Law often indicates a suspicion of gifts and, in particular, of promises to make a gift. This is principally due to a concern that such promises are made without sufficient deliberation, apparently because they benefit another person without the promisor gaining anything in exchange.
Against that backdrop, this paper investigates the role of selflessness in the context of testamentary promises, that is, of a testator's promise to benefit someone in his or her will. It questions the assumptions that all gift promises are altruistic and that they are therefore irrational and should not be enforceable unless expressed using certain legal formalities. Drawing on the findings of sociologists, anthropologists, and economists, the paper argues that testamentary promises are often likely to be less altruistic than lifetime promises of a gift. The case law offers many instances of uses of testamentary promises that are far from purely selfless, including influencing others and exercising power over them. This paper serves, then, as a counterweight to the common story of the undeserving promisee and the frail and vulnerable promisor. It shows that testamentary promises frequently involve a degree of reciprocity that can benefit both. Ultimately, what may look like a selfless act may actually be a self-interested one.


The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of temporal and spectral interferences on sentence recognition for cochlear (CI) implant listeners. Nie and Nelson (2010) investigated vocoded speech perception in amplitude‐modulated band‐pass noises in order to assess young normal‐hearing (NH) listeners' speech understanding through cochlear implant simulations. They reported that while the spectra of the noise bands affected vocoder speech perception, there was no significant effect of the noise AM rate on performance, indicating spectral but not temporal interference. As a follow‐up, young CI listeners with various devices and processing strategies participated in the current study. IEEE sentences and white noise were divided into 16 bands, and band‐pass noise maskers were formed from varying combinations of 4–6 adjacent bands. The spectra of the maskers relative to the spectra of speech were set to be one of the following: completely overlapping, partially overlapping or completely separate ...


Cheese bread is a Brazilian product which originated in Minas Gerais and which is highly consumed. In industrial production, there is increasing use of additives which enrich and enhance the physical of this product, adding value in the eyes of the consumer. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to study the effect of addition of modified starch and stabilizers on the physical-chemical of cheese bread. For this reason, measures taken so moisture, pH and acidity, volume, density, coefficient of expansion, and compression resistance (texturometer) Results show that the stabilizers used improve these characteristics in the cheese bread, showing better physicochemical characteristics.


Where will South Africa stand twenty-five years from now? What will have happened during those years? In theory there are, I think, only four possibilities: (i) that the status quo will remain essentially unchanged; (ii) that radical changes, involving or at least leading to the abolition of all racial discrimination, will come about peacefully, by constitutional means; (iii) that the regime will be overthrown by invading foreign forces; and (iv) that it will be overthrown by revolution within the country, with or without foreign support. As there are strong reasons for believing that none of these alternatives is really possible, some factor seems to have been overlooked. Perhaps it will appear as the four alternatives are examined.


As quality is of life considered as a measure of clinical outcome that prioritizes client assessment itself and the effects of a disease, a life change or a treatment has on their daily life and their level of satisfaction and well-being, their evaluation allows obtain a safe parameter for implementing clinical interventions that may have more positive impact on the lives of these people. It is believed that investigate the QoL of a given population is a strategy that will enable to broaden the understanding of the problems experienced by patients in order to facilitate effective future interventions, improving the quality of lived days. This information can also be used to identify patients at higher risk of problems and thus anticipate interventions, contributing to health promotion thereof. Nevertheless, there is currently a growing interest in transforming the QoL in a quantitative measure. To this end, the measurement of quality of life through the perception of the patient has been recommended. Some studies indicate that the measurement of quality of life the mental patient is an indicator of the care he receives and that this issue should be included in the assessment and care planning. There are few studies witch accessed the influence of health intervention on patients 'quality of life, anxiety, and depressive symptom levels. With this brief contribution, we hope can deepen discussion regards public health and mental wellbeing, as well as the options of measurement instruments to assess mental health interventions and thus able to gather more arguments to answer the following question: What`s the best way for measuring quality of life in Mental health?


In this research, we assessed how young adults determine the accuracy of news articles and sources through a seven-day diary study. We performed a qualitative analysis on the participants' responses and found that the participants mainly used nine different strategies to evaluate the accuracy of COVID news. The majority of respondents relied on their inherent trust and the reputation of a given news outlet instead of actively determining if the information was accurate. Young adults also used their perception of the quality of the article, personal logical reasoning, cross referencing the information, availability of data, among others. We discuss the implications of the results and propose practical suggestions.


Background: In general, many patients with acute proximal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) are treated with heparin and oral anticoagulant. Many physicians have been taught to admit these patients to absolute bed rest for the first 24-48 hours due to the fear of dislodging clots that may lead to fatal pulmonary embolism (PE). Objective: The aim of this study is to compare the differences among the changing circumference of affected limb, the severity of pain, and the incidence of symptomatic PE in 3 groups of acute proximal DVT, including absolute bed rest with compression bandages (group 1), ambulation with compression bandages (group 2), and ambulation without compression bandages (group 3). Methods: Between January 2006 and March 2011, 60 patients were enrolled in this study. In this analysis, the clinical characteristics, the changes of affected limb circumference and pain score during the first week of admission and the incidence of symptomatic PE among 3 groups of this study were analyzed.  Results: There were no statistical differences in the characteristics among 3 groups of patients. The most gender was female and the mean age for 3 groups ranged from 55.1 to 63.7 years. Comparing among 3 groups, it showed a significant difference of calf circumferences between group 1 and group 3. None of pain score differences were statistically significant among 3 groups. In addition, there was no incidence of symptomatic PE in the three groups of the present study. Conclusion: Our findings confirm that acute proximal DVT treatment with ambulation does not increase the incidence of symptomatic PE, compared with absolute bed rest. Although there is no statistical decrease of the severity of pain between those 3 groups, the group of absolute bed rest and compression can promote the resolution of calf swelling, compared with the group of ambulation without compression bandages.


Many British mathematicians owe a great deal to A. S. Besicovitch. Several of these—H. Burkill, R. O. Davies, H. G. Eggleston, W. K. Hayman, J. M. Marstrand— have contributed to this notice, which also incorporates large sections from the biographical memoir [Bl] written by J. C. Burkill. Besicovitch was an exceptionally open-minded mathematician, and it was this readiness to consider all possible alternatives which made his contributions to mathematics characteristically surprising. When solving a problem most mathematicians need to make a commitment as to the nature of the solution long before the solution has been found, and this commitment interposes a psychological barrier to the consideration of other possibilities. Besicovitch never seems to have been troubled in this way. He could exercise the whole of his powerful mathematical intellect on the investigation of unlikely options and in the process illuminated the diversity of mathematical knowledge and obtained results which were astounding to his contemporaries and are surprising today. His contributions to several areas of analysis were so original that their implications are still being explored. We later discuss some of the areas in which he made substantial contributions, but it is inevitable, in a notice of finite length, that coverage will be incomplete.


In this paper we present an empirical application of the theoretical result found in Bajo and Salas (2002), namely, the decomposition of the change in industry concentration into the change in its two components (i.e., inequality and the number of firms), using a set of concentration indices previously computed for a number of sectors of the Spanish economy. This example would illustrate the usefulness of the approach, by helping to identify the sources of a change in industry concentration over a time period.


Techniques for dynamic switching in the coded bit stream is described. Device may have a switching component that operates to determine when the broadcast of the first video stream switching to the broadcast of the second video stream. Said first video stream is a first video encoding source at a first quality level, the second video stream is a second encoding of the video source at the second quality level. Other embodiments are described and claimed.


Rich and multifaceted domain specific specification languages like the Autonomic System Specification Language (ASSL) help to design reliable systems with self-healing capabilities. The GEAR game-based Model Checker has been used successfully to investigate in depth properties of the ESA ExoMars Rover. We show here how to enable GEAR's gamebased verification techniques for ASSL via systematic model extraction from a behavioral subset of the language, and illustrate it on a description of the Voyager II space mission. This way, we close the gap between the design-time and the run-time techniques provided in the SHADOWS platform for self-healing of concurrency, performance, and functional issues.


: Floods have the potential to threaten human life and destroy property including buildings. Kebon Baru Village is one of the villages that often experiences floods. This research focuses on the Level of Flood Hazard in Kebon Baru Village. The method used is descriptive quantitative with overlay analysis techniques. The parameters used are altitude, distance from the river, land use, and buildings. Based on the results, Kebon Baru Village has three levels of flood hazard, namely low, medium and high. Low level has 4564 buildings, medium level has 1060 building and high level has 405 buildings. The level of flood hazard found in Kebon Baru Village is more influenced by the height and distance from Ci Liwung. The lower altitude and the closer to Ci Liwung, the higher of flood hazard level, on the contrary, the higher altitude and the farther distance, the lower flood hazard level.

