Research on automated systems for Stock price prediction has gained much momentum in recent years owing to its potential to yield profits. In this paper, we present an automatic trading system for Nifty for deciding the buying and selling calls for intra-day trading that combines various methods to improve the quality and precision of the prediction. Historical data has been used to implement the various technical indicators and also to train the Neural Network that predicts movement for intra-day Nifty. Further, Sentiment Analysis techniques are applied to popular blog articles written by domain experts and to user comments to find sentiment orientation, so that analysis can be further improved and better prediction accuracy can be achieved. The system makes a prediction for every trading day with these methods to forecast if next day will be a positive day or negative. Further, buy and sell calls for intra-day trading are also decided by the system thus achieving full automation in stock trading.


Since 9.11 terrors import and export supply chain safety plan at visual point that is leaving extension, examined customs law present condition and propulsion present condition for our country AEO system enforcement. And it is a paper that wish to present registered customs brokers minimum safety supervision standard for safety supervision standard and role promotion plan. Important part makes standard contract form directly with strong liquor at signing a contract by customs clearance achievement prepare so that can be suitable in minimum safety supervision standard and hereafter in registered customs brokers situation at AEO system enforcement, and achieve thing which is sincere about business commissioning through Check-list creation and improve phase as AEO certification subject person in import and export supply chain. However, is expected that first of all, registered customs brokers can recognize importance for AEO systems, and do leading part than an import and export supply chain connection propriety lion though makes connection preparation thorough for fundamental rules enforcement in 2009.


ABSTRACT One hundred forty-four Charolais crossbred yearling steers (335.5 kg ± 12.2) were used to determine the effect of 10-G brand direct-fed microbial product (10-G contains Lactobacillus acidophilus, Enterococcus faecium, Pediococcus acidilacticii, Lactobacillus brevis, and Lactobacillus plantarum) in a finishing diet containing steam-flaked corn and wet distillers grains with solubles (WDGS) on performance and carcass characteristics. Cattle were fed twice daily with dietary treatment applied only to the first feeding. Dietary treatments included 1) 10-G (TRT) product in the first round of feeding and 2) control (CON). The CON diet received a placebo in place of the 10-G product. Each diet contained 6% wheat straw (WS) and 15% WDGS and the finishing diet contained 68% steam flaked corn on a DM basis. Prior to the initiation of the experiment, WS and WDGS were mixed together using a vertical screw-type truck-mounted mixer box in the ratio of 2:5 (kg:kg) WS to WDGS on a DM basis, stored in a single pile, packed with a tractor, and covered with plastic. The WS and WDGS mixture was added to each batch of feed as one commodity during diet manufacturing. Overall ADG, DMI, G:F, and NE recovery were similar across treatments (P > 0.10). Hot carcass weight, YG, QG, maturity, and marbling score were similar across treatments (P > 0.10). Carcasses from steers receiving 10-G had a greater (P


As the resolution of a telescope is directly connected to the diameter of its aperture, and its sensitivity to extended structures — to its fulfillment — high fidelity observations of not-so-angularly-big galaxies, and their low-quantity systems at low frequencies were considered difficult for a long time. Thanks to the introduction of metrewave-oriented instruments, like large systems of mesh antennas, or phased dipole arrays, such observations are becoming possible, and numerous scientific projects make now use of instruments like the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR), Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), or the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). Here I present preliminary results obtained for a small galaxy group, the Stephan's Quintet, with the GMRT and LOFAR.


Land rights system is the core of legal system for land.The land rights system in our country has experienced a tortuous development process in which we achieved remarkable effect.After the founding of the People's Republic,land rights in our country experienced profound revolution in which the ownership changed from private ownership to public ownership,and the land rights have been enriched with more manners to achieve benefit on the basis of public ownership in the course of development of practice of market economy,and then comes another development from attribution to utilization.Today,in face of the historic task of coordination of rural and urban development,sorting out the history of land rights legislation is undoubtedly helpful for us to achieve this reform objective.


When taking into consideration the issue of defining the "fair value" concept, those less experimented in the area often fall in the "price trap", which is considered as an equivalent of the fair value of financial structures. This valuation basis appears as a consequence of the trial to provide an "accurate image" by the financial statements and, also, as an opportunity for the premises offered by the activity continuing principle. The specialized literature generates ample controversies regarding the "fair value" concept and the "market value" concept. The paper aims to debate this issue, taking into account various opinions.


Shinji OmoriShinichiro NohdoShoji NohamaKoichi NakayamaKazuya IwaseTomonori MotohashiKeiko AmaiYoko WatanabeKazuharu InoueIsao AshidaHidetoshi OhnumaHiroyuki NakanoShigeru MoriyaTetsuya KitagawaSony Corporation4-14-1 Asahi-choAtsugi, Kanagawa, 243-0014JapanE-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. The lithographic performance of the low-energy electron-beam proximity-projection lithography (LEEPL)btool is demonstrated interms of printability and overlay accuracy to establish the feasibility ofproximity electron lithography (PEL) for the 65-nm technology node. TheCD uniformity of 5.8 nm is achieved for the 13 stencil mask, and themask patterns are transferred onto chemically amplified resist layers,coupled with a conformal multilayer process with the mask-error en-hancement factor of nearly unity. Meanwhile, the overlay accuracy of27.8 nm is achieved in the context of mix and match with the ArF scan-ner, and it is also shown that real-time correction for chip magnification,enabled by the use of die-by-die alignment and electron beam, can fur-ther reduce the error down to 21.3 nm. On the basis of the printability ofprogrammed defects, it is shown that the most critical challenge to besolved for the application to production is the quality assurance of maskssuch as defect inspection and repair.


This research deals with the theory of spatial information in real estate values (housing) in the municipality of San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico, an area is immersed in a metropolitan dynamic. Consequently, the real estate process is evaluated in the context of the central and peripheral forces that generate growth and the urban and housing life cycle as well as urban environmental quality. The result is a hedonic pricing model to define the attributes that explain, with a greater degree of significance, the change in land value. All this contributes to the implementation of a land policy.


The paper proposes a new fast algorithm to evaluate the probability distribution function (PDF) of link delay over time by using network tomography techniques. Once we have the delay distribution, we can adapt the route of the flows between a source and its destination so that the end-to-end path is always the one that offers the least mean delay and a probability of exceeding a critical value smaller than a predefined threshold. Our mechanism, which guarantees the use of the path minimizing the end-to-end delay, is best implemented in the core network of a wireless domain. As the network tomography introduces additional flows, our mechanism is more adapted to wired peer ends, e.g. base stations, domain gateways, etc. With MPLS (multi protocol label switching) to create and maintain the routes, we validated our contribution using the Network Simulation simulator, ns2.


The development of sheet-stamping production within the framework of meeting the needs of modern mechanical engineering involves the use of advanced technologies, materials and blanks, which makes certain requirements for the level of blank production technologies in general. In modern conditions, sheet-stamping production involves the manufacture of stamped parts in limited quantities due to their constantly changing design, which, in turn, requires optimization of the volume of investments and reduction of the time required for the implementation of technological preparation of production, flexibility of technological and design solutions, as well as the maximum approximation of all parameters of stamped parts to parameters of the finished product in order to reduce subsequent processing. Box-shaped sheet metal stamped parts obtained during the implementation of the drawing operation are actively used in the medical, light, watchmaking, food machine-building, electrical, instrument-making, and automotive industries. One of the main tasks for obtaining high-quality box-shaped sheet-stamped parts is the creation of a stamping technology that meets modern production requirements based on progressive methods for calculating shaping operations, as well as designing the contour of the original blank taking into account the peculiarities of the shaping process and the required geometric parameters of parts. Depending on the purpose of the box-shaped sheet-stamped part, the main geometric parameters are determined, the correspondence of the actual values of which to the required ones allows to make a conclusion regarding the quality of the obtained stamped product. As a rule, such a parameter is the height of the box-shaped part, the error of which ultimately should not exceed the tolerance assigned by the designer. For example, in the automotive industry, one of the promising directions for reducing the weight of a car while maintaining the strength parameters of its units and elements, as well as reducing their cost, is the introduction of sheet welded blanks of different thickness. This article is devoted to an experimental study of the error in the height of the contour of tall boxes with relatively large radii of corner curvatures, obtained by drawing from these blanks made of high-strength steel. This work was carried out within the framework of the grant NSh-2601.2020.8.


Introduction California's farmers are currently facing tremendous challenges. On one hand, they have established themselves as producers of a wide array of high quality commodities. On the other hand, they are now expected to continue that tradition with minimal environmental and social impact. Particular challenges facing farmers include conservation of agricultural resources, quality of groundwater and surface waters, dependence on non-renewable (petroleum-based) inputs, as well as the health and safety of farm workers. In the meantime, the cost of inputs increases, the number of pest control materials becomes more and more restricted, water supplies dwindle from on-going drought and increased urban demands, and farm-gate prices are low. How can farmers and farming communities remain viable in view of these constraints? Many California farmers are modifying the way they farm and embracing new opportunities to produce food and fiber. They are combining information, imagination, and determination, with new management perspectives to develop production systems that meet the demands of society, that address their own concerns for the natural environment, and that provide the economic security needed for their family and business. In making such a transition, farmers are moving toward sustainable agricultural practices. This paper is based on information from a soon-to-be released book from the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program that chronicles the experiences of California farmers during their transition. The publication is a guide to the process of change. It is designed to stimulate thought, discussion, and creative action throughout the agricultural community. Information for this publication was gathered from written materials including technical journals, popular publications, and books from across the United States and Europe. Added to this written information were the experiences of interviewed growers in various stages of transition and representing a wide range of farming systems throughout California.


