This Ph.D. dissertation presents the results of the investigation of a gas/solid heat exchanger, developed for application as a preheater in the cement industry. Traditionally, the process of transferring energy from hot combustion gases to raw materials in a cement plant is carried out in a process consisting of cyclones and riser ducts. This technology has been the preferred the last fifty years, despite several attempts to introduce alternative processes. Still, the cyclone-based process has some inherent undesired properties, such as high pressure drop (> 35 – 45 mbar), tall preheating structure (> 100 m), lack of options for integration of steam generating processes, and increased construction costs due to the cylindrical geometries, why it has been desired to develop a feasible alternative. A gas/solid heat exchange design, called the two-dimensional heat exchanger (2D-HX), has been designed and patented. The 2D-HX consists of a series of mixing and separation processes, similar to the cyclone-based process, while the 2D-HX has a more compact design with planar and square geometries, and a modular construction. The performance of the 2D-HX has been investigated experimentally, providing an insight in the internal processes of particle transport and heat exchange. For the 2D-HX, it was found that: (a) Stable operation could be achieved at industrial conditions, (b) the particle transport properties, measured as a transport efficiency, were in the same range as the cyclone preheater, ηTransport = 0.7 – 0.8, (c) the separation process was driven by gravity in a process termed accelerated settling, and (d) the thermal efficiencies were around 20 % lower than for the cyclone process. A model consisting of massand energy balances was developed to describe the 2D-HX performance and verified against experimental data. The separation and entrainment processes were modeled analogous to pneumatic powder transport processes. Model predictions for full-scale facilities were compared with the results obtained from classic upscaling theory, indicating that the two methods produced similar results, thereby enabling use of the model for upscaling purposes. Full-scale cement preheaters with production rates equivalent to 3000 and 6000 tons per day of clinker (TPDc) were evaluated. A 6000 TPDc facility with four heat exchange stages was


In this paper we will examine the way in which normative representations of body and sexuality can be challenged. This will be done by studying pictures from the campaign "Komikondom", which has been a project by the Swedish organizations RFSL (The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) and RFSU (The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education). The pictures are chosen because when compared to the mainstream media, they portray a vareity of body types and sexuality.
To examine in which way the pictures from the campaign are deviant in comparison to the mainstream media we use a semiotic approach. The main theories being used to understand the normative and the deviant is Gayle Rubins theory of sexual values and art theories that includes "the male gaze" and "the female nude". These will serve as a tool to understand representations of body and sexuality through picture. To show how deviant representations could be understood as a strategy of resistance we will also draw parallels to feminist art. The conclusions made are that many aspects of the deviant representations from the campaign can be understood as a way of resistance of normative representations of body and sexuality.


Abstract
This project proposes the realization of a mobile application to reinforce the learning of the
Quichua language focused on girls and boys from 8 to 12 years old that incorporates
multimedia elements and recreational activities in order to motivate the learning of this
ancestral language.
In the previous diagnosis to this work, the same one that was developed from a qualitative
approach through semistructured interviews to professors of Quichua of institutes in the city
of Quito, it could be shown that it is a language that is being lost due to the little Interest that
girls and boys have in this language, therefore, with this application is intended that this
target audience is attracted to language learning.
For the realization of this tool was used a constructivist pedagogy that proposes the
construction of the knowledge through the continuous practice, developing a mobile
application that incorporates audios, images, and games in order to enhance the Content
assimilation through interactivity with multiple Media Elements.
Keywords
Mobile application, graphic design, Quichua, girls, children


We propose a machine learning-based method for analyzing coordinate structure in Japanese sentences. Effective methods for disambiguating coordination scopes already exist for English, but these methods assume input sentences always contain coordinations. Since detecting coordinations is non-trivial in Japanese, this assumption is often violated. The proposed method mitigates this problem by detecting the presence of coordinations and disambiguating their scopes simultaneously. It is built upon the previous work on English coordination that uses alignment graphs to evaluate the similarity of conjuncts. A ``bypass'' is introduced in these graphs to explicitly represent the non-existence of coordinations in a sentence, so that the feature weights for coordinations are learned separately from the weights for sentences not containing coordinations. We also propose to make all features dependent on the distance between conjuncts. In an experiment with the EDR corpus, the proposed method outperforms existing methods.


Electrification is considered an optimal long-term solution for the decarbonization of the transport sector. However, in the medium period, propulsion systems will continue to dominate urban mobility, thus requiring the shift from fossil fuels toward low carbon fuels. In this regard, the request from the EU to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 is encouraging the use of innovative fuels and powertrains. Alcohols such as ethanol and methanol are particularly suitable for spark ignition engines. This paper investigates the effect of ethanol/methanol blends on the performance and emissions of a turbocharged direct injection spark ignition engine running on the worldwide harmonized light vehicles test cycle. Three blends were considered, consisting of 10% v/v ethanol (E10), 25% v/v ethanol (E25) and 5% v/v ethanol with 15% v/v methanol (E5M15). Gaseous and particle emissions were measured at the exhaust. The main novelty of the study regards the investigation of the behavior of alcohol blends, especially those based on methanol, in transient conditions. It was found that CO, THC and NOx emissions decrease with the increase in alcohol content in the blend, with different contributions in the different phases of the cycle. Particle emissions decrease for E10 and even more so for E25. When methanol is added to the blend, particle emissions increase with respect to E25 and they are characterized by a larger diameter.


Objectives: Protein kinase C (PKC) is involved in tumor growth and apoptosis and hence represents a potential target for cancer therapy. This study investigated the expression of PKC in pancreatic tumor tissue in comparison to adjacent normal tissue and determined the modulation of PKC by bryostatin-1 (BRYO) on pancreatic cancer cell lines. Methods: Pancreatic tissue was obtained from 18 patients who had a resection (14 with ductal adenocarcinoma and 4 with adenoma and high-grade dysplasia). Cytosolic and nuclear membrane PKCs in the paired samples were determined by immunoblotting. HPAC cells were treated with gemcitabine and BRYO and in sequential and concomitant combination. To evaluate cell viability, apoptosis, and electrophoretic mobility shift assay, 3-(4,5-dimetylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and nuclear factor &kgr;B (NF-&kgr;B) assays were used. Results: As compared with the adjacent normal tissue, PKC-&agr;, PKC-&bgr;1, and PKC-&dgr; were higher in the tumor; PKC-ϵ was higher in the normal tissue. Pretreatment with gemcitabine followed by BRYO resulted in decreased cell viability, increased apoptosis, and inhibited NF-&kgr;B than either agent alone or BRYO followed by gemcitabine. Conclusion: Protein kinase C is overexpressed and activated in pancreatic cancer as compared with normal tissue. Inhibition of PKC could sensitize pancreatic cancer cell lines to the effects of gemcitabine. The potentiation of gemcitabine by BRYO is sequence-dependent and mediated through inhibition of PKC-dependent activation of NF-&kgr;B.


ABSTRACT We achieved vertically aligned (VA) liquid crystals (LCs) on aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films deposited via e-beam evaporation using a rubbing treatment. Uniform and vertical LC alignment was achieved and high thermal stability was obtained using these substrates. By analyzing measurements from optical retardations, we confirm that the LC orientation is adjustable using rubbing treatment. The superior electro-optical characteristics of the VA cells based on Al2O3 films are measured and compared with those based on polyimide layers, indicating that this approach will allow the fabrication of high-performance, advanced LC displays using a conventional rubbing process.


Summary This paper summarizes the results of an analytical study (Lee and Ju, 2006) conducted to develop an approximate micromechanical analytical formulation to accommodate all the possible second-order, ensemble-volume averaged perturbationsdueto theinteractionsof randomly locatedmicrocracks and inclusionsin brittle composites. To account for the three-dimensional effects of interactions among constituents,an approximatesolutionofa micromechanical framework considering the pairwisemicrocrack interactions,thepairwise inclusioninteractionsand the interactions between microcracks and inclusionshave been systematicallypresented. The proposed pairwise interacting micromechanical damage models are compared to illustrate the influence of constituent interactions on effective elastic-damage moduli of composites


This paper describes a project in which an educational technology faculty member and a librarian collaborated to provide information literacy to doctoral students. The collaboration focused on meeting the needs of these graduate students. In addition to a required a face-to-face experience, these students with no prior experience of technology were exposed to the BlackBoard Virtual classroom and the virtual world sites of Second Life (SL). Through this project, the collaborators used the multi-user virtual environment of SL to demonstrate how information literacy, teaching and discussion groups can be successfully applied in a virtual environment. Both the librarian and educational technology faculty member embraced this delivery model to impart information literacy to doctoral students.