Keywords : Buildings Distribution, Flood Hazard Level, Kebon Baru Village


Abstract The insulin-like growth factor type 1 receptor (IGF-1R) is now thought to have a dual function in breast cancer. Several studies have shown overexpression of the IGF-1R pathway results in increased tumor cell proliferation and survival. Recent loss-of-function models have shown decreased mammary tumorigenesis latency and increased metastasis. These recent studies correlate with analyses of human patient datasets identifying worse overall survival with low IGF-1R expression. Similarly, inhibition of IGF-1R in the clinic has had no affect or has led to worse outcomes supporting the hypothesis that the IGF-1R may have tumor suppressive properties. Our prior published studies revealed loss of IGF-1R function results in heightened tumor epithelial stress, which alters the tumor microenvironment to be permissive for metastasis. Therefore, we asked does the loss of IGF-1R inherently change the tumor epithelium or is it simply the alterations of the microenvironment that lead to a metastatic primary tumor? We first analyzed cell invasion of primary tumor epithelial cells from a mouse tumor model driven by the Wnt1 oncogene (MMTV-Wnt1) and with reduced IGF-1R signaling by expression of a dominant-negative transgene (MMTV-dnIGF-1R). Epithelial cells from the MMTV-Wnt1/dnIGF-1R (bigenic) tumors invaded at the same rate as MMTV-Wnt1 tumor epithelial cells by tail vein injection suggesting invasive capacity is unchanged with reduced IGF-1R signaling. Interestingly, size of lung micrometastases from tail vein injected bigenic tumor epithelial cells was significantly reduced and the number also decreased over time in part due to a proliferative defect determined by immunostaining for pH3. Similarly, bigenic primary tumor epithelial cells injected into the mammary gland fat pad failed to form tumors suggesting alterations in cell adhesion. Consistent with this observation, E-cadherin gene and protein expression were decreased in the bigenic tumor epithelium compared to MMTV-Wnt1 tumors. In vitro analysis of cell adhesion in MMTV-Wnt1 primary epithelial cells resulted in both K8+ (luminal) and K14+ (basal) tumor epithelial cells adherence, while only K14+ cells from bigenic tumors adhered to collagen. Similarly, the lung micrometastases from tail vein injections exhibited predominantly K14+ cells. Analysis of MMTV-Wnt1 and bigenic primary tumors using single cell RNAseq revealed alterations in both stromal and epithelial populations that may contribute to bigenic primary tumor growth and metastasis. These data support the conclusion that inhibiting IGF-1R signaling results in both alterations to the tumor epithelium (partial EMT) and microenvironment that result in metastasis, but also, that the IGF-1R deficient metastatic cells need a niche or paracine signaling to proliferate.


house, swept and garnished, now has in it more devils of subjectivism than ever before. Barth is driven to uphold a kind of faith which is certainly a subjective experience and yet says it is a peculiar way of access to God. He accepts uncritically that system of theology which happens to appeal to him because of his early training and present environment, and declares it to be the truth about God. Certain philosophic presuppositions he uncritically, almost unconsciously, accepts. To accept them, and the traditional theology, as mere working propositions, held constantly subject to criticism and reconstruction, and used merely as intellectual tools to be discarded as soon as he could get better, would save him from the subjectivism and historism against which he has so desperately struggled. But as it is, his struggle is vain. Subjectivism, traditionalism, and dogmatism have swallowed him up. His noble undertaking becomes a fiasco.


In the spring of 1991, the Iowa State Department of Education publicly announced that the Iowa Valley Community College District faced imminent bankruptcy. To address the problem, a contribution margin budgeting (CMB) system, a more easily managed derivative of responsibility center budgeting, was implemented immediately. Under a CMB system, each responsibility center receives credit for all income it generates and is charged for all expenditures, including applicable indirect costs. Each responsibility center must build its own reserve against revenue shortfalls or unanticipated expenditures. A budgeting system exists to serve the institution's mission of education, not finance. As competition increases for national, state, and local budgets funds, community colleges must adopt a more rational approach to budgeting and resource allocation. For the Iowa Valley Community College District, the CMB system has made a difference.


The aim of the present study is to highlight the framework of FA implementation to combat fraud risks and crimes and improve corporate governance's effectiveness in fraud defense.


Gamasodes tongdensis sp.nov. (Figs.1 6) Holotype deutonymph collected in a nest of bird,on Sept.20,1993 from Tongde County (35°20′N,101°11′E,elevation 3 400 m) ,Qinghai,deposited in the Research Institute of Endemic Disease Control of Qinghai Province. This new species is near to G.sinicus Tian et Gu,1991,but differs from the latter in:1)in frontal dorsal shield somewhat wider(299×394),posterior dorsal shield egglike,with 11 pair of punctures and 11 pair of setae on outlying region of ventral shield;2)central prong of tectum narrow and pointed,each side with one tooth;3)end of sternal shield with a sinus;4)middle of posterior margin on tarsus Ⅳ with a branchlike seta.


WE have reported that Dewar hexamethylbenzene {hexamethylbicyclo [Z, 2, Olhexadiene (I) }l reacted with (a) RhC13,3H,0 in methanol,, and (b) potassium chloroplatinate and HC1 in methanol containing some stannous ~hlor ide,~ to give cyclopentadienyland cyclopentadiene-metal complexes respectively, in high yields. In both cases the only other product (apart from hexamethylbenzene) was 1, l-dimethoxyethane, isolated by preparative V.P.C. and identified by its lH n.m.r. and mass spectra. RhC13,3H,0 also reacted with (I) under heterogeneous conditions in water a t 90" to give pentamethylcyclopentadienylrhodium chloride dimer (11) (25%); acetaldehyde was the only other organic product. Methanol is therefore not acting as a reducing agent and it is unlikely that a lower valency state of rhodium or a rhodium hydride is involved in the reaction. Iridium trichloride hydrate also reacted with (I) in methanol a t 65". In this case, however, the Dewar benzene was largely isomerized to hexamethylbenzene; only a small amount (ca. 10% based on iridium) of pentamethylcyclopentadienyliridium chloride dimer (111) was obtained. The considerations outlined in the previous Communication led us to conclude that all these reactions involved a common first step in which the Dewar benzene (I) was converted by acid into a substituted ethylpentamethylcyclopentadiene (IV; X = Cl or more probably, OMe or OH). This then reacted with the metal halide to give the pentamethylcyclopentadieneor pentamethylcyclopentadienyl-metal complexes. The transformation of (I) to (IV; X = C1 or OMe) has recently been reported by Paquette and Krow.3 We have repeated these preparations and found that (IV; X = C1 or OMe) reacted readily with RhC1,,3H2O and IrC13,5H,0 to give (11) and (111) in high yield.: In both cases 1, l-dimethoxyethane was the only other organic product. The acid needed to convert (I) into (IV) in the reactions, which started from (I), presumably arises from ionisation of the metal chloride hydrates :


Chinese traditional culture is of much the same as the western public relation thoughts on public relation consciousness, but the differences of Chinese-western culture make the public relations more complex on its specification and serviceability of theories. Therefore, if the commercial public relations want to coordinate with national culture, it should hold on its principle, indiganization of public relations.


Objective To explore clinical characteristics and diagnosis and therapeutic methods of pediatric mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia.Methods retrospectively analyzing the clinical data and image logical diagnosis data and clinical therapeutic results of 224 pediatric mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia patients who were treated in our hospital from January 2010 to December 2011,summarized the clinical characteristics and clinical therapeutic effects of pediatric mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia.Among them,76 cases were treated with azithromycin(group A),74 cases were treated with erythromycin(group B),and 74 cases were treated with azithromycin joint erythromycin(C group).To observe the two groups' therapeutic effects,defervescence time,cough time,go tone disappear time,length of hospital stay,adverse reaction,etc.Results Compared with curative effect of group A(80.3%) and group B(83.8%),curative effect of group C(93.2%) increased significantly,with significant difference,there was statistical significance(P 0.05).Compared with A and B group,cough time,defervescence time,go tone disappear time,length of hospital and each index time in group C were significantly shortened,with significant difference,there was statistical significance(P 0.05).Adverse reaction in 3 groups was not showing significant difference,had no statistical significance(P 0.05).Conclusion Treating mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia with azithromycin joint erythromycin has a good effect and less adverse reaction,which is worth of clinical promotion.


During the past century an interesting literature pertaining to a group of rare tumors of the breast has developed. Collectively they are characterized by the presence of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue and pleomorphic cells, and, depending on whether these elements are found alone or in combination, the tumors have been reported as chondroma, osteochondroma, chondrosarcoma, osteochondrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, osteoid sarcoma, giant cell sarcoma, myeloid sarcoma, mixed tumor, osteoclastoma and teratoma. In 1700 Bonet 1 reported bbserving in a female breast a stony hard mass "which could not be cut with a knife." Since at this period microscopic study of tissue had not evolved and also because stony hard tumors were called bony or cartilaginous, it would be inaccurate to refer to this early contribution as the first example of the tumors under discussion. The same critical attitude must be maintained toward the bony and cartilaginous tumors reported by Morgagni, 2 Reil,


In this paper, the temperature field, stress field and deformation of the laser arc hybrid heat source additive manufacturing process were simulated by using Simufact Welding software. The transverse and interlaminar equivalent stresses and deformation laws of different cladding layers are analyzed, and the influence of process parameters on deformation is analyzed. The results show that the deformation of the center and both sides of the substrate after cooling is large, and the overall shape is "$\mathrm{W}$"; According to the longitudinal physical field, the local stress decreases near the heat source, and the maximum deformation occurs at the side away from the end heat source; Through the analysis of the laws of physical field between layers, it can be seen that the equivalent stress is concentrated on the bottom layer. Due to the accumulation of deformation, the deformation is concentrated on the top layer, and the temperature part has three times of remelting.


This graduation project has been carried out by Moa Alfredsson at Redloop AB, working with theproduction of a tv show. This project is aimed towards time effective modeling, models that arecreated ...


