Aims:  To investigate the use of mannitol salt agar (MSA) supplemented with acriflavine for selective growth and quantification of Staphylococcus aureus from flushed dairy manure wastewater (FDMW).


Healthcare coordination involves organizing and sharing information among all participants involved in patient care in order to provide safer and more effective care. It has been identified as a key strategy to improve effectiveness, safety, and efficiency of healthcare. While the need for healthcare coordination is clear, there are many obstacles, including technical, behavioral, and organizational. Information technology (IT) has played a role in enhancing productivity through coordination in many industries, both manufacturing and services. However, nowhere is this role more critical than in healthcare, where IT has the potential to improve patient health and, in many cases, save lives, through improved coordination between various parties such as hospitals, providers, and patients. However, use of IT in healthcare presents some unique challenges and issues. This mini-track will focus on the use of technology and non-IT assets such as process changes and interoperability standards to address these challenges to achieve and enable efficient coordination in healthcare. In the first session, we have several papers that focus on how coordination using information technology alters processes and outcomes. The first paper, "The Transformative Role of Telemedicine" uses a case study approach to investigate how telemedicine alters coordination practices among pathologists, technologists, and surgeons, particularly in terms of predictability, common understanding and accountability. The authors found a shift towards reliance on plans and rules rather than routines, emphasis on standards rather than familiarity, and more individual and contractual rather than collective accountability. "Towards Designing an Assistant for Semi-Automatic EMS Dispatching" provides a design framework for an assistant that helps dispatch EMS vehicles. The assistant offers explanations for the choice of scheduling algorithms and dispatching suggestions to increase trust and decrease stress in coordinating patient transport assignments. In the third paper, "Building Healthier Communities: Value Co-Creation within the Chronic Care Model for Under-Resourced Areas", the authors develop a research model for coordination of clinical services and public health resources in delivering chronic care. Their model conceptualizes improved chronic disease health outcomes as co-created value, focusing on triadic actor-to-actor resource integration (patients, family/friends, providers) and service exchange. In the second session, we have papers focused on the challenges of coordination with information systems. "Bring Your Own Mobile Device (BYOD) to the Hospital: Layered Boundary Barriers and Divergent Boundary Management Strategies" illustrates why implementation of BYOD can be challenging in a hospital environment. The authors identify key issues at the individual, group, and organizational levels. "Challenges to Aligning Coordination Technology with Organizations, People, and Processes in Healthcare" summarizes IT coordination challenges in healthcare using a case study involving coordination of electronic health records. This mini track provides several different perspectives on the role of different types of information technology in enabling healthcare coordination, the value of such coordination, as well as the challenges associated with it.


In the article the theoretical approaches concerning determination the «crisis» conception and its classification are generalized, the factors of crisis situation in the enterprises' activity are examined and the substance and essence of the enterprises management process in the crisis situations are motivated. As the researches results are certified, the problems of clear meaning illustration of «crisis», «crisis management» conceptions, its place and its role in the economy remain are insufficiently developed in the work the enterprise crisis is determinate as the direct threat for its functioning, and the crisis management conception – as the sets of principles, forms and methods of operations and realizations of management decisions complex, aimed at the earliest detections of the crisis danger, the reasons diagnosis of its appearances, and at the proper conditions for the timely crisis overcoming and the restoring of the viability of the enterprise. The study demonstrated a wider range of outside and inside factors of crisis appearance in the enterprises. Sequencing of crisis management functions in the enterprises is considered. For the purpose of the crisis situations averting the possible sequence of the crisis measures realization is determinate. All that will support of the competitiveness providing, will determinate real volumes of the own and involved financial resources receiving, will gain the balanced and harmonious development off all enterprises' activity aspects, and will timely carry out an adaptive management considering the changes in the environmental.


Journals can be an effective tool to enhance student learning and simultaneously provide the instructor with unique insight into students' mental processes. In re-introducing journaling into the ME senior design course, we discovered that students need significant guidance in journaling. I describe here several interventions to improve journal quality and their results, and conclude with key lessons learned.


One hundred cases of tibial condylar fractures were treated conservatively and their results studied. Irrespective of the type or grade of fracture 87 percent acceptable results were obtained with traction and early mobilization. We found conservative management to be a safe, cheap and a reliable method of treating these fractures.


The purpose of this study is to review whether the self-esteem of Republic of Korea army officers and noncommissioned officers affect cultural acceptability and at the same time to determine whether these relationships are mediated by adjustment to military life and job satisfaction. For this purpose, we conducted a survey by random sampling of 580 officers and noncommissioned officers serving in the army units located in Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province. The collected data was analyzed by a structural equation model, including statistical and correlation analysis. As a result of analysis, self-esteem of the military officers and noncommissioned officers appeared to be mediated only by military life adjustment, or to affect the cultural acceptability mediated by the military life and job satisfaction in turn. Therefore, in order to increase the cultural acceptability of military officers and noncommissioned officers, ROK Army should enhance the self-esteem, job satisfaction and adaptability of them.


Paul Benioff was a physicist and mathematician working as a research scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory. He published two papers on Everett interpretation shortly after this letter: Benioff (1977)["Finite and infinite measurement in quantum mechanics and randomness: The Everett interpretation," Journal of Mathematical Physics 18(12), 2289] and Benioff (1978) ["A Note on the Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics," Foundations of Physics 8(9/10), 709]. In both cases, Benioff was interested in the role of infinite sequences of measurements in the Everett interpretation. In this letter, Wheeler asks Everett to comment on Benioff's argument.


Introduction Individual response to aphasia therapy is highly variable and difficult to predict. While different therapies for word retrieval are often given based on assumptions regarding the underlying breakdown, behavioural symptoms do not consistently predict which type of naming therapy will be most effective. Measures of cortical connectivity derived from EEG before and after therapy may provide additional important information for predicting and understanding response to therapy. Methods Twenty-three adults were recruited including eight adults with chronic, post-stroke aphasia who successfully completed 12 therapy sessions over 4 weeks, alternating between semantic and phonological approaches to word retrieval based on semantic feature analysis and phonological components analysis. Fifteen age-matched healthy controls were included for comparison. High-density electroencephalography (128 channel EEG) was measured during a picture-word judgement task performed before and after treatment for the aphasia group. Analysis of EEG via a dynamic causal modelling (DCM) approach was used to assess semantic and phonological processing pre and post therapy. DCM was applied using five fronto-temporo-parietal regions of interest based on source imaging analysis in the control and aphasia groups. Results Post-treatment naming improvement was associated with cortical responses measured bilaterally in a DCM connectivity model. Specifically, naming improvement for items treated with semantic feature analysis was correlated with (a) increased pre-treatment coupling between the left inferior parietal lobule and left inferior frontal gyrus (r = 0.63, pFDR=0.016) (b) increased coupling from left to right inferior parietal lobule (r = .77, FDRp = .0005) and (c) decreased pre-treatment coupling between the right inferior parietal lobule and right anterior middle temporal gyrus (r = -0.76, pFDR = 0.03). Post-treatment, reduced coupling between right inferior frontal gyrus and right posterior superior temporal gyrus was also significantly correlated with naming improvement for semantic treatment items (r= −0.53, pFDR=0.010). Conclusions This preliminary study on a small cohort of individuals with chronic aphasia has demonstrated the potential of DCM connectivity models derived from EEG data to predict and understand aphasia therapy response. In addition to highlighting the importance of connectivity within left hemisphere networks and inter-hemispheric coupling for treatment, the observation of reduced right intrahemispheric coupling in those individuals with improved outcomes supports the view that right hemisphere mechanisms may not invariably support treatment-induced recovery. Elucidating effective ipsilateral and contralateral connectivity before and after aphasia treatment provides new insights into therapy-induced reorganisation of cortical networks associated with successful therapy outcomes.


Wave front sensing is an optical method allowing non-contacting topography measurements of flat surfaces. Applications of the method are, for instance, the characterization of optical components, semiconductor surfaces, or subcomponents used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The method developed here is covering the characterization of flatness on mirror-like surfaces within three orders of magnitude from micro- to nanometer scale. This is due to the high range of detectable surface slopes from very low to relatively high values. Therefore, the method is applicable to both, micro- and nanometer scale height deviations on surfaces. The wave front sensing is capable of studying the topography in a real-time operating mode. The technique enables vertical resolution of approximately 10 nm at a lateral resolution of 0.6 mm on bare silicon wafer surfaces. Moreover, highly reflective surfaces with height deviations of 10-15 μm could be easily resolved at a lateral resolution of 2.4 mm. In this study, we focused on the application in semiconductor surfaces and manufacturing equipment: measurements were performed on bare wafers as well as on the mirror-like surface of a wafer holder used for wafer polishing (a 'polishing head'). An obstacle for measurements is a low reflectivity of surfaces. Both, metallic surfaces and silicon wafers, however, show high surface reflectivity.


With reference to the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Mt 20:1-16, this volume explores what European commentators in the 16th century were thinking about this text and what other biblical commentaries in general can contribute to clarifying the biblical text today. After a 31-page introduction, it discusses the text of the parable as it appears in the ancient texts (Greek, Syriac, Latin), the newer Latin versions, and the versions in modern languages. Then it investigates the various commentaries from the 16th century in four periods (1516-25, 1527-42, 1544-63, and 1564-98), including Erasmus, Luther, Lefevre d'Etaples, Melanchthon, M. Bucer, H. Zwingli, H. Bullinger, J. Calvin, A. Salmeron, and J. Nadal.It concludes with general observations on the readers and their models of interpretation, their different approaches, and the contributions of these expositions to our understanding of European history in the 16th century and to biblical exegesis. A 146-page bibliography is included.


The uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells anywhere in a body is cancer. Cancer is of different types and some are exclusive to women and others affect only men. Cancer is not contagious,it is usually caused by genetic damage that happens inside an individual cell. Symptoms and treatment protocols vary according to the type and stage of the cancer an individual has development. Most treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Some cancers can be prevented by taking simple precautions in our day to day life


Transmitted reference pulse cluster (TRPC) signaling has been recently proposed for ultra-wideband (UWB) Communications to address the implementation constraint posed by UWB delay lines. In the uncoded case, it has been demonstrated that the TRPC significantly outperforms the conventional transmitted reference (TR) signaling. In order to improve the performance of TRPC systems for different applications, coded TRPC systems have been developed by employing several forward error correction (FEC) codes, such as Reed-Solomon, convolutional codes and LDPC codes. In this paper, polar codes are introduced to the TRPC-UWB communication system. Gaussian approximation method is used to construct polar codes by measuring the reliability of polarized subchannels. We evaluate the performance of polar codes for TRPC-UWB systems in the IEEE 802.15.4a channels. Simulation results show that, in terms of the bit error rate (BER) performance and complexity, with appropriate parameter settings, the polar code can obtain higher coding gain over the existing FEC codes used in the TRPC system.


Objective: To study the characteristics of male and female clients in psychological counseling in general hospital. Methods:All the original case records of psychological counseling in the third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University over the last 3 years were summarized. Results: The total number of the clients was 14,689. The proportion of male to female was 1.08 to 1. Most of the clients were at the age of 20 to 29 years old. Significant differences were found between male and female clients in the marriage status,occupation,education level and so on. Conclusion: Male and female clients showed different characteristics in psychological counseling in general hospitals.


Instance spanning constraints refers to instruments to establish controls during multiple instances in or several processes. Many business entities crave an established ISC support system. Take, for instance, the bundling and unbundling of cargo from various logistics processes or the dependence of various examinations in medical treatment systems. During such systems, noncompliance with the ISC would lead to immense consequences and penalties, which can be fatal if it occurs in the medical field. ISC can also occur from process execution logs. Business execution store execution information for the process instance and, consequently, the characteristics of the execution logs. Discovering ISC early enough helps in supporting ISC design and execution. The purpose of this study is to contribute towards the categorization of the ISC and hence contribute to the digitalized ISC and its compliance management.


Information relating to the fracture toughness of geomaterials is critical to our understanding of tensile fracturing, and in particular in geological and rock engineering projects that are subjected to elevated moisture levels. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive set of fracture toughness tests on a suite of key rock types in air under different relative humidities and at constant temperature in order to investigate the influence of relative humidity on fracture toughness. Three sandstones and two igneous rocks were chosen for this purpose. We show that the value of fracture toughness decreases with increasing relative humidity. In addition, we find that the decrease in fracture toughness was more significant when the expansive clay such as smectite was included in rock. Since smectite is prone to expanding in the presence of water, the strength and thus crack growth resistance decrease when relative humidity is high. Therefore, we interpret the decreasing fracture toughness upon the degradation of expansive clays with increasing water content. It was also shown that the decrease of the fracture toughness with increasing humidity is less significant than the concomitant decrease in the measured value of the subcritical stress intensity factor. This was likely as a result of stress corrosion having little influence on the fracture tough- ness. We conclude that crack growth in rock is affected by humidity, and that clay content is an important contributing factor to changes in fracture toughness and subcritical stress intensity factor. (cid:2) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), like students in other tertiary-level areas, benefit from learning to read and write in their disciplines as they progress in their studies. This chapter reports on a successful collaborative project that brought together faculty in chemistry and applied linguistics to analyze the language of chemistry in four types of disciplinary writing (i.e. genres). Findings were used to design instructional materials and develop a discipline-specific course, to be taught by chemistry faculty, aimed at improving students' disciplinary literacy skills. The focus of the chapter is on the contributions of various subfields of applied linguistics to project goals, emphasizing the contributions of English for Specific Purposes, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and language teaching pedagogy. Interdisciplinary partnerships, such as the one showcased in this chapter, are particularly fruitful when disciplinary-language issues are at stake. STEM faculty and faculty in language-related disciplines can combine their different but complementary resources to achieve goals that might not be possible to attain independently. With a heightened understanding of disciplinary language and the literacy practices specific to particular STEM fields, meaningful instructional materials and discipline-specific classes can be developed to give students access to and control of the literacy practices and genres valued by STEM fields.


Electric cars in the worldwide vehicle stock have reached sizeable growth since 2010. Besides proven benefits to the sustainable development and wheel-to-wheel efficiency, electric cars can provide side benefits to car owners and to power system utility. Plug-in vehicles can behave either as loads or as a distributed energy and power resource in a concept known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G). This paper reviews the main grid services that can be provided by the V2G technology. V2G system used to regulate the frequency of a microgrid has been analyzed. The analyzed microgrid is comprised of base power generation, a mixture of renewable energy sources, load and an EV aggregator. Different possible scenarios are taken account, for different shadings of renewable energy production in the grid, different sizes of residential load and different number of EVs. The results show that V2G concept can provide efficient primary frequency regulation in islanded operation of a microgrid with lower spinning reserve.


An important relic of historical thought and of Ukrainian-French-German relations, which is a
valuable historical source, is introdused into the scientific sphere for the first time. It deals with events
of the National-Liberation War 1648-1658.


When there is a change in a process, the MaxMin exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart shows which parameters have increased or decreased. The MaxMin EWMA may also be viewed as smoothed tolerance limits. Tolerance limits are limits that include a specific proportion of the population at a given confidence level. In the context of process control, they are used to make sure that production will not be outside specifications. In this article, we provide useful coverages for the MaxMin EWMA chart, when also used as tolerance limits. The proposed EWMA smoothed tolerance limits require relatively small sample sizes to attain useful coverages at high confidence levels. The MaxMin EWMA chart has already been successfully field‐tested and subsequently implemented with 100 multi‐stream processes.


The present study sought to examine the association between emotional intelligence and depression in boy students in, Tehran, Iran. The sample size was 188 boy students at the age of 16 to 19 years old were chosen for this study. The Assessing Emotions Scale (AES), and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) were filled out by students. The Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis were utilized. The findings showed that a negative association existed between high ability of emotional intelligence with depression and a positive association existed between low ability of emotional intelligence with depres-sion. These results revealed that emotional intelligence was a valuable predictor of depression in adolescents.


The combustion characteristics of lignite blends were studied with a therrnogravimetric analyzer (t. g. a. ), at constant heating rate. The. characteristic temperatures were determined from the burning profiles. It was found that the characteristic times of combustion reaction moved forward, the ignition temperature dropped and the burnout efficiency slightly changed when blending lignites. The characteristic parameters of blends could not be predicted as a linear function of the average values of the individual lignites, when blending with less reactive coal, the ignition and burnout characteristics of lignite turned worse.


Measurements of the helical rotation and the reduction of the magnitude of the Pfirsch–Schlüter current compared to an equivalent tokamak are reported in a device that has quasihelical symmetry. The Pfirsch–Schlüter current is helical due to the lack of toroidal curvature, and is reduced in magnitude by the high effective transform. A 3D equilibrium reconstruction based on magnetic diagnostics agrees well with the profiles measured with Thomson scattering and diamagnetic flux loop measurements.


This paper proposes the differential energy modulation (DEM) algorithm for video watermarking The DEM algorithm embeds watermark bits by applying Quantization Index Modulation (QIM) to differential energy(DE). The energy difference between horizontal and vertical components in a quantized DCT block is modified by dithering values to make the DE consistent with a watermark bit quantizer. The suggested DEM algorithm is superior to QIM in robustness, since it chooses a region energy to carry a label bit, and spreads embedding distortion over values. On contrast, QIM labels with a coefficient instead. DEM also improves Differential Energy Watermarking (DEW)'s low capacity while preserves image quality, because DEW had to employ many blocks to carry a bit to avoid artifacts and guarantee valid energies. Experiments demonstrate this conclusion. Besides, DEM is a high perceptual and easy rate control scheme. It is robust to attacks of frame dropping, image cropping and additive white Gaussian noise.


This study aimed to analyze the state of the art of adapted physical activity for persons with disabilities in the region of Madrid. To meet this goal, official demographic data and indicators of participation in physical activity programs from 2014 were analyzed. Results indicated a population of 307.880 persons with disability (4.7 % of the entire population). The largest population group among the persons with disabilities is composed by persons with a physical disability. Less than 2.53 % of the population with disability practiced a competitive sport and 21.49 % of persons with disabilities living in Madrid were holders of the "Special Card" that provided them with free access to all public sport facilities. However, no indicator was found related with the participation of the population with disabilities on leisure or health physical activities in the region of Madrid. These results suggest that there is a need for improving monitoring through official indicators and to establish further actions that responds to the analyzed demographic profile.


