Abstract Atomic absorption flame temperature distributions have been investigated. The two-line method based on the fiber optics coupling light into the rapid-scanning spectrometer to measure temperature has been developed. Its feature is that a simpler apparatus used can obtain temperature distributions over the entire section of the flame in high resolution. The result shows some characteristics of premixed air-acetylene flame used for analytical spectrometry.


chapter 1 Foreword chapter 2 Preface chapter 3 Solutions Framework chapter 4 The African Heritage chapter 5 Class Trends and Concept Misuse chapter 6 Strong Achievement Orientation chapter 7 Strong Work Orientation chapter 8 Flexible Family Roles chapter 9 Strong Kinship Bonds chapter 10 Strong Religious Orientation chapter 11 Summary and Implications chapter 12 Bibliography


Counter-terrorist practitioners and policy makers appear to be very interested in narrative. They often describe the worldview of violent Islamist groups and movements as the 'jihadi narrative', while their efforts to confront terrorist propaganda are usually labelled as 'counter-narrative' or 'alternative narrative'. However, while the counter-narrative approach has gained widespread acceptance in governments, think-tanks and civil society organisations, it is built on very shaky theoretical and empirical foundations. Some valuable theoretical contributions to the study of violent extremist narrative have been made by psychologists in particular, but there is one discipline which is conspicuous by its absence from the field: literary studies.


In this study, space charge distribution in Electric Double Layer Capacitor (EDLC) for energy storage has been examined by Pulsed Electro-Acoustic (PEA) Method. Also, ketjen black was used for polarized electrodes instead of conventionally used acetylene black in order to improve the capacitance of EDLC. Usually, ketjen black exhibits higher electronic conductivity compared to acetylene black, so that ketjen black could be considered as conducting filler. Moreover, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm as well as TEM observation revealed that ketjen black used in this study has different type of pore structures compared to acetylene black. Therefore, the space charge and capacitance of prepared EDLC using ionic liquid was evaluated. As the results, it was found that the ketjen black containing EDLC showed fairly high charge density and high capacitance compared to acetylene black containing one. In addition, temperature characteristic of EDLC containing ketjen black and acetylene black with best quantity were measured on temperature from 0 °C to 50 'C. It is understood that ketjen black as conducting material and ionic liquid based EDLC was superior to organic electrolyte based EDLC in all temperature on capacitance. Also, internal resistance of EDLC containing ketjen black and ionic liquid based EDLC can be decrease.


Access students represent a significant proportion of those entering higher education. This questionnaire-based study investigated the potential usefulness of targeting students on Access to higher education (Access) programmes, for recruitment into the allied health professions (AHPs). There were marked differences in the extent to which mature students on Access courses had previously considered studying the AHPs. However, among students claiming to know nothing about individual AHPs, receiving minimal information about the AHPs signifi cantly increased the proportions who would consider careers in occupational therapy, podiatry and diagnostic and therapeutic radiography. These findings suggest that Access students are a worthwhile recruitment target and have important implications for policy makers.


Abstract : A detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the flow within an ion sampling mass spectrometer is described. The simulation includes effects of non equilibrium flow and acceleration due to electric fields. A scheme for proton hydrate reactions is presented, including estimations of rate constants for agglomeration of H20 onto positive ion clusters and lifetimes of the resulting complex. Complexes can be collisionally excited or stabilized within the model. Test calculations are performed for altitudes of 30 and 38 km. No significant effect of agglomeration of H20 onto ion clusters was predicted in either case, but collisional excitation and subsequent dissociation of clusters was found to be a potentially severe problem. Keywords: Ion clustering; Stratosphere; Mass spectrometer; Water vapor.


In this study, a new optical method for oil detection using an analysis the light-absorption image of separate oil-water mixture with a LED illumination is described. To obtain an information about the presence of oil on water and the thickness of oil, the intensity of light-absorption images acquired through CCD is analyzed. To select the optimal wavelength of the light source, the experiment is conducted using several LEDs having four different wavelength. In the case of using a blue LED having 465 nm wavelength, an intensity decreasing tendency of light-absorption image is obvious and clear. To identify the applicability of sensing system at the real sea condition, experiments are conducted as varying the brightness and water surface angle. Through this research, new optical oil detection methodology is proposed using the absorption difference between water and oil with single-wavelength LED and CCD.


An adapted plant species must not only grow on a particular site, but also produce viable seeds capable of germination and establishment on the site. Ten species of rangeland grasses had been successfully used to revegetate sodic mine spoils at the Decker Coal Mine in southeastern Montana. However, the effect of the sodic spoils on seed viability, and hence the potential for regeneration, was unknown. Seeds produced by these plants were tested for viability and germination.


Studying in the university for the first time may involve a sudden change in the way of learning for most students. These initial experiences of higher education may have a profound effect on whether these students are able to successfully complete their course of studies. The review of literature on students' approaches to learning has often described students as either deep or surface learners. A deep approach is associated with intrinsic motivation and a focus on understanding the meaning of the learning material. In contrast, a surface approach focuses on memorizing discrete items in isolation resulting in superficial understanding of the learning material. Although these studies have provided information on the different approaches in various contexts, little research has been conducted within an ESL context. Accordingly, through phenomenography, the aim of this paper is to describe the reading process of six ESL learners within a Malaysian educational context. Findings will reveal that there exist 'variations' or 'qualitative differences' in these ESL students' approaches of reading an English academic expository text.


Three years ago I had lunch with Mr. H. G. Wells. We were discussing the world, and more particularly the ideal world which is so often pictured in his books. I told him frankly that I did not believe in this march of humanity towards a glorious future, and asked him whether he also was not beginning to have doubts about it. He replied that it was a question of time, and that the events of a hundred years were of little importance on the scale of man's existence on this earth. One must not, therefore, be dismayed if the progress were slow and interrupted from time to time by temporary retrograde movements. Still, he admitted that there were certain disquieting features in the present situation. He complained of our tendency to tinker with our difficulties, when a wholesale and radical change of method was required. To give point to his remarks he contrasted the attitude of a Frenchman to machinery with that which he believed to be characteristic of the American. Whereas the Frenchman was essentially a botcher, the American scrapped what was inefficient and started all over again. If an engine worked badly, he threw it on the scrap heap and designed a new model. Although I do not see eye to eye with Mr. H. G. Wells, I am going to make use of this dictum of his in what is to follow. During the last fifty years we have all been botchers. Deep within us we have known that the machinery of living was working badly, yet all that we have done has been to attempt to make it run more smoothly by lubricating it with a variety of patent oils; psychoanalysis and its many derivatives, various forms of mental and social hygiene, social welfare and fitness campaigns, vigilance committees and a host of measures for the improvement of young people, of factory workers' conditions, of the labouring classes, and, indeed, of most other sections of the community. But varied and comprehensive though all these methods of treating the world's ills may have been, they all have this in common, that they have been superficial and incomplete. None of them has gone sufficiently deep to touch what has been, and still is, basically wrong in our method of living. When I advocate a far more radical dealing with our ills, please do not mistake me for …


The electroweak currents of quarks and leptons in the SO(5)×U(1) gauge-Higgs unification model in the Randall-Sundrum warped space are determined. The 4D gauge couplings deviate from those in the standard model and the weak universality is slightly violated. It is shown that the model is free from 4D anomalies and the deviations of the gauge couplings are tiny, less than 1% except for the top quark. The ZtL tL, ZtR tR, ZbLbL and ZbRbR couplings deviate from those in the standard model by −7%, 18%, 0.3% and 0.9% with the warp factor zL = 10 , respectively. The violation of the μ-e, τ -e and t-e universality in the charged current interactions is O(10−8), O(10−6) and 2.3%, respectively.


Acknowledgement This report is part of the project entitled WT_Ω (WT_OMEGA = Wind Turbine Operation and Maintenance based on Condition Monitoring) which has been carried out in cooperation with Lagerwey the WindMaster, Siemens Nederland, and SKF.