Due to the changing demographics of the labor force, more and more organizations are recognizing the need to effectively manage diversity in order to remain competitive. Increasing attention is being paid to employee diversity with respect to languages, cultures, genders, and values. Organizations are advised to also pay attention to diversity with respect to age. Specifically, issues involving older workers should be addressed. Not only is this attention warranted because managing diversity implies the effective management of all employees, regardless of age, but also because, as a result, costly litigation can be avoided and sufficient staffing levels can be maintained in the future. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 and its subsequent amendments expressly prohibit discrimination against individuals age 40 and over in regards to any employment decision, including hiring, promotions, and layoffs. Recent research indicates that many organizations do not heed this legislation. Marley (1994) reports statistics compiled by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which state that age discrimination claims numbered 19,884 in 1993, a 34% increase from the 14,789 claims in 1989. Romano (1994) cites a recent study by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) which reports that more than 25% of older people are discriminated against when applying for a job. Organizations found guilty of such discrimination often incur significant fines and penalties. Recent articles (Marley, 1994; Small Business Reports, 1994) refer to research conducted by Jury Verdict Research which indicates the average award for age discrimination is over $300,000, which is 175-300% higher than those for gender, race, or disability discrimination. Lest employers believe the only reason to address issues relating to older workers is to avoid litigation, they need to be made aware of the upcoming changes in the composition of the labor force. "Baby-boomers" are expected to comprise over 50% of the work force by the year 2000 (Johnston, 1987). Since "baby-boomers" are defined as those born between the years 1946 and 1964, this means that over one-half of the work force will be between the ages of 36 and 54. Seemingly, a large majority of the "baby-boomers" will be over the age of 39, at which point they will be protected by the ADEA. In addition, organizations will have to focus recruitment and retention efforts on this cohort in order to maintain necessary staffing levels. There simply will not be enough "younger" workers to sufficiently fill all of the positions that will be available. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted the addition of over 23 million new jobs between 1985 and 1995, while only around 20 million new entrants (of all ages) to the work force during that same time period. With the expected aging of the future work force, the issue of age bias becomes illuminated (Offermann and Gowing, 1990). Although the ADEA is intended to eliminate employment discrimination against individuals 40 and over, barriers for older workers still exist in organizations. Recent research suggests that negative biases toward older workers persist (Bird and Fisher, 1986; Capowski, 1994; Kaeter, 1995). These biases usually pertain to the performance capabilities of older workers. When older workers are perceived to be less capable, they receive negatively biased performance evaluations and, as a result, may be laid off more often or receive fewer promotions. Yet research indicates that true job performance differences between older and younger workers do not exist. McEvoy and Cascio (1989) conducted a meta-analysis of over 96 studies that reported correlations between age and performance and concluded that there was an absence of a true relationship between the two. More recent research supports these findings (Avolio and Waldman, 1994; Avolio et al., 1990; Salthouse, 1994), showing little relationship between age and job performance when controlling for experience and/or education. …


What is the central question of this study? It is a challenge to discover effective therapies for fibrosis. Increasing evidence supports the antifibrotic potential of platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) as a source of bioactive molecules, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)‐A. However, the effects and mechanisms of action of PRP need to be clarified. What is the main finding and its importance? This report clarifies the mechanisms mediating the antifibrotic action of PRP, strengthening the role of VEGF‐A/VEGF receptor, and identifies gap junction currents and connexin 43 as novel targets of this pathway in the fibroblast‐to‐myofibroblast transition induced by the transforming growth factor‐β1.


Abstract : We present an implementation of a recognizer for quantified notions in the Boyer-Moore Theorem Prover, Nqthm. That is, we provide a method for checking that a given function does indeed represent a quantified notion. We also present methods for generating constructively-presented functions that represent quantified notions, including definitions using only bounded quantifiers.


Macro base stations are densely overlaid by small cells to satisfy the demands of user equipment in heterogeneous networks. Due to their dense deployment, some small cells are not directly connected to macro base stations and thus backhaul connections are required to connect small cells to macro base stations. Millimeter wave backhauls which have high bandwidths are preferred for small cell backhaul communication, since they can increase the capacity of network considerably. In this context, association of user equipment to base stations becomes challenging due to the backhaul architecture. Considering environmental concerns, energy efficiency is a vital criterion in designing user association algorithms. In this paper, we study the user association problem aiming at the maximization of energy efficiency. We develop centralized and distributed user association algorithms based on sequentially minimizing the power consumption. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms under two scenarios and show that they achieve higher energy efficiency compared to the existing algorithms in the literature, while maintaining high spectral efficiency and backhaul load balancing.


This paper proposes new principles for constructing ruling engines, based on the use of the dynamic properties of a physical pendulum and supports with elasticity friction. The resulting mathematical model of the process of shaping a line of a ruled periodic relief-phase structure is presented as a function of the dynamics of the cutting carriage and of other external active factors. A description is given of a prototype of a pendulum-type ruling engine. The results of numerical modelling and field studies of the prototype are discussed.


An analysis is presented of two schemes which have been proposed for the determination of the temperature dependence of homogeneous crystal nucleation rates in glasses via DTA measurements. The first method is based upon the postulate that the inverse of the temperature at which the DTA crystallization rate is maximum, T1p, will increase monotonically as the number density of nucleated particles increases. The second method is based on the observation that the intensity at Tp (peak height) increases as Tp grows. The validity of both of these methods is assessed for inorganic glasses for two specific crystal growth models.


An analytic calculation of the surface current and selected mound angle is presented for the case of irreversible epitaxial growth on an fcc(111) surface with a finite Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier. The special cases of short terraces and combinations of short terraces with facets which lead to large mound slopes are also discussed. We find that for both $A$ and $B$ steps the surface current and selected mound slope are determined by two key parameters\char22{}the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier and the degree of uphill funneling due to short-range attraction. However, the presence or absence of a small-slope instability is exclusively determined by the value of the ES barrier. In particular there exists a critical value of the parameter $\ensuremath{\rho}$ (where $\ensuremath{\rho}=({\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{ES}}∕{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{0}){e}^{\ensuremath{-}{E}_{\mathrm{ES}}∕{k}_{B}T}$ and ${E}_{\mathrm{ES}}$ is the ES barrier) such that for $\ensuremath{\rho}l{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{c}$, the flat surface is unstable to mound formation while for $\ensuremath{\rho}g{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{c}$ there is no such instability. The critical value ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{c}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.21$ is the same for both $A$ and $B$ steps and independent of the degree of uphill funneling due to short-range attraction. When the uphill funneling is not too large, the selected slope decreases continuously with increasing $\ensuremath{\rho}$, reaching zero at ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{c}$. However, in the presence of sufficiently large uphill funneling, the selected slope is independent of $\ensuremath{\rho}$ for $\ensuremath{\rho}l{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{c}$. In this case a new phenomenon which we refer to as fluctuation-induced instability also occurs. In particular, while the surface remains stable for $\ensuremath{\rho}g{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{c}$ for small slopes, for larger slopes the surface current may become positive due to uphill funneling. Thus, even in the presence of a small ES barrier, mound formation may still occur. Finally, we present typical results for the dependence of the mound slope on $\ensuremath{\rho}$ for both $A$ and $B$ steps.


The Kuril basin was formed by back-arc spreading in Oligo-Miocene time which is deduced from bottom depth, heat flow and geological data in and around the basin. The b sin has a shape of fan which diminishes northeastward and closes just southwestern end of Kamchatka Peninsula.The fan shape strongly suggests that the basin was formed by the rotation of backarc plate (the Okhotsk Plate) around a relative rotation pole located between the Kuril Basin and Kamchatka Peninsula. Geology around the Sea of Okhotsk indicates that the clockwise rotation of the Okhotsk Plate and the fan spreading of the Kuril Basin concurrently took place in Oligo-Miocene time.


The Central Party Committee propose "talent powerful the country" strategy.New century,human capital advantage becomes the first advantage of bringing about an advance in social economy.Define the characteristic of the human capital of a civil servant,for strengthening government's administrative ability,reduce the administrative cost,raise public productivity,urge to be played a key role by the economic development of area and country.This article tries hard from the management study angle,analyzes human capital characteristic,which the official has,is clear about the official to take a kind of human capital the vital role.