We model the photocurrent of an A-scan in time-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a non-stationary random process and obtain its statistics. We use this model to obtain a maximum likelihood estimate of the reflectivity at different depths of an object. We also present an expression for the Fisher information matrix in time-domain OCT.


Abstract This study investigated the catalytic ozonation of p-chloronitrobenzene (p-CNB) in aqueous solution by using different pumice surface compositions as catalysts. The results indicate that the surface hydroxyl groups of metal oxides on pumice play an important role in ozone decomposition to generate the hydroxyl radical (•OH). An increase in the mass ratio of SiO2/metal oxides results in the acceleration of ozone adsorption on the catalyst surface. The synergistic mechanism confirms that SiO2 induced ozone enrichment on the pumice surface and increased the probability of reaction between surface hydroxyl groups on metal oxides and ozone molecules to initiate •OH from ozone decomposition and to stimulate p-CNB degradation.


Minoru Yasumoto provides a detailed and readable exposition of the rapid
growth of nineteenth-century Middlesbrough, an industrial town in North East
England that grew rapidly into the world's leading producer of pig iron. Combining
original data from a wide number of sources with a lucid explanation of the town's
history, this book is a valuable contribution to the study of urban growth in Victorian
England.


The case: A 19-year-old Afghan man was critically injured after a blast from an improvised explosive device. A Canadian Forces medic treated him within minutes of the injury. On initial assessment in the field, the man was conscious and breathing despite extensive facial injuries involving the mouth


The physical properties of the planet Mercury, its surface, and atmosphere are presented for space vehicle design criteria. The mass, dimensions, mean density, and orbital and rotational motions are described. The gravity field, magnetic field, electromagnetic radiation, and charged particles in the planet's orbit are discussed. Atmospheric pressure, temperature, and composition data are given along with the surface composition, soil mechanical properties, and topography, and the surface electromagnetic and temperature properties.


This study examined the effects of citizen journalism practices on social capital concerning nonprofit and voluntary organizations (i.e., satisfaction, trust, and engagement). Through a quasi-experimental design, the analyses revealed that students in the treatment group, in which participants engaged in citizen journalism practice, had greater positive changes in levels of satisfaction, trust, and engagement than students in the control group. This study offers unique contributions to the existing body of social capital scholarship and practical implications related to the use of citizen journalism as a civic education tool in school and community settings.


Reaction of copper(I) halides (CuX, X = Cl, Br, or I) in acetonitrile solution with di(2 pyridyl)amine(dpa) yields 1 : 1.5 adducts with the chloride and bromide, a 1 : 1 adduct with the iodide, and a 1 : 2 adduct with the chloride. The compounds have been characterized by spectroscopic and single-crystal X-ray methods. The 1 : 1 iodide is a dimer, [(dpa)Cul2Cu(dpa)], of a type familiar with other bidentate nitrogen base ligands, but the l : 1.5 complexes are ionic, formulated as [Cu(dpa)2]+[Cu(dpa)X2]–, containing the first structurally characterized [Cu(dpa)2]+ cations and [CuX2(bidentate ligand)]– anions, while the 1 : 2 chloride is [Cu(dpa)2]+Cl–. In the [Cu(dpa)2]+ cation mean Cu–N is ca. 2.00 A, while in the [Cu(dpa)X2]– anions Cu–N is ca. 2.05 A and Cu–Cl and Cu–Br 2.369(2), 2.302(2) and 2.490(6), 2.439(6)A respectively. The dpa ligand in all cases is essentially planar. The far i.r. spectra of the anions show bands at 214 cm–1(chloride) and 160 cm–1(bromide) which can be assigned to the asymmetric stretching mode of the CuX2 unit.


Treewasobserved inEthylene-Propylene rubber (EPR)usedforelectrical insulation. Fromthe inspection, itwasfound that thetree haswater andions. Then, itisguessed that these areinrelation tothetree generation. Fromthisinspection result, theauthors investigated thewaterabsorption characteristics of several kindsofEPR.TheseEPRshavedifferent cross-linking materials. Further, we investigated the property change ofEPRsafter waterabsorption. Asa result, thewaterabsorption characteristics were clarified anditwasfound that thecharacteristics vary depending onthekindofEPR.Thedissolved elements andionsinwater, theproperty changes ofhardness andcrosslink density andetc. wereclarified. Fromthe measurement ofwater absorption characteristics, itwas foundthat EPRhastwokinds ofwater. Oneisthe waterthat canbeeasily removed fromEPRsandthe other oneisthewaterthat isconsidered tobestrongly connected withthematerials. The considerable property changes cannotbeobserved, however, some kinds ofions weredetected inthewater.


Introduction: Several homeostatic changes like an increase in sympathoadrenal response and oxidative stress occur in hypoglycemia. As a result of these findings, an increase in inflammation and pre-atherogenic factors is observed and these changes may lead to endothelial dysfunction. Aim: Our study aims to reveal possible cardiac risks (systolic-diastolic functions and endothelial dysfunctions) in patients who have applied to the emergency department with hypoglycemia. Methods: This cross-sectional, case-control study included 46 hypoglycemia patients who admitted to the emergency with symptoms compatible with hypoglycemia and diagnosed with hypoglycemia and 30 healthy volunteers. All patients were evaluated with baseline echocardiography, tissue-doppler imaging(carotid and brachial artery). Also, the fasting blood tests of the patients referred to the internal medicine department were examined. Results: There were no differences between the groups regarding age, weight, body mass index, and systolic blood pressure. Total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, Vitamin B12, TSH, and fasting blood glucose levels were similar in the groups' blood tests (all p values>0.05). We observed a statistically significant decrease in diastolic dysfunction parameters: E/A and E/e' ratios (respectively, p=0.020 and 0.026). It was shown that insulin resistance was influential in forming these considerable differences. The patient group observed that the carotid intima-media thickness was more remarkable(p=0.001), and the brachial flow-mediated dilatation value was smaller(p=0.003), giving an idea about endothelial functions.


This article discusses four aspects related to cultural and linguistic interaction within exolinguistic communication prevalent in tourism. The first aspect refers to the role of culture as an essential part of linguistic exchanges, and the second explains the unconscious nature of socialization and language processes. The third aspect is the pragmatics of communication in exolinguistic service interactions, and the fourth approaches the role of habitus in intercultural communication in tourism.


The development of computer network technology, especially internet networks (interconnection networking) is currently increasing. The development of technology in the internet network which is increasing is directly proportional to the increasing n umb er of users (users) of the internet network itself. The need for the internet now becomes a basic necessity both for seeking information, data communication and personal communication making many companies and agencies that have integrated the internet network into business processes or work processes, but the limitation of large bandwidth rental costs is a lack of bandwidth can be used. One of the contributions of technology to improve this is to use two ISPs and make it as load balancing. The mechanism, which is the proxy router, will mark the package that wants to access the internet, then choose which ISP path to pass and equalize the load on the two ISPs. The Load Balancing method has provided optimal bandwidth, but load balancing cannot accumulate a large bandwidth of the two connections, because load balancing technique does not mean 1 + 1 = 2 but 1 + 1 = 1 + 1 and the application of n th Load Balancing method has divided the traffic load balanced at ISP 1 and ISP 2. Keywords —Load Balancing, n th , Bandwidth. DOI :  10.5281/zenodo.2652059


The contemporary use of the term "public diplomacy" is generally attributed to the retired diplomat Edmond A. Gullion, when, as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy he opened the Edward R. Murrow Center in 1965. By public diplomacy Dean Gullion meant the attempts by a state to carry out a foreign policy objective by reaching directly to the public, rather than the traditional ap- proach of diplomats of a government working exclusively with their diplomatic counterparts. 1 In particular, the circumstances of the Cold War led to the great powers attempting to influence both foreign populations and their own com - munities in favor of their policy objectives. However, the practice of attempting to win favorable support both at home and abroad was by no means unique to the Cold War era. Indeed, it might be said that the publication in 1861 of The Pa- pers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States was an effort to win both international and domestic public support for the Union's diplomatic policies in the American Civil War. The British, too, undertook a form of public diplomacy in 1934 with the establishment of offices and programs of the British Council (originally called the British Council for Relations with Other Countries) in numerous countries, through which it hoped to show that British culture and interests would be shown in a sympathetic light. The Voice of America, created during the World War II, and the United States Information Agency, founded in 1953, performed similar functions. It should not be surprising, therefore, to find the fledgling Irish Free State also engaged in a form of public diplomacy. The Dail Eireann government from 1. One definition of public diplomacy applicable to William T. Cosgrave's objectives for his visit to the United States in 1928 reads as follows: "Public diplomacy was defined as government action to generate support, through information and persuasion, for national security objectives." En- cyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, ed. Alexander DeConde, Richard Dean Burns, and Frederik Logevall (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002), vol. 3, p. 498.


Objective To explore the results offriendly service in nursing of brain glioma and provide more effective service.Methods 58 cases with brain glioma were randomly divided into matched group and observed group.The matched group was given common nursing.In addition to common nursing,the observed group was given user-friendly service.Results Anxiety and dumps rates of observed group were lower than that of matched group.The degree of satisfaction of observed group was higher than it of matched group.Conclusion User-friendly service can effectively prevent patients from anxiety and dumps,provide high quality service to cases with brain glioma.