Urticaria is a common and frequently encountered disease, which is mainly manifested by extreme pruritus and lumpish eruption of the skin. Acute urticaria with a short disease course can be cured, while the chronic one with repeated attacks is a lingering disorder. In the past few years, 40 cases of urticaria were treated by cupping at the back-shu points of the five zang-organs and Geshu (BL 17). Another 20 cases in the control group were treated with Fang Feng Tong Sheng Wan (防风通圣丸Miraculous Pills of Ledebouriella) and chlorpheniramine maleate. The therapeutic effect in the treatment group was significantly superior to that in the control group. The results are reported as follows.


Communicating set operations like intersections, unions, or symmetric differences of several sets by a visual representation is a challenging task when the number of involved sets increases. Moreover, it is difficult to provide an intuitive, readable, and understandable visual metaphor with the goal to convince the spectators about the attractiveness and easy-to-use visual depiction in order to solve a certain kind of communication task. To address the communication and exploration of a larger number of sets and operations based on them, we introduce PetalVis making use of a floral visual metaphor. Moreover, we address the perceptual limitations of traditional Venn diagrams by exploiting the visual encoding of the set operations and selections by different color schemes focusing on making the diagrams even more informative as well as more aesthetically pleasing. However, although not each individual set operation result is uniquely represented in an area, our approach can show those by color codings. We illustrate the usefulness of the novel diagram type by varying several parameters like number of sets involved or selection of several set operation results.


Abstract Two distinct and non-redundant understandings of volatility, as deviation from consistency, exist for a time-series: (1) exhibiting high standard deviation and, closer to the dictionary definition of the term, (2) appearing highly irregular and unpredictable. We find that Bitcoin is a prime example of an asset for which the two concepts of volatility diverge. We show that, historically, Bitcoin combines high Standard Deviation and low Approximate Entropy, relative to Gold and S&P 500. Moreover, subsample analysis for different time-scales (daily, weekly, monthly) shows that lower sampling frequencies drastically reduce the Kurtosis of the distribution of log-returns of Bitcoin. The opposite effect is observed for Gold and S&P 500. These properties suggest that, contrary to the volatility of the two traditional assets, Bitcoin's high volatility is essentially an intra-day phenomenon that is strongly attenuated for a weekly or monthly time-preference.


In the article, the author pokes, departing from the regulations of the Indies,the philosophical foundation that supports the production and defense of the human rights in America. He analyzes the principles and practical reality of suchand examines the historical concretion of these postulates expressed in the charitable labor of the Church in America.


The safety of magnetically levitated (maglev) and high speed rail (HSR) trains proposed for application in the United States is the responsibility of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Plans for near future US applications include maglev projects (e.g, in Orlando, FL and Pittsburgh, PA) and high speed rail (the French Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) in the Texas Triangle). The report provides the Analysis (Vol. 1) of results, and detailed data and statistical summaries (Vol. 2, Appendices) of representative EMF profiles on vehicles and facilities typical of electrotechnologies used in the transit system (3rd rail dc, catenary with pantograph, trolley bus). Each electrotechnology has specific EMF frequency signatures. EMF data represent a range of system operating conditions and locations (in vehicles, stations and waysides), as well as traffic control and electric supply facilities.


Industrial process control has used programmable controllers (PLC) for decades because of their reliability to withstand an industrial environment. In contrast, the personal computer (PC) has become a sophisticated data oriented machine that has more computing power than the PLC but is cheaper in price. The advantages of both the PLC and PC can be combined and used in industrial control systems. This researchpaper describes a method that has been implemented to allow a person to manually control a proposed automated work cell directly from the PC without having to deal with low-level control issues such as collision avoidance control. The proposed system consists of a conveyor, two robots, a CNC machine and a vision system all of which connect to an Allen Bradley SLC 500 PLC. Lower-level primitive commands of the equipments have been developed as modules ofladder logic. The higher-level interface program written with Visual Basic 6.0 has also been implemented on a PC. The higher-level program allows the PC to execute all primitive commands and retrieve the system status, such as sensor status, onto the PC in real time. This paper also discusses how communication between the PC and the PLC has been implemented using the Allen Bradley DF1 protocol. The development described in this paper is intended to be a beginning stage of a fully automated work cell collectively controlled by a PLC and a PC. In addition, the proposed system will serve as a laboratory exercise for students in the


In parallel with the population, the number of vehicles in traffic is increasing day by day. Therefore, the volume of wastewater generated by vehicle cleaning reaches substantial proportions. While most of these wastewaters are not classified as domestic wastewater, they are directly discharged to the sewerage. In this study, classical Fenton process was applied to remove chemical oxygen demand (COD) from 4 types (raw and pre-treated) wastewater belonging to 2 different car wash plants. At the end of experimental studies, optimum chemical doses at a constant pH = 3 value; for the sample taken from the 1nd plant without pre-settling:[Fe + 2 ]= 100 mg L -1 , [H 2 O 2 ]= 200 mg L -1 and for the sample treated with pretreatment these values [Fe + 2 ]= 75 mg L -1 , [H 2 O 2 ]= 150 mg L -1 , for the raw wastewater sample taken from the 2nd plant, [Fe + 2 ]= 100 mg L -1 , [H 2 O 2 ]= 225 mg L -1 , after pre-settling whereas [Fe + 2 ] = 75 mg L -1 , [H 2 O 2 ]= 100 mg L -1 . COD removal in ideal conditions for the first wastewater sample is 86 percent and 89 percent, respectively, while these values are 90 percent and 98 percent for the second sample. The oxidation process in raw wastewater was found to be generally appropriate for 2nd order kinetics (R 2 = 0.55 and 0.95), but the decomposition mechanism after pre-settling was found to be more consistent with the BMG kinetic model (R 2 = 0.99).


Previously we reported on the integration of an electrically small EZ antenna with a mesoband HPM source based on a coaxial, quarter-wave oscillator. In our previous work, we demonstrated through modeling and experiment the use of an antenna with ka = 0.47 for radiation of HPM signals. In the present paper, we present a design that allows the oscillator to function as a dual-frequency source by including multiple trigger points. We further adapt the EZ-antenna to be dually resonant with no increase in size through the use of orthogonal polarization coupling.


Soil and leaf total nitrogen and intensity of ericoid mycorrhizal infection were measured in Leucopogon juniperinus R.Br. growing under forest in four different soils. Leaf nitrogen varied from 1.1 to 1.9%, which was correlated with soil nitrogen (0.17-0.32%) but was not related to intensity of infection. Maximal infection occurred in March and the cold months. Five vegetative types of endophytes were isolated from roots of L. juniperinus. Three produced ericoid mycorrhizas in pot cultures of Vaccinium. A fungus isolated from a decaying endocarp of Styphelia tubiflora Sm. produced an infection in Vaccinium which was similar to ericoid mycorrhizas.


This study introduces the early development of digital economy in Indonesia. e-Business activity is growing at an unprecedented rate in Indonesia as indicated by the number of online real time transactions (Real Time Gross Settlement) recorded by Bank Indonesia (Indonesian Central Bank), the emergence of dotcom companies, and the use of ICT in conventional business (a combination of brick & mortar with click/online). Research was conducted by investigating the digital activities of businesses. Unfortunately out of the 109 businesses approached, response rate was very poor with only 30 responding (27%). This is not uncommon in Indonesia for a variety of reasons. Results from the four variables utilized in this study, e-Distribution Channels, Value Creation, Online Products & Services, and Online Infrastructures, indicate that the development of digital economy in Indonesia is still in its early stages due to a number of encountered obstacles.


Given the complex and gendered messages college women receive about their future professional and personal lives, a woman's college experiences play an important role in helping her make difficult life choices. In this article, we present a narrative analysis of the envisioned futures of students at two Catholic women's colleges in the Midwestern United States. Participants drew on a number of narrative themes when creating their rhetorical future lives, including sequencing or juggling multiple priorities, opting out of future work or family roles, using overarching principles to make decisions about future roles, and maintaining resistance to planning. Our findings suggest that holistic understandings of students' experiences must consider the complex ways in which identities, such as gender, are positioned within social narratives.


The DRC's capital is set to become Africa's largest city, but struggles to assert its authority over a profoundly fractured state as it expands in chaotic fashion. Dilapidated infrastructure and a disintegrating formal economy have not extinguished Kinshasa's extraordinary cultural vitality, or its role as a centre of political opposition.


Background: The aim of this study was to explore the impact that COVID-19 has had on the mental health of the healthcare personnel in the Hubei province, China.

Methods: Healthcare professionals who had directly treated confirmed COVID-19 patients at the Wuhan Union Hospital were enrolled. All participants completed three questionnaires: the Chinese Health Questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Parental Bonding Instrument. Possible predisposing and perpetuating factors for mental health symptoms were investigated.

Results: Of 643 participants, 337 (52.41%) developed significant mental symptoms, while 306 (47.59%) participants showed no evident symptoms. Use of the structural equation model highlighted that extraversion and (β=-0.15,p=0.003) and neuroticism (β=0.38,p<10-4) and academic (β=0.846,p=0.005) had a direct impact on healthcare personnel's ability to handle the psychological strain of COVID-19. Paternal banding had an indirect influence on the ability to cope with the mental ramifications of COVID-19.

Conclusion: Both academic status, neuroticism, extraversion and Parents' attachment impacted the mental health of healthcare personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results can be a useful reference, relevant worldwide, for the establishment of appropriate intervention and prevention programs for medical care personnel facing medical disasters.