For some readers, capital punishment proved one of the most disconcerting features of Jonathan Freedland's widely acclaimed book on Anglo-America, Bring Home the Revolution. Observing that opinion polls show Americans and Britons to hold similar views on capital punishment(a 1996 MORI poll put British support for the death penalty at 76 per cent), Freed-land noted that, despite its prohibition in the UK,opponents of judicial killing have hardly won the argument among the British people. In-stead our political system has simply failed to express the popular will . . . what is often a cause for self-congratulation with progressive Britons imagining ours to be a more civilised society than the US should perhaps be a trigger for self-doubt. American democracy ensures the public get their way, even if the result is not always pleasant. The British system cannot say the same.


In The Virtues of the Prophet: A Young Muslim's Guide to the Greater Jihad: The War against the Passions, Charles Upton aims to show that Sufi ontology and morality lie at the heart of Islam and that this is exemplified by the life of the Prophet of Islam. The major thesis that Upton presents here is that the greater struggle or Jihad is the war against the passions. He takes exception to the view that sees Jihad in the sense of warfare that is necessary to make this world a better place. At the same time, he objects to the modernist view that fails to appreciate the ideal nature of man. The life of the Prophet is the perfect example of Jihad-e-Akbar (Greater Jihad ), and believers not only love him but also imitate his virtues in order to realize the true nature of man. To substantiate his point, Upton presents ten virtues, or a constellation of them, of the prophet in the first part of the book, while in the second part exegeses of some verses of the Qur'an are produced in a vaguely Sufi style. We are told that an understanding of the character of the Holy Prophet, who is a perfect example of 'Abd (slave of God) and Khalifa (God's representative), is the doorway to realizing the true nature of man. The root of all evil, which takes man away from being 'Abd and Khalifa, lies in the Nafs Ammara (Commanding Self), wherein can be found the root of polytheism, as the gods of various polytheistic religions can be traced here. Conscience or Nafs Lawwama is also present in man, which challenges the Commanding Self in its pursuit of evil. This struggle against the Commanding Self is characterized as Jihad Akbar. If this Jihad is won, one attains peace, and such an attainment is called Nafs Mutmainna (contented self ). Jihad Akbar necessarily involves virtues, which constitute the power to be what we really


SUMMARY

The present investigation was carried out in herds of dairy cattle in the Pimocha parish of the Babahoyo Canton of the Province of Los Rios with the application of the California Mastitis Test (CMT), considering the very positive (+++), positive cases ( ++), slightly positive (+) when the reaction was immediate with consistent, soft and light gel formation respectively, the traces were considered negative. considering the 736 affected rooms of the 184 animals sampled, 52.17% were positive to the CMT test, with a percentage of 71, 57% in La Delia, 31.91% San Antonio and 32.5% Rodeo Grande. For the evaluation of the risk factors, the Guide to Good Livestock Practices of Technical Production N ° .0217 was considered. R.O.No.842 From November 30, 2012. Agrocalidad, chapters IX, X and XI with the respective literals. 75% compliance for the design and distribution of Article IX was obtained by the dairy herd La Delia, 64.29% San Antonio and 50% Rodeo Grande. The infrastructure and management of the animal according to Article X had a compliance of 64.29% La Delia, 21.43% San Antonio and 28.57% Rodeo Grande. Hygiene conditions for both animals, cowboys, infrastructure referred to in Article IX had a compliance of 50% La Delia, and 0% the remaining herds. Technical aspects that are considered risk factors in the occurrence of subclinical mastitis. The estimate of economic losses as a result of affected quarters, lost, discard milk was $ 8174 in the three dairy herds, corresponding to $ 5684 to the herd with greater number of animals in production this is 95, 1446 $ San Antonio with 47 animals in production and 1044 $ Rodeo Grande, taking into account the cost of drugs and professional services.

Keywords: Mastitis, positive cases, good milking practices, economic losses.


Lyme borreliosis is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu leto. This disease has been recently reported in Pakistan but the efficacy of different antibiotics against it has not been tested. Therefore, this study was aimed at evaluating the efficacy of different antibiotics in curing this disease under field conditions and ascertaining the role of C-reactive protein as a prognostic agent in Borrelia-positive dogs. For this purpose, twenty-four dogs of different breeds were used in the study. These dogs were found Borrelia positive on PCR and equally divided into four groups (n=6). Group A was treated with doxycycline @ 10mg/Kg, B with azithromycin @ 20mg/Kg and C with clindamycin @ 11mg/Kg, and D with amoxicillin @2mg/ Kg. All drugs were administered orally in different forms, i.e., tablet, capsule, or suspension as per the availability. Five clinical biomarkers including fever, anorexia, arthritis, lameness, and lymphadenopathy were used to declare the status of the disease at days zero, 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. Serum samples were also collected on the same days for determining C-reactive protein (CRP) values. The results of clinical biomarkers showed that doxycycline cured the dogs immediately when checked on the 7 th day followed by amoxicillin on the 21 st day; whereas dogs treated with azithromycin and clindamycin did not show promising results. Besides, results of CRP showed that doxycycline had significantly (p < 0.05) greater efficacy than Azithromycin till the end of the trial and clindamycin till the 21 st day. However, the comparative efficacy of doxycycline and amoxicillin showed a significantly (p < 0.05) greater efficacy of the former till the 7 th day. These results have proved that doxycycline is the best drug, followed by amoxicillin, to treat dogs suffering from Lyme borreliosis. Moreover, it is also ascertained that CRP can be effectively used to monitor the prognosis of Lyme borreliosis in pet dogs. These results will be helpful for the pet clinicians and veterinarians working to diagnose, treat, and monitor Lyme borreliosis under field conditions.


This paper proposes a novel wearable interface for the foot: an on-shoe tactile display that enables users to obtain information through the sense of touch of their feet. A 16-point array of actuators stimulates the sole of the foot by inducing different vibration frequencies. Experiments to study how people understand information through their feet were conducted with 20 voluntary subjects. Results show that some shapes and patterns are discriminable and that tactile-foot stimulation could be used for a wide number of applications in human-machine interaction. In particular, results show that it is possible to exploit podotactile information for navigation in space.


The article is devoted to the issues of functioning and training of short-term and long-term memory of future interpreters. The concept of translation competence is considered, and it is noted that in order for it to be at a rather high level, an interpreter needs to have a good knowledge of at least two cultures, navigate the flow of speech, find equivalents in memory as quickly as possible, make decisions about correct forms, and the most important is to have the idiomatic language skills. It is emphasized that the formation of the message should comply with social and cultural norms to facilitate its integration into the target language. This scientific study examines a model for coordinating the efforts that an interpreter must have in the process of interpreting messages. Techniques for developing the short-term memory of future interpreters are analyzed in detail. A cognitive interpreting model called the "Effort Model" is also studied, which focuses on the interpreter's attention resources and their distribution during the interpretation. The paper notes that the coding of information is mainly carried out in three ways: acoustic, visual and semantic. Therefore, due to the correct coordination of all efforts, the interpreter will not only be able to perform the task well, but also to process and form the message, as well as save energy for further actions. Tools and tactics which develop short-term memory and improve rapid memory are identified. In particular, such tactics as the mnemonic method, categorization, generalization, comparison, description and creation of notes are presented. It is noted that short-term memory is based on the actual sense of sound, without filtering information, so the interpreter should be careful with the message that he / she transmits. Long-term memory involves neural pathways and synaptic connections, that is why it is better established in the interpreter's brain. Thus, long-term memory is advantageous when the interpreter is better acquainted with the field to which the translation belongs; therefore, the interpretation is very accurate, due to the correct placement of words in the context. It is noted that one of the difficult tasks is to combine professional skills with theoretical knowledge. The authors conclude that the main goal of training future interpreters is to broaden their horizons and increase the knowledge and skills in several professional fields, and emphasize that future interpreters should identify a number of principles that will help in their professional activities.