Instrument Validation and Structural Equation Modeling of Motivational and Higher Education Orientations among Students of Mexican Descent in Rural Schools of the U.S. Pacific Northwest Eric William Hamilton Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Susan B. Nolen Educational Psychology The present study investigates use of Nicholls' (1989) Motivational Orientations Scales with high school students of Mexican descent in rural school settings, and the patterns of associations between motivational orientations and higher education orientations for students differing in gender, country of birth (nativity), grade level, and ethnic composition of school. Participants (n = 354) completed a questionnaire including the Motivational Orientations Scales of the Theories of Schooling survey (Nicholls, 1989), questions pertaining to beliefs about higher education attainment, and demographics questions. Confirmatory factor analyses evidenced language and student sub-group equivalence of factor structure on a random split-half procedure. Correlational analyses revealed relationships between motivational orientations and higher education orientations that evidenced unique patterns for different groups of students. Path models revealed distinct similarities and differences in sub-groups-based patterns between motivational and higher education orientations. Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) showed an interaction effect between nativity and gender on higher education expectations, and a main effect of school ethnic composition on higher education aspirations. Results support use of the Motivational Orientations Scales with adolescents of Mexican descent in rural schools, and suggest consideration of gender, nativity, grade level, and school ethnic composition in interventions to address students' school achievement motivation and belifs about higher education opportunities. Limitations and future directions are discussed. MOTIVATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION ORIENTATIONS 1 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW Instrument Validation and Structural Equation Modeling of Motivational and Higher Education Orientations among Students of Mexican Descent in Rural Schools of the U.S. Pacific Northwest U.S. schools are experiencing fast-paced changes in the demographic characteristics of their student populations, changes that have implications for the academic values and accountability practices that shape definitions of student success (Darling-Hammond, 2004; Gutierrez, 2006). High dropout rates and social and cultural inconsistencies, many of which defy traditional pedagogical and learning assessment approaches, stand in the way of the goals of increasing and maintaining the academic motivation, graduation rates, and higher education enrollment for marginalized students. In terms of these outcomes, the educational experiences of Latino students may need particular attention, as these students constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the U.S., and peoples of Mexican descent the largest portion of the Latino population (Pew Hispanic Center, 2012). From a broad perspective, research focused on the educational trajectories of Latinos in the US claims that our Latino students are "remaking America," transforming not only the demographic fabric, but also policy and curricula in K-12 education systems (Contreras, 2005; Suárez-Orozco & Páez, 2002). However, while this is true across many regions of the United States, most educational research involving Latinos and students of Mexican descent has focused on the experiences of students in urban schools. Coming to understand the complex and distinct educational histories and trajectories of students of Mexican descent in rural contexts is a project as of yet little pursued, yet one that is crucial for improving the educational outcomes of this MOTIVATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION ORIENTATIONS 2 growing and dynamic US population (Suárez-Orozco & Páez, 2002). The miningand agriculture-based immigration of laborers from Mexico represents a history that has led to a large, stable, Latino population in the Pacific Northwest, a population with a rich history of labor negotiations and human rights struggles (Gamboa, 2000; Guzman, 2006). The legacy of this history is the present-day diversity of vibrant social collectives of heritages and lifestyles, on that makes the US Pacific Northwest one of the most valuable regions for research relevant to understanding the struggles and opportunities of contemporary rural students of Mexican descent. For education stakeholders, such as teachers, administrators, and researchers engaged in the improvement of education for students of Mexican decent in U.S. high schools, the duties of not only educating this historically-marginalized, highly diverse, and growing population, but also of ensuring that the belief in attainment of higher education is an attainable goal for this student population, demand great responsibility and offer great challenges. As Contreras (2005) writes, In a time when Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the K-12 population in many states, early and continued investment must remain an imperative for both states and higher education systems. The disconnect between K-12 and higher education systems stymies the development of college-going cultures and infrastructures and facilitates inequitable access to higher education. Early and continued investment in Chicano/Latino students throughout the educational pipeline may create a more seamless continuum to higher education and contribute to the process of socioeconomic elevation, empowerment, and sustainability (p. 212). MOTIVATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION ORIENTATIONS 3 Scholars seeking to understand adaptation, acculturation, and transculturation of the children of immigration (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 1995, 2001), those who themselves have immigrated, or whose families have immigrated to the US, have leveraged various theoretical constructs or institutional practices to explain varying academic trajectories. These studies often point to factors such as ethnic identity (Matute-Bianchi, 1986; Perez & Padilla, 2000; Zarate, Bhimji, & Reese 2005), segregation and cultural exclusion (Gibson, Gándara, & Koyama, 2004; Valencia, 2002), achievement motivation (Gándara, O'Hara, & Gutiérrez, 2004; Waxman, Huang, & Padron, 1997) and cultural or social capital (Stanton-Salazar, 2004). By turning the investigative lens toward the variations in relationships between academic motivations and beliefs about higher education opportunities of students of Mexican descent, education stakeholders may be better-informed in the design of future curricula, policies, and research goals that, in turn, may function to empower this dynamic and diverse student population. Educational Aspirations and Expectations among Students of Mexican Descent Research that assesses educational aspirations and expectations of Latino youth (e.g., Bohon, Johnson, & Gorman, 2006; Gándara, O'Hara, & Gutiérrez, 2004; Kao & Tienda, 1998, 2000) has produced mixed findings regarding relationships between student characteristics and college-going. In general, though, the constructs used to measure students' higher education orientations are defined in a straight-forward manner: aspirations are defined as reflections of one's hopefulness about future educational opportunities and achievement, whereas expectations are thought to be a person's consideration of the likelihood of achieving the academic goals to which one aspires (Bohon, et al., 2006). Although aspirations offer insight into students' beliefs about post-secondary educational opportunities, expectations are considered a more realistic selfassessment about one's educational future than are aspirations. MOTIVATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION ORIENTATIONS 4 In her qualitative study, Ruiz Soto (2009) interviewed students who were documented and students who were undocumented, all of Mexican descent, in one Eastern Washington high school. Results of the study demonstrated that there are a number of factors influencing Latino immigrant students' higher education aspirations, some of which have to do specifically with group membership of the students. Overall, her findings were clear: all fifteen of her high school interviewees aspired to attend college after high school, and all of their parents had college aspirations for their children. Based on her consistent findings of both the immigrant students and their parents' pro-academic, college-oriented accounts, Ruiz Soto, drawing from the writings of Portes (2000), suggested a rearticulation of the concept of cultural capital, to include narratives of immigrant families' border crossings, the academic motivation that springs from parental expectations. Of note, however, in Ruiz Soto's study, participants' higher education aspirations mainly pertained to attending two-year community or technical colleges. Some studies of educational futures of US students take a broad perspective, focusing on the U.S. Latino student population as one homogeneous group (e.g., Kao & Tienda, 1998). However, education-focused studies investigating differences between ethnic groups within the broader Latino population have helped to illuminate differing school outcomes for Latino subgroups identified in terms of gender, ethnic group, and immigration status. For example, Bohon, Johnson, and Gorman (2006) studied differences in educational aspirations and expectations among Latinos of different ethnic backgrounds, including students of Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Mexican descent. Results of their regression analyses showed that both aspirations and expectations were higher among students of Cuban descent than for students of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, suggesting the need to disaggregate Latinos in such analyses. For example, MOTIVATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION ORIENTATIONS 5 Bohon and colleagues (2006) did not include gender and gender-based interaction effec


Speech enhancement refers to suppressing the background noise to improve the perceptual quality and intelligibility of the observed noisy speech. Recently, speech enhancement algorithms based on deep neural networks (DNNs) have replaced traditional algorithms based on statistical signal processing and have become mainstream in the research field. However, most DNN-based speech enhancement methods commonly operate on the frequency domain and do not use the speech production model, which makes the models prone to under-suppress the noise or over-suppress the speech. To address the shortcoming, we propose a novel speech enhancement method integrating neural homomorphic synthesis and complex spectral masking. Specifically, we use a shared-encoder and multi-decoder neural network architecture. For the neural homomorphic synthesis branch, the speech signal is separated into excitation and vocal tract components through liftering the cepstrum, two DNN decoders are applied to estimate the target components independently, and the denoised speech is synthesized by the estimated minimum-phase signal and the noisy phase. For the spectral masking branch, another DNN decoder is adopted to estimate the complex mask of the target spectrum, and the denoised speech spectrum is obtained by masking the noisy spectrum. The two branches respectively estimate speech signals, and the final enhanced speech is obtained by merging the two branches of estimated speech. Experimental results on two popular datasets show that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art level performance, with only 920 K model parameters.


Using NaHSO4·H2O as the catalyst,methyl salicylate,ethyl salicylate,n-propyl salicylate,iso-propyl salicylate,and tert-butyl salicylate,five important organic intermediates,were obtained in 76%~91% yields from chloroacetic acid and corresponding alcohol under microwave irradiation at 250 W for 10 min.This method has the advantages of easy manipulation,reused of the catalyst,short reaction time,and friendly to environment.All products were identified by 1HNMR and elementary analysis.


sedimentary basins in Canada (Sanford, 1987). The Hudson Platform encompasses parts of northern Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, and southern Nunavut, with two thirds of the area covered by waters of Hudson Bay and James Bay. The Platform contains the large Hudson Bay Basin and the smaller satellite Moose River and Foxe basins to the south and north, respectively (Fig. 1). The Hudson Bay, Moose River and Foxe basins are surrounded and underlain by Precambrian metamorphic and intrusive rocks of the Canadian Shield. The northern limit of Hudson Bay Basin is the northwest-trending Bell Arch, characterized by a series of fault-bounded basement blocks that separates the Hudson Bay Basin from the smaller Foxe Basin. The Cape Henrietta Maria Arch, a broad positive basement structural element, separates the Hudson Bay and Moose River basins. The Hudson Bay Basin contains north-trending faulted basement uplift, called the Central Uplift or Mid-Bay Shoal. The Hudson Platform is the least studied intracratonic basin in North America; its surface area rivals that of other intracratonic basins such as the Michigan and Illinois basins (Fig. 1) although it is characterized by a significantly thinner preserved sedimentary succession. The origin of the broad depression is still controversial and the central part of the Hudson Bay itself is interpreted to be the site of a major SW-NE suture zone between various Precambrian terranes (Eaton and Darbyshire, 2009).


Many image processing algorithms have been parallelized successfully on many-core processors, such as GPU and Intel Xeon Phi. In this paper, we choose the Sunway many-core processor SW26010, which is a new processor designed and made in China that constitutes the current NO.1 supercomputer Sunway TaihuLight. This paper firstly introduces the architecture of Sunway SW26010 processor and two representative image processing algorithms: local binary pattern (LBP) and histogram of oriented gradient (HOG). Furthermore we propose a method of parallel implementation, and the experimental results of this method show that the speedup can be up to 170 for LBP and 33 for HOG. Then two optimized methods are brought forward based on this parallel implementation, including the optimization of program and parallel design. We optimize the program by using the method that combined step transmission and software prefetching. From the experiment results of the first optimization we can know that the maximum speedup can reach 310 for LBP with processing high-resolution images and 83 for HOG. Then we optimize the parallel design by using a coarse grained parallel method, and the experimental results show that the speedup can be up to 370 for LBP and 95 for HOG when processing low-resolution images. Finally, we investigate the scalability of our parallelism on the Sunway TaihuLight with different number of processor nodes, and the experiment results prove that the two algorithms' parallel design and implementation have better expansibility.