The final product of galaxy evolution through cosmic time is the population of galaxies in the local universe. These galaxies are also those that can be studied in most detail, thus providing a stringent benchmark for our understanding of galaxy evolution. Through the huge success of spectroscopic single-fiber, statistical surveys of the Local Universe in the last decade, it has become clear, however, that an authoritative observational description of galaxies will involve measuring their spatially resolved properties over their full optical extent for a statistically significant sample. We present here the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, which has been designed to provide a first step in this direction. We summarize the survey goals and design, including sample selection and observational strategy. We also showcase the data taken during the first observing runs (June/July 2010) and outline the reduction pipeline, quality control schemes and general characteristics of the reduced data. This survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of similar to 600 galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005 < z < 0.03). CALIFA has been designed to allow the building of two-dimensional maps of the following quantities: (a) stellar populations: ages and metallicities; (b) ionized gas: distribution, excitation mechanism and chemical abundances; and (c) kinematic properties: both from stellar and ionized gas components. CALIFA uses the PPAK integral field unit (IFU), with a hexagonal field-of-view of similar to 1.3 square', with a 100% covering factor by adopting a three-pointing dithering scheme. The optical wavelength range is covered from 3700 to 7000 angstrom, using two overlapping setups (V500 and V1200), with different resolutions: R similar to 850 and R similar to 1650, respectively. CALIFA is a legacy survey, intended for the community. The reduced data will be released, once the quality has been guaranteed. The analyzed data fulfill the expectations of the original observing proposal, on the basis of a set of quality checks and exploratory analysis: (i) the final datacubes reach a 3 sigma limiting surface brightness depth of similar to 23.0 mag/arcsec(2) for the V500 grating data (similar to 22.8 mag/arcsec(2) for V1200); (ii) about similar to 70% of the covered field-of-view is above this 3 sigma limit; (iii) the data have a blue-to-red relative flux calibration within a few percent in most of the wavelength range; (iv) the absolute flux calibration is accurate within similar to 8% with respect to SDSS; (v) the measured spectral resolution is similar to 85 km s(-1) for V1200 (similar to 150 km s(-1) for V500); (vi) the estimated accuracy of the wavelength calibration is similar to 5 km s(-1) for the V1200 data (similar to 10 km s(-1) for the V500 data); (vii) the aperture matched CALIFA and SDSS spectra are qualitatively and quantitatively similar. Finally, we show that we are able to carry out all measurements indicated above, recovering the properties of the stellar populations, the ionized gas and the kinematics of both components. The associated maps illustrate the spatial variation of these parameters across the field, reemphasizing the redshift dependence of single aperture spectroscopic measurements. We conclude from this first look at the data that CALIFA will be an important resource for archaeological studies of galaxies in the Local Universe.


JPL's 2D-doping processes have been proven to exhibit nearly 100% internal QE (i.e. reflection-limited response) from extreme ultraviolet (UV) to the near infrared (NIR). Response can be further optimized and tailored with AR coatings and/or bandpass filters; however, due to silicon's optical properties, there is no "one size fits all" coating/filter solution that can span the entire UV to NIR wavelength range. Our team has developed a catalog of coating and filter designs suitable for a variety of applications, several of which have already been implemented/deployed. Spectroscopy applications often benefit from a spatially varying detector response optimized according to the instrument's optical dispersion. Spatially varying the detector response to correspond with instrument dispersion requires that different coatings be applied to different portions of the detector. We have recently demonstrated detectors with a butcher-block style response profile with each portion of the device targeting a specific bandpass—similar to a linear variable filter. This technological advancement is achieved through the intentional and controllable patterning of AR coating(s) on delta-doped arrays. Herein we review implementations/deployments of delta-doped UV detectors with AR and bandpass filter coatings as well as progress on the variable response UV detectors.


The paper questions the function of the anti-Ottoman approach that, until recently, prevailed in Southeastern European historiography. This mindset and its concomitant attitudes were steps in nation building. A short comparison of the Ottoman social system with the social structures of countries in the region that did not come under direct Ottoman rule shows only minor differences. Thus, the adoption of Ottoman cultural practices including material culture was not a difficult choice. At the same time, we see individuals and whole groups whose lifestyles were oriented toward the West. Changing eating habits serve as an illustration for this phenomenon.


evolvDSO is a 40 months R&D project launched in September 2013 receiving funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/20072013), Call for Proposals FP7-Energy-2013.7.1.1 under grant agreement n° 608732. evolvDSO addresses a number of research and technology gaps that need to be solved for Distribution System Operators (DSO) to efficiently fulfill their emerging roles in the future European electricity system. evolvDSO will explore a future set of scenarios with corresponding DSO roles, from which needs and requirements for new tools will be defined and developed. The project moves beyond the state of the art by leveraging current research findings and technological solutions, complementing these efforts where needed and integrating results in order to deliver a system on the basis of which DSOs can operate. The developed tools will take into account both the current environments as well as a future system where a market for services could be in place. The transition of distribution networks towards a smart system which supports the successful integration of distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) and demand participation in the electricity system, requires an evolution of the role of DSOs with respect to the operation and management of the grid, as well as new tools to support these potential new roles. The added value that evolvDSO brings to consumers, energy producers, DSOs, Transmission System Operators (TSOs) and other stakeholders in the electricity market is its holistic, aggregate, systemic approach of the research and demonstration activities. While several research projects have addressed technical questions in various specific realms (e.g. Ecogrid, GRID4EU, ADVANCED, S3C), evolvDSO aims to leverage and integrate the existing solutions, and using a selected number of defined scenarios from which future roles of DSOs are defined, develop new necessary tools for these DSO roles to be feasible.


As part of an environmental observation and forecasting system, sensors deployed in the Columbia RIver Estuary (CORIE) gather information on physical dynamics and changes in estuary habitat. Of these, salinity sensors are particularly susceptible to bio-fouling, which gradually degrades sensor response and corrupts critical data. Automatic fault detectors have the capability to identify bio-fouling early and minimize data loss. Complicating the development of discriminatory classifiers is the scarcity of bio-fouling onset examples and the variability of the bio-fouling signature. To solve these problems, we take a novelty detection approach that incorporates a parameterized bio-fouling model. These detectors identify the occurrence of bio-fouling, and its onset time as reliably as human experts. Real-time detectors installed during the summer of 2001 produced no false alarms, yet detected all episodes of sensor degradation before the field staff scheduled these sensors for cleaning. From this initial deployment through February 2003, our bio-fouling detectors have essentially doubled the amount of useful data coming from the CORIE sensors.


In recent years, a great many arguments in Japan have seen about partial or even complete transfer of urban functions to the suburbs of Tokyo. Among these arguments, several plans have been proposed to construct a very high (a few kilometers height) building to form a "compact city". One of the important aims of these plans is to bring residence, office, and urban facilities close together, so that the people in the building should not suffer the hard traffic jam. In this paper, we will discuss whether such plans are realistic from the standpoint of the transportation means in the building. Why do Tokyo and other large cities attract so many people: there are such urban facilities that cannot be getting along in smaller cities, and highly-developed transportation systems promote using these facilities. Therefore, when we consider thE' transportation system in the above plans, we must take into account the intercommunicating traffic in the building which may grows quadratically as its population grows. In a high building, it is always experienced that any place on a same floor is very easy to access, but it is almost impossible without taking an elevator to move vertically. Therefore it is important to forecast the traffic volume moving vertically through the building, and provide it with enough elevator passage area to transport the volume smoothly. We considered this problem in a simple manner when intercommunicating traffic is significant. The model of a building is rectangula.r with the base area 5 and the height h which is populated continuously and uniformly. And, the transportation capacity per unit area of elevator passage is constant irrespective of the building height. The traffic passing through a floor F consists of visits between one on a lower floor of F and the other on the upper floor of F, which amounts to the product of population in the upper floors and that in the lower floors multiplied by some constant. This quantity must be equal to the transportation capacity of elevators through F. From this condition, we can derive the differential equation to determine the necessary elevator passage area in the building. According to the solution, the remainder of building volume after taking the elevator passage is approximately proportional to the square root of 5 and scarcely depending on h. This result means that the most of the investment to such buildings may be wasted.


The study aims to evaluate angular positioning accuracy and repeatability of DMU 65 monoBLOCK numerically controlled machine tool. The measurements were carried out with XL-80 Laser Interferometer with XR20-W attachment. The measurements were conducted according to the standard PN-ISO230-2. Test methodology and measurement results analysis are presented in a form of figures and tables. The final part presents conclusions from the analysis.


The major objective of this paper is to cross compare the mobility trends of a target group, the poor inactive, in varying sociocultural and economic environments offered in two cities in different continents. Chandigarh, in India and Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso. The analysis show that the higher mobility levels in Ouagadougou compared to Chandigarh are mostly due to transport factors as well as sociocultural factors. This paper points out two main conclusions. First, for the inactive poor population a more coherent and integrated development of urban infrastructure would be perhaps more helpful to resolve the issues of inequity and immobility than the mere provision of public transport. Second, data collection and storage methodologies must not be lost of sight while making international comparisons.


Diplazium esculentum is one of the very well-liked edible ferns, a common pteridophyte. Very few reports are published about the plant from India. Pteridophytes are acquainted for their biological and medicinal properties for long time but very fewevidences are seen about wetland pteridophytes. The present work focuses on assessment of nutritional relevance of D. esculentum collected from Alappuzha District of Kerala in India, by qualitative phytochemical and overall protein profiling. Chloroform and methanolic extracts of leaves of D. esculentum are used for both assays. The results showed the presence of vital phytoconstituents on qualitative analyses that included Alkaloids, Saponins, Flavonoids, Steroids, Phenols, Cardiac glycosides and Carbohydrates. On protein profiling by Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Poly Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS PAGE), 5 distinct bands corresponding to molecular weights ~250 kDa, ~130 kDa, ~100 KDa, ~55 KDa and ~15 KDa which showed nutritional importance of the fern, Diplazium esculentum. The future perspectives of study may include the quantitative estimation of phytoconstituents and proteins that paves the way for the incredible health benefits of the fern for humans.


blamed for contemporary social turbulence. Both Roy and Narayan, as well as Mahatma Gandhi, placed emphasis upon changes in both structures and values. Also, while Gandhian principles should serve to guide public policy in India, major changes in the political structure to adopt Gandhian institutions cannot easily be made today, as the Janata Government learned in the late 1970s. Tensions will continue as the predominant values of India's large middle class continue to clash with parochial sentiments, and as India undergoes rapid and uneven development. Nevertheless, Mehta skillfully draws upon a broad range of literature, making this work a landmark contribution to our understanding of modern Indian society.


