbon responsible option, both in terms of reducing carbon intensity and allowing the industry to demonstrate its environmental credentials. This paper presents an overview of the environmental impacts of rail services in comparison with other transport modes, covering greenhouse gas emissions from fuel, refrigerants, electricity, organic waste and materials; other environmental impacts; and the wider sustainability agenda. KiwiRail has been measuring its environmental performance since 2006 following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology [2]. This has enabled KiwiRail to understand its key impacts and opportunities for improvement. Robust data is needed both to underpin business decisions and to be able to communicate confidently and transparently with increasingly eco-aware customers. The process of measuring greenhouse gas emissions was not without hurdles. This paper shares lessons learnt in regards to data collection, setting objectives and developing carbon reduction plans. Differences between organisational and life cycle approaches to measurement of carbon intensity are outlined, and the implications of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme are discussed. Ideas are provided on methods to stimulate co-operation within the industry to share environmental performance data for benchmarking, and common development of carbon reduction solutions.


The importance of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) in mediating the stress response and maintaining physiologic homeostasis has long been described. It is well established that chronic stress propagates a systemic cascade of dysfunctional metabolic events initially intended to be adaptive. Dysfunction of the HPA axis appears to be a major initiating and contributing factor to this process, ultimately giving rise to disruption of the normal diurnal cortisol release pattern.


Slag samples from five industrial Si furnaces and one FeSi furnace excavation have been investigated in this study. For one furnace, the slag close to the tapping canal was investigated more thoroughly. The furnace is divided into three main areas: higher up in the furnace, near the furnace bottom and samples from zones near the tapping canal. It is found that the slag mainly consists of different compositions of SiO2-CaO-Al2O3 and that the areas higher up in the furnaces generally contains more SiO2 than in the bottom. It is also found that the composition varies more in the higher parts of the furnaces. The second part of the study includes tapped slag from two of the Si furnaces. Slag have been collected from the tap-hole at Elkem Thamshavn regularly in a period of one year, and three slag samples are collected from Furnace B. It is found that the slag composition does not vary much over time, neither from day to day nor in monthly basis. It is also found that the tapped slag is a mix of the slag inside the furnace and is hence more affected by the accumulated furnace slag than the slag produced from the recently added raw materials.


This study aims to examine the existence of excess working capital in Indonesian firms and its effect on the firms' performance and risk. The sample includes 425 firm-year observations of Indonesian manufacturing firms for the period 2010 – 2014. To account for the potential asymmetric relation between excess Net Working Capital (NWC) and firm performance, an asymmetric regression model is employed, allowing the slope coefficient of the excess NWC to be different for positive and negative excess NWC. The results indicate (i) the existence of an optimal level of working capital, (ii) higher excess working capital leads to lower performance and risk, (iii) additional investment in working capital reduces firms' performance for those with positive excess working capital. It is also documented that (iv) additional investment in working capital reduces firms' risk for those that have working capital deficiencies. The findings have important implications for corporate managers in determining the optimal level of working capital.