Funding Statement: This research was supported by a grant (No.81772345) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China; National Key Research & Development Program of China (No.2018YFC2001502, 2018YFB1105705); National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (No. ZX-01-018,ZX-01-C2016153); and the Health Commission of Hubei Province (No. WJ2019Z009).

Declaration of Interests: All authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics Approval Statement: Approval was obtained from the institutional review board at the Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.


The purpose of this article is to review the current status of research on the nephrotic syndrome in Japan. In this country, there two study groups for the nephrotic syndrome and a systematic research is now under way. One of these study groups is the Research Council for the Treatment of Adult Nephrotic Syndrome in Japan, which initiated a study in 1968 mainly by investigators in the field of internal medicine, and the other is the Nephrotic Syndrome Research Committee based on the Research Grant for Specific Diseases from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The latter group consists of researchers in the field of epidemiology, internal medicine, pediatrics and pathology, and it has conducted a continuous study from 1973. From abundant research activities of these two groups, I wish to describe here only the epidemiological and therapeutic aspects of the nephrotic syndrome in Japan. In order to provide as objective and accurate data as possible, these groups established the diagnostic criteria (Table 1).


It discloses a user interface that is responsive to the difference in pressure detected by the touch sensor screen (102). The user "lighter" window select the type of user interface operation with by touching the (102) (310), to select another type of operation by adding a stronger pressure (312). Embodiment, a single touch, a gesture touch extending over the surface of the touch sensor screen (102) (304), capable of responding to a touch pressure applied by the user is changed during the touch. In some embodiments, responsive to the rate of change of the magnitude of the pressure exerted by the user (504). In some embodiments, comparing the gesture profile stored the position and pressure of the user's input (604). If the input is "closely enough" matches the stored gesture profiles only, operation is performed (606). In some embodiments, if the pressure exceeds the threshold between light press and strongly press, notification is sent to the user (312c).


Inhibitory control plays an important regulatory role in bilingual acquisition. The article explored and confirmed the existence of inhibition mechanism in bilingual processing through a series of comprehensive reviews and analysis of experimental studies both domestically and broad on the language switching,non-target language processing as well as the relation between bilingual experience and inhibitory control,which were conducted by means of applied behavioral science,ERP and fMRI. It also introduced the current research progress of inhibition mechanism in bilingual processing on psycholinguistics and cognitive neuroscience,analyzed the core issue of this research area,and proposed suggestions for further study on bilingual switching.


The energy per bit of FM-DCSK is kept constant to increase the transmission rate.But the performance of CSK is yet better than that of FM-DCSK.The package-framed FM-DCSK is developed in the modulation of the improved FM-DCSK communication scheme,i.e.,a package of messages just follows a string of training signals,and the number of messages is larger than that of training signals.An Adaptive Transversal Filter(ATF) is applied in the demodulation.This scheme has a more rapid attainable data rate and low power of transmittal.It is shown by simulation that the performance of such communication scheme is greatly enhanced.


Novel electron guns, in which a conical hollow electron beam is projected at a large angle to the axis into a coaxial deflection region, were tested. The guns have a triode structure so that the perveance can be varied easily. The strong deflection increases the effective perveance of the beam and makes the trajectories insensitive to current variations. In the form of a device with the gun at a large radius and projecting the beam inward, the electron paths are sensitive to scattering in the gun. The inverted gun, projecting the beam outward, is relatively free from this difficulty. The systems generally behave as expected, and should be quite useful for initiating variable-current hollow electron beams in various available focusing arrangements.


Based on the boundaries and interior depositional evolutions of second-order sequences in the continental extensional basins and their coupling relations with the tectonic actions and subsidence histories,the Paleogene strata in the Cenozoic basins of the eastern China can be divided into 4 or 5 second-order sequences.The boundaries of those second-order sequences generally belong to the regional angular unconformities.The fossil assemblages and sedimentary characteristics of a single second-order sequence in upper interface are much different from the underlying ones.Some large-scale low-stand fans are usually developed at the bottom of sequence,and a large-scale transgress-regressive succession is presented in the second-order sequences.The second-order sequences are corresponding to the episodic stages of tectonic evolution,and their boundaries are resulted from the tectonic affairs such as reverse of tectonic,tilting and rotating of fault block,intruding of magma,breaking forth of volcanic and change of tectonic stress field.The second-order sequences in the continental extensional basins are controlled by the regional tectonic actions.So,the genetic relationship of sequences with tectonic actions can be used to determine the second-order sequences.


Background: Conventional multiport laparoscopic colectomy has proven to be an effective and safe procedure in expert hands. Aiming at further decrease in surgical trauma and to improve the overall outcomes, Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS) has emerged in the field of colorectal surgery. Patients and Methods: This prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted on 34 patients in the period from Feb. 2011 to Feb. 2013 in Colorectal Unit, Kasr Al-Ainy Hospitals, Cairo University. Patients were allocated into either Group A who were operated upon using conventional laparoscopy, or Group B in which SILS was used. Demographic data, operative and post operative results were assessed and compared in both groups. Results: There were significant differences in operative time and post operative pain in the favor of SILS colectomy with p-value of 0.0001 and 0.009 respectively. There were no significant differences between the two groups as regards rate of conversion to open, wound infection, length of hospital stay, post-operative mortality, safety margins and number of lymph nodes extracted. Conclusion: SILS colectomy is feasible when preformed by experts in laparoscopic surgery and can be used as a substitute to the conventional multiport laparoscopy.


Abstract The giant honey bee Apis laboriosa is endemic in the high-elevation zone of the Himalaya extending from central to eastern belt and its adjacent mountain ranges. Its abundance is however reported to decline in recent decades. The present study aims to find out the favourable microclimate for foraging activity of A. laboriosa. Therefore, to explore the response of foragers to ambient temperature, relative humidity and sunlight intensity, experiments were conducted in captivity using two types of greenhouses: agro-net and climate control greenhouse. One colony of a combless cluster in each greenhouse was monitored for a period of 22 days. Monitoring was done by counting the number of foragers on honey, sugar syrup and forage plants at an interval of 1 hour. The microclimate of the greenhouses differs in sunlight intensity and relative humidity. Principal component analysis showed that the foraging activity is positively associated with sunlight intensity and relative humidity and is negatively associated with ambient temperature. Higher number of active foragers in the climate control greenhouse shows its relative humidity and sunlight intensity as favourable for foraging activity of A. laboriosa compared to the agro-net greenhouse. The result is also indicative of possible impact of change in sunlight intensity and relative humidity on the foraging activity of A. laboriosa that may affect pollination of the native plants and honey production.


In the article, the features of intellectual capital at the age of globalization are analyzed. Disclosed the organic connection between human capital and intellectual capital the author investigates the influence of problems of intellectual capital management on its functioning and development.


Nursing education i s experiencing a revolutionary change where t r a d i t i o n a l l y held b e l i e f systems are being challenged and replaced with b e l i e f s and values that are based on an e n t i r e l y d i f f e r e n t philosophy of teaching and learning. This results i n a s i g n i f i c a n t challenge for the teacher who must move from one paradigm to another to be able to function i n the new world. The purpose of t h i s study i s to explore and describe the experience of nurse educators who are experiencing a major paradigm s h i f t . The newness of t h i s current paradigm s h i f t has allowed for l i t t l e research as yet being conducted concerning t h i s s h i f t from t r a d i t i o n a l to non-traditional ways of teaching. An ethnographic design was used to structure the data c o l l e c t i o n and analysis. The culture of nurse educators who had experience working i n both paradigms was sampled and f i v e interviews were held. A l l par t i c i p a n t s were employed at d i f f e r e n t educational i n s t i t u t i o n s . Analysis of the data revealed a varied experience during the paradigm s h i f t . In each pa r t i c i p a n t s experience, a small key group of ind i v i d u a l s were responsible for i n i t i a t i n g the


The reversed radial forearm flap is considered the workhorse flap for hand reconstruction, while the posterior interosseous artery (PIA) flap did not take the same interest. This paper presents 25 cases with ulnar side hand defects that was reconstructed with PIA flap with 22 flaps survived (88%). The PIA flap seems a good option and should be considered as another option for hand coverage when the surgeon prefers not to use free tissue transfer or the radial artery flap. The flap should be learned to senior and junior reconstructive surgeons, because familiarity with the flap anatomy lessens the operative time greatly and makes surgical dissection easier.


By means of the technique of cannulation of the thyroid veins of dogs, the present experiments were undertaken to investigate the nature of nonhormonal iodine released from the thyroid during chronic iodide supplementation and to observe the change of the release rate of such compounds in response to acute or chronic iodide administration. In the thyroid venous plasma of dogs maintained on a regular diet or a diet supplemented with 1 mg of iodide/ day, iodothyronines, iodide and nonhormonal PBI, but not iodotyrosines, were found. However, nonhormonal PBI present in plasma was not released from the thyroid and the nature of nonhormonal iodine released from the thyroid in response to chronic iodide supplements was suggested to be iodide. In both dietary groups of dogs, absolute iodine uptake (AIU) was significantly greater than the net uptake of iodide, suggesting that iodide was actually released from the thyroid. As serum iodide was increased bychronic iodide supplements, AIU increased but the net uptake ...


