student codes a project or a large application. Another advantage of a class library is that it is an eeective teaching tool if the source code is included. A number of programming tricks and idioms can be learned eeec-tively if students have access to the source code of a class library and a good browser. These programming idioms and styles are not generally available in textbooks. An analogy to the industrial revolution is rather appropriate 2]. It took over a hundred years for industries to make the transition to standardized components and manufacturing assemblies. The software industrial revolution is being compressed into a much smaller time frame, with a large impetus from the software industry. We must do our part in academia to foster the kind of thinking in students that facilitates component based software engineering in the coming years. It is no longer adequate to sit back and be content with the status quo of developing small programming assignments from scratch. The pedagogic challenge is to teach the creation of software from reusable components and also to stress team development of software, rather than individual creation of software. Programmers in large corporations, such as IBM are being rewarded for creating reusable software components and libraries, and are awarded points by a reuse committee. In the same way, programmers who reuse those components are awarded points based on the degree of reuse. Perhaps, we in academia can learn from these evaluation procedures. The functions implemented in the sample application are adding records to the tables, modifying information stored in the tables, deleting information in tables, looking up information by the key values, and producing reports. The notion of what we now call classes in the object-oriented paradigm was conceived by Parnas, among others , as far back as 1972. He stated that the eeective-ness of modularization was directly related to the criteria used in decomposing a system into components, and suggested that design modules should be constructed so as to hide from all other portions of a program system the details reeecting design decisions that might later need to be changed. He went on to reiterate the notion that interfaces between these modules should reveal as little about the details of the module and its related design decisions as possible. Thus the notion of classes builds in early work by Parnas, Dijsktra and other pioneers, and is a culmination of …


In order to study the mechanism of the removal of arsenic in groundwater,the adsorption experiment and soil column simulation experiment were adopted to study the different influenceing factors about the removal of arsenic in groundwater,such as different adsorption media,initial concentration,and the valence state of arsenic removal. The result of the adsorption experiment showed that the average adsorption rate about As( V)on the iron ore was 35% and on goethite reaches was 14% in the initial concentration of a 0. 05mmol /L condition. The average adsorption rate about As( V) on the iron ore was 87% and on goethite was 37% in the initial concentration of a 0. 01mmol /L condition. The average adsorption rate about As( Ⅲ) on the iron ore was73% and on goethite was 39% in the initial concentration of a 0. 01 mmol /L condition. The result of the soil column simulation experiment showed that the average adsorption rate about As( V) on the fine sand was72%,then the average adsorption rate was 93% after adding the ferric hydroxide to the fine sand. The average adsorption rate about As( V) on coarse sand was 80%,then the average adsorption rate was 93% after adding the ferric hydroxide to the coarse sand. The average adsorption rate about As( Ⅲ) on the fine sand and coarse sand was 99. 9%. Results indicated that the ferric hydroxide which produced by adding the Fe3 +and OH-to the sad could in favor of the adsorption of As,coarse sand and fine sand had strong adsorption of As( Ⅲ).


Engineering the heat flux between two surfaces kept at different temperatures relies on the ability to tailor the dispersion of modes sustained by the system. Metasurfaces made of ordered arrays of subwavelength spherical nanoparticles have an optical response that depends not only on materials but also on their geometrical parameters. Our system is modeled by using an effective medium approximation allowing the homogenization of individual metasurfaces and replacing them with anisotropic layers. Excitation or suppression of surface and hyperbolic modes can be controlled by means of different degrees of freedom offered by the metasurfaces. By leveraging this flexibility, we theoretically show that the near-field radiative heat transfer between two such metasurfaces can be effectively geometrically tuned.


It is here noted that in a calculation with four nucleons with isospin T=1 in a single J shell the states with angular momentum J=(J(max)+1)/2 lie very low and become either isomeric states or ground states.


On two occasions during the Space Shuttle main engine development, the LH2 feedline (called the steerhorn, because of its shape) failed during the cutoff transient. A dynamic test was undertaken, and an analytical model was developed and correlated to the dynamic test. Detailed models of the tube bundle were required to obtain the equivalent shell coefficients. All-shell models of the nozzle wall were found better than beam-shell models. The most difficult part of the structure to simulate was the felt-metal pad between the feedline and its mount, which introduced nonlinear stiffness and damping and led to the use of separate low amplitude and high amplitude models. The total structure was found to have 400 modes in the frequency range of interest, 0 to 500 Hz. Good test analysis correlation was obtained and a modified feedline configuration was found to demonstrate a 40% reduction of response stress from the original configuration.


Criminal liability of legal persons, introduced in spanish Criminal Law in 2010, can be interpreted as an attempt to make effective economic crimes. In this sense, the recent Criminal Law reform has introduced Compliance Programs, which propose a way of exemption from criminal responsibility of companies linked to the assumption of a preventive function in its own structure.


Epigenetics alters gene expression by chromatin modification without changing the sequence of DNA. DNA methylation is an essential signal for epigenetic gene regulation. Methylation of cytosine bases at CpG dinucleotides in DNA results in chromatin condensation resulting in suppression of gene expression. DNA methylation has been shown to play important roles in cell differentiation, genomic imprinting and X‐chromosome inactivation. We compared the CpG methylation patterns of the promoters of the L‐opsin gene (OPN1LW) and the M‐opsin gene (OPN1MW), plus a DNase I hypersensitive (DHS) site located about 8 kb (kilobases) upstream of the OPN1LW gene. Comparisons were made using the human retinoblastoma cell line WERI, which expresses the L and M opsin genes when treated with thyroid hormone (T3), and a lymphoblastoid cell line GM06990 that does not express these genes.


We investigated key habitat features used by beech martens occupying a fragmented agricultural landscape. Locations of eight martens were radio-monitored daily for 4-12 months each. We evaluated the selection of home ranges within a geographic area, as well as the selection of habitat features within home ranges, using random simulations for comparison. Home ranges included more wood and scrub vegetation, and less arable land, than random simulations. They also included a higher proportion of watercourses with continuous vegetation along their verges, and were closer to these watercourses than random simulations. Within home ranges, beech martens used wood and scrub vegetation, and farm buildings, more intensively than expected, and arable land less than expected. On average, beech martens stayed close to watercourses (where most of the wood vegetation occurred) but not to farm buildings, indicating that only the former shaped beech marten movements. By these findings, arable land appeared to act as a seldom traversed barrier, making farm buildings uneasy to reach if they are located far from watercourses.


Background: The research is based on an assumption that the hypokinesia induced by cerebral palsy (CP) leads to inhibition of some mental functions. The method we used to treat patients with CP, hippotherapy (HT), is a treatment using horses and belongs to proprioceptive-neuromuscular-facilitative methods. Objective: The aim of the research was to determine the benefit of HT on attention and memory of patients with CP. Methods: There were two groups of patients: short-term HT (n = 11; 8 females and 3 males, age 15.4 ± 5.3 years) and long-term HT (n = 9; 7 females and 2 males, age 10.8 ± 2.7 years). The short-term HT group participated in daily 30 minute-long HT sessions for duration of a week-long summer therapy camp; while with the long-term HT group, HT sessions of the same length were used weekly for 5–6 weeks. Attention and memory skills were assessed with "Numeric square test" and "Verbal learning test", respectively. Both tests were undertaken before starting and after concluding the camp or the 5–6 week long HT period. Results: Attention improvement demonstrated in a significant decrease of an average time of "Numeric square test". The improvement was seen in both long-term HT (15.7 seconds overall average time reduction after HT, p < .01) and short-term HT (20.8 seconds reduction, p < .01) groups. Short-term memory improvement was found in the long-term HT group, demonstrated by a higher number of memorized words (more than half of the patients memorized on average 10.5 more words after HT) (p < .05). While the short-term HT group did not show significant improvement of attention or short-term memory, the average number of memorized words after a diversion of attention and a 30 minute delay increased by 4.1, showing an improvement (p < .05) of long-term memory. Conclusions: Our results suggest that hippotherapy as a part of comprehensive therapy in patients with CP leads to improvement of memory and attention skill.


Plant adaptation to the unstable environment relies on their ability to sense their surroundings, to generate and transmit corresponding signals to different parts of the plant, which evoke changes necessary for optimizing growth and defense responses. Plants, like animals, contain a huge repertoire of intra- and inter-cellular signals including organic and inorganic molecules. The occurrence of neurotransmitter-like signaling molecules in plants has been an intriguing field of research. Among these neurotransmitters, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was discovered in plants over half a century ago and studies of its roles as a primary metabolite have been well documented, particularly in the context of stress responses. In contrast, only recently evidence of the potential mechanism by which GABA acts as a signaling molecule in plants was reported. However, in spite of this breakthrough, the roles of GABA as a signaling molecule in plants are yet to be established and several aspects underlying the complexity of the GABA signaling system remain obscure. This review aims to summarize the unsolved questions in GABA signaling in plants; it also suggests research directions and technologies that would facilitate their solutions.


A constitutive model in two-dimensional condition, named the Elliptic Microstructure Model, is presented, explaining the non-linear deformation mechanisms of granular material, focusing on the elliptic microstructure composed of particles as a unit of granular materials. In the model, macroscopic behaviors of heterogeneous granular material are supposed to be controlled by the elliptic microstructures with interactions among them; the overall deformation-failure behaviors are calculated with the homogenization method. The deformation behavior is formulated using micropolar theory, where the rotations of constituent particles are considered. It is found that non-linear deformation behaviors and dilatancy can be explained uniquely by the mechanism of fabric evolution induced by collapse, revival, and generation of the elliptic microstructures.


Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane(POSS)shows some of the important features,including the Si-O cage size and the distribution of the eight pendant arms from the cube in a three-dimensional arrangement.These cubic Si-O cages have thus become very popular as nanometer-scale building blocks in a wide range of polymeric materials.In this contribution,the recent development in the synthesis of POSS was reviewed,and in particular the synthesis method of T8R8,T8R7R′,T8RnR′8-n and partially condensed POSS(T7)was described.Meanwhile,the synthesis ways and experiences about many POSS compounds were also summarized.Finally,the potential development in the synthesis of POSS was also discussed.


Chalcogenides such as CdTe, Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGSSe), and Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) have enabled remarkable advances in thin-film photovoltaic performance, but concerns remain regarding (i) the toxicity (CdTe) and (ii) scarcity (CIGSSe/CdTe) of the constituent elements and (iii) the unavoidable antisite disordering that limits further efficiency improvement (CZTSSe). In this work, we show that a different materials class, the BaCu2SnSexS4–x (BCTSSe) system, offers a prospective path to circumvent difficulties (i–iii) and to target new environmentally friendly and earth-abundant absorbers. Antisite disordering and associated band tailing are discouraged in BCTSSe due to the distinct coordination environment of the large Ba2+ cation. Indeed, an abrupt absorption edge and sharp associated photoluminescence emission demonstrate a reduced impact of band tailing in BCTSSe relative to CZTSSe. Our combined experimental and computational studies of BCTSSe reveal that the compositions 0 ≤ x ≤ 4 exhibit a tunable nea...


Applications that use multiple devices and surfaces provide new opportunities for innovative interaction -- but despite the wide variety of research that has been carried out on multi-surface systems, building these kinds of applications is still difficult. In particular, multi-surface apps that use interactive visual workspaces are complicated because current tools do not provide low-level access to a connected and interactive graphical canvas that is shown on different devices. This difficulty limits the explorations that designers and developers can carry out within the multi-surface design space. To address this problem, we have developed WAMS -- an open-source web-based toolkit that provides several programming abstractions for building visual-workspace applications across multiple surfaces. WAMS uses three main concepts -- a virtual visual workspace, views onto that workspace, and graphical workspace objects -- and provides support for connecting multiple devices, creating and manipulating objects, managing and laying out views, and handling events from multiple surfaces. WAMS simplifies the development of a wide variety of applications including composite display configurations, shared-workspace groupware, systems that place different UI elements onto different devices, and bring-your-own-device applications. We describe WAMS's main abstractions and concepts, provide several examples that show the breadth of the approach, and assess the toolkit in terms of effectiveness, coverage, extensibility, and integration with existing practices and tools.


This paper proposes a fast edge-based interpolation algorithm for high resolution frame from a compressed low resolution video sequence. In this work, scaling-up the compressed H.263+ video from low spatial-resolution is discussed and presented. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated experimentally.


: The main objective of this work was to determine the worth of installing an electrical battery in order to reduce peak power consumption. The importance of this question resides in the expensive terms of energy bills when using the maximum power level. If maximum power consumption decreases, it affects not only the revenues of maximum power level bills, but also results in important reductions at the source of the power. This way, the power of the transformer decreases, and other electrical elements can be removed from electrical installations. The authors studied the Spanish electrical system, and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm was used to model battery sizing in peak power smoothing applications for an electrical consumption point. This study proves that, despite not being entirely profitable at present due to current kWh prices, implanting a battery will definitely be an option to consider in the future when these prices come down.


So far, zakat productivity has only been focused on zakat mal, the productivity of zakat al-Fitr has not been touched at all by BAZ and LAZ, even though the potential of community economic empowerment through the productivity of zakat fitrah is very large if managed properly and responsibly and if fulfilling certain conditions to produce zakat fitrah, this article will discuss in detail the law of producing zakat fitrah, which is how it stands in Islamic law, whether the productivity of zakat fitrah is justified in Islamic law


We present radio continuum measurements of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891 at 327 MHz, 610 MHz and 1.49 GHz. The main results can be summarized as follows: (i) The radio spectrum of the total emission shows a sudden break of approximately 0.2 at a break frequency near 0.8 GHz. It is also consistent with a more gradual change of DELTA-alpha = 0.5 centred at 0.8 GHz. Because it is the dominant component this must also be the case for the halo component. (ii) A large fraction of the total emission at 1.49 GHz (approximately 65%) is in a halo component. The exponential scale heights are 0.8 and 1.0 kpc on the eastern and western side, respectively. The eastern side shows a peanut-shape morphology. The south-western part shows an extension with a scale height of approximately 2 kpc. (iii) The z-extent at the 10% intensity level of the radio halo changes with frequency. In the range from 327 to 1490 MHz it changes as nu-0.3. (iv) The low frequency (between 327 and 610 MHz) and the high frequency (between 610 and 1490 MHz) spectral indices in the plane of the galaxy show a difference of approximately 0.3. (v) The thin disk component is essentially unresolved in the z-direction. In the radial direction it is more extended than the halo component. It has a spectral index of approximately -0.4 compared to <- 0.9 for the radio halo. At 1.49 GHz about 30% of the total emission is in this thin disk component. (vi) Compared to NGC 4631 the radio halo of NGC 891 is less extended and has less energy stored in the relativistic electrons and B-field. The energy densities in cosmic rays and B-field are higher. The results are consistent with models for a dynamical halo in which adiabatic energy losses, caused by a galactic wind, are significant at lower energies. The comparison of NGC 891 and NGC 4631 lends further support for the importance of convection perpendicular to the plane and that this is probably related to the star formation activity in the disks.


This article shifts the focus of symptom management in palliative care from pain to four common symptoms at the end of life: nausea and vomiting, dyspnoea, respiratory secretions—'death rattle', and agitation, restlessness and delirium. Principles of prescribing, holistic assessment and communication, together with some pharmacotherapy strategies, are considered.


We prove the Kauffman-Harary Conjecture, posed in 1999: given a reduced, alternating diagram D of a knot with prime determinant p, every non-trivial Fox p-coloring of D will assign different colors to different arcs.


Eight beaches of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts were regularly surveyed and monitored between 1985 and 1999 to understand morphological changes. During SW monsoon the wide summer beaches of this coast experience erosion. Eroded beaches start growing during post-monsoon period and are fully developed by April/May. These erosional and accretional trends are cyclic and annual in nature. Minimum sediment is stored on the beaches during July/August and maximum during April/May. Sediment budget estimates reveal a net gain and hence, there is an accretional trend along this coast. Wherever erosion becomes severe, construction of seawalls is taken up as a preventive measure. In fact, these structures enhance erosion or shift erosional sites towards adjacent areas or they undergo destruction. Occupation of protected beaches is an added problem. Material from cliff erosion of northern coast and that contributed by rivers of these districts are the major sources of littoral drift and beach sediments. Net littoral drift is towards south and any construction as barrier to this results in erosion on downdrift side. Three case studies conducted at Old Mangalore Port, New Mangalore Port and Kapu-Mulur areas exemplify this trend. Significant morphological changes have taken place at Old Mangalore Port area after the recent construction of breakwaters. The shoreline has prograded by about 225 m on updrift side and retreated by 165 m on downdrift side between December 1993 and July 1995.


Driven by many real applications, graph pattern matching has attracted a great deal of attention recently. Consider that a twig-pattern matching may result in an extremely large number of matches in a graph; this may not only confuse users by providing too many results but also lead to high computational costs. In this paper, we study the problem of top-k tree pattern matching; that is, given a rooted tree T, compute its top-k matches in a directed graph G based on the twig-pattern matching semantics. We firstly present a novel and optimal enumeration paradigm based on the principle of Lawler's procedure. We show that our enumeration algorithm runs in O(nT + log k) time in each round where nT is the number of nodes in T. Considering that the time complexity to output a match of T is O(nT) and nT ≥ log k in practice, our enumeration technique is optimal. Moreover, the cost of generating top-1 match of T in our algorithm is O(mR) where mR is the number of edges in the transitive closure of a data graph G involving all relevant nodes to T. O(mR) is also optimal in the worst case without pre-knowledge of G. Consequently, our algorithm is optimal with the running time O(mR + k(nT + log k)) in contrast to the time complexity O(mR log k + knT(log k + dT)) of the existing technique where dT is the maximal node degree in T. Secondly, a novel priority based access technique is proposed, which greatly reduces the number of edges accessed and results in a significant performance improvement. Finally, we apply our techniques to the general form of top-k graph pattern matching problem (i.e., query is a graph) to improve the existing techniques. Comprehensive empirical studies demonstrate that our techniques may improve the existing techniques by orders of magnitude.


Since its development for wireless local area networks, the IEEE 802.11 standard has been widely used for various wireless networks due to its low cost and effectiveness in reducing collisions with simple and decentralized mechanisms. There are numerous analytical studies that have evaluated the performance of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) media access control (MAC) protocol in infrastructure and ad hoc networks. Most of these studies are confined to saturated traffic analysis, infrastructure networks or single hop ad hoc networks. In addition, most of them adopt simplified assumptions to reduce the complexity of the proposed models, which deviate from the IEEE 802.11 standards. In this paper, we present a novel analytical stochastic reward net model for performance evaluation of the IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC protocol in multi-hop ad hoc networks in the presence of hidden nodes, taking into account the characteristics of the physical layer, different traffic loads, packet size and carrier sense range. The proposed model captures most features of the protocol. Performance measures such as goodput and packet service time for various network configurations are computed. The proposed model is validated through extensive simulations.