Yeast two-hybrid system combined with the gateway technology will greatly facilitate the cloning of interested DNA fragment into yeast two-hybrid vectors and therefore increase the efficiency of yeast two-hybrid analysis. In this study, we constructed a pair of Gateway-compatible yeast two-hybrid vectors pBTM116GW and pVP16GW by introducing the gateway cassette (attR1-Cmr-ccdB-attR2) into the multiple cloning sites (MCS) of the previously described vectors pBTM116SS and pVP16S1, respectively. The applicability of newly generated vectors was tested by assaying the interaction between the kinase domain XA21K of rice (Oryza sativa) receptor like kinase XA21 and its interactor XB3. Since both Xa21K and Xb3 were cloned into a Gateway entry vector and then subcloned into pBTM116GW and pVP16GW by in vitro recombination with high efficiency, respectively, it demonstrated that the newly constructed gateway-compatible two-hybrid vectors will be useful in analysis of protein interactions in a high throughput way.


This paper presents a new printed square monopole antenna (PSMA) for haemorrhagic stroke detection, enhanced by a metasurface (MTS) superstrate. To show the capabilities of MTS technology in microwave brain imaging, three different tomographic systems are compared in CST Microwave Studio. Our previous developed headband scanner operating in a lossy matching medium is compared to two brain scanners operating in air: a 8-PSMA system and a 8-MTS-enhanced PSMA system. For image reconstruction we used the distorted Born iterative method (DBIM) combined with two-step iterative shrinkage/thresholding (TwIST) algorithm. Our results indicate that a blood-mimicking target placed inside the brain volume of our head model can be detected avoiding the use of a liquid and bulky matching medium. In addition, our MTS superstrate enhances the antennas' reflection coefficient and increases the signal difference due to the presence of the target, which translates into more accurate reconstructions. Thus, MTS technology may be a significant hardware advancement towards the development of functional and ergonomic MWI scanners for haemorrhage detection.


Objectives: Unraveling mechanisms whereby Pseudomonas aeruginosa becomes resistant to carbapenems through testing 114 non-duplicate P. aeruginosa clinical isolates for their susceptibility to various classes of antibiotics and scrutinizing the production of metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) by tested isolates. Methods: Susceptibility testing of P. aeruginosa to different antibiotics was determined by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method and MBLs production by tested isolates was studied phenotypically and genotypically and PCR products were confirmed by sequencing Results: All tested clinical isolates showed eminent resistance to the majority of tested antibiotics and 14 isolates were imipenem (IPM)-resistant. Furthermore, IPM-resistant isolates were verified to be MBLs-producers. MBLs-encoding genes blaSIM and blaSPM genes were detected by PCR where four isolates were found to harbor blaSPM gene while only one isolate harbored blaSIM gene. The correct size of PCR products of blaSIM and blaSPM genes were sequenced and sequences were submitted to the GenBank databases and assigned the accession numbers KX452682 and KX452683 for blaSIM-2 and blaSPM-1, respectively. Conclusion: Here, we report the emanation of P. aeruginosa clinical isolates harboring blaSPM-1 and blaSIM-2 genes. This may reflect the substantial increase in the rate of imipenem resistance due to MBL in P. aeruginosa clinical isolates from Egypt. Early detection and infection-control practices are of the best antimicrobial strategy for combating this organism.


For cadmium telluride solar cells, the back contact material and its properties are still a challenge in terms of increasing and stabilizing the efficiency. This paper discusses RF magnetron sputtering of three different stoichiometries of CuxTe (x= 1, 1.4, 2) material for back contacts to sputtered CdTe solar cells. Thin films were grown first on aluminosilicate glass (ASG) to optimize resistivity, carrier concentration, and mobility and to identify the crystallographic phases of CuxTe. Films were then deposited on complete cell structures to determine efficiency and other cell performance parameters. Thickness and post-deposition annealing temperature were varied to optimize cell performance. Among the three compositions, the Cu2Te target produced the best efficiency at 200°C substrate temperature using conditions that yielded Cu1.4Te as the dominant phase in the sputtered films. This produced cells with efficiency of >13%.


While consolidation strategies form the backbone of many supply chain optimisation problems, exploitation of multi-tier material relationships through consolidation remains an understudied area, despite being a prominent feature of industries that produce complex made-to-order products. In this paper, we propose an optimisation framework for exploiting multi-to-multi relationship between tiers of a supply chain. The resulting formulation is flexible such that quantity discounts, inventory holding and transport costs can be included. The framework introduces a new trade-off between the tiers, resulting in cost re-ductions at one tier at the expense of increased costs in the other tier, which helps to reduce the overall procurement cost in the supply chain. A mixed integer linear programming model is developed and tested with a range of small to large-scale test problems from aerospace manufacturing. Our comparison to benchmark results show that there is indeed a cost trade-off between two tiers, and that its reduction can be achieved using a holistic approach to reconfiguration. Costs are decreased when second tier fixed ordering costs and the number of machining options increase. Consolidation results in less inventory holding costs for all cases. A number of secondary effects such as simplified supplier selection may also be observed.


Brick-pattern ripples are three-dimensional ripple marks composed of transverse crests and longitudinal bridges. In this study, the formation process of brick-pattern ripples in an oscillatory flow is investigated experimentally by means of the visualization of sediment transport and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV). The experiments are made for the brick-pattern ripple formation over a model of two-dimensional ripple marks. The velocity distributions above brick pattern ripples are obtained from the PTV measurements. It is seen from the experimental results that three-dimensional separation vortices carry sediment to make the bridges larger and more stable. Thus, the formation of brick-pattern ripples may be accelerated by a certain kind of positive feedback due to the interaction between the separation vortices and sediment transports.


This paper presents an econometric, recursive dynamic, partial equilibrium multi-commodity model for the Finnish agricultural sector developed within the AG-MEMOD modelling framework, a joint endeavour by several European research institutes. The objective of the AGMEMOD project is to build and validate an econometric model of the whole EU agricultural sector for projection and policy simulation purposes. The building blocks of the AGMEMOD model are the national policy models. The specific aim of the Finnish modelling project was to build a country model on a common format so that it would link-up to provide an integrated model for the whole EU. The different commodities in the model are linked together through cross-price effects in supply and demand equations and the price transmission equations that link domestic prices with EU prices. The responsiveness of the model to policy changes is demonstrated by comparing the results of different policy scenarios with that of the baseline scenario, i.e. continuation of the Agenda 2000 agricultural policy. The policy scenario examined in the paper is the CAP reform approved at the EU Agricultural Council in Luxembourg in 2003. The main impacts of the CAP reform in Finland can be summarised as follows. Changes in crop sector are moderate. As regards to milk, the results indicate that the additional 10 percent cut in intervention price of butter beyond the Agenda 2000 agreement is estimated to reduce milk producer price by 4 percent and total milk production by 6 percent relative to the baseline. The impact in the beef production is expected to be dominated by the developments on the dairy sector. Beef output will decline progressively to stand at around 6 percent below the baseline levels by 2010. Lower beef availability in the EU will trigger a rise in EU producer prices of some 6.5 percent and result a 3 percent higher producer price in Finland at the end of the simulation period compared to the baseline. Though the broad patterns of reactions to agricultural policy reform are fairly predictable, the specific details are not so. In particular, when several geographic markets simultaneously change the policy, the impact of policy reform depends not only on domestic price elasticities, but also on the transmission of domestic production and consumption adjustments to the other countries' markets for that commodity, and the feedback effects between market prices and production and consumption decisions in the group of countries pursuing policy reform. It is also highly promising that the findings are consistent with the other studies on the impacts of CAP reform on Finnish agriculture. Thus although there remains substantial scope for further research on the model (improving the estimation and specification of the sub-models), the model offers considerable potential for application even without additional development.


The association of supravalvular aortic stenosis and postvalvular pulmonic stenosis is described in three patients. In addition to the clinical findings resulting from obstruction to both ventricular outflow tracts, other unusual features were also present, such as a difference in the pulses and blood pressure of the upper extremities and absence of poststenotic dilatation of the ascending aorta. Diagnosis was established at cardiac catheterization by the demonstration of important pressure gradients in the aorta and in the pulmonary arteries with characteristic and almost identical pressure tracings on both sides. The pathologic lesions demonstrated in our patients by selective angiocardiography, surgery, and autopsy are discussed. The possibility of a common etiology for both entities is suggested.


Offshore structures are exposed to random wave loading in the ocean environment, and hence the probability distribution of the extreme values of their response to wave loading is of great value in the design of these structures. Due to nonlinearity of the drag component of Morison wave loading and also due to intermittency of wave loading on members in the splash zone, the response is often non-Gaussian; therefore, simple techniques for derivation of their extreme response probability distributions are not available. However, according to a recent paper, in the absence of current, the response of an offshore structure exposed to Morison wave loading, can be approximated by the response of an equivalent finite-memory nonlinear system (FMNS). These models can then be used, with great efficiency, to determine the probability distribution of response extreme values. In this paper, the progress made so far in extending these FMNS models to account for the effect of current on response is discussed.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


The chemical constituents in ethyl acetate extract from the mushroom D. Indusiata Fisch were studied. Two new compounds (a new terpenol oleate and a new sesquiterpene) were isolated and identitied by using IR, NMR and MS techniques.