An unusual electrocardiographic finding was seen in a patient with total esophagectomy. The ECG showed an undulating baseline in the anteroseptal leads, and it is postulated that because the surgical result positioned the stomach in the anterior mediastinum, the electrical activity of gastric contractions was being recorded.


We read with interest the article by Anderson et al. (1) in which the authors investigated whether the ozone-mortality relationship is confounded by 7 components (sulfate, nitrate, silicon, elemental carbon, organic carbon matter, sodium, and ammonium) of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm (PM2.5) across 56–57 communities in the United States. They concluded that the ozone-mortality relationship was robust to control for these common PM2.5 components, which make up most of the PM2.5 mass. However, there are several study limitations that should be addressed to determine how robust the study findings are.


The article discusses the issues of development and creation of an intelligent computer system for decision support that allows to optimize the control of investment analysis and projecting processes in the context of new industrialization. The development and creation of such a system is based on the technologies of computer expert decision support systems, neural networks, machine learning, as well as models and methods of network economical and mathematical modeling. The main stages of creating a computer expert system for optimizing the control of the processes of investment analysis and projecting by an economic entity are considered. Specific examples of the development of logical rules in the production and clausal forms for the knowledge base of the proposed computer expert system are given. The work analyzes the feasibility of selecting specific models and technologies suitable for creating the proposed intellectual system. Results are presented that testify to the effectiveness of its application in the practical activities of economic entities when optimizing the control of investment analysis and projecting processes.


This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness, banking sector developments, real GDP and Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) price index covering the period of 1993Q1–2011Q4. Previous studies have investigated the direct effects of macroeconomic variables on the stock prices in Iran. This study for the first time in previous literature in Iran examines the direct effects of trade openness on stock prices in Iran. We have tested an econometric model of stock prices in compliance with Basu and Morey (2005). The ARDL bounds testing approach is applied to examine the cointegration. The error correction model (ECM) is also applied to estimate the model in short-run. Our empirical findings confirm the existence of cointegration between the series. We find that trade openness has a negative effect on TSE price index in long-run and short-run. Moreover, banking sector developments and real GDP have a positive impact on TSE price index in long-run and short-run. Aus. Aca. Acc & Fin. Rev Vol 1(1), July 2015, P 29-43


From classicism to romanticism to the diverse development of today, music has become an inseparable part of human society. In fact, an artist will be affected by many factors when creating new music. It is undeniable that many songs have many similarities, and due to the mutual influence of artists, with the development of time, the music type has undergone a major change. In our Index Weight Analysis Model, we first analyzed the consistent relationship between music indicators and music influence. Then we use the extreme value method for dimensionless processing of the original data and calculate the correlation coefficient. In order to eliminate the impact of the resolution coefficient on the accuracy of our subsequent calculations, we use the distance between the two points to calculate the weight coefficient, and finally calculate the weighted correlation degree, which is Music Influence. In the end, we found the musicians with the highest musical influence among the 20 genres, and drew a directional network using a musician as an example. Also, we use the same method to analyze the contribution of each indicator to music influence and we find that the biggest contribution is Tempo.


Significance Electrochemical (EC) reactions play vital roles in many disciplines of modern science and technology, but their molecular-level understanding is still very poor. This is due to a lack of analytical tools that can access interfaces between metals and liquids, and identify unknown surface species. By exploiting surface plasmon resonant enhancement at EC interfaces, we demonstrate, with relevant examples at gold electrodes, the feasibility of using surface-specific sum-frequency spectroscopy to measure in situ and real-time vibrational spectra during EC reactions. The success of this approach is significant as it could bring us more insight and better understanding of EC reactions at the molecular level. Electrochemical (EC) reactions are crucial in many applications, yet most EC analytical tools lack the sensitivity to access molecular-level information of reactants and products. By combining sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy and surface plasmon resonance at EC interfaces, we demonstrate the feasibility of measuring in situ and real-time vibrational spectra during EC reactions at noble metal electrodes. Application of the technique to EC reactions at a gold surface helps in understanding how the surface in a basic solution is oxidized and reduced during a cyclic voltammetry cycle. Study of desorption of a thiol self-assembled monolayer from gold through EC reactions in a basic solution shows that the desorbed thiols by reductive reaction remain as an ordered layer near the gold interface, but do diffuse away if they are desorbed oxidatively from gold.


Anxiety is one of the most influential factors on students' learning, especially speaking. English speaking is a language skill that is highly affected by anxiety. Therefore it suggested that the cause of this anxiety be explored to reduce its significant effect on learner. This research aimed at describing contributing factors to EFL students' speaking. Qualitative inquiry was used as the main framework in completing the analysis. The participants of this research was EFL learners enrolled in English department in a private university in Garut. They were involved based on volunteer participation. Their identity was presented as pseudonym in order to comply with the research ethical conduct. The interviews were used to explore many contributing factors to speaking anxiety experienced by EFL Learners. The result revealed that there are nine dominant factors identified as the cause of students' speaking anxiety, they are: cognitive and linguistic factors related to classroom procedure, strict and formal classroom environment, classroom presentation, fear of making mistakes and apprehension about others' evaluation, role of language instructors, linguistic difficulties, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary


Honey is a high value food commodity frequently subjected to fraudulent mislabeling and adulteration. The metabolomics workflow is emerging as a powerful approach for the discovery of biomarkers to tackle food fraud. The Progenesis QI workflow provides an easy-to-use, scalable system for analysis of food metabolomic data including accurate peak alignment and peak picking, classification of samples using multivariate statistical analysis, quantification of relative abundance of markers for each class and identification of markers from database searches supported by structural elucidation tools. Benefits Differentiation of honeys of different botanical origin. ■ Verification of the selection of markers for different botanical origin in honey by UPLC-MS/MS. ■


Studies have shown that language is an essential tool for forming complicated concepts. The syntactical similarities between music and language have led some researchers to focus on perception of music in order to further understand the form, syntax, and development of language. A key component of music is tonality. Theories regarding the perception of musical tonality have been formulated based on acoustics [1], culture [2, 3], physiology [4, 5], and psychology'. Lerdahl proposed a model which formally quantifies the terms tension and relaxation commonly used to describe the element of tonality in music. His harmonic tension model articulates the perception of harmonic progression in music. In an attempt to tangibly explain the concepts of tension and relaxation, a physical representation of Lerdahl's harmonic tension model is presented. The physical representation is created by mapping tension caused by harmonic progression onto the surface tension of a visco-elastic sphere. The level of distortion on the sphere surface is made to correspond to the amount of tension in the music. Additionally, the elastic property of the sphere reflects the relaxation or resolution phases in tonal music which normally follow periods of high tension. Two demonstration systems were developed based on the physical representation of harmonic tension as an evaluation of the concept's effectiveness. The first system is a simulation of the visco-elastic sphere written using the Netlogo 3D Preview program. In this system, the surface tension of the simulated sphere is manipulated according to the harmonic tension of Pachelbel's Canon in D and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Flight of the Bumblebee. The simulated sphere provides users with visual feedback on the tension/relaxation phases of the music. The second system is an interactive tool for intuitively learning the harmonic tension model using the sphere representation. This interactive system consists of a visco-elastic sphere simulation controlled by an approximated spherical input device. The only difference between this simulation and the first system's is that the second system's input is controlled by the user. Using simulation and audio output, users explore different tension values and observe the associated chord progressions. The interactive system was found not to be as intuitive a learning tool as expected because highly dissonant chord progressions with different tension values are indistinguishable by hearing alone. The question of how sensitive humans are to tension/dissonance and the factors that affect that sensitivity certainly warrants more attention. The physical model of Lerdahl's harmonic tension model presented explores tangible means for grasping the relation between harmonic progression and tonality. The simulated model provides visual feedback of the tension/relaxation patterns in music thus enhancing ones listening experience. Thesis Supervisor: Dale Joachim Title: Visiting Professor 1 See University of California Berkeley's Center for New Music & Audio Technologies (CNMAT) for additional publications related to the psychophysics of music perception


One of the manual brewing techniques is the pour-over V60 method. It uses a filter paper, which is suspected of containing chlorine as a paper bleaching agent that will dissolve in coffee. Health problems that can be caused by consuming chlorine-containing beverages in the long term can cause directly disease related to liver, bladder, intestinal cancers, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, pneumonia, bronchitis, dyspnea, and allergies. This study aims to determine the chlorine content of brewed robusta coffee using the brew V60 method. The chlorine test with the colour reaction method and the precipitation test as qualitative analysis to determine chlorine levels is an argentometric titration with the Mohr method. This research shows that all three samples of filter paper and coffee with V60 brewing method contain chlorine. The titration result shows that chlorine levels in filter paper brand A are 81.9 mg/L, brand B 49.9 mg/L, and brand C 69.9 mg/L. Levels of chlorine in V60 brewed coffee brand A are 44.6 mg/L, brand B 21.9 mg/L, and brand C 28.6 mg/L. This research concludes that the chlorine content in filter paper and V60 coffee brewing beverages on brand A, brand B, and brand C is unqualified according to WHO regulation about chlorine qualification for clean drinking water, which is 5 mg/L.