On the basis of describing frequent disasters,fragile ecological environment and intensified national contradiction in this area,this essay aimed to study the impact of disasters control mechanism on the social economy,ecological environment in this region.


In northern Germany there are more than 200 known salt stocks which are composed of Zechstein salt. Because of favorable geologic conditions, it was possible to reconstruct the historical development of the salt stocks with the aid of reflection-seismic surveys. The development of a single salt stock appears to have started with an accumulation of salt, the so-called "salt pillow." At a later stage, the overlying strata broke, allowing the diapir to form. In northern Germany, genetic connections between salt stocks are recognizable. Some of the larger groups of salt stocks are classified as "salt-stock families." Such salt-stock families consist of several salt stocks grouped around the genetically oldest, which is said to be the "mother salt stock." The rim synclines of he adjacent salt stocks become younger away from the center. The geologic impulse causing the formation of mother salt stocks is supposedly partly tectonic, whereas the subsequent wave-front-like growth of the salt-stock families took place in a purely halokinetic way, that is, by the movement of salt under the influence of gravity. The absolute rate of the horizontal wave-front-like flow of the salt over great distances averages about 0.3 mm a year.


The transformation processes of scientific knowledge is the common subject of the four papers in this collection. The scientific knowledge they refer to is the knowledge originally codified during classical antiquity, either in the Hellenic or the Hellenistic period. The four papers contribute to the fundamental thesis that up to the end of the early modern period the transformation processes involving ancient scientific knowledgewere always grounded in 'experience of nature andmateriality.' The term 'experience of nature andmateriality' is left deliberately vague and is best explained by means of a multilayered approach. The most fundamental layer is the perception and representation of nature and natural phenomena in differentmedia, and the way in which this is done.While nature and natural phenomena are reliably stable, the attempts to describe and explain them enable knowledge to develop. This knowledge is always part of a knowledge system and the latter is continuously transforming. All the conceptions and theories used to explain how nature and reality are perceived are assigned to this first layer. This goes hand in hand with all the techniques developed to represent reality, such as painting, surveying, drawing techniques, and even geometric diagrams. In turn, the development of methods of representation


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of Medical Social Workers is working on two projects which have to do with the integration of medical and psycho-social factors in the care of the patient and seem likely to provide data relevant to psychosomatic problems in medicine. The first of these is a study of some common difficulties which illness and medical care present to clinic and hospital patients, as observed in medical social practice. For this purpose case narratives, specially prepared to bring out the material needed, have been obtained from medical social workers in various parts of the country. Some of the points stressed have been as follows: What kind of a person is this patient? What was the particular meaning of the medical situation to him? In what manner was the first contact made with him by the medical social worker and what was the detailed course of the subsequent interviews? What were the attitudes and goals of the various persons in the situation (relatives, hospital personnel, social workers in community social agencies, and the medical social worker herself) and how did these help or hinder the patient in meeting his problem? The case material which has been obtained relates to steps in medical care which patients frequently find it difficult to take, such as facing a diag-


Within a few decades, the number of elderly people in Europe and Northern America will increase significantly. One of the challenges of this development is to keep elderly people integrated in society. We present a prototype for a Web 2.0-enabled ambient assisted living (AAL) device that offers easy-to-use functionality to help elderly people keep and establish new contacts, find events that match their interests and be aided in sustaining their mobility. An evaluation with probands from the target group indicates that such a device can improve an elderly person's social life.


Whenever an electron interacts with matter, a range of information about the matter is encoded into the various degrees of freedom of the electron. Recently, free electrons with orbital angular momentum or electron vortices have been demonstrated in transmission electron microscopes [1-3], opening the door to a new range of information that could be extracted from samples. Optical vortices have been used to probe chirality in organic and biological samples, and incident electron vortices have been used to probe magnetic chirality [4]. However, optical probes have limited resolution in comparison to the available angstrom resolution of electron probes, and electron vortex probes present numerous experimental difficulties.


ABSTRACT There are large differences between schools with regard to how they are affected by a school inspection. This study provides quantitative evidence about the extent to which perceived effects and side effects of an inspection are related to the inspection's judgement on the school, to features of the inspection, and to school features. This study draws on quantitative data collected from 2,202 teachers in Flemish primary and secondary schools that had recently been inspected. Using path analysis, it investigates the existence and strength of relationships between the perceived effects and side effects of inspection, on the one hand, and the perceived inspection quality, the perceived school's policy-making capacities, and the inspection judgement, on the other hand. The analysis reveals that most effects and several side effects are predominantly explained by the perceived inspection quality. Emotional side effects during inspection are best predicted by the school's policy-making capacities.


IntroductionMastectomy skin flap necrosis is a significant problem in the autologous breast reconstruction. The necrosis may create unsightly scarring, produce contour irregularities, and deform the breast mound. This may lead to a poor reconstruction and patient satisfaction. Most importantly, the development and treatment of mastectomy skin flap necrosis can delay further oncologic treatment.We performed a retrospective chart review of all patients undergoing autologous breast reconstruction in the past 5 years to examine our incidence and treatment of mastectomy skin flap necrosis. We then used these data to create a management algorithm for mastectomy skin flap necrosis. The goals of this algorithm were as follows: (1) to not delay further oncologic treatment, (2) to expedite the healing time while minimizing patient risk, and (3) to create an aesthetically pleasing breast reconstruction. Materials and MethodsA retrospective chart review from 2008 to 2013 was performed of all autologous breast reconstruction at our institution. We then analyzed our data and patient outcomes and developed a treatment algorithm. ResultsWe identified 204 patients who underwent autologous free flap breast reconstruction that was performed by the senior author (G.K.L.). Our incidence of mastectomy skin necrosis was 30%. There was no delay in adjuvant oncologic treatment for any of our patients. The development of mastectomy skin necrosis was significant for patients with diabetes (P = 0.03), current tobacco use (P = 0.04), and body mass index (P = 0.01). The time for wound healing was prolonged in patients with a high body mass index (P = 0.04). Regression analysis of wound size showed full-thickness wounds greater than 6 cm2 benefited from operative closure. ConclusionsOur incidence of mastectomy skin necrosis was 30%. Despite our high incidence mastectomy skin necrosis, we had no delays in adjuvant oncologic treatment. Retrospective data analysis allowed us to then develop a management algorithm for mastectomy skin necrosis. We feel it is advantageous to the patient and the reconstructive outcome to heal the breast wounds in the acute phase (within 3 weeks); and with regression analysis, we found full-thickness wounds greater than 6 cm2 benefit from operative intervention. Finally, patients requiring adjuvant oncologic treatment should be healed as quickly as possible so they may continue on with their oncologic care.


NMR diffusion measurements are based on signal attenuation. In the case of complex mixtures for which some molecules are diffusing quickly while others are significantly slower, it is challenging to obtain a diffusion ordered spectroscopy (DOSY)-type 2D map giving reliable information on all molecules. In this paper, we propose a new gradient sampling approach based on a sigmoid shape allowing the acquisition of a significant number of points for both the fast and slow diffusing molecules. We applied this new gradient sampling strategy to deformulate two medicines whose composition was known (Esomeprazole) or unknown (Mebendazole). PFG NMR associated with a sigmoid gradient ramp is an exciting strategy to study drugs as a whole, i.e., the active ingredient(s) and excipients.


Histoplasma capsulatum, a dimorphic fungus that causes human disease (histoplasmosis), is endemic in eastern USA, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and in South East Asia. Patients with HIV infection, solid organ transplantation, and those who are receiving immunosuppressive agents are predisposed to disseminated histoplasmosis. Disseminated infection in immunocompetent persons is quite uncommon. We reported here, a case of fatal disseminated histoplasmosis in a presumed immunocompetent patient. (J Infect Dis Antimicrob Agents 2011;29:11-5.)


Abstract : The action of the earth's power of attraction can be imagined as a force from every center of gravity of the body, acting in the direction of a line connecting each center with the center of the earth, and equal to the weight of the mass gathered at the original point. Because of the great distance from these points to the center of the earth, all those lines run parallel to each other. A resultant therefore exists for these forces of inertia. This resultant corresponds to a fixed straight line for every position of the body. This straight line remains unchanged if the body is displaced in space over not too great a distance, while still remaining parallel to itself, but does change its position within the body as soon as the latter is rotated about it. The straight line in the new position intersects the old one at a definite point.


In India, post-stroke dysphagia affects between 37 and 78 percent of people. In recent years, research into transcranial magnetic stimulation has enhanced our understanding of the neurological aspects of swallowing, thanks in great part to Hamdy and colleagues' pioneering work. TMS has been shown to help with depressive symptoms, anxiety, and parkinsonian symptoms, however, there is no study on how it can help with swallowing. This case study looked at the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation in combination with standard swallowing training on swallowing function in brainstem stroke patients with cricopharyngeal spasms.