Shopping on various brands and things has become entirely easy across the world through internet. Trade and business works hand in hand with the development of internet usage. Consumers purchase online majorly for new and innovative products which can be compatible for their budget. Sixty respondents were selected for the study using random sampling method in Hyderabad city. A detailed interview schedule was used for collection of information about the internet usage and online shopping attitude among the respondents. Sixty per cent of the total study population has done online purchase. Majority (78%) of the respondents expressed themselves as intermediate in proficiency level of internet usage. Non online shoppers have also reported that they check to online products and their price before they go to retail stores for purchase. There is a significant variation among the proficiency level and attitude of the students, towards positive correlation. Thus, internet usage has influenced the respondents to involve in online shopping and creates a positive attitude towards the purchase of online goods.


Status of economic development in Shaanxi Province is analyzed,showing that Shaanxi Province has achieved the fast and stable economic growth;and total GDP and fixed assets investment have shown a sustainable growth.According to the time series statistics of Shaanxi Province in the years 1978-2008,Cobb-Douglas Function is used to carry out the empirical analysis on the contribution of fixed assets investment and labor input to economic growth of Shaanxi Province,China.Result shows that capital and labor input are the main major driving forces for the economic growth of Shaanxi Province.In other words,economic growth mode of Shaanxi Province is still extensive.Economic growth of Shaanxi Province is increasingly dependent on capital investment and technological progress.Contribution rates of capital and labor to economic growth are 66.9% and 33.1%,respectively.Therefore,investment is a source of economic growth in Shaanxi Province through the reform and opening up in the last three decades.


The time dependent dielectric breakdown characteristics of lead zirconate titanate [Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3] (PZT) thin film capacitors are studied as a function of film thickness. The thickness of PZT films ranges from 70 nm to 470 nm. The variation of leakage current with electric field can be described by a power law relationship. A power law can also describe the relation between the time to dielectric breakdown (tBD) and the electric field. The exponent of the first power law agrees very well with the second when the leakage current is measured using a short delay time of 0.1 s. An extrapolation method was used to extract the tBD lifetime by correlating the tBD and the leakage current. The value of tBD lifetime increases from 104 s to 1012 s as the film thickness is decreased from 470 nm to 70 nm. If the leakage current is measured using a longer delay time (>0.1 s), stress degradation of the samples is observed.


A professional development experience for science and mathematics teachers that included coaches was provided for ten science and math teachers. This professional development experience had the teachers develop a lesson that utilized the engineering context to teach a science or mathematics concept through guided inquiry as an instructional methodology. Developing a guided inquiry lesson can be a difficult task for teachers. Science teachers have inquiry standards that they must meet and research indicates that teaching through guided inquiry is an effective method of teaching science content. Mathematics teachers are being asked to incorporate more active and cooperative instructional experiences in in their classrooms. Results of the professional development experience indicate that all but one of the teachers were successful in developing and implementing guided inquiry lessons within their classrooms. Matching coach and teacher by content area was found to be important. Coaches provided help to the teachers in developing their lessons by providing a sounding board for teacher ideas, offering suggestions for the lessons, observing and providing feedback, and helping the teachers understand guided inquiry. Introduction Science and math teachers have increasing demands placed on them, including integration of technology and engineering into their curriculums (Anderson-Rowland, et al., 2002; National Research Council, 2011). Many of these teachers lack content knowledge and are unprepared to teach engineering and technology (ASEE, 2004; McCuen & Yohe, 1997). Additionally, despite the emphasis on the development of inquiry skills in the science teaching standards and reform movements, many science teachers do not know how to successfully teach inquiry (Anderson & Michener, 1994; Bybee & Fuchs, 2006). Translating scientific inquiry into effective classroom instruction can be a demanding task, requiring both discipline-based inquiry content knowledge and skills in inquiry teaching. Professional development can improve teachers' understanding of engineering content (Nugent, Kunz, Rilett, & Jones, 2010; Poole, deGrazia, & Sullivan, 2001; Zarske, Sullivan, Carlson, & Yowel, 2004) and their knowledge of inquiry and skills in inquiry teaching (Haney, Wang, Keil, & Zoffel, 2007; Vanosdall, Klentschy, Hedges, & Weisbaum, 2007). Unfortunately, Cornett and Knight (2009) indicate that teachers successfully implement new teaching strategies learned in the most common professional development format – a summer workshop – only about 15% of the time. However, if the professional development is followed by instructional coaching in the newly acquired teaching strategy at the teacher's school, successful implementation reaches 85%. Coaches are fairly common in literacy and mathematics, but instructional coaching in science is currently rare (Kraus, 2008). However, the addition of instructional coaches to a summer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional development experience should also provide increased learning of engineering and inquiry content and implementation of inquiry teaching strategies. Research Questions 1. What are important aspects of the STEM professional development? 2. What are important aspects of the coach and coaching process? 3. How does this STEM professional development affect the participants' (i.e., teachers, coaches, and students) understanding of and beliefs about inquiry and engineering?


The two methodologies were eventually integrated by. Rummler-Brache Group applied the methodology to. Fortune 500 companies.an idea of the range of techniques and methodologies available today. Thus, the Rummler-Brache methodology became the most widely used. Daves Whiteboard Blog Archive Rummler and Brache: Improving Performance. Retrieved December 8, 2009.Learn how to use Swim Lane RummlerBrache Diagrams to map and improve. The Rummler-Brache process design methodology was revolutionary when it.It is the methodology that both Process Redesign and Business Process. :www.projectmanagement.comcontentattachmentshelixman060809081921.pdf.on Rummler Braches 1995.


Abstract : It is sometimes argued that Bayesian inference is unaffected by data dependent stopping rules. Although this is formally true for ignorable rules, there is likely to be heightened sensitivity of inference to prior assumptions when using data dependent rules rather than stopping rules that do not depend on the data. This point is illustrated in a simple example. (Author)


The aim of this paper is to study the various parameters investigated by researchers to analyze the failure load of the composite laminates. They studied the various parameters like fibers used to make composites, orientation of fibers and number of laminates. The further study has been extended on the joining of the composite laminates. Th most common method of joining of two plates is with the help of pin/bolt joint. The same approach can be used to study the effect of joints in the composite laminates. To optimize the various parameters discussed are to be optimized which can be done with the help of design of experiment. The same approach, parameters and failure methods can be used to investigate the failure load of the composite laminate with multi pin joints.


The intranuclear cascade-evaporation model of a high-energy nucleon-meson transport code has been used to calculate neutron production from nonelastic interactions of 585 MeV protons with C, Al, Fe, Nb, In, Ta, Pb, and U targets at emission angles of 30/sup 0/, 90/sup 0/, and 150/sup 0/. These model predictions are compared with measurements of the double differential cross sections d/sup 2/sigma/d..cap omega..dT/sub n/ of neutrons with kinetic energies between 0.9 and 585 MeV. In general, the model predicts approximately the correct neutron production in the evaporation region, whereas in the high energy region (E/sub n/approx. >20 MeV) systematic discrepancies between measurements and model predictions occur. These increase rapidly with increasing neutron energy and increasing emission angle.


This paper considers fuzzy co-clustering of distributed cooccurrence data, where vertically partitioned cooccurrence information among objects and items are stored in several sites. In order to utilize such distributed data sets without fear of information leaks, a privacy preserving procedure is introduced to fuzzy clustering for categorical multivariate data (FCCM). Withholding each element of cooccurrence matrices, only object memberships are shared by multiple sites and their (implicit) joint co-cluster structures are revealed through an iterative clustering process. Several experimental results demonstrate the ability of improving the individual co-clustering results of each site by combining the distributed data sets.


A new type of an integrated optical waveguide is presented, which uses the non-planar deposition characteristic of a PECVD process to deposite siliconoxinitride layers in a trench etched by a plasma process into a silicon substrate. The resulting structure, which closely resembles a single material fiber, avoids scattering losses due to edge roughness caused by the etching process, since the waves are guided far from these edges, and, as it is buried in the trench, exhibits neglegible crosscoupling between closely adjacent waveguides


A method of lossless compression of high dynamic range (HDR) images encoded in LogLuv32 format is presented. Simple bitplane coding (SBC) is independently applied to the components of LogLuv data. A context model for coding a bit is created by a comparison of neighboring pixel values, and is fed to a range coder. As a result, the average bit rate of 9.8 bits/pixel was obtained in lossless compression of popular 34 LogLuv32 HDR images. That is, a set of those data shrinks to 31% of the uncompressed data size on average.