Objective To investigate the current status of clinical teaching in health assessment for baccalaureate nursing students in clin- ical practice,and propose the countermeasures aimed at the problems.Method Ninety-nine baccalaureate nursing students who finished clinical practice were investigated with a questionnaire regarding the clinical teaching in health assessment,and then collected and ana- lysed the result.Result There were many problems in the clinica] teaching of health assessment,insufficiency of the function in basic medical practice,and the outcomes of clinical teaching were not satisfied.Conclusion The deficiency of teaching consciousness and abil- ity of clinical teachers and inactivity of nursing students are the main reasons of the unsatisfying teaching outcomes.It is suggested to take corresponding measures to improve nursing students'ability of health assessment.


Objective:To develop the film formulations of propoxur and its mixtures with phosphate insecticides such as fenthion, trichlorphon and pirimiphos methyl. Methods:Field experiment. Results:After spraying the formulation on the cattle and pigs for one day to seven days,the mortality of culex pipiens pallens was 96 7%.The mortality of haematopinus suis was 100% for 28 days.And it's also 100% of haematopinus eurysternus and hodes ricinus even for seven days.Conclusion:The control effects of propoxur and its composite with pirimiphos-methy1 were significant against haematopinus suis,haematopinus eurysternus and hodes ricinus. Propoxur film formulation has good effect against ectozoas of domestic animals.


Introduction BOLD fMRI responses to a functional challenge are caused by a dynamic interplay of altered cerebral blood flow (CBF), blood volume (CBV), and oxidative metabolism (CMRO2). One of the characteristics of the BOLD response is the post-stimulation undershoot, which has been suggested to originate from a delayed recovery of elevated CMRO2 [Frahm 1996] or CBV [Buxton 1998]. Recently, we have shown in humans using two independent contrast-enhanced fMRI techniques that CBV normalizes rapidly after the end of stimulation in the primary visual cortex [Dechent 2010; Frahm 2008]. However, the results from contrast-enhanced CBV experiments in humans and animals are controversial, with animal studies observing elevated CBV values after the end of stimulation [e.g., Mandeville 1999]. These discrepancies might be due to interspecies differences, anaesthesia, or the cortical system investigated. Human studies mostly targeted the visual system, whereas in anaesthetized animals the somatosensory system is preferred because of technical reasons. Here, we investigated the CBV contribution to the post-stimulation undershoot in human primary motor cortex using a recently validated dynamic T1-weighted (T1w) fMRI technique based on a blood-pool contrast agent (CA) [Dechent 2010].


Mobile telecommunication providers grow rapidly in these days. This situation makes a tight competition among the mobile telecommunication companies. In a tight business competition, only companies that can create customer loyalty would sustain their business. To date, many variables have been proven as the determinant of loyalty. However, only few studies have been oriented to determine the effect of trust and brand engagement in creating loyalty. Hence, this study aims to determine the effect of trust and brand engagement on loyalty. One hundred and eighty one respondents participated in this study. Data was analysed by using CBSEM. The results show that brand engagement has a positive direct effect on loyalty while trust only has an indirect effect through brand engagement. The conceptual model built in this study is a theoretical contribution provided by this study. In the practical standpoint, this study provides an insight for practitioners about enhancing loyalty in mobile telecommunication industry based on trust and brand engagement.


Nowadays,researches on information security mainly focus on practical technologies,and many of them,such as quantum cryptography,intrusion detection,and disaster recovery,have been highly developed and widely used.However,from the theoretical perspective,there is still a lack of systematical theory which can dominate the operation and guide the development of the information security system from a certain level.In this paper,information security system is researched from a new perspective based on general system theory for the purpose of providing a new way to study information security system.Analytic hierarchy process is adopted to analyze the influencing factors of information security system and relationships among the factors themselves.Then,the interaction among some of the factors is studied through a model of differential equations.As the results show,the model in this paper reflects the inner changes of information security system to a certain extent,and plays a guiding role in the development of information security system.


PART I. PIPERETTINE FROM PIPER NIGRUM; ITS ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION AND SYNTHESIS. The concentrated mother liquors from an ethanolic extract of Piper nigrum, after removal of successive crops of piperine, furnished a yellow-brown amorphous powder m.p. 100 - 112


Abstract This paper seeks to demonstrate that propositions 23–27 of the Euclidian Optics originated in the context of geometrical astronomy. These entries, which deal with the geometry of spheres and rays, present material that overlaps considerably with propositions 1–3 of Aristarchus of Samos' On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and the Moon. While all these theorems deal with material that could conceivably be native to celestial illumination, the proofs do not work for binocular vision. It therefore seems probable that the proofs were borrowed from Aristarchus or, more likely, some common astronomical predecessor. As an extension of this observation, this paper argues that the Optics displays a far less unified purpose than has typically been assumed. Instead, it reflects a conglomerate of concerns, goals and dependencies, insofar as it presents multiple proofs that emerge from a set of geometrical concerns not directly related to vision as a physical phenomenon. These entries complicate the idea that the Optics is about explaining light, sight or false appearances in any straightforward sense. Instead, the text is oriented toward a somewhat more diffuse goal: simply to articulate the geometry of vision and rays. Optics as a discipline should should therefore be understood not as a purely mathematical explanation of vision, but as a target-field of explanation constituted by features and boundaries derived from extra-visual geometric concerns.


This method which is an adaptive regularized MAP of CT image reconstruction can adaptively choose regularization parameters with making full use of the results of every iteration to update regularization parameters and gets the final reconstruction image through multiple iterations.It simulates a slice of Shepp-Logan model to verify the feasibility of the algorithm.The results show that compared with the traditional methods,ML-EM and FBP,the method is more applicable,can better maintain the image edge information,has a higher signal to noise ratio images and improves the image quality.


Scientific and proper ration of spares has been a significant problem,and it is especially important to properly determine ration of spares and select the correct model to calculate needed amount of spares The main view of point in this paper is to select different model based on different kinds of spares


The main purpose of this study is to examine the college students perception of library services, and to what extent the quality of library services influences students satisfaction. The findings depict the relationship between academic libraries and their users in todays digital world and identify critical factors that may sustain a viable library-user relationship on campus.


Minute 3. Chairman's introductory remarks. The Chairman recorded that, although the Enterobacteriaceae Subcommittee was one of seven established officially as of 1 January 1950, the history can be traced back still further, to the Salmonella Subcommittee established in 1933 under the chairmanship of H. Schuetze. The year 1958 had been considered the 25th anniversary of the Enterobacteriaceae Subcommittee so, on this basis, the present meeting of the subcommittee marked its 75th anniversary. It was thus regrettable that more members were unable to be present to mark the occasion.


Abstract The new species Pyrenula reginae and P. rubromamillana are described from NE Brazil. Both have a conspicuous red or orange thallus, an inspersed hamathecium and relatively small ascospores, but they differ clearly in colour and ascoma organization.