SUMMARY The development of human lung cancer may reqUiremultiple genetic deletions affect ing a number of chromosomes, e.g., 1, 3, 11, 13, and 17. These genetic aberrations may Induce the activation of proto-oncogenes (c-Jun,ras, e-ran) and the loss of tumor suppressor genes (p53). Some of the activated proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes are more selectively expressed or absent In small-cell lung cancer (L-myc, c-myb, e-ser, Rb gene) or non-amall-cell lung cancer (c·erbB·2, c-s/s, c-'es). These genes maythus be of Importance for selection of differentiation psth way.The c-myc oncogene Is frequently empllfled In small-cell lung cancercell lines In a much higher frequency than /n vivo. This Indicates that c-myc seems to be releted to tumor progression and a relatively late event In the lung cancer development. The uncontrollad production of multiplegrowth factOI8 has been Identified In human lung cancer cell lines. These factOI8can promote and Inhibit the proliferation via paracrlne and autocr!ne loops via specific receptol8. The products from some of the activated proto-oncogenes (c-s/s, c-erbB-2) are sequences homologous to a certain growth factor (PDGF) and a receptor (EGF) Identified In lung cancer. The production and action of these growth factors may be of maJorImportance for further activation of proto-oncogenes via Intracellular signal transduction and specific oncogenic activation leading to further tumor progression. AM REV RESPIR DIS 1990; 142:520-526


Olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) is a rare neoplasm that grows in epithelial cells of olfactory tissue. It is related to many tumor oncogenes such as MYC. We present and discuss a rare case of ONB on the elderly with typical symptoms but different treatment approaches. It was treated with endoscopy and adjuvant radiotherapy.


The SCELP (Spherical Code Excited Linear Prediction) audio codec, which has recently been proposed for low delay audio coding [5], is based on linear prediction (LP). It applies closed-loop vector quantization employing a spherical code which is based on the Apple Peeling code construction rule. Frequency warped signal processing is known to be beneficial especially in the context of wideband audio coding based on warped linear prediction (WLP). In this contribution, WLP is incorporated into the SCELP low delay audio codec. The overall audio quality of the resulting W-SCELP codec benefits from an improved perceptual masking of the quantization noise. Compared with existing standardized audio codecs with an algorithmic delay below 10 ms, the W-SCELP codec at a data rate of 48 kbit/sec outperforms the ITU-T G.722 codec at a data rate of 56 kbit/sec in terms of the achievable audio quality.


Quantitative electron spin resonance spectroscopy is used to measure nitrogen atom density in atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge afterglow. The experiment shows that oxygen injection into early afterglow increases the nitrogen dissociation in certain parts of the afterglow while it is decreased in the rest of the afterglow. Numerical kinetic modelling supports and explains the experimental data while the best fit provides some a priori unknown parameters such as initial concentrations and rate constants.


Goal setting is one of the most widely applied and universally accepted strategies used to increase physical activity (PA). Goals are defined as internal representations of desired outcomes, events or processes,1 such as losing 10 kg (outcome), completing a marathon (event) or being more active (process). Goal setting is particularly relevant for individual-level interventions, for example, when set by practitioners/clinicians prescribing exercise or making referrals. Indeed, the current trend of self-monitoring using wearables (Fitbit-like devices) is essentially rooted in achieving PA change through goal setting. Given recent calls for a ' movement for movement '2 in response to a burgeoning evidence base regarding the importance of PA prescription and counselling,3 ensuring that the right goals are established, for the right person, and at the right time has clear implications for the effectiveness of interventions targeting both clinical and non-clinical populations. Furthermore, given that the greatest potential public health impact of PA promotion lies in assisting physically inactive individuals engage in some PA, as opposed to increasing the volume of PA among those …


In this paper, we prove that the solvability of dynamic equations of second order is sufficient for the validity of some Hardy and Opial type inequalities with two different weights on time scales. In particular, the results give new characterizations of two different weights in inequalities containing Hardy and Opial operators. The main contribution in this paper is the characterizations of weights in discrete inequalities that will be formulated from our results as special cases.


Emissions of carbon dioxide are predicted to increase this century leading to increases in the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While there is still much debate on the effects of increased CO2 levels on global climate, many scientists agree that the projected increases could have a profound effect on the environment. Most of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide result from the combustion of fossil fuels for energy production. It is the increased demand for energy, particularly in the developing world, which underlies the projected increase in CO2 emissions. Meeting this demand without huge increases in CO2 emissions requires more than merely increasing the efficiency of energy production. Carbon sequestration, capturing and storing carbon emitted from the global energy system, could be a major tool for reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions from fossil fuel usage.


With the negativity in the world around us, we could each use a little more positivity and optimism in our lives. Optimism is not about pretending to be happy all day every day, or to believe that your life is perfect. As Dr. Sonya Lyubomirsky (2007) puts it, optimism "is about not only celebrating the present and the past but anticipating a bright future" (p. 102). There are several benefits associated with being an optimistic person. Optimism motivates us to invest effort in reaching our goals, cope with stress in effective ways, feel energized and enthusiastic about life, and, of course, feel happier. For these reasons, optimists have been found to be more successful in professional, academic, athletic, health, and social areas of life than non-optimists (Lyubomirsky, 2007).


In the direct simulation Monte Carlo method the molecular collision in a cell is calculated regardless of molecule positions. It is indicated that disregard of the positions causes false collisions, which never occur in the molecular dynamics method. By calculating a radial flow in cones with various apex angles, it is shown that the distortion of the flow by the false collisions increases with the apex angle.


This chapter focuses on homology modeling and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations studies of ion channels for the range of single cell organisms from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. The glutamate receptor channels (GluRs) share some distant homology in their transmembrane (TM) domains with K channels but possess distinct extracellular ligand-binding domains for which several structures, of both bacterial and mammalian homologs, are known. It can be seen that molecular modeling and simulations can contribute to studies of ion channels in two respects. Modeling studies enable extrapolation from experimental structures of prokaryotic ion channels to molecular models of eukaryotic homologs, thus aiding design and interpretation of, for example, mutation experiments for dissecting structure-function relationships. Ion channel structures and ion channel models may also be used as the basis of multinanosecond MD simulations. Finally, it will become increasingly important to run multiple simulations on multiple channels to allow comparative analysis of simulation results, which in turn will enable the formulation of more general hypotheses concerning the relationship between the conformational dynamics of channel proteins and their physiological functions.


John Anthony Chappel was born in Yorkshire, the grandson of a miner. His father worked in banks and moved the family to London just after the war. John gained his first MB at school and deferred entrance to medical school until he had done national service as a radiographer with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Egypt.

He qualified from the Westminster Hospital and started to work in thoracic medicine. Having worked in London, he saw an advertisement for a post at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in …


A 47-year-old patient reported, "I have been able to hear my eye movements in my left ear for 3 years. When I sneeze I get a short attack of vertigo." When vibration sense was tested by tuning fork (placing it on the sternum and medial malleolus), the patient heard the sound in his left ear (video 1), indicative of autophony, typical for superior canal dehiscence syndrome. Diagnosis was proven by fistula tests (video 2), vestibular evoked myogenic potentials,1 and CT scan2 (supplementary material). Testing vibration sense can contribute to the diagnosis of vertigo and detection of the affected ear.


This article offers a survey of the law and practice of gambling debt enforcement and recovery in the United States. Two historical sources of law influence modern gambling debt enforcement and recovery. The English common law interpretation of the Statute of Anne is the first historical source; the second tradition traces its roots to classical Rome. Both of these centuries-old traditions either severely limited or absolutely prohibited the enforcement of gambling debts. England's Statute of Anne, enacted in 1710, prohibited the enforcement of gambling debts and provided for a recovery action by


Two male patients aged 9 and 16 years were admitted with complaints of ankle pain and intoeing. There was no history of trauma and arthritis. In the first case, radiography examination revealed a "C sign" (a cortical continuity from the medial portion of the talus to the sustentaculum tali), a narrowing in the middle subtalar joint space, and convexity in the lower margin of the sustentaculum tali (Figure 1). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed triple coalition in the anterior subtalar joint (talocalcaneonavicular joint) in the first case (Figures 2 and 3) and fibrocartilaginous coalition at the posterior subtalar joint in the second case (Figure 4). Narrowing in the joint spaces, findings of early degeneration, and medullary edema in the adjacent bone were observed at the sites of coalition (Figures 3 and 4). Nonoperative treatment, such as physical therapy, exercises, and analgesic medication were applied. Tarsal coalition is one of the most important causes of pes planus and may cause foot pain in children. Tarsal coalition is the congenital or acquired fibrous, cartilaginous or osseous fusion of one or more tarsal bones. Although the described incidence of this condition is approximately 1% of the population, the proportion of asymptomatic cases is much higher. The most common coalitions are talocalcaneal and calcaneonavicular coalitions, which account for 90% of the observed cases. Talocalcaneal coalition is observed in approximately half of the cases and often involves the middle subtalar joint, a finding similar to that observed in the first case. Fusion at the level of the posterior subtalar joint, as observed in the second case, is an extremely uncommon occurrence. Most cases are asympto matic in the first years of life; however, the patho logy progresses gradually because of biomechaOrmeci T1, Kilicarslan R1, Durmus O2, Malkoc M3, Cakar E2


D e QUINCEY'S "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater"1 ranks unquestionably as one of the most unique essays in the history of literature. As the supreme achievement of that master stylist, Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), it is distinguished both for the beauty of its construction and the genuineness and sincerity of its revelations. In vigorous and "impassioned prose," the writer has disclosed an immense fund of keen observation and speculation regarding the action, beneficent and pernicious, of the drug on the mind and body of man. As De Quincey declared at the beginning, what he contemplated was to emblazon the power of opium, "not over bodily disease and pain, but over the grander and more shadowy world of dreams." This purpose he succeeded magnificently in fulfilling. In fitting words, Masson, his biographer and the editor of his works, comprehensively asserted2:


Parent-child relationship is influenced by the role of social, cultural and contextual factors that determines child development. Drug addiction is very rampant in the society that involves both children and parents. This descriptive phenomenological study was conducted by utilizing10 informants who are children with drug addict parents. Informants were selected using snowball method who possesses the following inclusion criteria: aged 18 years and above, living with their parents who were drug addict within one year or more, and who are not intoxicated during the data gathering. Individual in-depth interview was conducted after transactional consent was secured. The Collaizzi's method of data analysis was employed wherein 6 themes emerged: (1) Parental Hatred (2) Co-Dependency (3) Economic Distress (4) Fear of Aggression (5) Emotional Blocking (6) Longing for Situational Change; (Major Theme) The Complexity of the Scene. The lived experience of children with drug addict parents is much complicated. Three nursing implications were drawn: (1) there is a negative impact of living with drug addict parents. (2) Some children of drug addict parents strive to rationalize emotion. (3) Despite the circumstances the children have experienced, some have developed a positive outlook towards life.