The article is devoted to the scientific and methodological aspects of regional benchmarking in the entrepreneurial discovery process as part of the development of regional smart specialization strategy. We present the results of using the author's methodology on the example of one of the sectoral priority areas of smart specialization in European regions.
The relevance of the implementation of regional benchmarking and the place of its incorporation into the process of smart prioritization, taking into account the existing methodological support for the development of regional smart specialization strategies have been substantiated.
The methodology for regional benchmarking proposed by the authors includes the following main stages: (1) mapping and defining smart priorities for focal economic activities; (2) analysis of regional priorities according to European policy objectives of smart specialization and study of their structure taking into account the innovative activity of the regions; (3) analysis of the content and goals of regional smart projects with the identification of intersectoral links; (4) analysis of attracting clusters to regional smart specialization and study their localization and selected priority areas; (5) analysis of interregional cooperation in selected thematic area of smart specialization; (6) processing and formalization of the obtained research results.
The results of approbation of the proposed methodology are presented on the example of involving the chemical sector in the formation of smart projects. Using data from European internet platforms, we examined 90 smart priorities selected in 69 European regions. It was determined that the dominant goals of the smart specialization policy based on chemical production are Key enabling technologies, Sustainable innovation and Digital transformation. We found that these goals were chosen mainly by the innovation-active regions, while regions with a low level of innovation development, in addition to Sustainable innovation and Key enabling technologies, also focus on projects in the field of health and safety. It is concluded that the combination of knowledge and assets in the smart specialization process in Europe is the result of increased intersectoral and interregional cooperation, including using cluster technologies. Сross-sectoral linkages in smart projects are formed mostly within the existing value chains. At the same time, recently, new intersectoral partnerships, which are focused mainly on digitalization, diffusion of innovative biotechnologies and technologies for sustainable development, have emerged and are actively developing.


High-power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) modules encapsulated with different lens shapes after a thermal-aging test were studied experimentally and numerically. Samples from different manufacturers were aged at 65, 85, and 95degC under a constant driving current of 350 mA. The results showed that the optical power of the LED modules at the two view angles of plusmn (45deg~75deg) decreased more than the other view angles as the aging time increased. This was due to the reduction of radiation pattern from the corner effect of lens shape, resulted in lower output power. The simulation of the corner effect of lens shape is in good agreement with the experiment result. Results also showed that the center wavelength of the LED spectrum shift 5 nm after thermal aging 600 hours at 95degC because of degradation the lens material. The key module package related failure modes under thermal-aging may be due to the corner effect of lens shape and the degradation of the lens material. Therefore, improving the lens structure and lens material is essential to extend the operating life of the phosphor-based white LEDs modules.


Sleep Apnea Syndrome (SAS) is a very common sleep disorder. SAS is considered as clinically relevant when the breath stops during more than 10 seconds and occurs more than five times per sleep hour. The goal of this work is to investigate the feasibility of a noninvasive automatic approach to sleep apnea detection and classification. Only non-invasive records of the respiratory and cardiac activities (Nasal Airway Flow (NAF), Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Pulse Transit Time (PTT) ) issued by the technique of Polysomnography (PSG) are considered for the detection of the different sleep apnea syndromes: obstructive, central, mixed and hypopnea. The validation of our approach may eliminate many drawback of the PSG technique which is expensive, demanding for qualified hospital personal and psychically demanding for patient. The detection of sleep stages from only the ECG record is also investigated using (DFA), (HRV) or other ECG based processing methods. Experimental results using MIT database and a real clinical data are presented.


ABSTRACT In this article, we first identify the community-level structure of risk contagion among global stock markets and then provide the follow-up early-warning signals. The findings underscore the geographic nature of risk communities and their market composition heterogeneity. The core structure of risk contagion among global stock markets can be characterized by the relationship among a small number of communities that are highly coincided with geographic regions of Asia–Oceania, Europe and the Americas. Especially, we observe a more prominent role of emerging markets in communities of the Americas and Asia–Oceania. Moreover, our early-warning signals show that risk contagion within the European community and the outward spillovers to others are more pronounced. Risk spillovers from the community of Asia–Oceania to the Americas cannot be ignored either. The empirical findings may help develop the concept of top-down hierarchical real-time risk management. Risk contagion of markets in Europe and Asia–Oceania should also be attached more importance in the future early-warning system.


We present new data on the dynamic self-organization of the magnetic moment distribution in thin films induced by a pulsed magnetic field. We discuss possible scenarios for the transition from chaos to self-ordering; the excitation of a nonlinear pulsed mode of domain oscillations, dynamic clustering, and the drift of two-dimensional domain blocks. We study theoretically and experimentally the phenomenon of magneto-optic light diffraction by a regular domain structures arising during the self-organization with various motif-forming elements of the Bravais cells and symmetries. 37 refs., 8 figs.


Quicklime(CaO) is generally obtained through the calcination of limestone, the main component of which is calcium carbonate(CaCO₃). Quicklime generates high-temperature heat when reacting with water, forming slaked lime(Ca(OH)₂). The industrial sectors for limestone are determined by the hydraulic activity of slaked lime, which is obtained by measuring temperature changes during the hydration reaction. Accordingly, this study examined the different crystallographic characteristics of limestone as affected by the geological origins of the regions where the limestones were produced, and how these characteristics affected hydraulic activity. Six limestone samples were collected from the Jecheon and Cheongsong areas and the hydraulic activities were measured in accordance with KS E 3077. The results indicate that limestone produced in the Cheongsong area, recrystallized through metamorphism caused by hydrothermal alteration, hada larger grain size of calcite than that of the Jecheon area, and displays a tendency of changing to marble. Limestone from the Cheonsong area showed more radical reaction in the early stage of hydration compared to that ofthe Jecheon area. In addition, it was revealed that limestone having more impurities like SiO₂ have lower hydraulic activity.


As John Rich cogently argues in his chapter in this volume, warlordism does not furnish a useful category of analysis for republican Rome. Much of course depends on what exactly we take a warlord to be, and unfortunately little agreement exists about precisely how to define the term. Political scientists and students of international relations, who tend to be quite exacting in their demands for definitional precision, have offered a variety of descriptions of just what constitutes a warlord, but definitions based on the experience of modern nation-states or even failed states do not map well onto those of Italy in the fourth through the first centuries BC. Instead, in this period we might imagine that a warlord would be someone who controls a region small or large primarily by virtue of his control over an armed force rather than because he is an agent of the state, state authority within the region being either weak or nonexistent. His control of his army in turn would derive not from any magistracy or other state-sanctioned position but principally from the personal loyalty of his soldiers. Further, the warlord's goals would in the main be non-ideological but rather personal profit either in the form of wealth or power or both. Defined in this way, warlord-like figures quite possibly were a feature of sixth and fifth century Italy.1 At a time when state structures were rudimentary and weak—if they existed at all—the Vibenna brothers or Poplios Valesios appear to have been charismatic leaders of military forces. Their goals however remain unknown, and the bands they led seem not to have controlled any particular area of Italy but roamed from one place to another. The leaders of clanbased war-bands like the Fabii, who undertook something like a private war against Veii, and perhaps Attus Clausus with his kinsmen and clients may also fit our definition of warlords to some extent, particularly insofar as they were associated with particular parts of Roman territory.2 However the evidence is much too fragmentary and unreliable to reach definitive conclusions.3 Beginning in the later second century, aristocratic cohesion began to break down and competition among aristocrats to serve the res publica started to entail challenging the senate's control of it. By the early first century political


Protection against catastrophic events, including acts of terrorism, is a central task in security policy. Civil protection is an important instrument in this context. In most countries, civil protection is organized through national and regional structures. As a result of the growing importance of urban security issues, the existing systems are coming under pressure to adapt. N0. 204, March 2017, Editor: Matthias Bieri


The aim of this study is to find an improved dwell time that guarantees the stability of switched systems with heterogeneous constant time-delays. Piecewise Lyapunov-Krasovkii functionals are used for each candidate system to investigate the stability of the switched time-delayed system. Under the assumption that each candidate system is stable for small delay values, a sufficient condition for dwell-time that guarantees the asymptotic stability is derived. Numerical examples are given to compare the results with the previously obtained dwell-time bounds.