The influence of recirculating flow on drag reduction associated with a divergent-trai ling-edge (DTE) airfoil is provided by comparing the flow structure around a supercritical airfoil with a blunt trailing edge to that around the same airfoil after DTE modification. Flow characteristics are obtained by solution of compressible, Reynolds-averaged, Navier-Stokes equations with a linearized block implicit solution procedure and mixing-length turbulence model. Results show that DTE modification effects an increase in the streamwise length of the recirculation region downstream of a blunt trailing edge that acts like a chordwise extension to increase circulation. The divergent trailing edge gives the same lift at lower incidence and drag, so that lift-to-drag ratio is increased in transonic cruise. Drag creep is reduced by DTE modification because shock-induced drag is decreased as a result of a longer recirculation region in the wake and its associated relocation and weakening of the shock, which is greater than the increase in base drag.


An epoxy sleeve repair system developed by British Gas has been used extensively for permanent repairs of gas, crude oil, and product pipelines. In can be installed without the loss of product and does not require system shutdown. Static and fatigue behaviors of the epoxy sleeve repair have been thoroughly evaluated and proven by numerical studies, extensive full-scale testing, and system applications for more than ten years. Since 1992, the company has been providing epoxy sleeve repair installation services to a major Omani oil concession operator for rehabilitation of various categories of pipelines. Rehabilitation work has been performed under two consecutive project contracts, and work under the current contract was completed in the first quarter of this year. Willbros furnished all installation services for both projects, as well as all epoxy sleeve repair materials, including steel sleeves manufactured to British Gas design specification. In total, the two projects successfully rehabilitated over 790 miles of various sizes and categories of pipelines, including 10-in. diameter to 42-in. diameter crude oil lines and 6-in. to 20-in. diameter high-pressure gas lines. All lines remained in service during the rehabilitation process. British Gas, under direct contact to the client, provided technical assistance, inspection, certification ofmore » each epoxy sleeve repair installation.« less


Traditionally, healthcare professionals have put a considerable effort into understanding and treating patients' pain, however they did not the same emphasize in order to realize the suffering. Some authors have investigated the meaning and scope of suffering. And in recent years it has begun to investigate when suffering becomes unbearable for a person, and therefore he asks for help to die with dignity. Objective. In this article we want to expose Eric Cassell's main ideas about suffering. Subsequently, we want to show what unbearable suffering means when it expressed by a psychiatric patient who request euthanasia. Finally, we show what the bibliography tells us about the perception of the Nursing team regarding the euthanasia request of these patients and we analyze what role they could play in understanding this suffering. Methodology. Theoretical reflection on the subject, using the relevant and updated bibliography extracted from the Pubmed. We utilized the following key words: unbearable suffering, mental health, euthanasia, nursing. Results. We provide an approach to the concept of suffering and what it encompasses when a patient with mental health problems asks for euthanasia. In addition, we show the role that Nursing could play in these decisions. Conclusion. A distinction between pain and suffering is possible. An understanding of suffering would contribute to humanizing claims for help upon death. The bio-psycho-social analysis can only be done through an approach of respect and understanding towards the patient. And a request for euthanasia by a person with mental health problems must be analyzed in the same way as any other request. The Nursing team, especially because of its proximity to patients, will play an essential role in this subject.


The title compounds are prepared by metathesis reactions of adequate amounts of LaCl3, Na2S2, and K2Se3 (850 °C, 7 d).


The automatic segmentation of medical images is very important in clinical practice, because it can reduce the costs of diagnosis and therapy planning processes. In order to have a really useful solution, we need to provide automatic algorithms that are both highly accurate and highly efficient. If we need to choose one of them, accuracy usually has the priority over efficiency, but the best way of treating the problem is providing a good trade-off between these two requirements. This paper proposes a feature selection algorithm that attempts to reduce the feature set used by a decision making algorithm such a way that the accuracy does not suffer any significant damage. The feature selection is performed by a Markov clustering algorithm, which receives as input information on all feature pairs regarding their frequency of use and the correctness of the decisions made while using them together in decision making. The proposed method is validated in a brain tumor segmentation problem based on multi-spectral MRI data, in a framework that uses ensemble learning built upon binary decision trees. The proposed method reduces the initial full set of 104 features to 34 without losing anything in terms of segmentation accuracy, thus contributing to the efficiency of the segmentation algorithm.


Abstract : Coatings and coating systems were developed for protection of boron and graphite fiber reinforced plastic composites from structural damage by lightning strikes. The effectiveness of the protective capability of the proposed coating systems was tested with an artificial lightning stroke consisting of both high current and high coulomb components. The primary criterion of successful coating was the capability of a test panel to sustain a simulated lightning discharge without structural damage to the composite substrate. Numerous coatings or coating systems have been developed and evaluated. They can be classified into the following general categories: continuous metal foils; woven metal wire fabrics; knitted metal wire mesh; plasma and flame sprayed aluminum; metal pigmented paints; and nonmetallic pigmented paints; and nonmetallic pigmented paints with or without undercoatings. Several coating systems show protective capability. Aluminum knitted wire mesh and aluminum woven wire fabric are considered to be the most promising coatings.


The invention, gesture recognition technology uses cameras to collect images which contains the information of face posture, then identifying then track automatically the posture of face, and control correspondingly the car camera's rotation according to facial gestures, It is convenient and safe. In addition, the invention enhances the practicability of the system itself by adding the image processing technology such as antiglare, defog vision, night vision. Naked eye 3D will also be used in automobiles to observe the surrounding environment.


Introduction: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is one of the important causes of blindness in children. ROP is characterized by abnormal retinal neovascularization of premature infants.
Purpose: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of ROP in preterm infants at Sanglah Hospital Bali from 2015-2017 and identify the risk factors predisposing them to ROP.
Methods: This was a retrospective study, observational analysis on premature infants diagnosed as ROP at Sanglah Hospital Bali from January 2015 to December 2017, with a gestational age of 30 weeks or less at birth and a birth weight of 1500 grams or less. Infants whose gestational age was >30 weeks or whose birth weight was >1500 grams were also included. The ophthalmological examinations were initiated between the fourth and sixth weeks of chronological age or 34 weeks of corrected age, whichever was earlier, and were repeated weekly or biweekly as per Indonesian guidelines for ROP screening, until full vascularization of the retina reached zone 3.
Results: Out of 31 infants diagnosed as ROP, 3 (9.7%) cases developed ROP in one eye, and 28 (90,3%) cases in both eyes. They were classified as 23 (74.2%) cases stage 1, and 8 (25,8%) cases stage 2. None of the studied infants presented ROP at stage 3, 4, or 5. The risk for ROP was not significantly associated with birth weight (OR 0.375; 95% CI 0.030 – 4.635), gestational age (OR 0.897; 95% CI 0.792 – 1.015), sepsis (OR 1.111; 95% CI 0.089 – 13.835), blood transfusion (OR 1.111; 95% CI 0.089 – 13.835), and HMD (OR 1.118; 95% CI 0.977 – 1.443).
Conclusions: The data of this study showed that low gestational age, low birth weight, sepsis, oxygen therapy, and blood transfusion may be contribute to the development of ROP, but not significant statistically. Clinicians should be aware of the presence of the additional risk factors when monitoring preterm infants,especially when giving supplemental oxygen therapy.


With the majority of coal mines in uncovered and semi-covered coal strata now explored and developed, most of the undiscovered coal-bearing strata are concealed. Compared with expensive drilling, deep targets such as concealed coal-bearing strata can be more efficiently and cost-effectively discovered through geophysical methods. We designed an integrated geophysical exploration approach to detect coal-bearing strata in the Yangjiazhangzi (YJZZ) area. Large-scale magnetotellurics (MT) is used to describe the geological structure along with its profile through the YJZZ area. An aeromagnetic survey was used to delineate the spatial distribution characteristics of the YJZZ syncline, a coal-bearing prospect tectonic unit. Localized exploration with controlled-source audio magnetotellurics (CSAMT) and MT reveals coal-bearing targets for drilling. Drilling results verified the targets identified through the integrated geophysical approach. Coal-bearing strata in the Benxi formation, the Taiyuan formation, and the Shanxi formation of the Permo-Carboniferous age are found between 630 and 770 m. This case study demonstrates that the multidisciplinary geophysical strategy can provide reliable results and credible data interpretation for deep coal seam resources exploration. The findings of this study can provide reference for explorers to carry out their specific exploration cases.