As requested, I am sending you the key correspondence between SFC and Coatbridge College on the subject of the severance for the Principal and the proposed severance deal for the senior management team. We will separately discuss with the clerk to the Committee the arrangements for publication of some of these letters as some elements were supplied to us in confidence or may be legally privileged.


A detailed elucidation of the factors affecting the binding of anti-double-stranded (ds)-DNA antibody to ds-DNA immobilized on surfaces may provide insight into the pathogenicity of the systemic lupus erythematosus disease and lead to the development of surfaces for specific DNA and antibody recognition. In this work, the influence of the surface parameters on the attachment of antibody to DNA under physiologically relevant conditions was studied by magnetic alternating current mode atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The DNA surface orientation (tethered vs flat lying), duplex surface density, antibody concentration, and reaction time were all found to affect the antibody/DNA conjugate formation. The mouse monoclonal antibody was specific toward ds-DNA over single-stranded DNA. The steric hindrance and reduced flexibility of surface-confined polynucleotide DNA molecules for the conjugate formation were examined by comparing the conjugates attached to calf thymus DNA preimmobilized onto a surface to those preformed in a homogeneous solution comprising DNA and antibody molecules and subsequently attached to the surface. Antibody aggregation was also found to be prevalent at surface sites where DNA/antibody conjugates existed.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlational relationship between the learning participation factors and academic achievement in online English class of a cyber university. In a cyber university where the classes and class feedback are served online, students" online participation is essential. In this study, learning participation factors include the class attendance, the participation of assignment, discussion room, question and answer board, and free board. For this purpose, 90 students" data in "English for Beginners" in the spring semester of 2012 in H cyber university were collected and analyzed to investigate the correlational relationship between the learning participation factors and academic achievement. The result revealed that learning participation a correlational relationship with academic achievement with the significant level of 0.05. However, it does not show a significant difference in regression. That is, the learning participation factors do not affect academic achievement. In qualitative analysis, it showed that students participated differently according to the reflection of the grade. It is suggested that learning participation factors should be implemented with caution.


Kort's morphological analysis of narrative and religion does not lead to a conclusion that the structures of religion and narrative coincide or converge. I n s t ead , it s ignals "structural matching points" between the somewhat parallel structures of religion and narrative and thus facilitates both dialogue between them and theoretical speculation about their relation. Joseph L. Price Graduate Student University of Chicago, Divinity School


ABSTRACT Focusing on the school corridor, this article explores the coming into being of Danish school space through shifting architectural designs, teaching practices, and volumes and organisations of pupils' bodies. The analysis shows a transformation of the corridor itself: from primarily being a disciplining and potentially dangerous space for moving across and between different contexts, school corridors become stimulating spaces for active learning. Thereby, the child's schooling and bodily movements, as well as meaning-making about where and how school is supposed to take place, are altered. The article draws on Karen Barad's theory of agential realism to analyse guidance material on how to design, decorate, and use school buildings and a number of spearhead schools at the cutting edge of various trends within school architecture from the second half of the twentieth century until the present day. Through this theoretical lens, the article explores the material and discursive coming into being of the corridor as a space of potential, the transformations of the relationship between the corridor and the classroom, and, finally, the emergence of the corridor as a learning space.


This study predicted output of photovoltaic module by temperature. When predicted results compared with the actual photovoltaic modules, module specifications and lower error rate of the results obtained credibility. The result of output power having maximum was also confirmed by MATLAB simulation. Also, solar cell module voltage the current output characteristics of the simulation results could be obtained by the predicted output method of solar modules using MATLAB, presented in this paper, without restrictions and weather conditions and location.


We study generalized and degenerate Whittaker models for reductive groups over local fields of characteristic zero (archimedean or non-archimedean). Our main result is the construction of epimorphisms from the generalized Whittaker model corresponding to a nilpotent orbit to any degenerate Whittaker model corresponding to the same orbit, and to certain degenerate Whittaker models corresponding to bigger orbits. We also give choice-free definitions of generalized and degenerate Whittaker models. Finally, we explain how our methods imply analogous results for Whittaker-Fourier coefficients of automorphic representations. For GLn(F) this implies that a smooth admissible representation π has a generalized Whittaker model WO(π) corresponding to a nilpotent coadjoint orbit O if and only if O lies in the (closure of) the wavefront set WF(π). Previously this was only known to hold for F nonarchimedean and O maximal in WF(π), see [MW87]. We also express WO(π) as an iteration of a version of the Bernstein-Zelevinsky derivatives [BZ77, AGS15a]. This enables us to extend to GLn(R) and GLn(C) several further results from [MW87] on the dimension of WO(π) and on the exactness of the generalized Whittaker functor.


A linearly polarized dielectric resonator (DR) antenna (DRA) with omnidirectional polarization diversity is presented in this paper. The dimensions of the DR should be chosen when the resonance frequencies of the TM01δand TE011+δmodes are the same. A circular patch with four short-circuited stubs are used to excite the TM mode without drilling any hole inside the DR. The TE mode is excited by four arc-shaped microstrip lines. A prototype was designed, fabricated, and measured. Good agreement can be observed between the simulated and measured results. The overlapping impedance bandwidth is measured as 8.1%. It should be mentioned that the proposed design is made of transparent glass, which could be easily integrated with optical applications.


The article defines the structural components of the rating evaluation system of students' training quality. This system is described from the standpoint of different approaches system, active, student-centered and competence. The article reveals some technological aspects of implementing a rating system in the training of bachelors in accordance with the requirements of the federal state educational standards.


Metabolic syndrome is a growing concern as modern populations become more sedentary, more obese, and more reliant on processed foods that are typically lacking in valuable nutrients and often contain known toxins. The objective of this study was to determine the impact on metabolic syndrome of an integrated nutrition protocol, which was developed and has been successfully used to treat many chronic diseases at Pioneer Integrative Medical Clinic in Draper, Utah. The protocol included a diet emphasizing reduction of dietary sugar and five supplements rich in protein, antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, cellular detoxifiers, probiotics, and digestive enzymes. Four patients ranging in age from 47-66 years old participated in the 12-week study. All patients showed improvements in at least 4 of 5 factors used to diagnose metabolic syndrome. Results are preliminary yet encouraging, with patients showing greatly improved insulin sensitivity and reductions in triglyceride levels. Biomarker tests revealed improvements in HDL (good) cholesterol levels and reductions in blood pressure readings. Patients also reported enhanced energy, reduced joint pain, and significant weight loss (on average, waist circumference was reduced by 3.3 inches).


Law no. 40/2011 brought numerous changes to the Labour Code. Some of them are designed to remove certain inconsistencies or ambiguities that created confusion in practice, others merely to transpose European legislation into national law.


The synthesis of zeolite NaA from Bangka kaolin was started by activation step with calcination at temperature 650°C for 2 hours. This activation produced metakaolin, an amorphous phase as assigned by XRD pattern. Based on the result by XRF technique, metakaolin produced from thermal treatment was mostly composed of silicon and aluminum with SiO2/Al2O3 ratio=1.63, and other minor metal elements. This metakaolin was suitable to use as a source for zeolite NaA synthesis which had Si/Al ratio close to one. For the synthesis of zeolite NaA, metakaolin was mixed with NaOH solution, followed by crystallization at 100°C for 24 hrs. The solid product, zeolite NaA was separated by filtration. The resulted filtrate was reused for next zeolite NaA synthesis by the addition of metakaolin. The synthesis was performed by varying initial NaOH concentrations of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 M at a constant crystallization temperature at 100°C and constant crystallization time of 24 hours. The synthesis products were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy technique. The optimum results with the highest degree of purity and structural order were obtained from initial NaOH concentration 3M. Synthesis with NaOH concentration higher than 3M produced hydroxisodalite as another phase. The reused of filtrate in the synthesis showed the good product of zeolite NaA up to two times reused. Further reused of filtrate resulted significant decrease of purity and structural order. Further investigation indicates that another factor such as aging time for three days before synthesis could produce zeolite NaA at lower crystallization temperatures. While the amount of metakaolin in the initial mixture did not give a significantly better product. The production of zeolite NaA from Bangka kaolin using reused filtrate as partial nutrients could be an excellent way to minimize environmental impacts and decrease processing costs.The synthesis of zeolite NaA from Bangka kaolin was started by activation step with calcination at temperature 650°C for 2 hours. This activation produced metakaolin, an amorphous phase as assigned by XRD pattern. Based on the result by XRF technique, metakaolin produced from thermal treatment was mostly composed of silicon and aluminum with SiO2/Al2O3 ratio=1.63, and other minor metal elements. This metakaolin was suitable to use as a source for zeolite NaA synthesis which had Si/Al ratio close to one. For the synthesis of zeolite NaA, metakaolin was mixed with NaOH solution, followed by crystallization at 100°C for 24 hrs. The solid product, zeolite NaA was separated by filtration. The resulted filtrate was reused for next zeolite NaA synthesis by the addition of metakaolin. The synthesis was performed by varying initial NaOH concentrations of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 M at a constant crystallization temperature at 100°C and constant crystallization time of 24 hours. The synthesis products were characterized by...


Recent years have witnessed great advances in image classification due to the availability of high-volume data and the development of deep neural networks. Nevertheless, the classification performance strongly depends on abundant training samples for the specific category, and there is no ability to recognize categories that do not appear during the training process. In this paper, a novel formulation based on consistent subspace learning for zero-shot image classification is proposed, which pursues a common subspace of the visual features and semantic representations of images. Particularly, such a subspace is defined by class label information, in which a similarity metric is utilized for the zero-shot image classification. In addition, a novel mechanism is developed to efficiently capture the consistent information between visual and semantic embeddings in the learned subspace. An iterative optimization algorithm based on block coordinate descent is designed to solve the proposed formulation. Ultimately, comprehensive experimental analyses on five public datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm gains promising performance, and even outperforms several state-of-the-art works.