Are you feeling like you are just making it through the day, falling behind and never catching up, or merely making it to the end of the week and feeling exhausted when you arrive home? These are typical signs that clear boundaries and some degree of separation between work and home life must be established in order to be more effective in life. How individuals balance the demands of life has become increasingly important in a time when many households consist of two working parents with added responsibilities of taking care of children and/or elderly dependents. This paper will focus on ways to create balance between work and life with the ultimate goal of improving lifestyle. Improving lifestyle requires recognizing habits that sabotage balance, reevaluating one's life as it pertains to short and long term goals, and developing strategies enabling focus on what matters most at work and at home.


Abstract
After three decades of reform and opening up, China's economy has experienced huge changes. Against the background of economic globalization, foreign direct investment (FDI) plays an important role in China's economy. China has become one of the world's largest FDI inflow countries, which has had an important impact on its economic development. FDI has preferred the industrial sector, which also has serious environmental pollution. This study will consider vertical and horizontal FDI location choice theory and conduct theoretical analysis concerning the FDI location choice within the industrial sectors, as well as empirical analysis to test the distribution of FDI in pollution-intense industries. Furthermore, the "Catalog of Industries for Foreign Investment" is one of China's important industrial policies to guide foreign investment. Since being implemented in 1995, it has made five adjustments. The analysis of the distribution of FDI in the polluting industries and the impact of the change process will provide advice instructive for the government to amend the catalog.


Objective— The present study was conducted to investigate the contribution of perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) to vascular dysfunction in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity. Approach and Results— Obesity was induced in male C57BL/6J mice with a high-fat diet for 20 weeks, and vascular function was studied with myograph. In PVAT-free aortas isolated from obese mice, the endothelium-dependent, nitric oxide–mediated vasodilator response to acetylcholine remained normal. In contrast, a clear reduction in the vasodilator response to acetylcholine was observed in aortas from obese mice when PVAT was left in place. Adipocytes in PVAT were clearly positive in endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) staining, and PVAT nitric oxide production was significantly reduced in obese mice. High-fat diet had no effect on eNOS expression but led to eNOS uncoupling, evidenced by diminished superoxide production in PVAT after eNOS inhibition. As mechanisms for eNOS uncoupling, arginase induction and L-arginine deficiency were observed in PVAT. Obesity-induced vascular dysfunction could be reversed by ex vivo L-arginine treatment and arginase inhibition. Conclusions— Diet-induced obesity leads to L-arginine deficiency and eNOS uncoupling in PVAT. The combination therapy with L-arginine and arginase inhibitors may represent a novel therapeutic strategy for obesity-induced vascular disease.


The article aims to reflect on the challenges of teaching Spanish to immigrant women and what devices and teaching strategies could make this teaching more effective. Specially, we will analyze the specific needs of adult immigrant women who face learning Spanish as a non-native language, and we will pay special attention to the influence of affective factors on their learning process. Finally, we will offer some didactic strategies that can be useful in the classroom of adult immigrant women to facilitate not only linguistic acquisition, but also the integration of the students in the new host society.


Indicators of psychological distress in adolescence contrasts with the provision of public policies and social technology available to this population. We consider social and affective technology, the construction of strategies, products and objects that can be used to mediate the human's relationship with reality and allow the construction of new possibilities of thinking and acting, in the face of what has been experienced. This article will seek to report the path of this experience and the strategies on the construction of a methodology for working with and for adolescents, Guardians of Life in Schools, and the elaboration of an emotional care booklet for adolescents, with the objective of build resources and protective mental health and suicide prevention, involving intersectoral articulation of themes and flows in education, health and assistance.
Keywords: Adolescence; mental health; school


Historians love to sail under bare poles with the spares tophamper of theoretical disquisition. Yet in the last resort their differences resolve themselves largely into differences of methodology, and nowhere more patently than in the history of bureaucracy where contingency and a priori ideas have long contested for the key position in historical explanation. This must be the excuse for an historian of colonial rule who finds himself driven to study the richer historiography of bureaucracy in metropolitan Britain and to trace out its movement with the simplicity of caricature before he can settle to his satisfaction the mechanics of historical causation in government house and secretariat.


We present an efficient method for the detection of buried paleo-channels in alluvial sand and gravel (ASG) aquifers. Buried paleo-channels in ASG aquifers are typically highly conductive for groundwater flow and responsible for preferential flow paths capable of transporting contaminants faster than the surrounding sediments. However, it is notoriously difficult to detect and reproduce buried paleo-channel like connected structures of increased hydraulic conductivity with commonly used techniques. Consequently, these anisotropic structures are rarely considered in the delineation of wellhead protection zones and the models used for groundwater management. To alleviate this problem, we propose a new framework based on a combination of hydraulic and tracer-based measurements and subsequent calibration of a fully coupled surface water-groundwater model against these observations. Tracer-based observations consist of radioactive tracers ( 222 Rn, 37 Ar, 3 H/ 3 He), which allow characterization of groundwater residence times, and of atmospheric noble gases, which allow tracking recently infiltrated river water through an ASG aquifer. Calibration is based on an innovative pilot point inversion that considers the spatially-varying directionality of the alluvial sediments and facilitates the identification of buried paleo-channel like connected structures. The proposed approach is more efficient compared to other existing methods for paleo-channel detection, as complex and often poorly constrained geostatistical simulations are not required. The applicability framework is demonstrated on a real-world wellfield in an ASG aquifer in Switzerland.


Background: Small dose of succinylcholine combined with propofol facilitates Laryngeal mask airway (LMA) insertion. This study was designed to compare the efficacy of two different small doses of succinylcholine for LMA insertion. Aims and Objectives: The aim of our study is to compare the usefulness of two different doses of succinylcholine to facilitate the insertion of laryngeal mask airway under intravenous anaesthesia. Material and Methods: 70 patients of ASA I and II posted for elective day care procedure under general anaesthesia with Laryngeal mask airway (LMA) were randomly allocated into two groups of 35 each. 35 patients in group PS1 received Inj. propofol 2.0 mg/kg + succinylcholine 0.1 mg/kg (diluted to 2 ml). 35 patients in group PS2 received Inj. propofol 2.0 ml/kg + succinylcholine 0.2 mg/kg (diluted to 2 ml). During insertion of laryngeal mask airway jaw relaxation, gagging/coughing, head and limb movements, presence or absence of laryngospasm and duration of apnoea were noted. Results: Patients in PS2 had better conditions for LMA insertion, reduced the upper airway responses to the LMA insertion, and reduced the supplement doses of propofol compared to PS1. Conclusion: Succinylcholine in 0.2 mg/kg compared to 0.1kg provides optimal conditions for LMA insertion. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.8(4) 2017 21-26


The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) announced its HIV Drug Access Initiative in November 1997. Advisory boards oversee the Initiative, set national policy, and determine criteria for eligible participants. The program also provides drugs for opportunistic infections and sexually transmitted diseases. The initial phase of the program includes Uganda, the Ivory Coast, Chile, and Vietnam, although funding remains a problem. UNAIDS is helping with medical training in each country, and uses a computerized system to track participants and drug distribution. UNAIDS is also negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to provide drugs at subsidized costs. Glaxo Wellcome and Hoffman-LaRoche have committed to making their drugs and diagnostic kits available via the program; others are considering joining the effort. A major effort is underway by the program to reduce vertical transmission of HIV.


This chapter focuses on tourism from Australia to Gallipoli to attend Anzac Day commemorations. The research examines diary excerpts of tourists to Gallipoli using theory on emotions to gain insights into the consumption experience. We describe this tourist experience as a pilgrimage, as it is purposeful and is aimed at reaching a specific destination that has spiritual meaning for the consumer. We found that this tourist experience elicits both positively and negatively valanced emotions. The findings highlight that not all tourism experiences elicit hedonically related emotions; however, the outcome of the experience can be positive. Further research on emotions that explores this paradox between emotions in consumption and emotions in post-consumption will assist to understand the ways in which consumers process their emotions within this context.


Homogenates of tissues and their fractions have represented the largest source of material for enzymological work since the description ten years ago of the methods for centrifugal fractionation. The use of this technique has, however, been criticized, and the need for comparison with other techniques has been stressed by several authors. It is extremely difficult in this respect to interpret results of chemical analyses on homogenates of gross specimens of brain, where nervous and non-nervous tissue (glia cells, vascular tissues, erythrocytes, etc.) are mixed together, and to correlate their activity to that of single cell components. Histochemical methods are very useful in providing a more exact demonstration of enzyme activity in cells shown in tissue sections, but owing to diffusion of the product of the histochemical reaction inside and outside the cells, no conclusion can be drawn from the histochemical picture about the localization of an enzyme within the nerve cell; in addition, few histochemical methods are well adapted to quantitative assessment of enzyme activities. To overcome these difficulties the determination of cholinesterase was attempted in this investigation by means of a quantitative microgasometric technique, the Cartesian diver of


In the era of knowledge economy,effective knowledge transfer within multinational corporations(MNCs) is the key for MNCs to achieve their competitive advantages.By the analysis of the connotation and influencing factors of knowledge transfer within MNCs,as well as the traditional SECI model and the paths of knowledge transfer,a knowledge transfer circulate model within MNCs was proposed.The goal of the model is to improve the efficiency of knowledge innovation of MNCs.In the model,the key influencing factors of the main processes of knowledge convergence of parent company,knowledge transfer from parent company to sub company,the assimilation,integration and application in sub-company,as well as the customer knowledge transfer and feedback,were comprehensively reflected.It may be as a reference model for knowledge transfer of MNCs.