Objective To investigate the clinical effect of valsartan combined with amlodipine in the treatment of patients with community hypertension complicated with diabetes mellitus. Methods One hundred and thirty-five patients with primary hypertension complicated with diabetes mellitus from February 2012 to January 2014 were divided into three groups according to the random number table, each with 45 cases. The experimental group was treated with valsartan combined with amlodipine, the control group A were treated with valsartan, and the control group B were treated with amlodipine. Then the blood pressure, blood uric acid,fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin of three groups were compared at the third month after the treatment. Results The treatment was found effective in 44 patients in the experimental group(the total effective rate was 97.8%), 24 patients in the control group A(53.3%), and 26 patients in the control group B(57.8%). The effective rate of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of other groups(P0.05). The systolic and diastolic blood pressure declined in all the three groups after treatment, and the decline range of the experimental group were significantly larger than other groups(P0.05).The fasting blood glucose(FBG), fasting insulin(FINS), glycosylated hemoglobin(Hb A1c) and micro-albuminuria(Alb) were all declined, and the decline range of the experimental group were larger(P0.05). The blood uric acid(UA) was also found declined significantly, and the improvement of the experimental group was the best(P0.05).Conclusion Valsartan combined with amlodipine can effectively decrease the blood pressure of patients with community hypertension complicated with diabetes mellitus, and its treatment effect is better than application of single drug.


The organism that causes yeast-spot disease, was isolated from within the body of Acrosternum hilare (Say). The plant pathogen was found throughout the salivary system (stylets, salivary pump, and receptacles) and alimentary canal; it was more frequent in the stylets and salivary receptacles. The discovery of the organism within the salivary system of A. hilare indicated a far more intimate association between the insect and the disease organism than the incidental relationship that was presumed previously.


A microcomputer program, GR-1ST (gang-rip-first), is available for determining optimum gang-rip-first procedures in processing hardwood lumber. GR-1ST provides 1) parts yield information per board; 2) plots of each board plus the resulting saw cuts and parts produced; and 3) summary information for all parts produced during program execution.


PURPOSE: A steam generating device and a steam cooking instrument including the same are provided to simplify composition by reducing the number of components of the steam generating device. CONSTITUTION: A steam generating device(100) comprises a steam generating part(110), a steam heater(120), temperature sensors(130,140), and a fixing bracket. The steam generating part generates saturated steam and overheated steam by heating steam water. Also, the steam generating part is formed in a U shape, and divided by a first section(115) and a second section(117). The steam water is supplied to the first section from a water supply unit through an entrance(111). The saturated steam flowing in the first section is supplied to the second section. The steam heater heats the steam water flowing the first section.


ABSTRACT The effective training of primary school teachers through partnerships between schools and initial teacher training institutions is the subject of much discussion in the United Kingdom at present. The quality of development of information technology (IT) capability for teachers depends on an understanding of the contribution of IT to teaching and learning, a technical competence and an ability to organise IT resources effectively in the classroom. Models of partnership should include clear definitions of the distinctive roles played by schools and initial training institutions in the students' experience of developing IT capability. The study of mentors' perceptions and expectations of students' use of IT in their school experience presented here indicates that IT is not yet seen as a priority. Students' use is limited, for a variety of reasons, and mentors do not focus particularly on IT as an area for supervision. The expectations of students' IT competence, however, are high. The need for clea...


Purpose Primary optic disc tumors are often a challenge for ophthalmologists. They have very different appearances, and many primary optic disc tumors are associated with syndrom-ic diseases (especially phakomatoses). Because of the rarity of primary optic disc tumors, classification and assessment are often difficult. Material and Methods A systematic search in the electronic patient files (period 01.01.2015 – 01.06.2022) of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Münster Medical Center for patients with primary optic disc tumors was performed. For each tumor entity, exemplary cases were selected, which are presented here in detail. The criteria for the exemplary case selection were a clear diagnosis,


Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Part 1 - How It Was: Reminiscences The interim years Part 2 - Time to Return: Why return? What does retraining involve? Part 3 - Back to Practice: Has nursing changed? Professional practice, knowledge and skills Practical experience Part 4 - Forward to the Future: Do I still want to return? Training and professional development The future Index


Poor placentation is closely related with the etiology of preeclampsia and may impact fetal growth restriction. For placental developmental growth, we have demonstrated that dysregulation of autophagy, a key mechanism to maintain cellular homeostasis, in trophoblasts contributes to the pathophysiology of preeclampsia, a severe pregnancy complication, associated with poor placentation. It remains, however, unknown whether autophagy inhibition affects trophoblast syncytialization. This study evaluated the effect of autophagy in an in vitro syncytialization method using BeWo cells and primary human trophoblasts (PHT). In this study, we observed that autophagic activity decreased in PHT and BeWo cells during syncytialization. This decreased activity was accompanied by downregulation of the transcription factor, TFEB. Next, bafilomycin A1, an inhibitor of autophagy via suppressing V-ATPase in lysosomes, inhibited hCG production, CYP11A1 expression (a marker of differentiation), p21 expression (a senescence marker), and cell fusion in BeWo cells and PHT cells. Finally, LLOMe, an agent inducing lysosomal damage, also inhibited syncytialization and led to TFEB downregulation. Taken together, the autophagy-lysosomal machinery plays an important role in cytotrophoblast fusion, resulting in syncytiotrophoblasts. As autophagy inhibition contributed to the failure of differentiation in cytotrophoblasts, this may result in the poor placentation observed in preeclampsia.


The bacteria adhesion on materials surface is the first step to formation of biofilm that could lead to biocorrosion. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between bacteria adhesion and the physicochemical properties of both materials and bacteria in atmospheric simulated medium. The material used in this study is 304L stainless steel and Bacillus pumilus and Staphylococcus haemolyticus bacteria strains. The hydrophobicity, electron donor and electron receptor properties were determined by contact angle measurements. In addition, the bacteria capacity of adhesion was followed by using a scanning electron microscope. The contact angle measurements finding showed that both bacteria have hydrophilic surfaces qualitatively and qualitatively. Otherwise, the stainless steel has revealed a hydrophobic character qualitatively and quantitatively. Moreover, the scanning electron microscope displayed the high speed of adhesion of the studied bacteria. The contact angle measurements could be used as a mean to prevent biocorrosion caused by bacteria adhesion.


This article analyzes the role of history and sense of belonging development for integration and naturalization efforts in Latvia. In establishing the significance of history in national identity formation, theoretical literature analysis will explain why belonging is a fundamental need and how history and historic celebrations become tools in the process. Data from 1998-2008 will be used to illustrate the theoretical analysis and explain the dramatic drop in belonging amongst Russian speaking non-citizens. The article will argue that nation building in Latvia is based on ethnicity and culture, emphasizing collective memory and interpretation of history, as the basis of national identity. For non-members of the ethnic titular, belonging has depended on assimilation into the predefined ethnic and cultural community. The demands have alienated a significant portion of the population and opened doors for identification with Russia as the external homeland, encouraging a Diaspora identity and complicating further integration efforts.


The present sub-permil precision of single zircon chemical abrasion, isotope-dilution, thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS) UePb dates often reveals age dispersions that are outside of analytical uncertainty. Interpreting these complex age distributions requires the ability to distinguish between protracted crystallization of zircon over a few 100 kyr, age bias due to radiation damage induced Pb-loss, and analytical artefacts. This is a particularly critical issue when a number of these factors occur together. To ensure geologically meaningful results, the complete eradication of Pb-loss is of paramount importance. The impact of Pb-loss can be removed by chemical abrasion (CA) applied prior to the dissolution of zircon. However, CA is an empirical approach that is used without a detailed understanding of how the temperature applied during the annealing step, or the temperature and duration of the partial dissolution step affect the radiation-damaged zones. In addition, the conditions of the CA procedures differ between laboratories making comparisons of age data problematic. This study presents an [...] WIDMANN, Philipp, DAVIES, J.H.F.L., SCHALTEGGER, Urs. Calibrating chemical abrasion: Its effects on zircon crystal structure, chemical composition and U-Pb age. Chemical Geology, 2019, vol. 511, p. 1-10 DOI : 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2019.02.026


Light-initiated high explosive, silver acelytide - silver-nitrate (SASN), has been used to produce simulated x ray blow-off impulse loading on reentry vehicles to study the system structural response. SASN can be used to accelerate thin flyer plates to high terminal velocities which, in turn, can deliver a pressure pulse that can be tailored to the target material. This process is important for impulse tests where both structural and material response is desired. The theories used to calculate the dynamic state of the flyer plate prior to impact are summarized. Data from several experiments are presented which indicate that thin flyer plates can be properly accelerated and that there are predictive techniques available which are adequate to calculate the motion of the flyer plate. Recommendations are made for future study that must be undertaken to make the SASN flyer plate technique usable.


The study aims to know about the Precautions to be taken in public during this pandemic;COVID-19 Pandemic is a worldwide spread of disease and Covid-19 which has been told as a pandemic was first found in Wuhan, A place in China As this is pandemic, it is important to control this virus Government has implemented various measures like self-quarantine, social distancing, lockdown, etc in preventing this virus and also various other measures have been implemented during this pandemic A thorough literature search was performed using the database like Pubmed, google scholar, BioRxiv, MESH, Cochran database using the keywords 'COVID-19',' pandemic 'and 'Precau-tions ' with no date and year restrictions The language is restricted to English 15 articles with similar data have been found which were analyzed and have been included in this study It is very important to know pathophysiology, mode of transmission, precautions taken by the government during this pandemic to create knowledge about this pandemic which will be discussed in this study with the data collected from the articles collected


While there has been a strong association between tourist crime victimization and travel, few researchers have focused on the role of psychographics (or tourist personality traits). This research surveyed 957 tourists, of whom, 126 reported being a victim of crime. Analyses indicated that tourists are more than 12 times more likely to be a victim of crime (compared to their home base) and the Adventurer tourist type (allocentric, extravert) are more likely to be a victim of both personal and property crimes. In terms of reporting crime, it was found that while most tourists sought advice (whether to report the crime), most advice was to not report the crime, and thus, actual reporting of tourist crime victimization to the criminal justice system was less than 50%. It was concluded that this comparatively low rate of crime reporting may help explain why tourism crime is poorly represented in the official criminal justice records.