A precise finite‐fault model including the fault geometry and slip distribution is essential to understand the physics of an earthquake. However, the conventional linear inversion of geodetic data for a finite‐fault model cannot fully resolve the fault geometry. In this study, we developed a Bayesian inversion framework that can comprehensively solve a non‐planar fault geometry, the corresponding fault slip distribution with spatially variable directions, and objective weighting for multiple data types. In the proposed framework, the probability distributions of all the model parameters are sampled using the Monte Carlo method. The developed methodology removes the requirement for manual intervention for the fault geometry and data weighting and can provide an ensemble of plausible model parameters. The performance of the developed method is tested and demonstrated through inversions for synthetic oblique‐slip faulting models. The results show that the constant rake assumption can significantly bias the estimates of fault geometry and data weighting, whereas additional consideration of the variability of slip orientations can allow plausible estimates of a non‐planar fault geometry with objective data weighting. We applied the method to the 2013 Mw 6.5 Lushan earthquake in Sichuan province, China. The result reveals dominant thrust slips with left‐lateral components and a curved fault geometry, with the confidence interval of the dip angles being between 20°–25° and 56°–58°. The proposed method provides useful insights into the scope of imaging a non‐planar fault geometry, and could help to interpret more complex earthquake sources in the future.


David Lewis-Williams is professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was the founder and long-time director of the Rock Art Research Institute. His books include Believing and Seeing: Symbolic Meanings in Southern San Rock Art and The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art. He is an honorary overseas fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and a recipient of the James Henry Breasted Prize. In 2000 President Thabo Mbeki invited him to translate the new post-apartheid South African motto into the nowextinct /Xam San language. firstname.lastname@example.com


Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a herpesvirus, a member of the beta-herpesvirus subfamily. Infection with CMV represents a major cause of congenital infection, and also a cause of perinatal infection. We present the case of a 3 months-old sugar with breast milk jaundice and hepatic cytolysis, in our evidence from one month. At the age of 6 weeks, at the second evaluation, the laboratory tests showed a mild increase of lymphocytes and monocytes, minimum hepatic cytolysis and positive CMV immunoglobulin M (IgM) assays. Our decision was to follow up the case, without antiviral therapy, because the acute CMV infection was asymptomatic. Therefore, the hepatic cytolysis may precede the presence of CMV in blood, because the immune mediated response to CMV involve specific antibodies type IgM few weeks after the moment of infection.


Marx's labor value theory is not only the foundation of surplus value theory, but also the start point of the conceiving socialism distribution according to labor. In essence, the theory constitutes three aspects, including distribution according to labor, equal labor equal reward, and merit base. In the market socialist economy, the essence was endowed with new characteristic and form.


Expertise and decision-aiding are risky activities in safety, security and environment domains. This paper suggests some approaches based on MCDA literature to cope with these risks based on real life experience feedbacks.


Preventative healthcare is crucial for improving individual patient outcomes and is integral to sustainable health systems. The effectiveness of prevention programs is enhanced by activated populations who are capable of managing their own health and are proactive to keep themselves well. However, little is known about the level of activation among people drawn from general populations. We used the Patient Activation Measure (PAM) to address this knowledge gap.


During normal pregnancy uterine and systemic vascular function change dramatically, ie, uterine blood flow and cardiac output increase, and both of these vascular beds exhibit vascular refractoriness to the vasoconstrictor effects of infused angiotensin II and other vasoconstrictors. i-* Furthermore, in ovine pregnancy the uterine vascular bed is even less reactive to the vasoconstrictor effects of angiotensin II as compared to the systemic vasculature.3 Vascular function is controlled by smooth muscle vasoconstriction and tone (see reference 4, for review). Uterine vascular function may be modulated in part by endothelium-derived vasoactive substances produced during pregnancy. Of these factors the one most extensively studied in uterine blood vessels is prostacyclin (PGI$ while other endothelial factors that have not been studied as much include endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF),6a7 platelet activating facton and others. 7 This review will deal only with the potential role of PGI2, and EDRF in the control of uterine vascular function in pregnancy. Endothelium-derived substances such as PGI2


Reservoirs play an essential role in Taiwan's water resources management. However, due to the impact of climate change, the suitability of Taiwan's reservoirs faces emerging challenges. One important issue for Taiwan is the reservoirs' safety. Because the extreme hydrology events happen more and more frequently, reservoirs will be having higher possibility of dam overtopping. The traditional design principle, Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) and Probable Maximum Flood (PMF), which was applied to decide the spillway capacity, is neither probable nor maximum from a realistic viewpoint. In addition, high reservoir sedimentation rate is another threat. The sedimentation significantly decreases the reservoir capacity and reduces reservoir's function of flood protection and other benefits. Neither the overtopping and sedimentation risks are deterministic mechanism. Moreover, other potential risk factors which influence reservoir's performance are also uncertain. Therefore, it is necessary to apply risk management, instead of deterministic methodology, to explore the long term impact on reservoir for better management. This study develops a theoretical framework and practical methodology for reservoir risk management. It will focus on the impact of more frequent extreme hydrological events caused by climate change and quantify different risk factors by stochastic approach. First this study will develop an analytical conceptual model. We focus on the impact of more frequent extreme hydrological events caused by climate change and quantify different risk factors by stochastic approach. First this study will develop an analytical conceptual model. Coupling physical governing relationship and economic tools, the model will derive the optimal decision condition of reservoir management. This conceptual framework is applied to Shihmen Reservoir as a case study. According to the knowledge learned from the analysis, this study will identify the potential risks of reservoir and provide appropriate suggestion for strategy and policy. Reservoirs play an essential role in Taiwan's water resources management. Due to the impact of climate change, Taiwan's reservoirs face emerging challenges. One challenge comes from the change of hydrological condition. In the last decade, records of extreme weather conditions have been broken every year. Frequent extreme events result more disastrous floods. Correspondingly, the risk of reservoir could seriously increase with the occurrence of larger floods. The watershed sedimentation is another essential threat to reservoir's safety and sustainability. On one hand, the sedimentation deposit in the reservoir causes the loss of storage capacity and shortens the life of reservoir. On the other hand, the loss of capacity also reduces the flood control volume required to attenuate the peak. As a result, flood more possibly exceeds the maximum design peak inflow and become a safety concern of the reservoir.


Participatory GIS (PGIS) was borne out of the cauldron of the GIS and Society debates and the social theoretic critique of GIS. The form and practice of PGIS continues to reflect its origins. At its core PGIS remains focused on integrating local knowledge that is multivalent, equivocal, and often conflictual within a reductionist GIS technology and extensive Spatial Data Infrastructure. Recent conceptual developments in deep mapping and spatial storytelling have the potential to advance the representation of community knowledge through participatory deep mapping. Deep mapping explicitly recognizes that social life is contingent, implicated, and unpredictable. In representing a critical engagement between Geographic Information Science (GISc) and community knowledge and representation, deep mapping potentially challenges the misalignment in representing community knowledge in GIS and in bending geospatial technologies to the needs of communities.


Radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) is considered as an efficient way to produce quasi-monoenergetic ions, in which an ultra-thin foil is accelerated by high intensity circularly polarized laser. Our simulation study shows that an important factor limiting this acceleration process is the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which results in the exponential growth of the foil density perturbation during the acceleration and hence the induced transparency of the foil and broadening of the particle energy spectrum. In this paper, we study RPA of multi-ion thin foil made of carbon and hydrogen and investigate the possibility of using abundant electrons supplied from carbon to delay the foil from becoming transparent, enhance the acceleration of protons and therefore improve the energy of quasi-monoenergetic proton beam. We show the dependence of the energy of quasi-monoenergetic proton and carbon beam on the concentration ratio of carbon and hydrogen in the foil for RPA.


The dynamic and partial reconfiguration in FPGA with heterogeneous resources is a challenge for the next years. It allows reconfiguring a specific hardware zone in FPGA while maintaining the activity of the remaining circuit's part. This paper introduces a new approach about how to solve the problem of placement of the hardware tasks on the recent reconfigurable technology using the honey Bees Algorithm. This approach aims at performing a good placement by maximizing the efficiency of the used resources and reducing the task's reconfiguration overheads. Experimental results show that the proposed method can perform a good placement of hardware tasks on the device by optimizing significantly the parameters of the cost function in terms of resources and execution time.


Ninety‐nine patients took part in a multicentre, long‐term study of metoprolol in the treatment of hypertension. Significant reductions in blood pressure and heart rate were achieved by the use of metoprolol alone, or in combination with other antihypertensive agents. Side effects were similar to those seen with other β–adrenergic blocking agents, except that bronchospasm and cold extremities were rarely encountered. Results of monitoring for the abnormal eye symptoms and antinuclear factor titre are discussed. In a second study, 14 hypertensive patients with asthma (11 patients) or history thereof (three patients), received metoprolol for their hypertension. In general, no significant change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was found, despite significant reduction in blood pressure and heart rate. The concomitant use of a β2‐agonist is discussed.