High-reflectivity/color contrast is crucial for phase-change materials (PCMs) in optical-storage and display applications. However, the relationship between phase-change and reflectivity/color contrast and how to improve the contrast has not been well explored. Here we find that phase-change-induced reflectivity/color contrast arise from electron delocalization and subsequent extinction coefficient enhancement, rather than refractive coefficient enhancement which we thought previously. Reducing vacancies can significantly increase the reflectivity contrast and color contrast of PCM films by 83.2% and 38.5%, respectively. These new insights are demonstrated through our experiments, theoretical calculations, spectral fittings, and simulations on ${{\rm Ge}_1}{{\rm Sb}_4}{{\rm Te}_7}$Ge1Sb4Te7, ${{\rm Ge}_2}{{\rm Sb}_2}{{\rm Te}_5}$Ge2Sb2Te5, ${{\rm Ge}_8}{{\rm Sb}_2}{{\rm Te}_{11}}$Ge8Sb2Te11, and GeTe.


BACKGROUND
Alterations in mineral metabolism, such as high phosphorus, high parathyroid hormone (PTH) and high fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23) have been identified as potential risk factors for heart failure (HF). Important differences in the prevalence of mineral metabolism abnormalities and in the risk of HF have been reported across race/ethnic groups. In this study, we evaluated whether the associations of mineral metabolism markers with HF differed by race/ethnicity.

METHODS
We included participants free of cardiovascular disease from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis to quantify rates of HF overall and across race/ethnic groups. Using Cox models, we tested associations of baseline higher phosphorus (>4mg/dL), PTH >65 pg/ml and FGF-23 >46.5 pg/ml with incident HF, and for interactions by race/ethnicity, adjusting for sociodemographic and cardiovascular risk factors.

RESULTS
Among the 6,413 participants, median follow-up time was 14.9 years. The incidence rate for HF was highest for Blacks and lowest for Chinese (4.71 and 2.42 per 1000 py, respectively). The prevalence of elevated PTH (18.8% vs. 7.4%) but not FGF-23 (23.1% vs. 28.8%) were higher in Blacks vs. Caucasians. In multivariable models, the associations of elevated PTH (HR 1.50, 95%CI: 1.13, 1.99) and FGF-23 (HR 1.37, 95%CI: 1.07, 1.75) with incident HF were statistically significant. However, the interactions by race/ethnicity were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS
In a multi-ethnic population, higher PTH and FGF23 were associated with the risk of HF in black and Hispanic individuals. There is no evidence that race/ethnicity modifies the association of altered mineral metabolism with risk of HF.


Fine particles before and after wet flue gas desulfurization with ammonia were measured by electrical low pressure impactor(ELPI).Number concentrations and size distributions characteristics of fine particles in flue gas were obtained.The capture effects of fine particles using scrubber and aerosol formation mechanisms in ammonia desulfurization process were investigated.The results show that particle number concentration has an obvious increase after ammonia desulfurization and the mean size increase from 0.07μm before scrubbing to 0.09μm after ammonia desulfurization.The removal efficiency of submicron particles is extremely low using wet scrubber with plain water and independent on the ratio of liquid to gas.But particle number concentration in the outlet of scrubber increases with the ratio of liquid of gas with ammonia desulfurization,especially for higher concentration of ammonia.With the ratio of liquid to gas improved from 2L/m3 to 5L/m3 and ammonia concentration of 10%,the particle number concentration can be improved more than 10%.Moreover,particle number concentration after ammonia desulfurization increases with the concentration of SO2 and ammonia.


Microfinance has emerged on the global scale as a key strategy to reduce poverty and promote development. Most literature however, tends to concentrate on breadth as opposed to depth of programme outreach. This paper is based on a primary household survey of 1,132 respondents in the Punjab Province of Pakistan to assess which category of the poor is being served by microfinance institutions: are they the very poor, middle poor or less poor ones? In order to make comparisons, borrower (treatment) and non-borrower (control) households are ranked by poverty scores generated by employing Principal Component Analysis. The study reveals that the depth of poverty outreach is significantly lower than what has been claimed by lenders. The paper reflects on policy implications to enhance depth (as opposed to breadth) of outreach to address the needs of the 'poorest of the poor' in order to contribute meaningfully and effectively towards combating poverty.


In this note we give representations for the partition algebra A_3(Q) in Young's seminormal form. For this purpose, we also give characterizations of A_n(Q) and$A_{n-1/2}(Q).


The present invention zeolite catalyst, in particular, substituted silicon germanium in network, a method for regeneration of the catalyst of aluminosilicate zeolites having platinum deposited on the zeolite. The catalyst, alkanes, in particular, used in the aromatization process of C The regeneration method of the present invention, 1) the coke and sulfur is removed from the catalyst by oxidation, by 2) chlorine gas, on the surface of the catalyst was re-dispersed platinum, by 3) a steam treatment to remove chlorine, the Pt are bound to the surface of the zeolite, 4) to reduce the catalyst in hydrogen, 5) if necessary, re-sulfide the catalyst. Zeolite may be a MFI zeolite. Catalyst, inert material that does not act as a binding site for platinum during the regeneration process, for example, may be bonded with silica.


The book uses linear algebra to develop the calculus of functions of several variables. The space R", with the usual norm and inner product, is used with vector valued functions, from R m to W, which can be approximated by linear functions. The concept of differentiability for vector valued functions is introduced in easy stages and there are plenty of worked examples and exercises throughout the impressed the This book is a collection of nineteen independent on the general theme of impossibility in fields ranging from mountaineering and artificial intelligence to and child-rearing with one essay devoted to impossibility in mathematics. The book is suitable for the educated layman who wants an interesting and unusual introduction to a wide range of subjects. Most of the essays are lively and informative but one or two rather heavy going, particularly the ones on the law of contract (promises and impossibility), economics (an impossible economist) and politics (impossibility in government and foreign policy). Perhaps these observations reflect my own interests rather than any fault on the part of the essayists. The essay on mathematics (when mathematics says no) is rather predictable (squaring the circle, irrationality of J2 etc.) and I fear it could be a little frustrating for the layman. Hands up the man or woman in the street who has heard of Zermelo's axioms, quintic equations or the fact that every rectangular matrix has a Moore-Penrose generalised inverse! All these and others are mentioned without any explanation.


The study of the mechanism behind electroweak symmetry breaking is one of the main goals of the Large Hadron Collider and of its general-purpose experiments, ATLAS and CMS. This paper reviews some of the ongoing studies by these collaborations and, when possible, highlights the differences between equivalent channels in both experiments.


To observe the clinical efficacy of the Decoction in the treatment thrombotic cerebral infarction,46 cases were treated by this Decoction for one month.Results:28 3% cases were basically cured,34 8% cases got marked effectiveness,23 9% cases got effectiveness and 13 0% cases failed;the total effective rate was 87 0%.It is indicated that this Decoction is quite effective against cerebral infarction.


Advances in digital media technology have increased in multimedia content. Tagging is one of the most effective methods to manage a great volume of multimedia content. However, manual tagging has limitations such as human fatigue and subjective and ambiguous keywords. In this paper, we present an automatic tagging method to generate semantic annotation on a mobile phone. In order to overcome the constraints of the mobile environment, the method uses two layered Bayesian networks. In contrast to existing techniques, this approach attempts to design probabilistic models with fixed tree structures and intermediate nodes. To evaluate the performance of this method, an experiment is conducted with data collected over a month. The result shows the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed method. Furthermore, a simple graphic user interface is developed to visualize and evaluate recognized activities and probabilities.


The problems in Papua have not yet been entirely resolved. Various issues ranging from poverty, minimal access to education, violations of human rights, and poor health facilities are part of the concept of human security introduced by the UNDP Report 1994. However, the problems above have not been accommodated properly in Papua. The essence of the presence of special autonomy is aimed at resolving human security in Papua. The purpose of this article is to look at the special autonomy arrangements in responding to security issues. This issue is interesting to study considering that so far it is unrelated to each other. But actually, the concept of human security and special autonomy are two linear things. If we want to improve welfare in Papua, the issue of security is a requirement that must be met. This research uses a qualitative approach with a literature study method. The author collect data through sources relevant to the topic of writing such as journals, books, and other literature. The results of study indicate that the implementation of special autonomy in Papua has not been able to reach security issues. This has resulted in a welfare approach in Papua characterized by a traditional security approach. Therefore, the welfare of Papua continues to budge and the welfare narrative still triggers ongoing conflicts. Various central problems ranging from economic inequality, low quality of education, poor health facilities and infrastructure, human rights violations, and so on are still happening.