A proactive and strong Government response has helped limit the impact of the global economic crisis on the People's Republic of China (PRC) compared with other economies. Beyond aggregate figures, however, the crisis has cost at least 20 million jobs and led to massive displacement of the PRC's migrant workforce—concentrated in low-skilled and export-driven sectors hardest hit by the downturn. A protracted downturn may create both immediate and longer-term challenges. In recent years, the government has made key strides in constructing social protection systems in both urban and rural areas. However, these systems must now be rapidly bolstered and mechanisms strengthened to address migrant workers' vulnerability. Asian Development Bank experts identify newly emerging forms of poverty within two groups of displaced migrants: (i) those unemployed migrants remaining in urban areas who lack access to support mechanisms, and (ii) returnees to rural areas who lack suitable land or other means of livelihood. Within the Government's overall response, priority interventions that urgently address vulnerabilities while contributing to long-term aims include (i) bolstering temporary assistance targeted at these groups, (ii) new measures to lower their expenditure burdens while protecting longer-term human capital, and (iii) enhanced program integration with strengthened central government support and oversight. 31 March 2009


The existence of Tom Yam restaurants as Thai halal food restaurants in Peninsula Malaysian society was examined. Tom Yam restaurants have operated in Malaysia since the early 1970s to serve mostly Malaysian Muslim consumers. These businesses are run by Malay-Thai Muslims from the southern border region of Thailand and sell to Thai national identities in Malaysian society. Tom Yam restaurants are a part of Malaysian society and have become a representative Thai food eaten in restaurants by Malaysian society as a Muslim society. Malaysian Muslims can easily access Thai dishes which represent ethnic food that is both exotic and cheap in Malaysian society. The expansion of the Tom Yam restaurant business is a part of the process of globalization in the border crossing of Thai food culture.


Two cases of mastoid cavity cholesteatoma which occurred many years after the middle ear surgery, are reported. The patients were a 36 year-old male and a 32 year-old female who had undergone middle ear surgery for otitis media when they were 13 years old and 15 months old, respectively. In these patients, cholesteatoma was confined to the mastoid cavity, and was supposed to be induced by extension of the canal skin through the bony defect in the external part of the posterior-superior wall of the ear canal. The bony defect was probably created by the previous operation or occurred due to canal wall resorption after the operation.


This article presents a dialogue between Roland Barthes and Paolo Fabbri, which took place on 18 December 1965 in Florence, Italy. Barthes offers an engaging account of his structuralist approach to narrative, as was later published in essay form, 'Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative', included in a special issue of Communications (Issue 8, 1966). In a cordial exchange with Fabbri, Barthes provides a more candid presentation of method than found in print, along with critical reflection of the underlying importance of the structuralist approach, as perceived at the time. The interview took place as part of a small conference on narrativity. Participants included Algirdas Julien Greimas, Claude Bremond, Umberto Eco, Jules Gritti, Violette Morin, Christian Metz, and Tzvetan Todorov. Subsequently, a number of these participants contributed articles to the same issue of Communications, on the structural analysis of narrative.


Word Sense Disambiguation has a great influence over the performance of several Natural Language Processing tasks, since the exact meaning of an ambiguous word in a given context may have an impact on the syntactic parsing of the sentence, for example in the parsing of the dependency relations among its constituents. This paper focuses on Verb Sense Disambiguation, a sub-problem of Word Sense Disambiguation, in the context of STRING, a NLP chain developed for Portuguese. The paper presents an approach for the generation of disambiguation rules to be used in STRING. This approach uses a set of declarative rules and the knowledge present in ViPEr, a Lexicon-Grammar for the European Portuguese verbs, to generate disambiguation rules. An implementation of the Transformation-based Learning machine-learning algorithm is also presented, as a way to optimize the order of application of the generated disambiguation rules.


Plane and filamentary structures aligned with a magnetic field abound on the Sun and in both interplanetary and interstellar space. When the Alfven speed changes across such boundaries, hydromagnetic surface waves can travel along them, carry energy, and provide heating. This paper surveys the nature of such surface waves, with emphasis on the dispersion relations, the spatial extent of the waves, the degree of gas compression, and the possibility of coupling to ordinary hydromagnetic waves. Explicit results are provided for the cases when the gas pressure is either much smaller or much larger than the magnetic pressure on either side of the surface. The waves are shear waves wherever p< or =B/sup 2//8..pi... All surface waves involve finite gas compression, but this compression is negligible when kxBvery-much-less-thankB.


Optic modules act as the optic/electronic interface in the high-capacity communication media which is arising due to the shift to multimedia, and in these modules, the optic elements require sub-micron mounting on the silicon substrate. Here, in contrast to the conventional 5 /spl mu/m mounting flip chip bonder, we have developed a sub-micron bonder for mounting at a high precision. We also discuss alignment technology, and a solder process for achieving high precision.


The concept of security has changed from traditional military thinking to a nonmilitary one by including environmental issues in the contemporary security agenda. Environmental degradation as a non-military threat has been advocated by Norman Myers,1 Richard Ullman2 and Michael Renner3 and Jessica Tuchman Mathews4. It can be considered as an addition to the momentum in the process of rethinking of the current concept of security. The version of environmental security, which informs this study, seeks to understand better the dynamics of relationship between environmental protection or management and social stability. This paper also aims to identify the freedom from threats to human health and social instability due to environmental degradation. It refers to responses to environmental threats and demands the relative public safety from environmental dangers caused by natural or human processes due to ignorance, accident, mismanagement originating within or across national borders. This paper focuses on the environmental security in which social systems interact with ecological systems in sustainable ways. It is to be noted that all individuals should have fair and reasonable access to environmental goods and mechanisms existing to address environmental crises. Environmental security is the cycling of natural resources to products and to wastes as well as to natural resources in ways that promote social stability, which can be observed in case of the Kita-Kyushu Eco-Town Project. Asian countries have been facing environmental challenges ranging from pollution caused by industrialization process and rapid population growth, which again lead to increasing water, energy and food scarcity. To what extent these issues will shape the


In this article, a multiband microband antenna fed by a microband feeder is proposed, with a total area of 30x24x1.6 mm ^ 3 [1]. The planned antenna is printed on the FR4 epoxy resin substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 4.4 [2]. The multiband characteristics are produced by the differently shaped grooves used in the ground plane. The antenna covers two frequency bands, 24.0 GHz to 24.53 GHz, for K-band applications, and 26.7 GHz to 27.6 GHz, for Ka-band applications [3] [4]. The prototype of the expected antenna is planned and measured in advance. Ansys HFSS software simulation results are consistent with measurement result.


Modeling and simulation on channel conditions play an important role in performance evaluation of wireless protocols. Two most widely used channel error model are independent model and Markov model. The former is simple and easy to implement, but cannot capture the bursty nature of channel errors. And we find that, when the bit error rate is relatively small, the existing Markov model cannot efficiently predict channel conditions. For these reasons, we propose MIM, a hybrid channel error model. MIM partitions the received binary indicator sequence into m blocks. And it's assumed that the occurrence of bit errors within each block conforms to the two-state Markov model, while between blocks, block errors are independent and identically distributed (IID) as one fixed block error probability pb. We set up an office wireless environment and choose the optimal model parameters based on collected error trace. The analysis of model parameters shows that, our model well conforms to reality.