The note embodies observations on the stranding of a rorqual whale Balaenoptera musculus (Linnaeus)
measuring 6.35 m in total length in the shallow waters off Ovari on 20-12-1976. This is the first recorded
instance of stranding of this species alive along this coast. General morphological features are given.
Instances of strandings in other parts of the country are also listed.


This study reports on the influence of their doctoral experiences on the scholarly writing and productivity of tenured women faculty members in higher education and student affairs programs. Factors that contributed to creating their identities as scholarly writers and influenced their scholarly writing and productivity included: a) structured opportunities in research, writing, and publishing, b) mentors, and c) student peers. Strategies are presented for faculty members, student affairs administrators, and female students who encourage women to develop a commitment to integrate scholarly activities and writing into their professional identity and practice.


This chapter captures some of the Public Investment Management (PIM) lessons and experiences from Timor-Leste as it tried to meet urgent infrastructure demands in a post-conflict environment, which benefited from a surge in petroleum receipts. It looks at institutional changes using standard features of Public Investment Management systems starting from the immediate post-independence period in 1999 right up to the launch of Timor-Leste's Strategic Development Plan in July 2011. Increased control over domestic resources over this period, thanks to the onset of natural resource rents, gave the government more autonomy over prioritization and management of capital expenditure. It also enabled use of the Capital Budget to pursue multiple objectives including consolidating social stability, stimulating economic activity outside Dili, delivering quick results to address urgent infrastructure needs, and growth of the domestic private sector. The chapter tries to highlight some of the trade-offs that the PIM system faced in trying to meet these different objectives. It finally looks at some of the institutional reforms that the government embarked on in 2011 when the focus was shifting to large investments for long-term growth. This included centralizing selected PIM functions for large projects and decentralizing those functions for smaller projects.


Objective To evaluate the pattern of perioperative cardiac enzyme changes among off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) grafting operation. Methods Venous blood samples from 13 OPCAB patients on the day before operation, postoperative day 1, 3, 5, and 8 were analyzed to test levels of AST, CK, CK-MB, LDH and LDH-1. Results The values of AST, CK, CK-MB, LDH and LDH-1 before operation were within the normal range, which peaked on the 1st postoperative day (P0.05). CK-MB had recovered to the normal range on the 3rd postoperative day and other enzymes measured were higher than their corresponding values measured before operation but the differences were not significant. CK recovered to baseline on the 5th and LDH , LDH-1 on the 8th postoperative day, AST did not increase significantly after operation. Conclusion The 5 cardiac enzymes measured before operation are all within the normal range. CK-MB recovered first; followed by CK; LDH and LDH-1. OPCAB is a quite safe operation for its relatively minor myocardial injury.


According to the basic principle of product life cycle analysis, this paper establishes an evaluating index system of green rationality from tripartite surfaces: the environmental factor, the resource factor and economic factor, then defines the weight coefficient for each index by AHP, and gives a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of green rationality. Finally an example that evaluates the green rationality of paper and biomass packaging materials, is given to show the use of the method, and concludes that biomass packaging material has higher degree of green rationality. The result reveals that application of Fuzzy AHP to evaluate the green rationality can consider numerous factors, establish a relatively comprehensive evaluation system, and offer some suggestions for the future research trends of packaging materials' improvement.


Objective To investigate antibiotic resistance and ESBL producing strains of Escherichia coli isolated from intestinal bacteria of food and drink practitioner. Methods The 716 strains Escherichia coliwas collected from OX of Fuzhou city and Jin'an districtfrom March to June in 2006. The resistance of 14 kinds of antibiotics was determined by agar medium and the detection of ESBLwas performed by broth medium. Results Among these 14 antibiotics,the highest level of antibiotic resistance was penicillin which reach to 65.78%(417/716) while the resistance to cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones were all lower than 20%. 39% of tested strains were resist to three or more antibiotics(multi-drug resistance). The prevalent rate of ESBL producing strains was 2.51%(18/716). ESBL-producing strains were performanced as multi-drug resistance and the resistance level to the other 13 antibiotics(with the exception of gentamicin)were significantly higher than no-ESBL producing strains(P0.05). Conclusion The drug-resistance rate of Escherichia coli isolated from intestinal bacteria of food and drink practitioner was between 3.63% and 65.78%. The prevalent rate of ESBL producing strains was 2.51%.


The present disclosure relates in a broad form to a pseudo-isothermal flow reactor (100) for an exothermal reaction comprising at least two reaction enclosures (108, 114) and a cooling medium enclosure (102) configured to hold a cooling medium under pressure at the boiling point of said cooling medium, said reaction enclosures (108, 114) having an outer surface configured to be in thermal contact with the cooling medium, and each of said reaction enclosures (108, 114) having an inlet and an outlet with the associated benefit of enabling a two-stage pseudo-isothermal operation while only requiring a single cooling medium enclosure (102) and only single cooling medium circuit.


The rise of the multiracial population has been met with a growing body of research examining multiracial face perception. A common method for creating multiracial face stimuli in past research has been mathematically averaging two monoracial "parent" faces of different races to create computer-generated multiracial morphs, but conclusions from research using morphs will only be accurate to the extent that morphs yield perceptual decisions similar to those that would be made with real multiracial faces. The current studies compared race classifications of real and morphed multiracial face stimuli. We found that oval-masked morphed faces were classified as multiracial significantly more often than oval-masked real multiracial faces (Studies 1 and 2), but at comparable levels to unmasked real multiracial faces (Study 2). Study 3 examined factors that could explain differences in how morphs and real multiracial faces are categorized and pointed to the potential role that unusualness/distinctiveness might play.


Geological and geotechnical investigations involving detailed geologic mapping and composite soil sample laboratory tests respectively, have been carried out at Ganawuri, North Central Nigeria with a view to delineating the different rock units in the area and their Engineering significance. The area is underlain by the Crystalline Basement rocks composed of Granite Gneiss with late Diorite, Basalts and Pegmatite intrusions. The older units have been intruded by the Biotite Granite of the Younger Granite province, occurring as a ridge bordering the northeastern margin of the area. Structures observed in the area include fault/shear zones, pegmatite dykes, basaltic dykes and fractures. The dominant trend is in the NE-SW direction with local deviations in NNE-SSW, WNW-ESE, NW-SE and NNW–SSE. The joints are generally vertical with few dipping steeply to the SE or SW. Thus it is evident that the early NNW-SSE trending foliation in the granite gneiss guided the regional structural development in the area. This feature thus controlled all the other structures (anticline, shear zones, fractures and the river channel), all of which are oriented in the same direction. This dominant NE-SW trend may be associated with development of the Benue Valley of Nigeria. Composite soil samples were obtained at different points around the area and laboratory analysis carried out on them. Using the Unified soil classification system (USCS), soil sample I was classified as SM soils with zero plasticity, samples 2 and 3 soils were classified as SC, CL and SC, OH soils with medium and high plasticity respectively. Results also showed that while sample 1 soil has low potential expansiveness, samples 2 and 3 soils have medium and high potential expansiveness respectively. The Specific Gravity values range from 2.53 to 2.64 and decreases towards the Northeast. The Natural Moisture Content and Coefficient of Curvature variations in the area show similar trend. Both decrease towards the Southwest and have values ranging from 4 to 12.5% and 0.86 to 1.09 respectively. The Uniformity Coefficient increases towards the south and decreases towards the Northwest with values ranging from 11 to 19.5. The 3-D display of both the Maximum Dry Density (MDD) and Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) shows opposing trend in variations as MDD decreases towards the North while OMC increases towards the North. In both soil samples, the values of the Skewness lies between 0.5 to 1.0 and as such can be said to be positively Skewed (strongly fine Skewed). Moreover, the value of Kurtosis for the three samples lies between 1.11 to 1.66 and can be said to be Leptokurtic. They can be said to be well to moderately well sorted because of the range of values for sorting (Standard Deviation) lying between 0.35-0.71 indicating competence for engineering works. Based on the investigations carried out, it is suggested that further analysis through coring at the shear zones be carried out and consolidation grouting may be needed to reduce deformability and increase mechanical strength at these zones.


Based on the Beijing citizens' activity log during Dragon Boat Festival,this essay for the first time tries to explore the leisure behavior's general time character during Dragon Boat Festival and the influence on the leisure behaviors by age,gender and other factors by microscopic investigation.And the public opinion is also been collected for new holiday system,personal leisure and recreational development of Beijing.


Critical theory is a central concept in the study of society, politics, history, and business as an innovative academic field and intellectual tradition. This chapter offers readers an encounter with critical theorist Theodor Adorno's crucial writings on an important philosophical debate of the twenty-first century: the dual character of luxury. In exploring Adorno's ideas concerning luxury and their possible impact on 'the singular instant of luxury', the chapter traces Adorno's engagement with other key thinkers of luxury such as Thorstein Veblen. Investigating a significant business text on luxury by Wided Batat, the chapter presents an in-depth understanding of contemporary conceptions of luxury customer experience from the perspective of critical theory.