Background and Objective :  Currently d espite  a  large number of nurses, there is a shortage of nurses entering the workforce because the production of nursing graduates is lower than the demand.  Consequently, the demand for nurses cannot be met. Furthermore , the increase in the resignation of nurses adversely affected health services, the quality of medical and public health services, as well. The objective of the study was to identify the proportion of nurses' resignation from Srinagarind  Hospital , Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University. Methods : Personnel data base and 351 nurse resignation records from Khon Kaen University. during the fiscal years 2001-2010 were reviewed using retrospective study. The collected data was processed by the excel program and double-entry technique was used to ensure the accuracy of the recording of data. The details of the collected data included personal information, length of employment and reasons for resignation. The data was then analyzed using the descriptive statistics: frequency, percentage, means, standard deviation, and 95% CI. The processed data was presented in the form of line chart. Results : It was found that the proportion of nurses' resignation from Srinagarind  Hospital , Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University in the past 10 years( 2001-2010) was between 2.11% to 7.62%. Most of the resignation was voluntary. This study also found the increasing trend of resignation in 2001-2003. The resignation then dropped in 2004and remained stable until 2006, and increased in 2010. Moreover, this study also found that the highest resignation proportion was among nurses who had duration of employment between 1-5 years. The major reasons for their resignation in the fiscal year of 2001-2005 were getting a new job, and job transferring whereas the reasons for resignation after the year 2006 were family reasons. Conclusion: There was an increasing trend in nurses' resignation from Srinagarind  Hospital , Faculty of Medicine, during the years 2009-2010.  It was recommended that taking care of both young nurses and experienced senior nurses in terms of incentives and their families' welfare in order to reduce  nursing manpower wastage. Key Words : Resignation,  Nurses


The development objective of the Sustainable Natural Resources Management Project for Argentina is to improve the sustainable and efficient management of forest resources, conserve biodiversity in protected areas and forest landscapes, and integrate small producers into forestry development and conservation. This environmental assessment document / evaluacion ambiental, evaluated impacts as follows : flora and fauna; hydrology; archeological, cultural and historical findings; changes to the natural landscape; soil contamination, excessive use of fertilizers and agrochemicals; alteration to the natural drainage; surface and ground water; solid waste disposal; loss of vegetation. Recommendations and mitigation measures, include : reduce to a minimum possible impacts to the natural and cultural values of protected areas (areas protegidas- AP); the design and construction of the tourist infrastructure will comply and preserve the natural landscape features of the protected areas; excavation and construction activities will not impact on the natural drainage of the area of impact of the project; recommendation and mitigation measures included in this EA document will be included in the bidding documents and technical specifications for the participant contractors; excavation and land filling operation will be kept to a minimum and will respect the natural contour of the land; construction activities, truck circulation and operation of machinery will be kept to daylight hours; solid waste generated by construction will be transported out of the protected areas for their disposal to a designated landfill; keep vegetation removal to a minimum during the execution of infrastructure works; limit access of native fauna by fencing the working area; in case of archeological, cultural or historical finding notify the resident engineer, stop excavation and report the finding to the Comision Nacional de Museos y de Monumentos y Lugares Historicos to obtain authorization to continue operations; and finally, compliance with Argentina's environmental policy, legislation, institutional, regulatory framework, international agreements relative to the protection of the environment of which Argentina is a signatory, and the Bank's operational directives on environmental management (OP 4.01), natural habitats (OP 4.04), cultural heritage management (OP 4.11), pest control (OP 4.09).


The cell membrane is not only a physical barrier, but also a functional organelle regulating the communication between a cell and its environment. An ability to functionalize the cell membrane with synthetic molecules or nanostructures would advance cellular functions beyond what the evolution of nature has provided. The purpose of this minireview is to introduce recent progress in using synthetic DNA and DNA-based nanostructures for cell surface engineering. We first introduce chemical conjugation and physical binding methods for monovalent and polyvalent surface engineering. We further introduce the application of these methods for either promotion or inhibition of cell-environment communication in numerous applications including promotion of cell-cell recognition, regulation of intracellular pathways, protection of therapeutic cells and sensing of intracellular and extracellular microenvironment. Lastly, we summarize current challenges existing in this area and potential solutions to solve these challenges.


Electric multiple unit (EMU) trains' high-level maintenance planning is a discrete problem in mathematics. The high-level maintenance process of the EMU trains consumes plenty of time. When the process is undertaken during peak periods of the passenger flow, the transportation demand may not be fully satisfied due to the insufficient supply of trains. In contrast, if the process is undergone in advance, extra costs will be incurred. Based on the practical requirements of high-level maintenance, a 0–1 programming model is proposed. To simplify the description of the model, candidate sets of delivery dates, i.e., time windows, are generated according to the historical data and maintenance regulations. The constraints of the model include maintenance regulations, the passenger transportation demand, and capacities of workshop. The objective function is to minimize the mileage losses of all EMU trains. Moreover, a modified particle swarm algorithm is developed for solving the problem. Finally, a real-world case study of Shanghai Railway is conducted to demonstrate the proposed method. Computational results indicate that the (approximate) optimal solution can be obtained successfully by our method and the proposed method significantly reduces the solution time to 500 s.


Abstract This paper intends to provide some methodological tools to explore the many different connections between law and opera. While the paper may of course be set in the context of studies about law and humanities, it intends to address some specific issues typical of the opera context. It proposes three different pathways: studies about legal problems as described in opera plays ("Law in opera"); analyses about the regulation of opera itself (copyright, etc., collectively referred to as "Law on opera"); and a broader, less theoretically-constrained field of connections between the two worlds, covering parallels between the circulation of legal and operatic traditions, regulations of new interaction between the audience and the staging, etc.


ABSTRACT This article identifies the unique contributions social work has made to the study of spirituality and religion in relation to aging, based on respect for their diverse expressions. Definitions of religion and spirituality that particularly relate to late life are provided. The study of spirituality and aging is situated in four historical phases ranging from sectarian origins (1890s to 1920), to professionalization and secularization (1920s–1970s), to renewed interest (1980s to mid 1990s), to the current phase characterized by transcending boundaries. Interdisciplinary research by social workers is prevalent. Topics of study include a wide range of religious and nonreligious spiritual perspectives, cultural groups, and life domains. There is an expansion of interest in international research and collaboration on spirituality and aging as well. Future research possibilities include functions of religion and spirituality for older adults, spirituality in relation to professional direct practice, p...


A systematic method for deriving soft-switching three-port converters (TPCs), which can interface multiple energy, is proposed in this paper. Novel full-bridge (FB) TPCs featuring single-stage power conversion, reduced conduction loss, and low-voltage stress are derived. Two nonisolated bidirectional power ports and one isolated unidirectional load port are provided by integrating an interleaved bidirectional Buck/Boost converter and a bridgeless Boost rectifier via a high-frequency transformer. The switching bridges on the primary side are shared; hence, the number of active switches is reduced. Primary-side pulse width modulation and secondary-side phase shift control strategy are employed to provide two control freedoms. Voltage and power regulations over two of the three power ports are achieved. Furthermore, the current/voltage ripples on the primary-side power ports are reduced due to the interleaving operation. Zero-voltage switching and zero-current switching are realized for the active switches and diodes, respectively. A typical FB-TPC with voltage-doubler rectifier developed by the proposed method is analyzed in detail. Operation principles, control strategy, and characteristics of the FB-TPC are presented. Experiments have been carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed topology derivation method.


We describe portions of the U.S input-output tables through the tools of networks analysis—focusing on either energy intensive industries or those that are part of the separate and distinct energy sector. We first represent both energy intensive and energy sector industries visually through network diagrams for the years 1997, 2002, and 2007. Next, we show that the energy sector is generally more densely connected than either energy intensive industries or all industries over those years, and is more likely to have groups of three sub-sectors all linked as well. We then move to the level of individual industries within the broad sectors and find that energy intensive industries have the most in-coming connections on average for these tables. Energy sector ones have fewer, but the number grows over time, as do outgoing connections. Other measures of centrality—closeness and betweenness—vary over time for both the energy sector and energy intensive industries. Specifically, petroleum refining and electricity generation stand out for their centrality, drilling oil and gas wells for its lack of centrality.


Introduction: Particle deposition studies revealed that airborne pollutants and fine particles can cause serious health problems such as respiratory disease [1-2]. Thus, an efficient particle removing method for exhaust gases treatment is crucial. Electrostatic precipitator (ESP) are commonly used in filtration systems to collect the dust particles from air stream [3]. In such systems, particles are subjected to strong electric field and then settle on collecting electrode.


This paper presents a method of evaluating singing skills that does not require score information of the sung melody. This requires an approach that is different from existing systems, such as those currently used for Karaoke systems. Previous research on singing evaluation has focused on analyzing the characteristics of singing voice, but were not aimed at developing an automatic evaluation method. The approach presented in this study uses pitch inter- val accuracy and vibrato as acoustic features which are indepen- dent from specific characteristics of the singer or melody. The ap- proach was tested by a 2-class (good/poor) classification test with 600 song sequences, and achieved an average classification rate of 83.5%. The aim of this study is to explore a method of automatic evalua- tion of singing skills without score information. Our interest lies in identifying the criteria that human subjects use in judging the quality of singing for unknown melodies, using acoustic features which are independent from specific characteristics of the singer or melody. Such evaluation systems can be useful tools for im- proving singing skills, and also can be applied to broadening the scope of music information retrieval and singing voice synthesis. Previous work related to singing skills include those based on a control model of fundamental frequency (F0) trajectory (1), gen- eral characteristics (2, 3), as well as work on automatic discrimi- nation of singing and speaking voices (4), and acoustic differences between trained and untrained singers' voices (5, 6, 7). None of these work have gone as far as presenting an automatic evaluation method. This paper presents a singing skill evaluation scheme based on pitch interval accuracy and vibrato, which are regarded as features that function independently from the individual characteristics of singer or melody. To test the validity of these features, an experi- ment of automatic evaluation of singing performance by a 2-class classification (good/poor) was conducted. The following sections describe our approach and the exper- imental results of its evaluation. Section 2 presents discussion of features. Section 3 describes the classification experiment and its evaluation. Section 4 concludes the paper, with discussion on di- rections for future work.


This paper reports on a collection of mites from the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Oliver) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and its habitat in Ismailia governorate in Egypt. A new species Oodinychus egypticus n. sp. is described from adult females and males. This study continues work on possible biological control agents for the red palm weevil.


A INTERESTING ADVENTURE in inter national relations is related by Howard D. Southwood of Berea Col lege, Kentucky. Four Berca students from the Gold Coast, the Philippine Islands, Korea and Iran were guests at a Future Homemakers of America assembly in Lee County High School in Bcattyvillc, Kentucky. Thought to be the first representatives of their nationalities in the community, the students spoke briefly to the high school assembly and visited classes where countless questions were asked them. The spontaneity and warmth of the student welcome in this eastern Kentucky rural region characterized the interest in these people of different colors, religions and physiognomies. A significant implication for internation al understanding came from one bright twelve year old who said following a question period, "You tell us so many things that we don't get from our books."