Recently, giant planar Hall effect originating from chiral anomaly has been predicted in nonmagnetic Dirac/Weyl semimetals. $\mathrm{ZrT}{\mathrm{e}}_{5}$ is considered to be an intriguing Dirac semimetal at the boundary of weak topological insulators and strong topological insulators, although this claim still remains controversial. Here, we report the observation in $\mathrm{ZrT}{\mathrm{e}}_{5\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ of the giant planar Hall resistivity that shows two different magnetic-field dependences as predicted by theory and a maximum at the Lifshitz transition temperature. We found that the giant planar Hall resistivity fades out with decreasing the thickness of $\mathrm{ZrT}{\mathrm{e}}_{5\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ nanoplates, which may be ascribed to the vanishing of the 3D nature of the samples. In addition, we have observed a nontrivial Berry phase, chiral-anomaly-induced negative longitudinal magnetoresistance, and a giant in-plane anisotropic magnetoresistance in these $\mathrm{ZrT}{\mathrm{e}}_{5\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ nanoplates. All the experimental observations demonstrated coherently that $\mathrm{ZrT}{\mathrm{e}}_{5\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ is a Dirac semimetal.


In this study PZT type ceramics with a general formula Pb1- xBax(Zr0.52Ti0.43(Al0.5Sb0.5)0.05)O3 where (x = 0.00, 0.04, and 0.08) were elaborated by the solid-state reaction and studied for their structural and dielectric properties in the region of the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). Different techniques were used to characterize the obtained samples such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) which shows that the results confirm the high purity of prepared samples without any secondary phase and also indicate the coexistence of both the tetragonal and rhombohedral phases. All the absorption bands corresponding to the perovskite structure are exhibited by The Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) shows that the mean grain size was found between 2,84 and 2,14 µm, the Curie temperature (TC) decreased with increasing Ba2+ content. Furthermore, the effect of the temperature, frequency, and composition on the dielectric properties demonstrated a maximum value of the dielectric constant ε max = 38800 at 1 kHz when X= 0.08.


We have used photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopy to study the evolution of the electronic states, and associated optical transitions, as the number of wells is increased from 2 to 5 to 20 in the strained (In,Ga)As-GaAs quantum-well system. The indium fraction in the wells was nominally 0.12. The PLE spectra of the two-well and five-well samples show strong \ensuremath{\Delta}n=0 exciton transitions and further features associated with transitions from confined states to continuum states. When a superlattice (SL) is formed, in the 20-well sample, we see momentum-conserving optical transitions at the mini-Brillouin-zone center and edge. We have also identified transitions associated with ${\mathit{M}}_{1}$ critical points in the SL band structure. One of these is a \ensuremath{\Delta}n=0 exciton resonance below the saddle point while the other is a \ensuremath{\Delta}n\ensuremath{\ne}0 exciton which has become allowed due to momentum mixing of the light- and heavy-hole bands in the plane perpendicular to the growth direction.


For a sustainable development high demands are made on an extensive recycling, characterized by reuse of products or product components, reutilization of materials and disposal of harmful substances. With these aims in mind, a completely recyclable printed circuit board was developed. The properties are: pollutant-free, simply dismantable, completely recyclable, some components reusable, saving of materials up to 80 % and lessening of waste by about 60 %.


The investment in road infrastructure cannot outpace the growing travel demand in Kuala Lumpur.
Thus, public transit is the best solution to reduce road congestion and provision of new road
infrastructure. This paper is to analyse the effect of land use density, diversity and pedestrian
infrastructure design to rail transit ridership in Kuala Lumpur. There are three rail transit stations are
selected along the same transit line to examine in terms of the number of passenger ridership and its
relationship with land use Density, Diversity and pedestrian infrastructure Design (3Ds). The data is
collected with land use map to examine the multiple land uses around each transit station. It is also to
examine the land use diversity level surrounding each transit station. The pedestrian infrastructure survey is to determine the accessibility level to transit station. Data analysis is carry out by analytical
tools of statistical analysis. The finding is effect of 3Ds to the passenger ridership of three selected
transit stations within one-kilometer radius. The passenger ridership characteristics in terms of 3Ds
will benefit the future selection of propose transit station.


This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tulsa Law Review by an authorized administrator of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com. Recommended Citation Sotirios A. Barber, Promises, Axioms, and Constitutional Theory, reviewing Jack M. Balkin, Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World and Hadley Arkes, Constitutional Illusions and Anchoring Truths: the Touchstone of the Natural Law, 48 Tulsa L. Rev. 223 (2012).


having a defect spinel‐framework structure was prepared and examined in non‐aqueous lithium cells. (white in color) was reduced to (dark blue) at a voltage of 1.55 V and the reaction was highly reversible. X‐ray diffraction measurements indicated that the lattice dimension did not change during the reactionSince the reaction consists of lithium ion and electron insertion into/extraction from the solid matrix without a noticeable change in lattice dimension, called a zero‐strain insertion reaction, capacity failure due to the damage to the solid matrix was not observed even after 100 cycles. Feasibility of zero‐strain insertion materials for advanced batteries is discussed based on the experimental results.


A novel scheme to generate coherent 112 optical sub-carriers with subcarrier spacing of 25GHz is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By using these coherent optical subcarriers, we have successfully generated 10-Tbit/s (112×100Gbit/s) single channel optical OFDM polarization multiplexing QPSK signal with the bandwidth of 2.8THz and the optical signal noise ratio greater than 20dB (0.1nm bandwidth for each subchannel). We have transmitted the 11.2-Tbit/s optical OFDM signal over 640-km SMF-28 with an amplifier span of 80km and EDFA-only.


Antiphospholipid antibodies are increasingly being identified as a cause of arterial and venous thrombosis as well as fetal wastage syndrome via placental vascular thrombosis. The antiphospholipid thrombosis syndromes should be considered and searched for when suggestive clinical findings are present or when unexplained arterial or venous thrombosis occurs. Noting the presence and type of antiphospholipid antibody thrombosis syndrome assumes major importance with respect to not only making an accurate diagnosis of cause of thrombosis but also in selecting effective antithrombotic therapy. The antiphospholipid thrombosis syndromes and the thrombotic and other clinical manifestations span almost all medical specialities and should be construed as a truly multidisciptinary medical problem. Key Words: Thrombosis-Anticardiolipin antibody—Lupus anticoagulant.


This scientific article attempts to analyze the grounds for bringing public entities to tort liability for damage caused to individuals by the adoption of a legal act of individual action, which was later recognized as illegal and canceled in a court of law. The primary purpose of the adoption of normative legal acts is, in particular, the creation of additional conditions for the realization of the rights of individuals or their protection; in practice, situations often arise when the consequence of the adoption of a normative legal act is a violation of the rights of individuals or legal entities. That is why the legislator provided for the responsibility of public entities for damage caused to individuals by the adoption of a normative legal act in Art. 1175 of the Central Committee of Ukraine. This norm provides that the damage caused to a natural or legal person as a result of the adoption by the authority of a normative legal act, which was recognized as illegal and canceled, shall be compensated by a public entity represented by the relevant authority: the state, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or a local self-government body. Having analyzed it, one can come to the conclusion that the basis of its application is the assignment of damage by the adoption of the normative legal act itself. However, the civil legislation provides that the court can declare illegal and cancel not only normative legal acts.


Research on insect olfaction was and still is dominated by studies on pheromones. Also, the first odorant-binding protein characterised in an insect was a pheromone-binding protein, the PBP of A. polyphemus (Vogt & Riddiford, 1981). The name of this soluble protein of low molecular weight and acidic isoelectric point was chosen because it was shown to bind sex pheromone. PBP can be found abundantly in male antennae, while females contain only traces. Pheromone-binding proteins of similar molecular weight and amino acid composition were also found in male moths of other species (for review see Pelosi & Maida, 1995). The function of PBPs has been the subject of some debate in the past but from recent data presented by Ziegelberger (1995), a more consistent concept is emerging: PBP may act as a stimulus transporter to the receptor membrane before and as a scavenger and rapid inactivator of the stimulus after reacting with the membrane-bound receptor molecules. Moreover, there are now indications that PBP takes part in stimulus recognition (Duet al., 1994; Steinbrecht et al., 1995). Around 1990, other proteins were observed and characterised in several moth species. These proteins were similar to the PBPs but were found equally in antennae of males and females (Breer et al., 1990; Vogt et al., 1991a). Although odorant-binding tests have not been performed, it was inferred that these proteins belong to a different sub-set of olfactory sensilla and they were given the term 'general odorantbinding proteins' (GOBPs) (Vogt et al., 1991a). They occur in two sub-classes according to their amino acid sequence; thus insect odorant-binding proteins belong to three classes, PBP, GOBP1 and GOBP2. Similar proteins were discovered not only in Lepidoptera but also in Diptera (McKenna et al., 1994; Pikielny et al., 1994), Heteroptera (Dickens et al., 1995; Dickens & Callahan, this volume) and in Phasmoptera (Tuccini et al., 1996). The involvement of odorant-binding proteins therefore appears to be a general principle in insect olfaction. So far the association of the different OPBs with different types of sensilla was purely hypothetical, as the biochemists worked with antennal homogenates. However, with the availability of antisera against the PBP and the GOBP2 of A. polyphemus there was the possibility of localising these OPBs under the electron microscope on sections by immunocytochemical methods (Steinbrecht et al., 1992; Laue et al., 1994). Although the antisera are highly specific and do not cross-react with OPBs of a different class, they do cross-react with related PBPs or GOBPs, respectively, in other species. Thus, a comparative investigation was possible. Our question was: Is the presence of a particular odorant-binding protein in a given sensillum connected with the olfactory specificity of the receptor cells?