Abstract : Contents: Shell model studies in nuclear structure, by R. D. Lawson; Spin assignments from triple correlation utilizing axial symmetry, by F. W. Prosser, Jr.; sd-Shell nuclei and the shell model, by A. Arima; Investigation of Al27, p31 and S32 by electron scattering, by G. R. Bishop; Group theory and nuclear structure in the 2s-1d shell, by M. Moshinsky; The giant dipole resonance in light nuclei, by L. Meyer-Schutzmeister; General properties of nuclear excitations, by J. B. French; Nuclear reactions in astrophysics, by C. A. Barnes; Resonance reactions and isospin, by P. M. Endt.


1. Introduction and Overview 2. The Enigma and Fluidity of Capital 3. Bringing the Social Back In 4. Bourdieu's Social Capital: from distinction to extinction 5. Bringing Rational Choice Back In 6. Making the Benchmark Work for Social Theory 7. The Expanding Universe of Social Capital 8. Making the Post-Washington Consensus 9. World Banking on Social Capital 10. Measuring Social Capital: How long is a missing link 11. Social Capital Versus Political Economy


In recent years, web-based platforms and business applications have been rising in popularity deeming themselves indispensable as they constitute the main backbone of business processes and information sharing. However, the unprecedented increased number of cyber-attacks have been threatening their day-to-day operations. In particular, the Standard Query Language Injection Attack (SQLIA) remains one of the most prevalent cyber attacks targeting web-based applications. As a consequence, the SQLIA detection techniques need to be constantly revamped and stay up-to-date in order to achieve the full potential of mitigating such threats. In this paper, we propose an artificial intelligence model based on supervised machine learning techniques to detect SQLIA. As part of the proposed model, we introduce an input string validation technique as a primary anomaly identifier using pattern matching for SQL Query data with anomalies-injections. To evaluate our approach we injected one type of SQLIA that is tautology attacks and measured the performance of our model. We used three main classifiers in our model and our findings indicate a model prediction accuracy of 98.3605% for Support Vector Machine (SVM), 96.296% for K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and 97.530% for Random Forest. The approach proposed in this paper has the potential of being used to integrate an automated SQL Injection detection mechanism with Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Protection Systems (IPS).


Electronic document delivery is increasingly becoming an important adjunct of library literature resources development service. Domestic Regional Library Document Delivery has presented a certain scale, however, the sustainable and healthy development of document delivery are facing more and more prominent problems, of which the legal transfer, the balance of interests between the libraries, transfer efficiency are becoming bottlenecks. Based on analysis of these key issues, the article puts forward some feasible countermeasures, mainly including obtaining publisher authorization, establishing interests balancing mechanism between libraries, and improving the fill rate and efficiency . The author's purpose is to provide a reference for the efficient implementation of the library document delivery.


This paper addresses the problem of garbage collection in persistent object stores that are multilevel. The proposed approach is able to preserve referential integrity, while ensuring that security is not violated. we first discuss some general principles that should underlie any approach to garbage collection in secure environments. Then, we present a secure garbage collection algorithm, based on the copying approach.<<ETX>>


During the last 2 decades Denmark has experienced a very substantial decline in fertility. At present the average number of live births/women is only 1.4 as compared with 2.6 in the mid-1960s. The new trend in fertility has been accompanied by very substantial social changes. 1 of the more spectacular modifications has been the marked increase in the female labor force participation rates. At the same time the educational level has increased considerably. These changes have reduced the desired number of births in families since they demand a new balance between the time devoted to children and the aspirations of both parents with regard to education and labor force participation. The low level of fertility implies a strong aging of the population. The new demographic situation has far-reaching economic and social implications. (authors) (summary in ENG)


This article reconsiders the extent recitation and memorization played in the process of the literary composition and transmission of biblical texts, and attempts to distinguish between aurally recognizable intertextual echoes, as opposed to literary patterning based upon visual recognition. The findings of recent cognitive studies are applied in evaluating two sets of questions: first, whether different types of biblical intertextuality would have been equally recognizable to both listeners and readers; and second, whether scribes who produced intertextual compositions consulted and referred to written texts, or whether biblical intertextuality stems from the author's trace memories of texts read or performed.


This chapter develops a theoretical account of why organizations are key to enforcing constitutional rights. The starting point for our argument is that rights enforcement is not automatic; governments that wish to violate rights will only refrain from doing so when violations are politically costly. Yet punishing governments for violating rights requires overcoming two problems: dedicated citizens must agree that certain government actions indeed constitute a violation (a coordination problem) and devise a strategy to impose such costs (a collective action problem). Formal organizations are well equipped to overcome these problems. When rights are practiced by or within organizations, these organizations will be motivated to protect their rights, even when rights protection is not their core mission. For example, religious groups are not established to protect religious freedom, but they have strong incentives to nonetheless do so when religious freedom is under threat. When rights are practiced on an individual basis, equivalent organizations do not exist. While civil society groups can attempt to enforce these rights, they rely on members dedicated specifically to rights protection and are therefore typically weaker than mass-membership organizations like organized religion, trade unions, or political parties.


Abstract A number of different approaches to the study of the effects of male‐mediated drug or chemical insult on the subsequent offspring have been used. Typically a modified dominant lethal protocol has been used with the offspring allowed to go to term and the functional development assessed at specific postnatal ages. The present review examines the importance of the mating times for identification of the stages of spermatogenesis most sensitive to insult and the possible mechanisms involved in male‐mediated transmission of the effect of toxic exposure to the offspring.


Hemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can be harvested from the bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood. HSC transplantation is used to treat hematologic and lymphoid cancers and other disorders. Some reports have indicated that Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) might cure these intractable diseases--including hematological disorders, autoimmune diseases and age-associated diseases. Intra bone marrow- BMT (IBM-BMT) has been proven to be a powerful strategy for allogeneic BMT due to the rapid hemopoietic recovery and the complete restoration of T cell functions. In this review, we summarize the findings of our studies of IBM-BMT to treat some intractable diseases, including cancers such as leukemia, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune pancreatitis, age-related diseases such as osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease in mouse models.


This paper describes the financial innovations hypothesis that M1, but not M2, has been significantly affected by the introduction and growth of these new assets. An alternative hypothesis, called the competitive markets hypothesis here, has implications that are nearly the opposite of the financial innovations hypothesis. It suggests that the demand, desired use and composition of M2 were unaffected by the introduction of so called interest bearing checking accounts, but that the introduction of money market accounts shifted both the M2 multiplier and its demand or velocity. The article then assesses the validity of the financial innovations hypothesis by examining whether decisions involving the turnover rate for checkable deposits, currency preferences, money multipliers and M1 and M2 demand or velocity have been affected by these innovations, especially in the manner suggested by the financial innovations hypothesis. The results support the competitive market hypothesis.


Every utterance is processed both grammatically and pragmatically. Accordingly, in offering an account of linguistic phenomena, the burden of explanation may be on the grammar or on the pragmatics; and if on the grammar, the account may invoke one sub-module or another. We describe a number of examples where the overall theory is simplified if the account is switched from one (sub)module to another. Our main example concerns topic and focus fronting, where we claim that there are no dedicated Topic and Focus heads; rather, two semantically trivial heads, Gap and Φον, can be exploited to front phrases which may be pragmatically interpreted as topic or focus.


Background: Cell signaling induced by pathogenic IgG in the human autoimmune skin disease pemphigus vulgaris contributes to loss of adhesion. Results: PV IgG activate EGFR downstream of p38 and inhibiting EGFR blocks antibody induced desmoglein endocytosis, keratin retraction, and blistering. Conclusion: PV IgG-mediated transactivation of EGFR contributes mechanistically to loss of keratinocyte cell-cell adhesion. Significance: This study provides the mechanistic rationale for using EGFR inhibitors in PV. The pemphigus family of autoimmune bullous disorders is characterized by autoantibody binding to desmoglein 1 and/or 3 (dsg1/dsg3). In this study we show that EGF receptor (EGFR) is activated following pemphigus vulgaris (PV) IgG treatment of primary human keratinocytes and that EGFR activation is downstream of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38). Inhibition of EGFR blocked PV IgG-triggered dsg3 endocytosis, keratin intermediate filament retraction, and loss of cell-cell adhesion in vitro. Significantly, inhibiting EGFR prevented PV IgG-induced blister formation in the passive transfer mouse model of pemphigus. These data demonstrate cross-talk between dsg3 and EGFR, that this cross-talk is regulated by p38, and that EGFR is a potential therapeutic target for pemphigus. Small-molecule inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies directed against EGFR are currently used to treat several types of solid tumors. This study provides the experimental rationale for investigating the use of EGFR inhibitors in pemphigus.


Malta Medical Journal Volume 28 Issue 03 2016 Abstract Lung cancer is a global healthcare concern with a low 5-year survival rate and a high proportion of advanced-stage cases at diagnosis. In the absence of distant metastasis, the most important prognostic marker is mediastinal lymph node involvement. Timely diagnosis and staging improves prognosis, making rapid, safe, and accurate investigation essential. Endoscopic bronchial ultrasound (EBUS) is a minimally invasive technique which allows for ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) during bronchoscopy, with cytological sampling of several intrathoracic groups of lymph nodes. EBUS reduces need for open surgical biopsy, with good sensitivity and specificity and excellent safety profile. This article reviews current evidence regarding use of EBUS in lung cancer staging, including its role in other intrathoracic malignancies.