The new edition of what is now considered a classic on online learning has been expanded by about a third to reflect new opportunities offered by social media, new insights and ideas derived from the author s teaching in the eight years since she wrote the first edition, as well as from extensive research in the latest literature. In particular, Tisha Bender investigates whether the existing paradigm of teaching and learning has been changed, not so much because of the advent of the Internet, but because of the potential divide between the expectations and practices of students who are digital natives of the digital revolution, and those of their teachers who are mostly digital immigrants . She addresses the question: do we need to change the way we teach in order to reach and engage digital natives fruitfully and enjoyably in their education.This accessible and comprehensive book offers an engaging and practical approach to online teaching that is rooted in the author's experience and enthusiasm for creating a virtual environment that engages students and fosters their deep learning. This is a book for all educators and administrators in higher education, in any discipline, engaged in, or contemplating offering, online classes that involve discussion or collaborative learning. It is relevant both to faculty teaching a hybrid and face-to-face classes, and courses conducted entirely online."


study of stable working and middle-class men, both black and white, shows two comparative tendencies: 1) the two races are similar on job aspirations and satisfactions, both races indicating economic ambition, a sense of personal security in employment, adequate advancement on the job and in consumption, and high hopes for children; 2) the two races differ in political perspectives, with the blacks indicating a sense of partial marginality to the system reflecting discrimination, and a determination to protest. Putting the two tendencies together, it is concluded that stable jobs among blacks are associated with high levels of personal satisfaction but not with political conservatism, since awareness of group deprivation and desire to protest are independent of personal achievement and are not frustrated responses to blocked ambition.


We develop an expression for the sum of the serial correlation coefficients for time in system or waiting time for successive customers in a GI/G/1 queue. In our approach the interarrival time distribution is represented in terms of a class Kr distribution with a rational Laplace-Stieltjes transform. Thus Erlang, hyperexponential, and weighted sum-of-Erlang arrivals are treated exactly and approximate results can be found for other distributions. We present computed results for some Erlang/Erlang systems.


Abstract This essay examines a series of 'Hindustani' meditation manuals from the high colonial period against a sample of etiquette and medicinal works from the same era. In doing so, the essay has two principal aims, one specific to the Indian past and one pertaining to more general historical enquiry. The first aim is to subvert a longstanding trend in the 'history' of religions which has understood meditational practices through a paradigm of the mystical and transcendent. In its place, the essay examines such practices—and in particular their written, and printed, formulation—within the ideological and technological contexts in which they were written. In short, meditation is historicised, and its 'Hindu' and 'Muslim' expressions, compared in the process. The second aim is more ambitious: to test the limits of historical knowledge by asking whether it is possible to recount a history of breathing. In reassembling a political economy of respiration from a range of colonial writings, the essay thus hopes to form a listening device for the intimate rhythms of corporeal history. In doing so, it may suggest ways to recount a connected and necessarily political history of the body, the spirit and the world.


It is the agreed opinion of the members of the biology department at Ruffwood School that it is part of our.professional responsibility to attempt clinically to analyse and assess our own performance. We hold this to be true for two reasons. Firstly, we consider it our duty, in view of the increasing amount of public interest in the performance of schools, to be able to present data on the performance of our department. Secondly, since we naturally wish to be as effective a teaching unit as possible, we must assay the quality of our product in order to determine whether changes in methodology are required. I


Objective: To compare the randomized controlled trial evidence for therapeutic effects on walking of functional electrical stimulation and ankle foot orthoses for foot drop caused by central nervous system conditions. assessed the Risk of Bias participants and participants with cerebral palsy. Two papes reporting different measures from the same trial were grouped, resulting in 7 synthesized randomized controlled trials ( n = 464). Meta-analysis of walking speed at final assessment ( p = 0.46), for stroke participants ( p = 0.54) and after 4–6 weeks' use ( p = 0.49) showed equal improvement for both devices. Conclusion: Functional electrical stimulation and ankle foot orthoses have an equally positive therapeutic effect on walking speed in non-progressive central nervous system diagnoses. The current randomized controlled trial evidence base does not show whether this improvement translates into the user's own environment or reveal the mechanisms that achieve that change. Future studies should focus on measuring activity, muscle activity and gait kinematics. They should also report specific device details, capture sustained therapeutic effects and involve a variety of central nervous system diagnoses. 95% CIs RevMan 5.3® software used. Visual inspection of forest plot, χ 2 test and I 2 statistic examine heterogeneity. Low heterogeneity (< 50%) resulted in a fixed-effects and high (> 50%) in a random-effects model being used. Where meta-analysis was not possible a narrative summary of the overall effects was presented.


This paper proposes a novel network interface design method, referred to as mutual interface definition based method. It decouples resource dependent part (RDP) from resource independent part (RIP) by mutual interface definition. These two parts can be designed independently, thus the design flexibility and reusability of network interface can be enhanced. Moreover, a network interface component library consisting of multiple RDP and RIP components is proposed to be built. The networks-on-chip designers can choose appropriate components from the library to construct network interface design. From the perspective of RDP, the network interface achieves backward compatibility with the existing protocols such as AMBA AHB and OCP. From the perspective of RIP, the network interface provides a configurable structure supporting multicast transfer and adaptive routing algorithm extensions. The proposed network interface designs are implemented in TSMC 90-nm CMOS standard cell technology and can work at the frequency of 1.12 GHz to 1.35 GHz.


The Quantitative Approaches to Versification conference met on June 24–26, 2019 in Prague. The conference, which continued the tradition of the regular Slavic Verse (Slavjanskij stikh) and Comparative Slavic Metrics (Słowiańska metryka porównawcza) conferences dating back to the 1960s, was dedicated to Květa Sgallová in recognition of her 90th birthday. Sgallová, one of the most prominent Czech experts in versification, honored the conference with her presence. The conference was jointly organized by the Institute of Czech Literature (Czech Academy of Sciences) and the Institute of Russian Language (Russian Academy of Sciences) and gathered a group of international scholars who share an interest in the formal quantitative analysis of all aspects of versification. The Prague meeting featured more than twenty presentations, all in English. The program is available at http://versologie.cz/conference2019/. The main topics of the conference included a broad range of issues unified by an umbrella concept of quantitative approaches to the study of verse: new approaches to comparative metrics, descriptions of ancient, medieval and modern European syllabic, accentual and accentual-syllabic meters, an analysis of texts with an unknown metrical status, an automated processing of versified texts, the use of corpora-based methods in verse studies, a statistical analysis of verse rhythm and specific rhythmic varieties of meters, as well as analyses of various measurable aspects of poetic texts, such as semantic patterns and lexical diversity, or the relationship between syntax and rhythm in verse. Not only written, but also spoken and sung poetry was analyzed. According to the organizers, the conference comprised "various methodological perspectives ranging from simple descriptive statistics to advanced machine learning methods (such as support vector machines, random forests or neural networks) as well as material covering a large span of time and languages: from very ancient versifications (Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite; Ancient Greek), through medieval


Power systems have increased in size and complexity and national society depends heavily upon a high level of power system reliability. When the bulk transmission system is subjected to large disturbances there is the possibility of a system wide blackout due to cascading outages. After a partial blackout or system breakdown condition, restoring power system is needed and then power needs to be restored as quickly, stability and reliability as possible and consequently. Outage time after extensive blackouts depends very much on the power system restoration process. Power system restoration is a very challenging task to the operator since the situation is so far from normal conditions. This paper proposes a simulation-based tool MATLAB/SIMULINK that determines suitable restoration transmission lines route with using Fuzzy Inference System for IEEE 6 Bus System


This invention is directed to novel photoresist processes and compositions having high resolution novalac resins, high resolution photoactive components with several diazoquinone groups per molecule, and solvents having a high solvency power, better safety, improved photospeed, higher contrast and equivalent cast film thickness from lower percent solids formulations.


We propose a collaborative, context-aware, and multi-modal experience sampling method called CoESM to record experience samples of depressed patients. The CoESM utilizes location and activity sensors on a mobile device to detect a depressed patient's physical and social activity levels. We hope that through collaboration, context-awareness, and multi-modality input, the CoESM can help a psychologist gain better understanding of patients.


With the background in which team work means competence,taking part in competition is one of teams' major features.Nowadays,fund,information,talent,and knowledge are the key elements for a team to win the competition,among which the individual talent is more critical.When individuals join a team,their various features will naturally be taken into the team.The sentimental attachment towards a team will be an important element for individuals to join it,which not only directly affects the team goal,but also plays an important role in human resource,and brings new requirements to human resource management in the meanwhile.


This article promote the domestic animation education through the animation industry under the present situation, puts forward and concentrated on the presence anime education professional, homogeneity, the one-sided understanding of animation language, lack of authority compile for universal use of textbooks, teachers lack of several major problems, the enterprise differentiation, the changing concept, optimize professional teaching materials, establish national qualifications is what we discussed.


In the context of simulating the transport of a chemical or bacterial contaminant through a moving sheet of water, we extend a well established method of approximating reaction-diffusion equations with Markov chains by allowing convection, certain Poisson measure driving sources and a larger class of reaction functions. Our alterations also feature dramatically slower Markov chain state change rates often yielding a ten to one hundred fold simulation speed increase over the previous version of the method as evidenced in our computer implementations. On a weighted L2 Hilbert space chosen to symmetrize the elliptic operator, we consider existence of and convergence to pathwise unique mild solutions of our stochastic reaction-diffusion equation. Our main convergence result, a quenched law of large numbers, establishes convergence in probability of our Markov chain approximations for each fixed path of our driving Poisson measure source. As a consequence, we also obtain the annealed law of large numbers establishing convergence in probability of our Markov chains to the solution of the stochastic reaction-diffusion equation while considering the Poisson source as a random medium for the Markov chains.