Automatic control of marine vessels is a field that has been growing for many years. Currently, there exist many leisure boats equipped with the functionality to automatically stay in a chosen position with a constant heading. This is usually referred to as station keeping and tries to compensate for disturbing forces from weather phenomena such as waves and wind. In commercial applications it is usual to measure properties of the weather forces and use that information to compensate for them during station keeping. However, most leisure boats lack these kinds of sensors. There exist methods for estimating the weather forces heading by rotating a boat until it faces the weather forces. However, this might not always be possible due to space restrictions in e.g. ports. Therefore, the following question can be posed. Is it possible to estimate the weather forces heading without measuring anything outside the vessel or moving it in a certain way? Three different methods for estimating the weather heading without affecting the control of the boat are evaluated. All methods are model-based which means that a dynamic model of the boat performing station keeping is required. Such modelling is described and a number of system identification steps to find numerical values for the models are also presented. The proposed system identification steps need to be performed during times when there are little to no disturbances which is undesired. It was found that varying degrees of system knowledge gave different accuracy in the weather heading estimation. Little knowledge gave a rather weak estimation. The highest accuracy achieved was within about half a quadrant. Future work can be done to see if it is possible to remove disturbances from data collected at times when disturbances are present to be able to perform system identification at any time.


The aim of this paper is to establish a support vector regression method for semi-discrete ill-posed problems. We consider the equation Af = g, where a linear integral operator A is known; discrete measurements of the right-hand side are observed and a solution f* is sought. For the reconstruction, instead of a standard square loss function, Vapnik's ϵ-intensive function is used to measure the distance between Af and g. This avoids an overfitting to disturbed data and guarantees additional stability given that the cut-off parameter ϵ is chosen appropriately. The resulting solution procedure can be formulated as a quadratic program. Besides the method, a Sobolev error analysis and a parameter strategy for the regularization parameters are provided. The results are substantiated with a numerical example.


As systems continue to grow in interconnectedness and complexity, System Integration has become increasingly more difficult. The significance of a System Definition phase, describing a system in increasing level of detail, to facilitate integration (avoid or anticipate issues in advance) is clear from literature. However, what this should specifically entail, varies. Moreover, the term "system" as commonly used, does not correspond to a specific level of granulation or complexity. Therefore, focusing on a System of Interest is a prerequisite. The purpose of this paper is to first identify key features from literature which should be included in a System Definition phase. Secondly, in order to identify what hinders effective integration from industrial perspective and, determine how this can be related to the identified System Definition features, a case study has been carried out within the Dutch railway system. By interviews and qualitative data analysis, numerous integration issues were identified. From the case study, several features were identified which require appropriate attention to facilitate effective integration. In addition, the case study revealed features, which were not obtained from literature.


The predatory behavior of the larvae of Culex fuscanus Wiedemann was studie d. The results were as follows: the predatory quantity of 4th instar lar vae of C.fu scanus Wiedemann decreased with the increase of their density, and increased wi th the increase of the density of Aedes albopictus; the 4th instar larvae of C.fuscanus Wiedemann prefered the 4th instar larv ae of A.albopictus to C.quinquefasciatus for eating, and the predatory quantity of larvae of mosquitoes was more than pupae. The size, density and mobility of quarry affected the selection of larvae of C.fuscanus Wiedemann for quarry.


An object of the present invention is a complex of Nanogel and apatite particles, Nanogel - is to obtain the synthesis and utilization of apatite nanoparticles. The present inventors, based on the knowledge of hydrophobic polysaccharide nanogels, Nanogel and novel methods (pH its complex as a template, alternate method of adding calcium and phosphate ions, or the use of CO


Abstract Background Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSEH) is a rare spinal cord compression disorder. Thunderclap headache mimicking subarachnoid hemorrhage as an initial manifestation of this disorder has been scarcely reported. Moreover, the neurological outcome of conservative treatment is satisfactory only in some clinical settings. The unusual presentation and mechanisms for spontaneous recovery of SSEH are discussed. Objective To report a case of SSEH that presented with acute severe headache that mimicked subarachnoid hemorrhage. After a period of neurological deficit, spontaneous improvement was seen, which progressed to full recovery without neurosurgical intervention. Findings A 62-year-old man presented with acute occipital headache and neck stiffness for which subarachnoid hemorrhage was initially suspected. An emergency computed tomographic brain scan and cerebrospinal fluid analysis excluded subarachnoid hemorrhage. Later, he developed acute paraparesis, hypoesthesia up to the fourth thoracic dermatomal level (T4) as well as bowel and bladder dysfunction. The magnetic resonance imaging eventually revealed spinal epidural hematoma, located anterior to C7 through T4 spinal level. He had no previous history of spinal injury, systemic, and hematological disorders. The neurological recovery began 20 hours after the onset and continued until complete recovery, 4 months after the onset without neurosurgical intervention. Conclusion SSEH could sometimes imitate subarachnoid hemorrhages when it located in the cervical region. Spontaneous recovery of SSEH without surgical intervention might be possible in cases with continuing neurological recovery, although the recovery began much later in the clinical course.


The effect of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and NaCl on the corrosion of cold rolled steel in 0.5-2.0?mol/L sulfuric acid was investigated by using weight loss and electrochemical methods.The complex of CTAB and NaCl acts as a mixed type inhibitor,which mainly inhibits cathodic reaction.The adsorption of complex follows with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm.A synergistic inhibition between CTAB and NaCl against steel corrosion in sulfuric acid was demonstrated.


: Searches are presented for direct production of top or bottom squark pairs in proton–proton collisions at the CERN LHC. Two searches, based on complementary techniques, are performed in all-jet final states that are characterized by a significant imbalance in transverse momentum. An additional search requires the presence of a charged lepton isolated from other activity in the event. The data were collected in 2015 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV with the CMS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 fb 1 . No statistically significant excess of events is found beyond the expected contribution from standard model processes. Exclusion limits are set in the context of simplified models of top or bottom squark pair production. Models with top and bottom squark masses up to 830 and 890GeV, respectively, are probed for light neutralinos. For models with top squark masses of 675GeV, neutralino masses up to 260GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. Abstract Searches are presented for direct production of top or bottom squark pairs in proton–proton collisions at the CERN LHC. Two searches, based on complementary tech-niques, are performed in all-jet final states that are characterized by a significant imbalance in transverse momentum. An additional search requires the presence of a charged lepton isolated from other activity in the event. The data were collected in 2015 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 fb − 1 . No statistically significant excess of events is found beyond the expected contribution from standard model processes. Exclusion limits are set in the context of simplified models of top or bottom squark pair production. Models with topandbottomsquarkmassesupto830and890 GeV,respec-tively, are probed for light neutralinos. For models with top squark masses of 675 GeV, neutralino masses up to 260 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.


This report details technical activities of the Hanford Engineer Works for the week of October 27, 1944 through November 2, 1944.


While skin cancer awareness programs have significantly furthered public understanding about the harmful effects of the sun, there is a disparity between photoprotection knowledge and protection practices.


Purpose A study was conducted to identify variables that were different in children who were emmetropic and became myopic and in children who remained emmetropic. Methods A cohort of initially emmetropic children had eye and vision examinations at 6-month intervals for a period of 3 years. Ocular optical components were measured by keratometry and ultrasonography. Crystalline lens power was calculated using Bennett's formulas. Results There was a tendency for keratometer power of both principal meridians to be greater in the became-myopic group than in the remained-emmetropic group. Axial length to corneal radius (AL/CR) ratio was significantly greater in the became-myopic group than in the remained-emmetropic group. The variable with the highest sensitivity and specificity was the AL/CR ratio using the horizontal meridian corneal radius. Conclusions Greater corneal powers and greater AL/CR ratios are risk factors for youth onset myopia.


We study a system of nonlinear wave equations of the Kirchhoff-Carrier type containing a variant of the Balakrishnan-Taylor damping in nonlinear terms. By the linearization method together with the Faedo-Galerkin method, we prove the local existence and uniqueness of a weak solution. On the other hand, by constructing a suitable Lyapunov functional, a sufficient condition is also established to obtain the exponential decay of weak solutions.


Field pennycress (Thlapsi arvense L.) is a new crop being investigated for its potential as a possible off season source for biodiesel. Related to the Brassica species of mustard and canola, winter annual field pennycress is also susceptible to heat stress during the reproductive stage of development. The objective of this study was to determine at what temperature seed development was inhibited in pennycress. The hypothesis of our experiment is that pollen viability becomes diminished as temperatures rise above 30 o C as seen in the 2012 growing season.


LAN analyses appear to have diagnostic value in fish pathobiology and studies were undertaken to determine optima for substrate concentration, pH, reaction time, temperature, and buffer ions. Citrate ion did not inhibit LAN at anticoagulant levels, but cyanide, pyrophosphate, and EDTA had an inhibitory effect. Storage of samples at —10 and 1 C resulted in small but significant reductions of LAN activity, while at room temperature enzyme activity was rapidly lost. LAN activity was distributed among liver fractions as follows: microsomes, 12%; mitochondria, 9%; cellular sap, 37%; other, 50%. Three isozymes of LAN were found. Blood plasma contained significant amounts of LAN activity which was significantly higher in cold- than in warm-acclimated fish. However, these LAN levels were comparable when their activity was extrapolated to body temperatures.