Acoustic signal has been recently adopted for contact-free hand gesture recognition due to its fine-grained sensing granularity and wide availability of microphone and speaker in consumer-grade electronic devices such as smartphones. However, a very limited sensing range constrains acoustic sensing to application scenarios where users interact with devices in close proximity. In this paper, we improve the range of acoustic sensing and demonstrate the feasibility of enabling room-scale hand gesture recognition using commodity smart speakers. We develop a series of novel signal processing techniques and implement our system on two commodity smart speaker prototypes with different numbers of microphones. Extensive evaluations are performed in three different environments with 1440 gestures collected from 16 participants. Experiment results show that our system can significantly increase the sensing range from 1 m to 4--5 m. In the challenging scenario where the user is 4 m away from the smart speaker and there is strong interference, the achieved gesture recognition accuracy is still higher than 90%.


【Objective】 To understand self-concept situation of street children and provide reference for a better psychological intervention on them.【Methods】Selected 154 street children of normal intelligence aged from 11 to 16 without disability in Guangzhou,Zhongshan,and Shenzhen of Guangdong province as subjects for the experimental group.According to the sex ratio of street children,246 Guangzhou students aged from 11 to 16 were selected as the control group.Investigated two group both via Piers-Harris Children's Self-concept Scale(PHCSS).【Results】 Guangdong province street children's self-concept level was lower than the national norm(P 0.001).In total score,behavior,gregariousness,happiness and satisfaction,anxiety factors of PHCSS street children scored lower than the current group of school students(P 0.001 and P 0.05,respectively).The street children's scores of intelligence and behaving in school,Body figure and attribute,anxiety,gregariousness factors of PHCSS in the age group of 14-16 were higher than which in 11-13 age(P 0.01 or ≤ 0.001).The level of self-concept of street children was different because of their different education degrees.【Conclusion】 In the process of rescue to the street children,various methods for the characteristics of children's self-concept about different age,gender and educational level should be used to promote the development of their self-concept,thereby enhancing the mental health of street children.


Fossil woods of Sterculioxylon deccanensis sp. nov., Grewioxylon sp. d., G. ma}mr zariense Prakash & Dayal, Elaeocarpoxylon mandlaensis sp. novo and A lalantioxylon indicum gen. et sp. novo have been described here from the Deccan Intertrappean beds of 1\1andla District in Madhya Pradesh. These represent the extant genera Sterculia, Grewia, Elaeocarpus-Echinocarpus and A lalantia-Limonia of the families Sterculiaceae, Ti!iaceae, Elaeocarpaceae and Rutaceae respectively. Of these, Sterculia and Atalantia-Limonia are new additions to the Palaeogene flora of India.


The problem of increasing the rate of heat transfer between structures and surrounding confronts the engineers in all the phases of technological development. Natural convection cooling with the help of finned surfaces often offers an economical, noiseless and trouble free solution. Natural convection heat transfers from horizontal rectangular fin arrays with and without rectangular notch at the center have been analyzed numerically by using finite difference technique. The results are obtained for notched array, having different percentage depth and are compared to without notch array over a range of fin spacing, fin heights and notch percentages. It is found that the heat transfer rate in notched fin array is better than without notched fin array. The fluid flow analysis shows that the air velocity increases in the upward direction with notched fin array arrangement. Computational data is obtained for the range of parameters Pr = 0.7, Gr = 10 4 - 10 7 , S/H = 0.1- 0.4, L/H= 2 and 4, Notch percentage – 20%, 50%, 60% , 80%.


A field experiment was undertaken with a set of near-isogenic spring wheat lines (cv. Triple Dirk) to determine the influence of the Rht1 and Rht2 alleles on the deposition of carbon in the stem, and the subsequent use of these reserves during grain growth. The amount of dry matter stored and mobilized was estimated by the measurement of changes in masses of stem from frequent harvests. Deposition or absolute reserve was defined as the sum of the increments in mass in each segment of the large culm between the time that the segment ceased extending and the time that it reached maximum mass. The incorporation of the Rht1 and Rht2 alleles into a Triple Dirk background reduced the absolute amount of stored carbon in the stem by 35 and 39%, respectively. This was a consequence of the 21% reduction of stem height in Rht1 and Rht2 lines. Use or mobilization of reserve was defined as the sum of the decrements in mass in each segment of the large culm between maximum and maturity. The alleles did not confer an ability to mobilize more of the stored stem reserves in absolute terms, although the efficiency of use of stem reserves (i.e. use as a proportion of deposition) was higher in Rht1 than in rht or Rht2 . The possible contribution of stored carbon in the stem to final grain yield was estimated to be 22, 18 and 14% in the rht, Rht1 and Rht2 lines. In these estimates, the loss of mass was adjusted by 33% to allow for respiration. It was concluded that the larger stem reserves in rht wheats are of no real advantage under favourable environmental conditions, and may in fact be a disadvantage if the accumulation of that extra dry matter results in a reduction of sink size.


Abstract The hindered rotations of methyl groups have been studied in solid toluene, 2-F-toluene and 3-F-toluene. NMR pulse investigations have been carried out between the melting point and liquid helium temperatures at 14.5 MHz and 40.7 MHz. As in the case of earlier studies on the three xylenes, which have been continued in this work, the motional narrowing of the proton resonance lines was found to persist down to very low temperatures. In comparison with their exponential increase at high temperatures, the spin-lattice relaxation rates 1/T1 decay as a function of reciprocal temperature much less rapidly in the low temperature range. In the transition region, 1/T1 exhibits maxima which are more or less broadened or distorted. In effect, the relaxation at low temperatures is much stronger than that predicted by semiclassical theories. An explanation of the observed behaviour takes into acount the quantization of the rotational and torsional motion and the coupling between the spin and rotational degrees of freedom on one hand, and the phonons of the lattice on the other hand. At low temperatures, the motion causing nuclear spin-lattice relaxation is reduced to certain torsional transitions between the lowest states, which are connected with tunneling. At high temperatures, the summation of a great number of rotational transitions in the presence of strong coupling to the lattice leads o the "classical" behaviour. The potential barriers hindering the methyl group reorientations were found to be rather small in all the materials studied: toluene 0.1-0.2 kcal/mole, 2-fluorotoluene 0.50 kcal/mole, 3-fluoro-toluene 0.30 kcal/mole. They are, however, still large in comparison with free molecule data.


The article reviews the history and present status of infrared temperature measurement technology,analyzes the existing problems of temperature measurement with infrared thermal imager from technical perspectives,introduces domestic and international researching focuses of infrared thermal imaging temperature measurement technology,and prospects its future trends.At the end,the analysis and summary of the theory,instrument,calibration and applications for infrared temperature measurement have been made in detail.


Type I Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is among the most common endocrinological diseases in adolescents. The purpose of this study was to research the level of autoantibodies (AAT) to NMDA receptors and Type 2 dopamine receptors (DAR2) in children with varying severity condition of Type I Diabetes. We examined 38 children and adolescents aged 2 to 17 years. In order to determine the levels of AAT to NMDA receptors and dopamine receptors (DR2) in blood serum, we applied the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found higher levels of AAT to NMDA receptors and dopamine receptors (DAR2) in children with chronic Type I Diabetes against the background of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), as compared to children with the diabetes onset or compensation of the disease. The increased levels of AAT to NMDA and dopamine receptors (DAR2) were found in children and adolescents against the background of a long history of the disease and frequent hospitalization to the intensive care unit.


The recent contention of Griem (see abstr. a8495 of 1972) that there can be a difference between emission and absorption shapes of Stark broadened lines in a thermal plasma is shown to be in error, as in his assertion that 'symmetrization' effects reduce the linewidth of helium resonance line in a helium plasma.


The dynamic characteristics play an important role in flutter [1] and dynamic loads. For understanding and performing aeroelastic analysis and dynamic loads analysis, the primary input is the stiffness, the mass and inertia properties of each component. A GVT measures the modal characteristics of a structure [2] and is used in the process of structural modifications, flutter analysis etc. Simsiriwong and Sullivan [3] states that, one of the major methods to obtain the modal characteristics of an airplane structure is by the use of Frequency Response Functions (FRFs), which is nothing but a transfer functions in frequency domain. There are several suspension methods [4] which are used during the GVT of an airplane or its components, depending the size and weight of the structure. Generally used methods are suspension using bungee cords and suspending using an airbag system or multiple airbag systems. Mathew J. Whitney et al., [5] performed detailed analysis for suspension methods. Bungee cord is widely used and consists of strands of rubber which are wrapped in a woven sheath to form a cord. Research performed on the Global Hawk by Hensley et al., [6] uses airbags for simulating rigid body modes. Various input signals are used in this technique [7], multi sine, periodic chip, stepped sines, burst random etc. Vittala et al., [8] mentions about a full coarse FEM of an airplane for dynamic analysis. In this, they used CQUAD4 and CTRIA3 shell elements of MSC NASTRAN [9]. The total degrees of freedom of the model were 672000 and proper check was made to compare the total mass and center of gravity of the structure. Szkudlarek [4], modeled the hobby airplane using NASTRAN and it was discretized by using CBAR and CQUAD4 elements and the properties used were 2D PCOMP for composite materials and the CONM1 was used for lumped masses which are attached to the structure. Dennis Goge [16], in his research validates a finite element model of a four engine airplane with the test using the correlation analysis [19] and Modal Assurance Criterion. Salehi et al., [17], conducted a test and FEA on an airplane like structure. The FE model was constructed in ANSYS. The model was constructed by 32 beam elements. Hageman et al., [23] in their research, mentions about the dynamic effect of an un-modeled portion of a structure in a finite element model. The research concentrates on a method for including the dynamic behavior of the attached structure in a Abstract


This paper examines the phenomenon of the return of Bedouin and Druze women from studies in Israeli universities to their homes and culture, focusing on the perspective of the psychological changes they experienced in their identity. Entering the university, located in the Jewish-Israeli space (in central cities in Israel), constitutes entry into a new and different cultural world that exposes these women to values and norms different from those of their culture of origin. The identity formed as a result of their encounter with and exposure to a world that was unfamiliar to them and the return thereafter to their villages entail changes in gender identity. Not only are they 'different' from the way they were before they left; they often feel like 'internal immigrants' within their own culture. A deeper understanding of these effects would enhance comprehension of the emotional processes and identity changes undergone by women from non-Western cultures who obtain higher education.