(1) Background: An open abdomen is a serious medical condition that requires prompt and effective treatment to prevent complications and improve patient outcomes. Negative pressure therapy (NPT) has emerged as a viable therapeutic option for temporary closure of the abdomen, offering several benefits over traditional methods. (2) Methods: We included 15 patients with pancreatitis who were hospitalized in the I–II Surgery Clinic of the Emergency County Hospital "St. Spiridon" from Iasi, Romania, between 2011–2018 and received NPT. (3) Results: Preoperatively, the mean IAP level was 28.62 mmHg, decreasing significantly postoperatively to 21.31 mmHg. The mean level of the highest IAP value recorded in pancreatitis patients treated with VAC did not differ significantly by lethality (30.31 vs. 28.50; p = 0.810). In vacuum-treated pancreatitis patients with a IAP level > 12, the probability of survival dropped below 50% during the first 7 days of stay in the ICU, so that after 20 days the probability of survival was approximately 20%. IAP enters the determinism of surgery with a sensitivity of 92.3% and a specificity of 99%, the cut-off value of IAP being 15 mmHg. (4) Conclusions: The timing of surgical decompression in abdominal compartment syndrome is very important. Consequently, it is vital to identify a parameter, easy to measure, within the reach of any clinician, so that the indication for surgical intervention can be made judiciously and without delay.


Distance learning is promoting the adoption of several and new technological resources in education. The Internet is a proof of this trend, providing students with the ability of accessing better pedagogical contents from everywhere at anytime. This is usually supported by the so-called Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). However, the increase of the bandwidth together with improvements in terms of the devices' processing capabilities for accessing services/tools through the internet, has contributed to the appearance of the Remote Experimentation (RE) concept. Currently adopted by several Science and Engineering (S&E) courses, RE is classified as a sub-domain of E-learning and as an extension of the traditional VLEs, since it provides all the facilities required for remotely accessing laboratorial experiments, giving both students and teachers the ability to control real experiments by using a simple device (e.g. PC, PDA, smart phone, etc.) connected to the internet. Traditional (in-place) laboratorial experiments can now be remotely controlled with more flexibility, reducing place and time restrictions usually present in a real laboratory. In addition, technological evolution is contributing to many changes in several domains, which has alerted us to the importance of contextualizing RE as a network of interconnected actors, with distinct characteristics and interests. This represents a huge challenge that is fundamental to analyse, since society, and more particularly the educational context, is faced with several unpredictable influences from technological innovations that may contribute to the adoption of various educational solutions some of which may not have been validated, particularly in S&E courses. Hence, this paper focuses on an analysis of RE based on the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) in order to understand the existing relationships between human and non-human (technological and/or conceptual) actors. The paper begins by contextualizing RE as an actor-network in an intersection of several contexts, namely the social, technical and educational. Further on, we map the actors and their associations. An analysis of the inclusion of a new actor into the RE actor-network, namely FPGA-based boards for accommodating Instruments and Modules (I&M), which are usually applied in remote laboratory infrastructures, is dealt with in the final section


The SuiteSparse Matrix Collection (formerly known as the University of Florida Sparse Matrix Collection) (Davis & Hu, 2011) has grown significantly since its introduction, with newly added matrices representing almost seven times as much data than the entirety of the original Collection. With this growth, searching the Collection for matrices with specific names, structures, and other properties has become increasingly difficult. To make the Collection more accessible to the scientific computing community, we have developed a web application that allows real-time search and filtering of the Collection matrices.


The low-resolution mass spectra of a set of 78 toxic volatile organic compounds were examined for information concerning chemical classes. The Shannon information content for each mass channel was calculated for the binary encoded and the full intensity spectra, using 1% of the base peak as the threshold level. The 17 masses with the highest binary information content were retained as a compressed basis set for SIMCA pattern recognition. The inherent class structure of the data showed two major classes, aromatics and alkaenes (alkanes and alkenes), and four subclasses, chloro- and nonchloroaromatics and bromo- and chloroakaenes. Except for the total alkaenes class model, the models consisted of one principal component with five masses per component. The total alkaenes model consisted of two principal components with 12 masses. Classification accuracy was 96% for the two major classes and 82% for the four subclasses. 34 references, 1 figure, 8 tables.


Worldwide, refugees are increasingly living in uncertainty for undetermined periods of time, waiting for an enduring legal and social solution. In this article, I consider how this experience of waiting is perceived through and influenced by the ubiquity of transnational digital connections, which play a central role in Iraqi refugee households in Jordan. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Iraqi refugees in Jordan's capital Amman to further understand the use of digital technologies in everyday experiences of prolonged displacement. Waiting is an intrinsic affective phenomenon, colored by hope and anxiety. I argue that affective affordances—the potential of different media forms to bring about affects like hope and anxiety—enable Iraqi refugees to reorient themselves to particular places and people. As "no futures" are deemed possible in Jordan or Iraq, digital technologies serve as orientation devices enabling them to imagine futures elsewhere. Through the interplay of media forms, the Iraqi refugees refract their own lives via the experiences of friends and family members who have already traveled onward and who in their perception are able to rebuild a dignified life. Transnational digital connections not only provide a space for hope and optimistic ideas of futures elsewhere but also help to sustain one's experience of immobility. I argue that using the imagination can be understood as an act of not giving in to structural constraints and might be crucial to making Iraqi refugee life in Jordan bearable.


This paper studied and discussed the disadvantages of depth-first search algorithm and breadth-first search algorithm.An improved algorithm on Non-information graph-search was brought forward and the relevant exarnples to illustrate were given in this paper.


The invention relates to a method for coating inner wall of tube and relative device, wherein it comprises: coating the tube and heating the tube, while rotating the tube, to make the coating and drying processes are executed in one same stable condition, to avoid repeatedly entering the tube into heating furnace, to shorten the processing time, improve the efficiency, and confirm the uniform powder on the inner wall, to improve the quality. The invention can avoid special rotator.


Multi-instance learning belongs to one of recently fast developing areas of machine learning. It is a supervised learning method and this paper reports research into its unsupervised counterpart, multi-instance clustering. Whereas traditional clustering clusters points, multiinstance clustering clusters bags, i.e. multisets of points or of other kinds of objects. The paper focuses on the problem of loss functions for clustering. Three sophisticated loss functions used for clustering of points, contrastive predictive coding, triplet loss and magnet loss, are elaborated for multi-instance clustering. Finally, they are compared on 18 benchmark datasets, as well as on a real-world dataset.


bridging the memory wall, or the speed gap between the microprocessor and main memory. This importance is continuously increasing especially as we enter the regime of nanometer process technologies (i.e. 90nm and below), as industry has favored investing a larger and larger fraction of a chip's transistor budget to improving the on-chip cache. This is the case in practice, as it has proven to be an efficient way to utilize the increasing number of transistors available with each succeeding technology. Consequently, it becomes even more important to have cache design tools that give accurate representations of designs that exist in actual microprocessors. The prevalent cache design tools that are the most widely used in academe are CACTI [Wilton1996] and eCACTI [Mamidipaka2004], and these have proven to be very useful tools not just for cache designers, but also for computer architects. This dissertation will show that both CACTI and eCACTI still contain major limitations and even flaws in their design, making them unsuitable for use in very-deep submicron and nanometer caches, especially pipelined designs. These limitations and flaws will be discussed in detail. This dissertation then introduces a new tool, called myCACTI, that addresses all these limitations and, in addition, introduces major enhancements to the simulation framework. Some of the major enhancements are briefly described as follows:


Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) has become a robust scientific field offering proven methods for the optimization and more effective operation of HVAC systems. However, FDD practical application faces several difficulties and barriers: legacy systems may be unable to provide meaningful information for FDD, integration of disparate systems can be difficult but also the organizational culture and existing contractual frameworks may present obstacles for innovation and industry acceptance. This paper presents a practical implementation of an stakeholder-centered solution called the "CASCADE Implementation Kit" that integrates FDD into a comprehensive energy management system. Two major European airports will be the test bench of the CASCADE solution. Airports role as critical infrastructures and main energy consumer is also discussed in this paper. The solution delivers a common integrated platform including several innovative commercial and under development tools including an ISO-50001 1 energy management software, advanced data visualization, and building performance simulation.


This paper develops a generalized "keyed learning" methodology and applies it to the problem of defacement detection. An implemented system is presented with a real-world experimentation, in the context of defacement response.


Cardiac mesotheliomas are rare. It is difficult to diagnose them at an early stage because the symptoms are nonspecific. Here we report two cases that had been initially diagnosed as constrictive pericarditis but later were definitively diagnosed, after pericardiectomy, as mesothelioma. The two patients complained of dyspnea that lasted 4 months and 10 years. Chest CT showed mild pericardial effusion and thickened pericardium, which was found enveloping the heart without any lumps. Median sternotomy showed that the overall pericardium was thickened by more than 10 ㎜. Pericardiectomy (phrenic nerve to phrenic nerve) was performed and post-operative histology confirmed malignant mesothelioma. In one patient the disease recurred near the pericardium post-operatively at 7 months and the patient died at 11 months. The other patient received chemotherapy and was still alive at post-operative month 16. Pericardial mesothelioma is an extremely rare disease exhibiting clinical signs similar to those of constrictive pericarditis, and should be diagnosed at an early stage of onset.