Abstract Riming within mixed-phase clouds can have a large impact on the prediction of clouds and precipitation within weather and climate models. The increase of ice particle fall speed due to riming has not been considered in most general circulation models (GCMs), and many weather models only consider ice particles that are either unrimed or heavily rimed (not a continuum of riming amount). Using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program dataset at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site of the United States, a new parameterization for riming is derived, which includes a diagnosed rimed mass fraction and its impact on the ice particle fall speed. When evaluated against a vertical-pointing Doppler radar for stratiform mixed-phase clouds, the new parameterization produces better ice fall speeds than a conventional parameterization. The new parameterization is tested in the recently developed Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) atmospheric model (AM3) using prescribed sea surface temperatu...


In 1983 the countries of the Americas, with the technical cooperation of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), pledged to eliminate human rabies transmitted by dogs.1 Since then, countries have made great efforts to eliminate this disease, with notable success, within the framework of the Regional Program of Elimination of Human Rabies. The success achieved during the last 30 years and the historical solidarity between countries in the region support the goal of elimination of dog-transmitted rabies in the American continent by 2015. As this date approaches, there is a need to reflect and reassess the current plan of rabies elimination. This work briefly describes the achievements of the Regional Program and the proposed new Regional Action Plan for the elimination of dog-transmitted rabies.


Healthcare environment is rich of data, but still needs knowledge extraction that is necessarily important for saving people lives. Medical Knowledge discovery is a process of extracting knowledge patterns from biomedical data, which is useful and crucial for making effective decisions especially in developing strategies and policies of preventive medical treatments. Data mining methods are the best-known way to recognize the hidden data standards. Ontology engineering used to improve knowledge domain representation, and further is considered for the enhancement and refinement of the mining techniques based on the discovered patterns driven from ontological data mining. In this paper, we apply ontology driven data mining techniques on a data set of diabetes patients who have cardiovascular disease. That process performed to identify the relationship between type two diabetes mellitus patients and their important laboratory tests specified by doctors. Doctors aim to investigate the probability of cardiovascular disease occurrence and stroke happening. Ontology driven Data mining techniques also used in experimental study as well as rule induction, association rules methods. In a late phase, we used frequent pattern discovery and rules induction method using ontological data mining algorithm (RMonto). The findings of this study reveals that the use of ontologies minimizes the number of attributes in the preprocessing stage and helps in all data mining stages; in addition to its important role in ontological data mining, we have a higher learning accuracy ratio exceeding 90%. The results of data mining methods and ontological data mining shows that the significance of some laboratory tests like: LP(a),CRP,HDL,FBG,TG,LDH and Chol to predict CVD risk among T2DM patients with a high accuracy.


Objective To investigate the value of aVR lead in predicting the severity of left coronary lesion.Methods Fifty-six cases of episode of acute myocardial infarction in anterior wall were divided into elevation group and no-drift group according to the ST segment changes of aVR lead.Their ST segment elevation of aVR lead and coronary angiography(CAG) results were analyzed.Results Twenty-six cases showed ≥0.05mV elevation in ST segment of aVR lead by ECG while the other 30 cases demonstrated no obvious change.Of the cases in the elevation group,the rates of pathologic change in ST segment left main and proximal end of the left anterior descending branch were respectively 23.1% and 57.7%.There were significant differences compared with those in the no-drift group(3.3%,30%)(p0.05).The rates of pathologic change in middle and distal segments were far lower than those in the no-drift group(3.8%,50%)(p0.01).Conclusion The aVR lead of ECG in patients with acute anterior wall myocardial infarction can predict the severity of left coronary artery lesion.


The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic behaviors of 4-[3- [3-[Bis(4-isobutylphenyl) methylamino] benzoyl]-1 H -indol-1-yl]-butyric acid (FK143), a new nonsteroidal steroid 5 a -reductase inhibitor, in the ventral prostate were investigated after i.v. administration to rats. The relationship between blood concentrations at 24 hr and doses was linear in the range of 0.1 to 20 mg/kg. However, the levels of FK143 in the prostate were saturated over the dose of over 5 mg/kg. The dissociation constant ( K d ) and maximum amount of binding substances (B max ), calculated according to nonlinear kinetic analysis in- cluding a specific binding pool, was 0.0553 6 0.0117 m g/ml (92 nM, estimated value 6 S.D.) and 0.908 6 0.092 m g/g tissue, respectively. A combined pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model was constructed using change in dihydrotestosterone (DHT)


The presentation describes the State of the Art in public sector information re-use in Czech Republic: legal framework, public sector culture, non-public sector initiatives and other activities in the field related. It also describes a new approach to public sector information issue - "Research through Education" and the process and results of the public sector information related course and research for students in Charles University, Prague.


Recent research shows that a 10% improvement in connectivity between countries along the "Maritime Silk Road†would deliver a 3% decrease in Chinese trade costs, which would in turn boost China's imports and exports by around 6% and 9% respectively. We identify two 'missing links' of BRI: a) connecting the Caspian- to the Black Sea, from Turkmenistan to Romania (branching to Istanbul), and from there – through the port of Constanza and the Danube-Rhine fluvial corridor- all the way up to the North Sea, to Rotterdam in particular; b) connecting the Upper Persian Gulf port system to the Mediterranean. COSCO's target for Piraeus is for it to become the biggest European port over the next decade, doubling its cargo handling capacity.


present with ADEM. This assumption is verified by the study of Dale and Pillai, at least for the first year(s) of follow-up: only one of the 12 patients initially diagnosed as ADEM went on to develop MS, whereas 13 of 28 children with CIS relapsed and could ultimately be diagnosed as MS during the followup of 6 months to 5 years 5 months (mean 2y 2mo). Another interesting aspect of the paper is the correlation of ADEM and CIS with neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid findings: only children with CIS and not those with ADEM fulfilled the KIDMUS MRI criteria for paediatric MS,4 and no child with ADEM had evidence of an intrathecal IgG synthesis, as compared to 9/24 patients with CIS. Hence, previously described surrogate markers for paediatric MS4 are strikingly more prevalent in CIS than in ADEM. Taken together, the rather stringent consensus criteria for the diagnosis of ADEM appeared to perform quite well in the report of Dale and Pillai, with only one of 12 patients initially diagnosed as ADEM clinically progressing to MS within the first year(s) of follow up. The crucial question that cannot (yet) be answered by the study is how many of the children of the ADEM and CIS groups will develop MS in the long term. Since there is no simple test to secure the diagnoses of MS or ADEM, we have to be very careful not to interpret data in the sense of self-fulfilling prophecies. Until definite disease markers are identified, only prospective longitudinal, clinical, and MRI studies over periods as long as possible, ideally at least a decade, will be able to conclusively determine the validity of the new paediatric MS and ADEM criteria.


We report herein the occurrence of a positive homotropic allosteric binding effect of two macrocyclic azacalixpyridines. This effect was firstly found to be crucial in the formation and stabilization of ultra-small silver nanoparticles.


The July 1997 flood in Fort Collins was caused by the heaviest rains ever documented over an urbanized area in Colorado, and offers a data base and multifaceted set of lessons about flood planning, mitigation, response, and recovery for engineers, flood managers, and urban officials. The storm dropped 10 to 14 inches in 31 hours and some peak discharges greatly exceeded projected 100-year and 500-year flows. Five people died, 54 were injured, about 200 homes were lost, and 1,500 homes and businesses were damaged. Damages at Colorado State University were about $100,000,000, including catastrophic losses to the library. The paper summarizes the flood experience and provides lessons in five categories: urban drainage and flood control, risk management, mitigation, flood response, and public involvement.


The performing and publication of public theology continues to take place in this time of a global pandemic. On occasions this context provokes an explicit act of a public theology; at other times the virus lies in the background but in a way which cannot be disregarded. It is 'there'. This collection of articles intersect with the Covid-19 crisis in different ways: sometimes the 'terrible times' looms large; sometimes it is not mentioned but it is not difficult to see where potential lines of connection are. One of the features of 2020 was the cancellation of face-to-face conferences. So much happened on-line and was organized in the midst of uncertainty as to how best to proceed. Jason Sexton considers the implications of Covid-19 from the perspective of representative academic institutional life – in this instance the western regional conference of the American Academy of Religion. In the midst of competing demands in a time of crisis – teaching, examinations, administration and research – what ought to be the role of theological and religious scholars? Do the necessary and ever-pressing demands of the institution absorb all the available energy – or, do the various disciplines on show at a regional conference have the capacity to draw upon the resources of their faith traditions 'to interpret the phenomenon' – the 'terrible'? Sexton notes that most religious traditions have a long history of responding to plagues and possess a wisdom and 'riches' that can be helpful in times of 'mixed messages' (what he calls 'an inebriating cocktail of confusing information'). The case is made for theological and religious institutions to 'cultivate an ecology of ethical responsibility and care'. Sexton is writing self-consciously out of California. Alexander Belyaev and Yulia Matushanskaya are responding to the pandemic from their particular context in Russia. They delve into Russian religious philosophy as well as an interrupted exposure to western critical scholarship to examine the public role of apocalyptic literature. The public sphere in this instance is constituted by a sequence of active social media conversations responding to the disturbing health statistics to do with Covid-19 in the post-Soviet context. What is especially striking to a public theology in the west is the level of apocalyptic thinking being expressed by what may be termed 'the social influencers' and the consequent need to clarify the nature and function of that line of thought. Belyaev and Matushanskaya demonstrate a familiarity with contemporary


Sung-il Choi, assistant professor of political science, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, for research in Korea on social environment, public policy, and political cleavages in urban and rural areas. George Ginsburgs, associate professor of political science, New School for Social Research, for research in Moscow on Korean volunteers in the civil war and intervention in the Soviet Far East, 1917-22.