[Purpose] To measure broken shoehorn braces (SHB), to determine the mechanical stress points and characteristics of breakages. [Subjects and Methods] Six polypropylene SHBs which had broken during use were examined. [Results] The height of the breakage point was the upper part than the point of tangential line which drawn at an angle of 45 degrees from the base and the trimming line. Breakage points were divided into the upper part and the lower part. The measurement suggested that upper part breakages were caused by plantarflexion stress while lower part breakages were caused by dorsiflexion stress. [Conclusion] Angles of the breakage points determined by a quadratic equation of the trimming line derived from actual measurements ranged from 82–90 ̊. From macro observation, it was concluded that breaks occurred in transformations from irregular to smooth surfaces.


This interactive session will introduce a new credit-bearing course with a complementary in-country study abroad program designed to provide undergraduate women in STEM fields a different perspective of how cultural or social norms impact women and their career choices.


Images under low-light conditions suffer from noise, blurring, and low contrast, thus limiting the precise detection of objects. For this purpose, a novel method is introduced based on convolutional neural network (CNN) dual attention unit (DAU) and selective kernel feature synthesis (SKFS) that merges with the Retinex theory-based model for the enhancement of dark images under low-light conditions. The model mentioned in this paper is a multi-scale residual block made up of several essential components equivalent to an onward convolutional neural network with a VGG16 architecture and various Gaussian convolution kernels. In addition, backpropagation optimizes most of the parameters in this model, whereas the values in conventional models depend on an artificial environment. The model was constructed using simultaneous multi-resolution convolution and dual attention processes. We performed our experiment in the Tesla T4 GPU of Google Colab using the Customized Raw Image Dataset, College Image Dataset (CID), Extreme low-light denoising dataset (ELD), and ExDark dataset. In this approach, an extended set of features is set up to learn from several scales to incorporate contextual data. An extensive performance evaluation on the four above-mentioned standard image datasets showed that MSR-MIRNeT produced standard image enhancement and denoising results with a precision of 97.33%; additionally, the PSNR/SSIM result is 29.73/0.963 which is better than previously established models (MSR, MIRNet, etc.). Furthermore, the output of the proposed model (MSR-MIRNet) shows that this model can be implemented in medical image processing, such as detecting fine scars on pelvic bone segmentation imaging, enhancing contrast for tuberculosis analysis, and being beneficial for robotic visualization in dark environments.


The aim of the current paper is to reevaluate critical thinking /CT/ and its role in education. It is much talked about in many educational circles, but the main question still remains what CT is, how we can bring it into our classrooms and make regular practice in our teaching. Proceeding from the assumption that it is often much harder to teach CT than to define, we have attempted to explain the widely used concept in the light of Paul-Elder critical thinking framework. The practical purpose of the study is to help teachers apply some of the methods and techniques proposed below, to promote CT and ensure higher quality teaching results.


Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English dramatists linked women's sexual continence and their submission to the authority of their fathers and husbands not only to the well-ordering of family life, but to the preservation of social order.1 The ideal woman could be relied upon absolutely to protect these boundaries, and the age did have a model of such feminine purity, however unrealistic she must have seemed. Lucrece, wife of Collatine, victim of Tarquin's lustful covetousness, was the English Renaissance's archetypal pattern of the violated, yet virtuous woman. Her rape, available in Ovid and Livy (and in translations of their works), was versified by Shakespeare and Middleton, dramatised by Heywood, and echoed in plays throughout the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, including Titus Andronicus, Valentinian, and Appius and Virginia.2 Lucrece was the model wife who took her own life rather than allow any doubt that her loyalty and her children belonged solely to her husband.


The leaf number on main stem is important index in wheat development.The thermo-photoperiod condition significantly affects leaf number on main stem. Wheats of winter or spring from U.K., U.S.A. and Australia have the more leaf number on main stem than wheats of China.However, they have a same response to thermo-photoperiod condition. The key factor affcting leaf number on main stem is vernalization for winter varieties, photoperiod for spring varieties. The thermo-photoperiod interaction is significant for winter varieties of U.K.. The thermo-photoperiod condition can regulate leaf number on main stem in order to promote develpment from vegetative growth to reproductive growth.


Router mechanisms designed to achieve fair bandwidth allocations, like Fair Queueing, have many desirable properties for congestion control in the Internet. However, such mechanisms usually need to...


There is defined a total basing error arising during centerless ball grinding using driving disk helical grooves with different forms. On the basis of computations there is offered a design of a driving disk with the trapezoidal helical groove. A design of a supporting knife which allows carrying out efficiently an automatic position correction of the measuring base of operation size during ball grinding is offered.


This article discusses issues around the communication of preventive health messages related to COVID-19 to indigenous language-speaking communities in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia Official communication is primarily in Spanish, and the many translation initiatives that have arisen do not always succeed in getting the message across due to the lack of cultural interpretation that needs to accompany the linguistic message This situation compounds the vulnerability of indigenous peoples in the face of the crisis © 2020 The Authors Bulletin of Latin American Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for Latin American Studies


The considerations which I present have to do chiefly with the predisposition to anxiety and its relation to increased narcissism, especially in severe neuroses. I present these considerations largely in the form of questions rather than conclusions. The stages by which I arrived at these questions I give here in order to present the background of this paper: (1) the analysis of particularly severe neuroses in adults, ( 2 ) the searching for supportive or related data in the medical, psychiatric and psychoanalytic clinical experience of myself and others, ( 3 ) a supplementary review of some experimental work and observations, ( 4 ) a review of Freud's later publications concerning anxiety, especially The Problem of Anxiety, ( 5 ) and finally, a return to my own case material which I reviewed in the light of my questioning. For the sake of consolidating this presentation, however, I shall now take this circle of search in a little different order. I shall reserve the presentation of the case material for a subsequent paper in which I hope to discuss also some special considerations of treatment. I have chosen this order because I believe that the clinical material in itself is inevitably so detailed as to be possibly confusing unless the reader is already aware of the underlying thesis. In my work, however, the clinical material came first and the thesis was the result of my observations. In this paper I shall first discuss Freud's later statements concerning anxiety; I shall then present factual observations and the results of experiments of some significance in the problem of basic anxiety.


In 2006 the Andalusian coast presented an ageing index of 13.27%, which is below the 14.6% regional average. It is therefore an area of incipient ageing. The aim of this study is to analyse the demographic factors that explain why this is one of the less aged areas of both the Autonomous Region and of the country as a whole and to ascertain whether there is a correlation between the levels of ageing and spatial planning in the region


Bala is an important Ayurvedic drug entering into several ayurvedic medical formulations. Triumfetta rhomboidea Jacq. belonging to the family Tiliaceae, also known as Jhinjharita possesses various properties of the drug Bala. This work involves the pharmacognostical characters, phytochemical analysis and HPTLC profiling of the roots extract of T. rhomboidea. The pharamcognostical study comprises of taxonomical characters of taxa, macro and microscopical characters root, histochemical tests and diagnostic characters. The phytochemical analysis consists of determination of physicochemical constants, preliminary organic analysis and HPTLC profile. Phytochemical studies revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, phytosterols, tannins, saponins etc.


Catalan nationalism, rooted in the 19th century, transformed into separatism in the 1980s, threatening the existence of the Spanish state. The unstable political situation in the country caused by the crisis of the party system and serious economic problems is noticeably aggravated by the Catalan issue. The separatists representing the autonomy are not distinguished by unity, which provokes additional tension in the region, but they have a serious impact on the central government. The instability of the current Spanish government, formed by socialists, is compounded by the need to seek support from representatives of Catalan nationalist pariahs in the country's parliament. This fact also makes it necessary for the ruling party not only to enter into a dialogue with the Catalan separatists, but also to agree to certain concessions.The situation is complicated by the fact that in the autonomy itself, the separatists are not supported by the majority of the population, and some residents of the region openly speak from unionist positions. The whole complex complex of contradictions of the Catalan question is critically connected with the problem of reforming the constitutional system of the Kingdom of Spain. The current Constitution of the country – which has become very obvious at the current stage of the development of the political and social crisis in Spain – requires a partial revision, primarily from the point of view of resolving the issue of the powers of a number of autonomies in the state and their interaction with the center.