A bis-porphyrinic rectangle is created via a double self-assembly algorithm using two orthogonal coordination themes, i.e. first a 90 degrees building block composed of a dynamic heteroleptic Cu(I) or Ag(I) bisphenanthroline followed by a coordinative dimerization using the pyridine-zinc porphyrin motif; the spectroscopic and electrochemical properties as well as the dynamic nature of the supramolecule were tested.


Objective:To observe the clinical effect of compound tripterygium particles combined with testosterone undecanoate and cyclosporin A in treatment of chronic aplastic anemia.Methods:In experiment group,there were 22 patients with aplastic anemia treated by compound tripterygium particles combined with testosterone undecanoate and cyclosporin A.In control group,there were 18 patients treated by estosterone undecanoate and cyclosporin A.Then the clinical effect was compared between the two groups.Results:The total efficiency of experiment group was 81.8%,compared with 50.0% of the control group.The difference was significant(P0.05).White blood cell,hemoglobin and platelet count of experiment group were significantly higher than those of control group(P0.05).Conclusion:Compound tripterygium particles combined with testosterone undecanoate and cyclosporin A can play synergistic effect,accelerate the improvement of symptoms,and improve the curative effect in treatment of chronic aplastic anemia.


IMPLICATIONS
This case describes the narcotic overdose associated with the use of a fentanyl transdermal patch in a patient being rewarmed with an external warming blanket during surgery. The clinical manifestation and the presumed pharmacokinetic mechanism responsible for the fentanyl overdose are discussed.


The first total synthesis of madindolines A and B, potent selective inhibitors of interleukin 6 (IL-6), has been achieved by stereoselective aldol reaction, ring-closing metathesis, reductive amination, followed by an asymmetric oxidative ring closure of indole, and resulted in determination of their absolute stereochemistries. We have further developed a more efficient second-generation synthesis, which is suitable for gram-scale preparation of these compounds, by stereoselective acylation of ester 34, followed by an intramolecular acylation of ester 32 with allylsilane (19% yield over 9 steps). Synthetic [ 3 H]-madindoline A bound to gp-130, selectively. Furthermore, synthetic madindoline A markedly inhibited osteoclastogenesis in vitro and bone resorption in ovariectomized mice in vivo.


Present study aimed to treat 2 Napthalene Sulfonate (2NS), a dye intermediate with microbial consortia and assess its potential toxicological impact before and after treatment on the integrity of Deoxyribo-Nucleic Acid (DNA) in blood cells of Channa punctatus. Symbolic elevation in DNA damage with untreated 2NS administered fishes was observed as revealed by comet assay and micronucleus test. However, 2NS after being degraded using mixed bacterial population showed significant reduction in toxicological effects of 2NS. Thus, this study not only illustrated the adverse impact of such toxic contaminant of industrial waste but also suggested a highly efficient and eco-friendly way to remove the harmful xenobiotics from the environment which may help to reduce the exposure of aquatic fauna and flora to such lethal toxicants.


Macroporous poly (vinyl acetate-co-triallyl isocyanurate) beads were prepared with suspension polymerization method. The copolymer beads were then transformed into poly (vinyl alcohol-co-triallyl isocyanurate) by ester exchange reaction. Aminocarboxylic acids were immobilized on the copolymer beads by the esterification of hydroxyl groups with diethyl-lenetriaminepentaacetic bisanhydride. The weak acid exchange capacities, specific surface areas and mean pore diameters of the resultant resin beads were measured.


Several potentially hazardous northwest-striking faults in and around the Portland basin, within the fore-arc of Cascadia, are classified as Quaternary active by the U.S. Geological Survey, but little is known about their Holocene activity. We present new earthquake-timing constraints on the Gales Creek fault (GCF), a 73 km long, northwest-trending fault with youthful geomorphic expression located about 35 km west of Portland. We excavated a paleoseismic trench across the GCF in the populated northern Willamette Valley and document three surface-rupturing earthquakes from stratigraphic and structural relationships. Radiocarbon samples from offset stratigraphy constrain these earthquakes to have occurred ∼1000, ∼4200, and ∼8800 calibrated years before the present. The penultimate earthquake back-tilted a buried soil into the hillslope creating accommodation space that was infilled by a colluvial deposit. The most recent earthquake faulted and formed a fissure within the penultimate colluvial deposit. Our results suggest that the GCF has a recurrence interval of ∼4000 yr, and if the full 73 km length were to rupture, it would result in an Mw 7.1–7.4 earthquake, providing a significant seismic hazard for the greater Portland metropolitan area.


Vehicle routing problems aim at finding efficient routes.The starting point of any vehicle lies usually in the depot of traffic centre,for which the customers can be satisfied with the needed commodity transported in vehicle.Analysis is made on the vehicle routing problem in which the travel time window are assumed to be fuzzy variables.A fuzzy optimization model is designed,and fuzzy simulation and genetic algorithm are integrated to obtain a hybrid intelligent algorithm.Finally,an example is given to show the effectiveness of the algorithm.


Quiz Buzzer is one of important elements in a quizz contest. In Tadris Matematika Study Program's Birthday event, one of contest held is quiz contest for High School Student in Kalbar Province. Hereby, author is going to design the buzzer circuit which is able to be used in that quiz contest. This circuit was build by some components, namely push button, buzzer, indicating light, transistor switching circuit for driving the buzzer and indicating light, and a NodeMCU ESP8266 as the system controller. Design of hardware was conducted by referring to literature studies, basic theory, and datasheet. Testing of developed codes was conducted over the Quiz Buzzer Protoyping that is assembled on the breadboard. Testing results showed that the quiz buzzer circuit working properly as needed and the design of 3 teams quiz buzzer.


The present work has as main objective to analyze the equine cardiac ventricles after death, from the morphoquantitative measurement. Six hearts of different races of horses with the presence or absence of different sports skills were used. The hearts were collected after the animal died and the cause of death was not stated. Six hearts of the equine species were analyzed, being 50% males and 50% females. As for the breed 33.3% was Quarter mile, 33.3% was Machador Broad Sleeve and 16.6% was Paulista Broad Sleeve and 16.6% was PSI. About athletic life, 50% were considered equine and the average weight of the animals was 426.83 kg, with the lowest weight 295 kg and the highest 560.0 kg. Regarding the dimensions of the hearts analyzed, the average weight of the ventricles was 2.71 kg, with the lowest weight 1.63 kg and the highest weight 3.83 kg; On the size of the base, it found an average of 22.28 cm, with the base smaller 17.0 cm and the largest base 25; As for the axis, the average was 25.66 cm, being the smallest of 22.0 cm and the largest of 30. Regarding the number of slices, case 1 was the smallest, being 9 and Case 2 and 5 presented a larger number of slices, being 12. Physical activity in horses seems to be associated with myocardial hypertrophy and this fact may increase the axis and allow greater cuts and action analysis.


Cuttings were collected from the Acer truncatum plus trees and grafted in local 3-years-old seedlings.Growth characters were measured.The results showed that:there were significant variations among basal diameter,plant height and node numbers,which had a rich genetic variation.Repeatability of plant height was 0.939,base diameter was 0.716,node number was 0.831,which showed high genetic control on the tested traits.Integrated assessment by weighted co-efficient method demonstrated that genetic gain of plant height was 18.65%,basal diameter was 7.26%,node numbers were 5.42% by selection rate of 17%;genetic gain of plant height was 9.97%,basal diameter was 4.22%,node number was7.23% by selection rate of 42%.


SUMMARY We reared a lab culture of Leiobunum sp. harvestmen adults in 2011, and captured several unique photo images of developing eggs and a hatchling. These images are perhaps the first to be recorded for this genus.


Graphdiyne (GDY), a new two-dimensional (2D) carbon hybrid material, because it can function as both an electron donor and acceptor and possesses a certain intrinsic band gap due to its unique sp and sp2 conjugate hybridization.


The line between forcefully expressing one's views at a government meeting and disrupting the public's business is a fine one. Public officials in every jurisdiction have experienced those one or two regular meeting participants who seem to revel in cozying up to that fine line, and even trying to move it from time to time. While one person may need to shout and pound a table to make a particularly emotional but legitimate point in a debate, another might throw an entire meeting into disarray with a simple, yet highly-charged, silent gesture. The former is likely protected by the First Amendment, but the latter is not under a recent published decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.


Economics might well encompass the asset market, which in turn requires completely new narratives. In addition, money may well be given the single function of the medium of exchange. Then, the defective IS-LM model can be replaced by more logical and simpler explanations: incremental money provision (ΔM) directly promotes consumption spending (C) and asset purchases, a part of which is for newly-produced assets (I). Here, it becomes clear that the interest rate is not the cause for aggregate investment (I) but the effect of asset trade. Another truth is that the price level (P) and the real GDP (Y) are nothing but indexes and totally meaningless by themselves. Therefore, they should be replaced by their growth rates (π versus g) in the AS-AD model. More generally, economists need to pay keen attention to dimensions of various quantities not to commit widely observed "dimension aberration" such as taking the dimensionless percentage gap in GDP (log Y – log Y*) for the gap in growth rates (g – g*) with a time dimension (T-1).