We consider time series which are realizations of a stochastic process. From the time series we construct various estimates of the spectral distribution function of the process (Section 3) and we study the sampling dis tributions of some functionals of these estimates (Sections 4-7). We then obtain confidence regions for the spectral distribution function and various tests of hypotheses in the normal case (Sections 8-10).


A chemical system that combines cleavage of nitrogen-nitrogen triple bonds (N=N) with intermetal nitrogen atom transfer has been developed by chemists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The work is a step toward developing a cyclic catalytic system that can activate nitrogen from the atmosphere and use it to form useful nitrogen-containing compounds. Christopher C. Cummins, assistant professor of chemistry; Catalina E. Laplaza, now a graduate student at Harvard University; and graduate student Adam R. Johnson carried out the research, which builds on the earlier demonstration that a molybdenum complex can split the triple bond of nitrogen under mild conditions (C&EN, May 15, 1995, page 5). The new work shows that nitrogen atoms from such cleavage can be passed on to another substrate [ J. Am. Chem. Soc ., 118, 709 (1996)]. Cummins and coworkers used two different molybdenum complexes. One is the three-coordinate Mo(NRAr) 3 complex they used to split N 2 —where R is C(CD 3 ) 2 CH 3 and Ar is 3,5-dim...


The present invention discloses a The present invention discloses a software automatic testing method for system including test script module and software object program module, which contains it sets testing control module between said test script module and software object program module. Said method also includes A, transmitting call instruction to said testing control module in testing script module operation, B, said testing control module resolving said call instruction, determining current operational software action and structure and transmitting said software action corresponded operating command to said software object program module, C, said software object program module receiving operating command and operating said operating command corresponded software action. The present invention also discloses a system, using said invented method and system capable of realizing software automatic testing without modifying software object program code.


Radiation ulcers can occur as a complication following exposure to ionizing radiation. Advances in medical technology, followed by the wider range of radiation application in recent decades has steadily increased the incidence of radiation ulcers. Radiation causes hypoxia, hypovascularity, and hypocellularity in tissues. Moreover, the surrounding skin adjacent to the radiation ulcer lacks follicular stem cells and is more prone to chronic, non-healing wounds. While no guidelines have been established regarding optimal treatment, management facilitating angiogenesis and migration of fibrogenic cells can be a recommended option, considering the etiology of ulcers induced by radiation exposure. Herein, we present a patient exposed to prolonged radiation during a fluoroscopic intervention procedure, who had developed a vast radiation ulcer at his coccyx, and was completely treated with injectable acellular dermal matrix combined with 14 weeks of negative pressure wound therapy.


The invention provides a high temperature resisting thermoplastic polyether ester elastomer composition, which comprises a thermoplastic polyether ester elastomer copolymer and a heat stabilizer composition. The heat stabilizer composition comprises a phenolic heat stabilizer, a sulpho-ester stabilizer and an aromatic amine stabilizer. The heat stability of the thermoplastic polyether ester elastomer composition is improved remarkably, and the thermoplastic polyether ester elastomer composition has good dyeing property.


Age‐related changes in the intervertebral discs are the predominant contributors to back pain, a common physical and functional impairment experienced by older persons. Cellular senescence, a process wherein cells undergo growth arrest and chronically secrete numerous inflammatory molecules and proteases, has been reported to cause decline in the health and function of multiple tissues with age. Although senescent cells have been reported to increase in intervertebral degeneration (IDD), it is not known whether they are causative in age‐related IDD.


This research is intended to examine the amount of changes that can happen in material characteristics after retesting. Stress relaxation test is conducted on the same samples of the swine brain tissue for several times in small and large deformations. The mechanical properties of the substance are calculated before and after retest and the constants of the tissue, as mechanical characteristics, are determined and compared. Short- and long-term moduli, relaxation times and relaxation functions are of those data that are calculated and compared to understand how much they decay after repeating the experiments. The results show that applying different tests on one sample slightly changes the mechanical properties of the tissue and, as a result, it is partly possible to perform more than one test on the same sample resulting in less sample preparation, time and effort.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Approximately 400 000 Americans undergo nonsurgical coronary artery interventional procedures each year. The use of coronary artery stents is increasing rapidly and, in some laboratories, more than 50% of the patients undergoing angioplasty have coronary artery stents implanted.' Coronary artery stents fall into two broad categories, balloon expandable and self-expanding, based on their method of delivery and expansion within the coronary artery. Two balloon expandable stents (Gianturco-Roubin and Palmaz-Schatz) are approved for use in the US by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and numerous others are under investigation in clinical trials. Balloon expandable stents are available in two designs, metallic coil and slotted tube, which are delivered to the coronary artery mounted on an angioplasty balloon with (Palmaz-Schatz stent) or without (Gianturco-Roubin stent) a protective sheath.' Based on the thrombogenic nature of a stent, potential endothelial damage induced by the stent, and previous experiences with angioplasty, investigators recognized the potential for thrombus formation and/or restenosis of the coronary artery at the site of stent implantation. Antiplatelet agents were originally proposed as the sole medications to prevent subacute thrombosis after stent placement, but their use was associated with poor outcomes.' Schatz et al.' conducted a multicenter study in which stents were successfully implanted in 213 patients after elective percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). Aspirin 325 mg/d po and dipyridamole 75 mg po three times daily were started 2~8 hours before stent placement and continued for 3 months following stent placement. Because of an 18% subacute thrombotic closure rate within 2-11 days after stent placement, only the first 39 patients received this regimen. The study protocol was amended to include warfarin, and the subacute thrombotic closure rate decreased to 0.6%. The investigators concluded that a short course of anticoagulation, in addition to anti platelet agents, should be used in all patients undergoing stent implantation. However, they also acknowledged that the high subacute thrombotic closure rate observed in patients not receiving anticoagulation thera-


Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 132,000 jobs in June, edging above an average forecast of 128,000. April and May payrolls were revised upward a cumulative 75,000 (to 122,000 and 190,000, respectively). The average monthly gain in the first half of 2007 was 145,000, which was a step down from the first two quarters of 2006 (+188,000).

The service sector showed continued firmness, gaining 135,000 jobs. Education and health services rose sharply, posting its highest increase (+59,000) since August 2006. Government (+40,000) and leisure and hospitality (+39,000) showed strength, but there were pockets of weakness in retail trade (-24,000) and professional business services (-9,000). In 2006 retail trade averaged a monthly loss of 3,000 jobs per month, and professional business services averaged a monthly gain of 42,000.


The Validity of Pre-Calculus Multiple Choice and Performance -Based Testing as a Predictor of Undergraduate Mathematics and Chemistry Achievement by Gwen Laura Fisher There has long been concern over the validity of the Algebra Diagnostic Test (ADT) to determine the actual level of student preparation for the first quarter of calculus at the University of California at Santa Barbara. For an understanding of the Hughes-Hallet calculus text from Harvard University, it is believed that students need more problem solving abilities as well as the initiative to do embedded tasks within a given problem. It is hypothesized that "performance-based" questions, along with the more traditional multiple choice questions, could provide a better assessment of students' understanding of pre-calculus materials for the HughesHal let curriculum. In this study, a two-part test was written with the goal to test for ability and initiative in solving multiple leveled tasks, as well as traditional pre-calculus assessment. The Performance-Based Test analyzed is a written exam consisting of four categories: Algebra, Function, Proportion, and Geometry. A thirty question, shortened version of the original ADT was created to compare to the performancebased test. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were conducted to find relationships between the students performance on the exams and the subsequent grades in the students' first quarter of algebra, calculus for the hard sciences, calculus for social sciences, and chemistry. The performance-based testing we tried has a significant correlation with grades in all four classes analyzed. In every case, multiple choice testing had a higher correlation than the performance-based testing, but a combination of both provided the best test to predict mathematics or chemistry achievement. Mathematics and chemistry achievement are correlated with the following portions of the exam: symbolic manipulations of algebraic expressions, graphing of functions, symbolic properties of functions, trigonometric functions, logarithmic functions, word problems, geometry, and numerical data or number sense. Symbolic manipulation skills are statistically significant in predicting grades in all four classes. Students who display fluency with function concepts are statistically shown to be successful in calculus and chemistry classes.


The alarming rate of formal unemployment in Nigeria has provided the informal sector the opportunity to contribute to employment generation for the citizens. The study examines the contribution of the informal sector to employment generation with reference to car wash enterprise in Zaria. The enterprise is dotted in every nook and crannies of the urban areas. To what extent has Car Wash enterprises contributed to employment generation is one of the problems of this study. The study was anchored on the Human Capital Development Theory, It employed both primary and secondary data while convenience sampling technique was used. The data collected were subjected to Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient to test the relationship between Car Wash Enterprise and employment generation. The study found that a significant number of youths are not involved gainfully in the car wash enterprise. One of the recommendations include that the Car Wash Enterprise should be integrated into the SURE-P Programme of the government in order to make the enterprise more viable.