The paper provides a comparative calculation of the radiation protective efficiency of various composite materials based on titanium hydride using multi-group modeling methods using the ANISN program. The calculations showed the high efficiency of titanium hydride composites with respect to neutron and gamma radiation. The relaxation length of the fast neutron flux density in titanium hydride materials is 5.1…7.0 cm. The spatial-energy distribution of neutron radiation in materials is formed by fast neutrons. The dose rate of gamma rays behind the material is determined mainly by capturing gamma rays arising in the initial layer of protection. Introduction to the composition of the protection of boron atoms reduces the level of capture gamma radiation, but does not affect the attenuation of fast neutrons.


For several decades there has been a debate in the computing sciences about the relative roles of design and empirical research, and about the contribution of design and research methodology to the relevance of research results. In this minitutorial we review this debate and compare it with evidence about the relation between design and research in the history of science and technology. Our review shows that research and design are separate but concurrent activities, and that relevance of research results depends on problem setting rather than on rigorous methods. We argue that rigorous scientific methods separate design from research, and we give simple model for how to do this in a problem-driven way.


With the progress and development of science and technology era in our country, information technology is more and more widely used in the field of education. Data visualization technology can effectively help people to carry out in-depth learning. Based on the concept and important role of data visualization technology, this paper explores its application in the field of teaching in order to provide reference for promoting teaching and scientific research in China.


A post-harvest dip of banana (Musa paradisiaca L.) fruits into the aqueous solutions of abscisic acid and indoleacetic acid significantly hastened the banana ripening, judging from increases in total sugars, acidity, ascorbic acid and units of von Losecke's colour chart during storage at 20°C. The treatment of bananas with gibberellic acid and kinetin, on the contrary, retarded banana ripening as indicated by higher values for firmness, starch, cellulose and hemicellulose. The results obtained suggest that ripening of banana can be controlled chemically.


Formal reasoning has been studied extensively with tasks that have physics or laboratory content. This study compares laboratory and naturalistic content influences on formal reasoning tasks. Ninety 13-, 15-, and 17-year olds received both laboratory and naturalistic content tasks which required ability to control variables. Expectations about the variables in each task were measured. Results revealed that 8 to 20% of the variance in performance was associated with task content. Content effects were shown to reflect expectations about task variables.


A day in the life of a user can be segmented into a series of tasks: a user begins a task, becomes loaded perceptually and cognitively to some extent by the objects and mental challenge that comprise that task, then at some point switches or is distracted to a new task, and so on. Understanding the contextual task characteristics and user behavior in interaction can benefit the development of intelligent systems to aid user task management. Applications that aid the user in one way or another have proliferated as computing devices become more and more of a constant companion. However, direct and continuous observations of individual tasks in a naturalistic context and subsequent task analysis, for example the diary method, have traditionally been a manual process. We propose a method for automatic task analysis system, which monitors the user's current task and analyzes it in terms of the task transition, and perceptual and cognitive load imposed by the task. An experiment was conducted in which participants were required to work continuously on groups of three sequential tasks of different types. Three classes of eye activity, namely pupillary response, blink and eye movement, were analyzed to detect the task transition and non-transition states, and to estimate three levels of perceptual load and three levels of cognitive load every second to infer task characteristics. This paper reports statistically significant classification accuracies in all cases and demonstrates the feasibility of this approach for task monitoring and analysis.


The similarity of two polygonal curves can be measured using the Frechet distance. We introduce the notion of a more robust Frechet distance, where one is allowed to shortcut between vertices of one of the curves. This is a natural approach for handling noise, in particular batched outliers. We compute a $(3+\varepsilon)$-approximation to the minimum Frechet distance over all possible such shortcuts, in near linear time, if the curve is $c$-packed and the number of shortcuts is either small or unbounded. To facilitate the new algorithm we develop several new tools: (a) a data structure for preprocessing a curve (not necessarily $c$-packed) that supports $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximate Frechet distance queries between a subcurve (of the original curve) and a line segment; (b) a near linear time algorithm that computes a permutation of the vertices of a curve, such that any prefix of $2k-1$ vertices of this permutation forms an optimal approximation (up to a constant factor) to the original curve compared to ...


Static synchronous compensators (STATCOMs) have been widely used for voltage support over the past decade, to improve power quality and voltage stability. However, STATCOMs are limited in their ability to improve the system stability margin due to their restricted capability for delivering real power. Super capacitors are devices which can store significant amounts of energy, and are able to quickly release it. With the application and development of the super capacitor energy storage system (SCESS), energy storage technology has been greatly improved in modern power systems. The SCESS plays an important role in improving the operation stability of a power system. The aim of this work is to investigate how super capacitor based energy storage technology can be used to enhance the capability of STATCOM units to maintain a high quality of distribution voltage and improve the system stability of a grid connected photovoltaic system with a super capacitor as the energy storage device. In particular, a grid connected photovoltaic system constituted by photovoltaic and super capacitor sources and STATCOM is simulated in SIMULINK along with a DC to DC buck boost converter using MPPT. The simulation results reflect that system stability was enhanced by the use of the proposed strategy when the system gets affected by different types of fault. The designed system offers a preferable reference for applications of the STATCOM with SCESS in the field of regeneration energy and stability enhancement of power system.


Intervention for liver disease has predominantly been performed through the percutaneous approach. However, as endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) applications have expanded, there have emerged various EUS‐guided interventions for liver disease, a space we call "Endo‐Hepatology". EUS‐guided liver biopsy can be considered the "forerunner" of Endo‐Hepatology and has become a clinical option for patients requiring histologic diagnosis and staging of their liver disease. EUS also enables direct access to the portal vein. Subsequently, many procedures are being explored, such as angiography, measurement of the portosystemic pressure gradient, portal vein sampling to detect cancer cell or DNA, and EUS‐guided transhepatic intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation. Since the transducer is close to the liver, especially the left and caudate lobes, EUS can be used as a rescue when the percutaneous approach is not favorable and EUS‐guided treatments of liver tumor, cyst and abscess have been reported. This review summarizes the available studies of EUS‐guided intervention in the liver.


A government-funded educational program, the Responsive Environment Model, developed by Far West Laboratory, has several components believed to enhance motivational development. As a means of evaluating the degree to which a given classroom has implemented the techniques and procedures of the model, Far West developed the Responsive Classroom Observation Schedule. This instrument was used in five first grade classes implementing the program to determine the most responsive classroom and the least responsive classroom. The instrument, titled "Animal Crackers: A Test of Motivation to Achieve," was individually administered to the 52 children in the two classes. Variables known to influence the measure of achievement motivation were found to be constant between the two groups. Results indicate that the children in the responsive classroom were more highly motivated than the children in the nonresponsive classroom t(50) = 3.39, p <.01.


The purpose of this study is to discuss and evaluate the experience of studying abroad for college students as a participant observer as well as their perceptions of the experience. In Spring 2018, as a part of my studies and as an observational ethnography, I participated in the study abroad program through AIFS at Veritas University. In the study, I will provide my own transformative experience of studying abroad in San Jose, Costa Rica, as well as perspectives of other students who have studied abroad in different locations throughout Costa Rica, and an advisor with experience of assisting study abroad students. Four separate interviews were conducted in all with three students and one advisor. Throughout the interviews the common themes were addressed: the competitive culture of U.S. compared with "Pura Vida" concept, a difference of teaching styles abroad versus the U.S., and host families. The study seeks to connect the taxonomy of Benjamin Bloom of educational higher learning to the study abroad experience and concept of global learning and exposure. An ethnographic study was conducted to provide evidence for an individual's progression through Bloom's taxonomy, resulting in higher learning and evaluation of their culture. From the research, one can establish an acceleration of learning and accomplishment through connections to Bloom's taxonomy when considering a study abroad experience.


ABSTRACT Herbicide application in farm soil invariably impacts non-target biota including the microbes. Herbicides inhibit microbial exoenzyme activities, crucial for the decomposition of organics and release of nutrients. It was hypothesised that increasing the antioxidant level in soil through organic amendments could reduce the toxicity of the herbicide pretilachlor on soil microbial activity. This study reports the effects of organic amendments with farmyard manure (FYM-T1), poultry manure (PM-T2) and vermimanure (VM-T3) at recommended doses on the activities of the exoenzymes, invertase, amylase and cellulase in farm soils pre-treated with the herbicide pretilachlor. Significant spikes in percent organic carbon (OC), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and activities of the exoenzymes were observed in amended soils relative to control. The percent soil OC was maximum in T1 (2.63 ) followed by T3 (2.28 ) at 120 h. T3 indicated the maximum amylase (0.27  mg glucose/gsoil/h), cellulase (0.26  mg glucose/gsoil/h), invertase (0.39  mg glucose/gsoil/h) activities and soil TAC (1.03  Mm Trolox/cm3/g soil) at 168 h. A significant positive correlation between % OC, TAC and exoenzyme activities was observed. TAC and invertase proved to be the most responsive markers. It was concluded that selective organic amendments of soil could significantly enhance soil antioxidant level, and reduce herbicide induced stress on soil microbiota with an increase in exoenzyme secretion.


Evidence of insect-fern interactions are described for the first time from late Miocene strata of Salta Province, Argentina. Two ichnospecies are defined to include fossil traces of surface feeding and hole feeding, located between the secondary veins and adjacent with the primary vein of two species of fossil ferns, Blechnum serrulatiformis Anzotegui & Horn and Thelypteris interrupta (Willd.) Iwatsuki. The first ichnospecies corresponding with surface feeding presents oblong traces and both ends are rounded; occupying the entire intercostal space. This type of phytophagy is found for the first time in the fossil record of ferns. The second ichnospecies is similar in shape and location to the previous ichnotaxon, except that all herbivorized tissues are absent. At last, a review of the fossil record of insect-fern associations is performed.