Big data analytics adoption is gaining momentum amongst both policy makers and business leaders. Indeed many sectors in the economy and society have been adopting recent information technology innovations to deal with issues that were previously impossible to tackle. One of these issues is corruption. This paper considers the impact of big data on corruption in developed and developing countries. Specifically, we investigate the effect of internet usage on corruption prevention and early detection, and examine the impact of investment in data-driven technology on corruption prevention and early detection. Finally, we evaluate the impact of mobile data subscription on total corruption. We use secondary data covering 1995 to 2020 for three low FinTech developing countries and three mature FinTech developed countries. Random effect regression models are employed to estimate and test for the impact of big data on corruption in developing and developed countries. We find that internet usage and fixed telephone subscription have a significant negative impact on corruption in developing countries. Investment in technology, mobile phone users subscription and gross domestic product also have a significant negative impact on corruption in developing countries. However, inflation has no significant effect on corruption in developing countries. In contrast, we find no significant impact of big data on corruption within developed countries. Big data adoption, therefore, seems to hinder corruption in developing countries, but not in developed countries.


This depression-provided steel pipe has plural depressions on an outer peripheral surface, the depressions being formed so as to form a line along an axial direction of the steel pipe, in which each of the depressed portions has, inside thereof, a columnar groove portion extending along the axial direction of the steel pipe and depressed deeper than a bottom surface of these depressed portions; 0.95@email@example.com is satisfied, where HA is an average Vickers hardness in each of the depressed portions, and HB is a Vickers hardness at a portion between the depressed portions adjacent to each other in the axial direction of the steel pipe; and the outer peripheral surface is covered with a mill scale.


A simple and effective preparation technique for isolation of 7S and 11S globulins from broad beans and pea seeds has been developed. It is based on differential solubility of 7S and 11S globulins in sodium chloride solution at pH 4.8 and at 5 and 20 degrees C. The method makes it possible to isolate 6 g of 11S and 1 g of 7S globulins from 100 g of broad bean meal or 1.5 g of 11S and 2 g of 7S globulins from 100 g of pea meal, with only low centrifugation. If necessary, the admixture of 15S component in 11S globulin preparations can be removed by gel chromatography on Sepharose CL-6B.


Benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZAs) are often prescribed for insomnia in older adults. Polypharmacy increases risk of adverse events in this population in general, particularly when medications within the same class are prescribed. During an ongoing hypnotic deprescribing trial, we explored use of more than one BZA (multi-BZA use) and self-reported sleep quality among older adults.

 Telephone surveys were performed for recruitment to an ongoing BZA deprescribing trial. Participants aged ≥ 55 years who were prescribed at least one BZA (i.e., alprazolam, clonazepam, lorazepam, temazepam, or zolpidem) from a Department of Veterans Affairs pharmacy in Southern California were asked about their use of each BZA over the past 3 months for sleep (yes/no). Multi-BZA use was defined as using > 1 different BZA over the past 3 months. Self-reported sleep items included duration of sleep problems (<3, 3-12, or >12 months), sleep quality (very or fairly good, fairly or very bad), and sleep efficiency (mean total sleep time over time in bed). Analyses compared sleep variables between multi-BZA and non-multi-BZA users (Fisher's Exact or t-tests).

 Among participants (N=359), 152 (42.3%) reported using zolpidem, 41 (11.4%) lorazepam, 39 (10.9%) alprazolam, 31 (8.6%) clonazepam, and 29 (8.1%) temazepam during the past 3 months. 35 (9.8%) participants reported taking more than one of these drugs. 93.9% reported their sleep problems were present for ≥3 months. 68.3% of participants reported their sleep was fairly/very bad, and mean sleep efficiency was 67.9 (SD 18.5). There were no significant differences between multi-BZA versus non-multi-BZA users in duration of sleep complaints (Fisher's Exact=1.0; p=.842), sleep quality (Fisher's Exact=0.70; p=0.56) or sleep efficiency (p=0.91).

 We found 1 in 10 older adults prescribed a BZA for sleep reported multi-BZA use over the past 3 months. Multi-BZA use was unrelated to duration of sleep complaints, sleep quality or sleep efficiency. Whether the use was simultaneous or staggered, these findings are concerning, given the elimination half-life of most of the BZAs and that polypharmacy, especially within medication class, may increase risk of adverse events (e.g., falls). Further research is needed to explore factors contributing to multi-BZA use.

 NIA R01AG057929, VA IIR 17-234


Biotic elicitor as an effective regulatory factor has been widely used in plant cell culture since it can promote plant cell cultures to accumulate secondary metabolites, for example, alkaloids, saponins, phenols, terpenoids, flavonoids etc.


The a1m of this chapter is to discuss the development of political affiliation in Kurulubedde and its influence on the villagers from a historical perspective. As it was mentioned in the foregoing chapters, under the political transformation of 1931 which paved the way for outstanding distributive state penetration under the semi-autonomous government (State Council), universal suffrage was also granted to Sri Lanka. The granting of universal suffrage without considering property or literacy qualifications can be considered as one of the greatest factors which affected social change in rural society of Sri Lanka during the past decades in different ways. It laid the foundation not only for the political participation of the masses through the electoral system but also for the complex developments of ideas among the masses about the state and its role in local society as the distributor of its resources to the people. Because, as mentioned so far, the local political leaders who came to the State Council through the electoral political system since 1931 introduced the outstanding distributive welfare system in the country.


The diffraction and selective properties of various types of periodic nanostructures in promising photopolymer materials at radiation incidence in a wide range of angles are presented for the creation on their basis of effective deflectors and laser beam splitters, as well as diffractive elements for solar energy.


We report preliminary results from the Joint Study of the Charge State of the
Anomalous Component, a cooperative project of the space agencies of the US and
the USSR. The so-called "anomalous" cosmic ray component, including the elements
He, N, 0, and Ne, as well as rarer species, is believed to represent a sample of neutral
interstellar atoms that has been swept into the heliosphere, singly ionized, and
then accelerated to energies as high as 60 MeV /nucleon. A key test of this theory is
a direct verification that these energetic nuclei are indeed singly ionized. This prediction
can be tested by comparing simultaneous measurements of the flux of
anomalous cosmic rays made inside and outside the magnetosphere, using the
geomagnetic field as a rigidity-dependent filter. Grigorov et al. have recently
reported measurements of the flux of 10 MeV /nucleon C, N, and 0 nuclei made during
1986 to 1988 by a series of KOSMOS satellites flown in low Earth orbit. We
have analyzed data from the same time periods from several instruments on IMP-8
and ICE, which were located outside the magnetosphere. We compare the 0 fluxes
inside and outside the magnetosphere over this time period and examine the implications
of these measurements for the charge state of anomalous cosmic rays.


Asking the right question undertaking a library search frame your own question and search for the evidence appraise the evidence apply the evidence what clinical governance means and how to put it into practice evaluate your newly gained knowledge and skills in clinical effectiveness and clinical governance useful publications of evidence already available.


This thesis is concerned with the fabrication and characterisation of photorefractive planar waveguides by the techniques of pulsed laser deposition and ion-beam implantation. The formation of photorefractive waveguides is highly desirable for the miniaturisation of optical systems and provides compatibility with other integrated optical devices in current use such as waveguide lasers and optical fibre technology. The optical confinement inherent to waveguides also holds the key to a major speed up in the effective response time of the photorefractive effect. Up to three orders of magnitude decrease is forecast due to the intensity dependence of the photorefractive response time. This thesis reports the epitaxial growth of thin film optical waveguides of the photorefractive materials Bi12GeO20 and Bi12SiO20 onto heated zirconia substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The epitaxial nature and stoichiometry of the films are verified using x-ray diffraction analysis. Waveguide modes were observed with effective refractive indices in close agreement with theoretical predictions implying that the refractive index of the deposited film is similar to that of the bulk crystal. Pulsed laser deposition has also been used to fabricate waveguides from the chalcogenide glass lanthanum/gallium sulphide. The waveguides demonstrate many characteristic chalcogenide properties such as photo-bleaching, photo-diffusion and a photo-induced change in the refractive index. Ion-beam implantation has been successfully used to form planar waveguides in the photorefractive materials Bi12SiO20, SrxBa1-xNb206 and BaTiO3. The annealing of SBN waveguides and the effect on waveguide propagation loss is discussed. Photorefractive effects have been observed and characterised in BaTiO3. The expected decrease in the effective photorefractive response time (for a given input power) has been observed, owing to a combination of optical confinement within the waveguide and possible modification of charge-transport properties induced through implantation. Photorefractive two-beam coupling experiments exhibited a decrease in the response time of >10^2, and an unexpected reversal of the gain direction in the waveguide compared with that of the bulk crystal.