The heptapeptide angiotensin-(1–7) (Ang-(1–7)) is protective in the cardiovascular system through its induction of vasodilator production and angiogenesis. Despite acting antagonistically to the effects of elevated, pathophysiological levels of angiotensin II (AngII), recent evidence has identified convergent and beneficial effects of low levels of both Ang-(1–7) and AngII. Previous work identified the AngII receptor type I (AT1R) as a component of the protein complex formed when Ang-(1–7) binds its receptor, Mas1. Importantly, pharmacological blockade of AT1R did not alter the effects of Ang-(1–7). Here, we use a novel mutation of AT1RA in the Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) rat to test the hypothesis that interaction between Mas1 and AT1R contributes to proangiogenic Ang-(1–7) signaling. In a model of hind limb angiogenesis induced by electrical stimulation, we find that the restoration of skeletal muscle angiogenesis in SS rats by Ang-(1–7) infusion is impaired in AT1RA knockout rats. Enhancement of endothelial cell (EC) tube formation capacity by Ang-(1–7) is similarly blunted in AT1RA mutant ECs. Transcriptional changes elicited by Ang-(1–7) in SS rat ECs are altered in AT1RA mutant ECs, and tandem mass spectrometry-based proteomics demonstrate that the protein complex formed upon binding of Ang-(1–7) to Mas1 is altered in AT1RA mutant ECs. Together, these data support the hypothesis that interaction between AT1R and Mas1 contributes to proangiogenic Ang-(1–7) signaling.


Government data interoperability facilitates information sharing between business processes and organizations contributing to enhance public service delivery and informed decisions to support public policy making. Despite its relevance, there is scarce research work on solutions to facilitate data interoperability in the Science and Technology government sector. This paper presents a case study describing a technical solution -- Integrated Management and Evaluation System (SIGEVA -- Sistema Integrado de Gestión y Evaluación), implemented by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) in Argentina. SIGEVA comprises a set of applications for the management and evaluation of research projects and researchers, widely used by research centers, public and private universities, and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation in Argentina. The relevance of SIGEVA relies on showcasing a technical solution overcoming barriers for data exchange, enabling to nationally consolidate relevant information related to science and technology. However, the analysis of the case study reveals weaknesses. Results show that an initial stage of data interoperability contributes to break information silos among organizations contributing to improve end users' activities. However, further interoperability levels and non-technical issues are required and must be considered during the development process of technical solutions for data interoperability. The paper also presents a data interoperability framework to ensure semantic consistency while dealing with data heterogeneity. The framework is validated against the weaknesses identified for the case study, and an approach for generalizing its usage to other government sectors is discussed.


When started in the fall, extended-release bupropion, 300 mg once daily, is effective in preventing recurrent symptoms in high-risk adults with a history of SAD (number needed to treat [NNT] = 5), as well as those at lower risk (NNT = 8). Headaches, nausea, and insomnia may limit adherence to treatment.


A table-based nonlinear approach was used to predict the performance of a commercially packaged Schottky diode. Excellent results have been obtained which improve those of the analytical model provided by the manufacturer. Both models were extensively validated under DC, small and large-signal one-tone and two-tone excitations. Measurements for table-based model extraction and models validation were obtained by using a multi-tone nonlinear measurement system based on a LSNA. Time domain waveforms have once more been demonstrated as a key tool to compare large-signal models.


Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among Indian women; around 20% of cervical cancer cases all over the world are from India. Even though amelioration in the health care system had progressed compared to earlier days, the mortality due to cervical cancer in developing countries like India. The study focuses on the awareness, prevention and screening of cervical cancer in rural women of Kancheepuram district. The cross-sectional study with 416 women using multistage sampling method was conducted, the tool was Cervical cancer awareness measure toolkit version 2.1 with altered changes in the socio-demographic section with B. G Prasad scale for socio-economic status was included accordingly to the rural area. The awareness about the term cervical cancer was 43.2% (180/416). Still, the awareness about the term human papillomavirus (HPV) was only 7.1%(32/416), of the 416 women who participated in the study only 15.5% of women were screened for cervical cancer at least once in their lifetime, Less than 50% of the women participants were aware of cervical cancer, hence planned health education with behavioural change program is needed for promoting the knowledge and screening of cervical cancer in rural areas of Kancheepuram district.


Generalization performance is one of the most important problems of intelligent approaches for parameters forecasting.This paper presents an ensemble of support vector regression(ESVR) which has better generalization performance than other intelligent approaches.To increase the diversity among individuals of ensemble,the paper proposes an individual generating approach based on clustering technique.Firstly,ESVR is used to classify training samples as several subclasses that are used to train different individuals with different kernel functions.The ensemble weights of individuals are determined by the generalization errors on the validation sets.ESVR is tested on the parameter drift data of gyroscope.By comparing single SVR,single neural network,neural network ensemble and combination approach with ESVR in generalization performance,the results reveal that ESVR has better generalization performance than other intelligent approaches in most cases.


Radiography has been used in industry for many decades and it has been of major significance in the aerospace industry. When an inspection method such as Radiography has been successfully used for such a long time, it becomes difficult to realize that its full potential has not yet been reached.


Increasing interaction between university and industry is a common trend of most developed economies. It has received both consent and critique from innovation studies. Some of the debates around the topic are what the objectives of interaction are and whether the attempts to promote it are effective. With a sample from a survey of university professors of a European peripheral region, the Valencian Community, we study the extension of the phenomenon beyond technology-leading countries. We estimate some econometric models that shed some light on the mentioned debates. The results show that certain incentives and instruments of interaction impede that the support to every objective is simultaneous or even compatible and that only selected policies for its promotion have an impact. We recommend a reconsideration of the institutional encouragement experienced during the last two decades.


Recent development in the Cremer impedance concept is summarized in this paper. To begin with, the so-called 'exact' Cremer impedance or solution for single-lined rectangular ducts that is 'exact' ...


The iconic Springboks are not only synonymous with South African rugby but with South African national identity as a whole. Based on research gathered within South Africa over the past decade, this paper explores the creation of the Springbok identity with particular focus on the historic 1906 rugby tour to Britain and France – the first by a South African team overseas. Set against the backdrop of political instability and racial tension within South Africa, the tour took place only four years after the end of the Anglo-Boer War and was used as an opportunity to unify the divided nation. This paper will explore the role of Paul Roos, captain of the 1906 side, on this tour and the iconic status that this Afrikaans schoolteacher has since achieved within South African rugby folklore.


1. Viral Hepatitis-Hepatitis B Information. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/ HBV/HBVfaq.htm. Accessed February 19, 2016. 2. Viral Hepatitis-Hepatitis C Information. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/C/ cFAQ.htm. Accessed February 19, 2016. 3. Lok AS, McMahon BJ. Chronic hepatitis B. Hepatology 2007; 45:507–539. 4. Ghany MG, Strader DB, Thomas DL, et al. Diagnosis, management, and treatment of hepatitis C: an update. Hepatology 2009; 49:1335–74. 5. Jenison SA, Lemon SM, Baker LN, Newbold JE. Quantitative analysis of hepatitis B virus DNA in saliva and semen of chronically infected homosexual men. J Infect Dis 1987;156: 299–307. 6. Karayiannis P, Novick DM, Lok AS, Fowler MJ, Monjardino J, Thomas HC. Hepatitis B virus DNA in saliva, urine, and seminal fluid of carriers of hepatitis B e antigen. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1985;290:1853–1855. 7. Rey D, Fritsch S, Schmitt C, Meyer P, Lang JM, Stoll-Keller F. Quantitation of hepatitis C virus RNA in saliva and serum of patients coinfected with HCV and human immunodeficiency virus. J Med Virol 2001;63:117–119. 8. Huang MJ. An epidemiological study on prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in preschool children. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 1990;11:129–132. 9. Kubo N, Furusyo N, Sawayama Y, et al. A patient in whom only hepatitis B virus (HBV) was thought to have been contracted, by kissing, from a same-sex partner coinfected with HBV and human immunodeficiency virus-1. J Infect Chemother 2003;9:260–264. 10. He J, Chen X, Sun J. Oral wounds and hepatitis B virus transmission. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;35:1079–1080.


In acid solution,potassium ferrocynide reacted with ferrous sulfate,and the reactant became blue in air.The potassium ferrocynide could be determinated by spectrophotometric method.The method was convenient,fast and accurate.The recovery rate for vacuum carbonate desulfurization waste water reached to 95.61%~104.78%,relative standard error was 0.83% to 1.88%.It showed that the method was quick,highly accurate,and easy to handle.


E-Banking in India opened up with the liberalization in 1991 that marked the entry of foreign banks. They brought new technology with them. Banking products became more and more competitive. Hence, a need for differentiation of products and services was felt. The ICICI Bank had started online banking in 1996. Currently, 78% of its customer base is registered for online banking. E-delivery channels has been used for Banking services and products, which has become increasingly popular in recent years. E-banking makes it possible to offer banking services around the world 24 hours a day. The Dependence on Technology with the necessary security and the cross border nature of transactions, involves additional risks for banks and new challenges for banking regulators and supervisors. This paper analyses the following issues : Development of E-banking, Proper Regulatory and supervisory authorities for E-banking, Position of E-banking in India and its comparison with that of USA, Malaysia and other well developed countries to draw out the fact with what is the status of e-banking in India, how we are going on, where we are lacking behind, causes for the problem and how things can be improved further for the efficient working of electronic banking in the larger interest of consumers as well in the interest of economy as a whole.


RELATED CODE (RECOMMENDED): A MATLAB script, "OSP_SG_surveys_bin_data_load_and_plot.m", is available at github.com/noelpelland/SG-at-OSP/. This script provides examples of how to load and manipulate the data in this archive in MATLAB. The script also uses the data to reproduce some selected figures from Pelland et al. [2016] and Pelland et al. [submitted].