While the benefits of bank financing are relatively well understood, the costs are not. This paper argues that while informed banks make flexible financial decisions which prevent a firm's projects from going awry, the cost of this credit is that banks have bargaining power over the firm's profit once projects have begun. The firm's portfolio choice of borrowing source and the choice of priority for its debt claims attempt to optimally circumscribe the powers of banks. Copyright 1992 by American Finance Association.


The objective of this work is to understand the in-compression of the phenomenon of consciousness from the neurobiological and philosophical perspective, developing an initial reflection about the findings of the investigation "Consciousness: neurobiological and philosophical perspective" research group in ethics and political line and developing individual and collective consciousness doctorate in Cognitive Sciences, at the Autonomous University of Manizales. This article reports the uncertainties that arise from thinking when faced with the phenomenon of consciousness, it is no longer a fact easy to catch with words, as its prevalence is to show the human being as experience rather than theory. This makes its gaseous form for knowledge, but the attempts who have been made, both from neurobiology, and from philosophy, if not psychology, are ubiquitous in literature. Thus, the issue before us is to look some controversies both speculation formulated in philosophy and their possible relationships as in the neurobiology of consciousness, from Antonio Damasio


Objectives Cefazolin is frequently administered for antimicrobial prophylaxis and treatment of infections. In neonates, pharmacokinetic observations are limited and dosing regimens variable. The aim of this study was to describe the pharmacokinetics of cefazolin in neonates based on total and unbound concentrations to optimize cefazolin dosing. Methods Based on the final pharmacokinetic model, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to illustrate exposure to cefazolin in (pre)term neonates following currently used dosing regimens. Subsequently, a model-based dosing regimen was developed for preterm and term neonates.


Abstract : Three independent counts of the Coma cluster of galaxies are intercompared. The three different surveys appear to be consistent with each other. It is concluded that this cluster contains some 800 members to photovisual magnitude about 18.5 and is about 100 minutes in radius. A possible spatial density distribution of the galaxies in this cluster is derived from the combined data. (Author)


At Renault's Douai plant close to Lille, recent investments have focused on creating a flexible production tool that is capable of reacting quickly to the demands of the market. The plant aims to produce vehicles according to a build schedule that is driven by customer orders and to maintain the production sequence fixed at the start throughout the manufacturing process.


Orthoimage, which is geometrically equivalent to a map, is one of the important geospatial products. Displacement and occlusion in optical images are caused by perspective projection, camera tilt, and object relief. A digital surface model (DSM) is essential data for generating true orthoimages to correct displacement and to recover occlusion areas. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data collected from an airborne laser scanner (ALS) system is a major source of DSM. The traditional methods require sophisticated procedures to produce a true orthoimage. Most methods utilize 3D coordinates of the DSM and multiview images with overlapping areas for orthorectifying displacement and detecting and recovering occlusion areas. LiDAR point cloud data provides not only 3D coordinates but also intensity information reflected from object surfaces in the georeferenced orthoprojected space. This paper proposes true orthoimage generation based on a generative adversarial network (GAN) deep learning (DL) with the Pix2Pix model using intensity and DSM of the LiDAR data. The major advantage of using LiDAR data is that the data is occlusion-free true orthoimage in terms of projection geometry except in the case of low image quality. Intensive experiments were performed using the benchmark datasets provided by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS). The results demonstrate that the proposed approach could have the capability of efficiently generating true orthoimages directly from LiDAR data. However, it is crucial to find appropriate preprocessing to improve the quality of the intensity of the LiDAR data to produce a higher quality of the true orthoimages.


Energy consumption control in wireless ad-hoc networks is a more difficult problem due to non availability of access point in network. A node can be both a data source and a router that forwards data for other nodes. There is no centralized entity such as an access point to control and maintain the power control mode of each node in the network. There are number of challenges offered by mobile ad- hoc network environment like limited power, route failure, synchronization, security etc. Nodes in the mobile ad-hoc network environment have limited battery power. Extra amount of energy is needed by router to forward and to relay packets. In this paper, literature survey is carried out on energy consumption issues for wireless ad-hoc network.


We investigate the regional responses of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) to the atmospheric forcing trends between 1948 and 2007 with a global configuration of the NEMO-LIM2 ocean-sea ice model, where a two-way nesting technique is used to enhance the horizontal resolution to 1/12° between 30°S and 68°S. A companion experiment forced by a repeated annual cycle is used to remove model spurious drifts from the hindcast experiment, and to identify the variance of EKE of a stochastic nature. The model results show that the wind strengthening occurred in the past decades led to a multi-decadal increase in EKE of about 5 cm2 sec-2 decade-1 averaged over the whole Southern Ocean. The changes in EKE are however not spatially uniform, and two response regimes are identified. In the Pacific and Indian sectors, the model reproduces the temporal evolution of the satellite-observed EKE and shows a predictable response of EKE to wind changes. In the Atlantic sector, where the stochastic-to-total ratio of EKE variance is nearly 100%, EKE does not match satellite observations, and wind forcing has a weak influence on EKE variability and its multi-decadal trends. The model thus helps to identify those regions with an optimal signal-to-noise ratio needed to detect possible future changes in eddy activity.


Detecting the presence of protein biomarkers in bodily fluids such as blood and urine offers a convenient route to critical information about the onset and progression of many types of diseases. Consequently, the discovery of new biomarkers is rapidly becoming an essential component of biomedical research with the goal of developing accurate tests that allow earlier detection and improve disease classification. With the end goal of developing a more targeted approach to patient therapy, and monitoring response to treatment.


In this paper, we propose a memory-constrained tree search (MCTS) algorithm for the detection in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The MCTS algorithm offers a wide range of trade-offs between computational complexity and memory requirement, and is guaranteed to achieve the exact maximum-likelihood performance. By tuning the memory size, the MCTS algorithm ranges from being memory-efficient to being computation-efficient with abundant choices in between.We show that the MCTS algorithm visits slightly fewer nodes and requires slightly less memory than the sphere decoding (SD) algorithm in the memory-efficient case, and visits similar number of nodes and requires significantly less memory than the stack algorithm in the computation-efficient case.


Aim of the study: The aim of the present study is to identify, characterize and record a new agaric for the first time from Turkey. Study area: It covers a total area of approximately 20 ha and is located in Ankara within the boundaries of Cankaya district. Material and method: Basidiomata were collected from Ankara University Tandogan Campus on September 1, 2018. Macro- and micromorphological properties of basidiomata and nuclear ribosomal large subunit (nrLSU) sequences were used for identification. The voucher specimens were kept at Ankara University Herbarium (ANK). Main results: Based on the high sequence similarity between the new record (hereafter referred to as 'Ank Akata & Altuntas 167') and Inocybe mytiliodora, the specimen was identified as I. mytiliodora. This result is also supported by the morphological data derived from the evaluation of macroscopic and ecological features of the fruiting bodies between 'Ank Akata & Altuntas 167' and closely related fungi. Research highlights: As a result, the basidiomata collected from Ankara University Tandogan Campus represent 'Inocybe mytiliodora' and this is the first known record for Turkey.


Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a growing Communication and Information technology that assists voice communication through the Internet. VoIP is becoming popular due to their cost effective service and convenience. A VoIP technique has two significant features i.e. Privacy and QoS of the network. Unfortunately, most VoIP network doesn't provide Privacy as well as QoS to the end user. A work has done previously on Security and Quality of Services for VoIP applications, yet these issues has not been completely solved. To overcome these issues in VoIP proposed a novel phenomenon i.e. permutation of Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Secure Hash Algorithm -1 (SHA-1) for Client-Server model. Here, AES and SHA-1 are used to afford secrecy. As well as SCTP transmission algorithm would be intended to raise the QoS for VoIP.


Kust Izabella, Proces wdrazania egzaminu maturalnego w opinii maturzystow liceow technicznych - rocznik 2003 (The process of implementation of the Matura examina- tion in the opinion of technical secondary school graduates - the class of 2003). "Neodi- dagmata" 27/28, Poznan 2005, Adam Mickiewicz University Press, pp. 79-94. ISBN 83- 232-1602-9. ISSN 0077-653X. The main objective of the doctoral Ph.D. was to analyse the process of the changes in the Matura examination at technical secondary schools. The research work took place in 58 technical secondary schools, located in the Mazowsze region. The old and new Matura examinations were organized in the years 1999-2002. In fact, 8 technical secondary scho- ols (13.79% of all technical secondary schools located in the Mazowsze region) took part in the research. The new Matura examinations were organised at the above mentioned schools. In the years 2001-2002 the 368 teachers worked at the technical secondary schools and 98 teachers (26.63%) of all employed) participated in the research. In the same pe- riod there were 337 pupils in the technical secondary schools who wanted to pass the Matura examination. In fact, 272 pupils (80.71%) participated in the research. In the years 2002-2003 13 teachers (3.53%) and 268 pupils (85.62%) of the technical se- condary schools participated in the research. As a result, the problems of the research were answered and the hypotheses were confirmed.