The invention relates to an embedded scraper conveying chain which is mainly composed of chain unit structures connected end to end. Each chain unit structure comprises a large chain ring and a small chain ring, wherein the small chain ring comprises two first chain plates, the left and right sides of the two first chain plates are provided with pin hole sleeves respectively in a welded manner, and the end faces, away from the positions of the pin hole sleeves, of the two first chain plates are each provided with a first scraper strip in a welded manner. Each large chain ring comprises two second chain plates abutting against the outer ends of the front and rear sides of the two first chain plates respectively. The left and right ends of the second chain plates are provided with pin shafts capable of connecting the two second chain plates through gaskets and check rings. The large chain rings and the small chain rings can be connected through the pin shafts and the pin hole sleeves. The end faces, away from the positions of the pin shafts, of the two second chain plates are provided with second scraper strips in a welded manner. The embedded scraper conveying chain is simple in structure, the connecting manner of the large chain rings and the small chain rings is compact and flexible, and the embedded scraper conveying chain is applicable to plane transmission and lifting transmission, safe and efficient in transport.


For BP neural network, it is easy to fall into a local optimum during the learning process. Using an improved algorithm to optimize its weights and thresholds, a classroom teaching quality evaluation model based on an improved-BP neural network is constructed, apply this algorithm to the actual teaching quality evaluation in a certain university, experiments show that this model can objectively evaluate the quality of classroom teaching comprehensively.


Synthetic routes towards new conjugates of hydrophilic zinc(II) phthalocyanine (ZnPc) with poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (Pluronic P123) and poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), are described. The main semiproduct ZnPc was obtained by heating 4-nitrophthalimide with urea and zinc chloride, followed by the reduction step. Steglich esterification was used to synthesize two ZnPc-conjugated block copolymers, further utilized in fabrication of polymeric micelles (PMs) functionalized with the zinc(II) phthalocyanine-type moiety. Biological evaluation of the PMs indicated an acceptable biocompatibility level in accord with requirements in the field of nanotheranostics and nanomedicine.


The author considers dependency on hypnotics/sedatives and tranquilizers as a complex phenomenon in which the main emphasis is placed on the potential for becoming dependent on medicines (self-inducing drugs), that is, their contribution to causing the development of the illness. Personality structure and social factors can play a favourable role here. From this the danger of iatrogenia (the practice of over-subscribing) can arise. The phenomena of cross tolerance and rebound are considered. With respect to therapy the leading role of psychotherapeutic practices, above all, group therapy is emphasized.


CONCAWE's annual report on oil industry cross-country pipelines in Western Europe showed that in 1978, the pipeline network reached a combined length of 18,500 km and transported 594 million cu m of crude oil and refined products. The gross spillage amounted to 3639 cu m, i.e., 0.000613Vertical Bar3< or about 6.1 ppm of the total quantity transported. The net spillage loss was 1377 cu m since 2262 cu m were recovered at site. There were 15 spillage incidents reported during 1978, all of which were directly related to pipelines (none to pump-stations). In four incidents, the oil spilled was completely recovered, and in ten cases, cleanup was completed within one week of the discovery of the spillage. No contamination of potable water sources was reported. Of the 15 spills, 7 were attributed to corrosion, 4 to third-party activities, 3 to mechanical failure, and 1 to natural hazards, i.e., excessive rainfall. A comparison by cause, volume and effect of spills is presented for 1974-78.


This paper is on training the students' oral communicative competence. The author promotes the shortcomings of "listen and answer" activity, analyses and compares several classroom activities. This paper illustrates some problems in conducting these activates and solutions to them. Author proves that the ways can help students improve their oral communicative competence.


The anatomical localisation of the abnor mality underlying opsoclonus-polymyoclonus - the "Danc ing Eye Syndrome" - is uncertain and both the brainstem and cerebellum have been implicated. We used electro oculographic recordings to assess the eye movements in five children with this syndrome. Overshoot dysmetria was the consistent feature for the saccades of all five cases. One pa tient was also assessed after the main symptoms of ataxia and opsoclonus (saccadic oscillations, without an intersaccadic interval) had resolved and the saccades were found to remain hypermetric. Smooth pursuit and optokinetic nystagmus were normal, although the opsoclonus occurred throughout the recording session and were superimposed upon the nor mal eye movement waveforms. The vestibulo-ocular reflex was normal in four patients, but in one case, the time constant was significantly prolonged: this has only been re ported in experimentallesions of the nodulus in monkeys. The presence of saccadic overshoot dysmetria is highly sug gestive of a cerebellar origin for the abnormal eye move ments in these children. However, the preservation of normal smooth pursuit and the absence of gaze-paretic, rebound and downbeat nystagmus, implies the sparing of the flocculus and paraflocculus. We propose that the origin of these oculomotor deficits could be the cerebellar fastigial nuclei.


of the term "Mexican" throughout the volume, in describing Spanishspeaking citizens, is a reasonably indigenous expression for nineteenthcentury New Mexico, although the frequent use of this undefined and inaccurate term by one writing in the mid-twentieth century tends to place the roles of these long-time settlers in erroneous perspective. It seems strange to read of "a jury composed mainly of Mexicans" (p. 131). In describing some financing and financial procedures, a word or two inserted to assure understanding often would have been helpful, as for example:". . . [bonds] sell at 50 per cent" (p. 52); ". . . opened the write-in [on bond issues] . . . against 75K per cent" (p. 59). The index, unfortunately, fails to list a number of proper names and contains few useful topical insertions. Errors and omissions in the text seem to exist in either the date 1900 or 1894? (p. 211), and San Miguel [National?] Bank (p. 214). Any reprint of this work would wish to amend the spelling errors in proper names on pages 11 (Bascome) and 21 (Kroening). Severel misspellings of common words appear here and there. Though disappointments from reading this volume are several, it is apparent the author has made a contribution in assembling materials from previously published works and by adding business data, particularly in the modern period, not heretofore presented. His descriptions of various mining activities, based in large measure on extensive combings of newspapers, would be even more useful if these could have been tied more closely to the Maxwell Land Grant records. His chapter entitled "Developing The Grant's Resources" offers much promise for a future volume treating adequately the significance of this corporation as an enterprise.


The cavity field spectrum of the nondegenerate two-photon Jayners-Cummings model with an additional Kerr medium is studied.The results for the initial fields in binomial states are presented.It is found that the Kerr medium affected the structure of the spectrum sensitively.When the Kerr-effect enhanced, the distance and number of the peaks are both increase;meanwhile every peak frequency get a rise.The spectrum structure of one mode is affected by the intensity of the other mode.Under the condition of strong initial fields,the complicated multi-peak structure like an arched comb appears for each mode.


The imbalance in the global scientific landscape resulting from the enduring legacy of colonialism in the south and the hegemony of scientific paradigms originating in the north is immense. Our paper makes a case for employing traditional knowledge systems and paradigms as tools for redressing this imbalance in African societies. To achieve this goal, the paper argues, scholars and science communicators must actively pursue a radical, "power-literate" agenda of scientific decolonisation on the continent. Central to this mission is the need for scholars to be equipped with a keen sense of the past — including an understanding of what worked for knowledge production and perpetuation in pre-colonial African societies — without which science education and communication in those societies will remain untethered from the realities of the present and their visions for the future. Concurrently, attention must be given to nurturing home-grown paradigms and platforms for research in higher education that are rigorous yet unencumbered by the age-long tendency to refract African experiences through northern lenses.


This article outlines the recently developed idea of 'Threshold Concepts' and explains how this idea may be used to describe the progress of learning in economics. The authors examine the relationship between threshold concepts, key concepts and conceptual change and suggest that a distinction between basic, discipline and procedural concepts may be useful in determining a framework for the identification of threshold concepts. The current understanding of threshold concepts is extended by indicating that these might best be seen as a web of concepts which link thinking and practice in a discipline. A range of evidence is presented to illustrate the existence and implications of threshold concepts in economics.


In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is confronting an extraordinary economic crisis. As ever, the pain is distributed unequally: while the wealthy remain relatively comfortable, workers around the world are suffering from lost wages, unsafe working conditions, and intensified precarity. In this context, Devin Singh's Divine Currency: The Theological Power of Money in the West (Stanford, 2018) clarifies the theological genealogy of contemporary economic problems. As he describes, early Christian theologians such as Eusebius of Caesarea transposed a Roman understanding of money into the terms of Christian thought, thereby investing economy with the godly aura that allows it to dominate our world. Although unjust economic structures seem inexorable, especially now, Singh suggests that retracing this tradition encourages us to imagine an order that is better than the one that presently prevails. This symposium gathers four essays that explore the significance of Singh's work for the issues we face today. Kwok Pui Lan discusses the significance of Divine Currency for scholars working on the postcolonial study of religion. Gil Anidjar reflects on the metaphorics of money in relation to Singh's analysis of early Christian theology. Marion Grau considers the prospects for a constructive theology that is critical of dominant economic frames. And Erin Runions argues that Singh illuminates the sacrificial logic that dominates our post-pandemic world, as some politicians prioritize economic recovery over the preservation of public health. In conclusion, Singh responds to the panelists by describing a constructive endeavor that builds using cultural materials that are compromised but nevertheless open to new possibilities.


As providers of services to youth, librarians must work together to extend print acquisitions policies as they relate to youth to include new AV sources. Issues of access vs. housing must be considered. Copyright and the integrity of original AV products demand greater scrutiny. Youth too must learn how to judge AV information critically. Librarians must be technically skilled to handle AV products so they can insure maximum access and use by youth as well as instruct youth in production skills. A solid AV acquisitions and access plan makes a major step towards engaged and active learning youth.