ABSTRACT Participation in occupation is an integrated and holistic mind/body experience. However, research and theory development on human action and occupational participation tend to be limited by mind/body dualisms which separate the mind from the body when studying and conceptualizing human action. The ontological supremacy of the mind over the body has led to obfuscation of the body's role in occupation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a broad overview of contemporary research on embodiment and to highlight the importance of the body in the performance of meaningful occupation. We present various perspectives and conceptual framings of embodiment using research from disciplines such as occupational science, cognitive psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, social psychology, developmental psychology, humanistic geography, and performance studies. Due to the expansive and varied literature on embodiment, we do not attempt to summarize or synthesize disciplinary perspectives; rather, we aim to highlight different perspectives within and across different disciplines. We also present examples of various research methods for studying embodiment and occupation. Additionally, we discuss implications for how sensory processing has been conceptualized in occupational science and occupational therapy and its relation to embodiment. Our aim is to encourage occupational scientists to further incorporate research methods that attend to the body's role in studies on occupation and to encourage scientists and practitioners to re-think widely accepted assumptions regarding sensory processing and mind/body dualisms.


Whiteside uses athletics as a historical lens to view the people, culture, business, and politics of Colorado from its original American Indian occupants to the Broncos' Super Bowl victories. This unique new volume demonstrates how sports history can illuminate the business, politics, class, race, gender, mores, and values of a society. In pre-industrial Colorado, sports and games in Indian villages and early mining towns were shaped by work, community life, and even religion. As leisure time increased for many in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, sport evolved into a more popular recreational activity.The progression of the twentieth century has changed many sports from small-town pastimes into profitable businesses, as exemplified by the growth of the recreational industry and by college football's transformation from a young gentleman's game into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. "Colorado: A Sports History" is enhanced with a fine selection of historical photographs depicting Colorado sports and their participants.


Modern aero-engines with two stage high pressure turbines (HPT) are attractive because they offer higher turbine polytropic efficiencies compared to the single stage. When considering the complexity associated with the secondary cooling airflow system, however, the two stage turbine is more vulnerable to excess air performance losses and requires more effort to optimize. This paper addresses the established design criteria with an emphasis on cooling air supply to the second stage turbine blades. The available cooling air is compressor delivery air fed to the front face of the rim via the first turbine stage, and lower pressure air from an earlier compressor stage is fed internally to the rear cavity. A comparison is made of the effectiveness of disc-rim cooling achieved with alternate forward and rear air feed systems to the rotor blades based on aerothermal analytical methods. Both front and rear cover-plate as well as disc feed holes are considered, and the applicable heat transfer correlation along with cavity boundary layer/mixing temperature assumptions are described. The 2-D axisymmetric finite element transient thermal model, for each design case, has been run with a square speed cycle and in this study, the aerothermal behavior at steady state maximum take-off condition is compared. Results indicate that low pressure compressor air in a cover-plate is thermally more effective than feed holes on the front or rear side of the disc, if pre-swirled compressor exit air from the first stage seals the second stage disc-rim. This is also valid if cavity boundary layer air from an earlier compressor stage sealing the rim (on either side) reaches a temperature as high as the area-weighted-mean (AWM) rim temperature due to contamination by hot gas ingestion. Although the front system offers a better overall cooling effectiveness, in comparing the front and rear feed hole concepts using cooling air from a compressor mid-stage, the rear feed hole is more effective in reducing the AWM temperature in the rotor bucket-groove, as well as the maximum rim temperatures of the second stage disc.Copyright © 1998 by ASME


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to document the determinants and value relevance of corporate disclosure and transparency on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). Design/methodology/approach - – The paper employs the Fama and French model by relating firm value to firm level characteristics, with a sample of 27 firms on the GSE over a six-year period (2003-2008) Findings - – The author found positive though statistically insignificant relationship between corporate disclosure and firm value represented by market to book value ratio and negative for stock price. Consistent with the political cost, signalling, agency and economic theories of corporate disclosure, the author found firm size, financial leverage, audit quality, age and profitability to be significant firm level characteristics determining corporate disclosure in Ghana. Though the adoption of IFRS is significant, it has marginally improved disclosure, though perhaps it is observed more in breach than in compliance and practical steps must be taken to improve disclosure practice on the GSE. Originality/value - – The main value of the paper lies in providing further evidence of the value relevance and determinants of corporate disclosure using emerging data.


[Question] The construction of cultural knowledge base in digital library is in progress with the development of information technology. However, traditional cultural knowledge bases are facing the problems of high participation of manual operation and monotonous data source. This paper combines knowledge graph, a frontier technology of artificial intelligence, to explore a new method of building high‐quality, automated cultural knowledge base. [Method] Using the experimental method, we selected the knowledge of the Hundred Schools of Thought in ancient China. Because these knowledges are clearly interrelated, it is suitable to construct the knowledge graph of them. The knowledge graph can provide experience for the construction of other cultural knowledge bases. [Conclusion] At present, this paper has preliminarily completed the experimental design of the knowledge graph of the Hundred Schools of Thought, and provided the flowchart of the construction of cultural domain knowledge graph.


In this paper we deal with an unsupervised segmentation approach for images given by a synthetic aperture sonar (SAS). The images with objects are segmented into highlight, background and shadow. Since the shape features are extracted from these segmented images, correctness and precision of the segmentation are highly required. We improve the expectation-maximization (EM) methods of Sanjay-Gopal et al. by using the gamma mixture model. Moreover an intermediate step (I-step) based on Dempster-Shafer theory (DST) is introduced between the E- and M-steps of the EM to consider the pixel spatial dependency. Finally, numerical tests are carried out on both synthetic images and SAS images. The results are compared to iterative conditional mode (ICM) and diffused EM (DEM). Our approach provides segmentations with less false alarms and better shape preservation.


A non-damage method for measuring local tissue blood perfusion rate by surface heat disturbance and its two particular embodimellts for realizing this measurement are presented in this paper. In derivation of the mathematic model, the Pennes equation is used, and two parameters-the arterial blood temperature Ta and the metabolic heat generation rate qm which are very difficult to be known their values have been eliminated. The effectiveness of the measurement method has been demonstrated by means of the quantitative measurement of tissue in vitro, the comparative measurement of animal under artificial perfusion and the dependence measurement in humam body.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to solve the shortage of carrying energy in probing robot and make full use of wind resources in the Antarctic expedition by designing a four-wheel land-yacht. Land-yacht is a new kind of mobile robot powered by the wind using a sail. The mathematical model and trajectory of the land-yacht are presented in this paper. Design/methodology/approach – The mechanism analysis method and experimental modeling method are used to establish a dual-input and dual-output mathematical model for the motion of land-yacht. First, the land-yacht's model structure is obtained by using mechanism analysis. Then, the models of steering gear, servomotors and force of wing sail are analyzed and validated. Finally, the motion of land-yacht is simulated according to the mathematical model. Findings – The mathematical model is used to analyze linear motion and steering motion. Compared with the simulation results and the actual experimental tests, the feasibility and reliability of the propo...


Application of the biphase extraction in the presence of the surface active substances (SAS) was found to ensure an increase of the hydrophylic and lipophylic biologically active substances (BAS) yield from the plant raw material. Dried sweetbrier fruits were extracted with 70% ethyl alcohol and sunflower-seed oil in the presence of various combinations of the emulgators twin-80 and T-2 (HLB = 5,5ч14,5). Carotenoid transition (lipophylic BAS) into oil phase in comparison with biphase extraction without SAS was shown to increase 1,5 times in the presense of the emulgator of the second type (HLB = 5,5) and it didn't change in the presence of the emulgator of the first type (HLB = 14,5). Hydrophylic BAS transition (ascorbic acid) into water-alcohol phase increases 2 times at HLB = 14,5 and decreases with the HLB number decrease.


Simple frame synchronization over 25 spans of optical fiber at a sampling rate of 28 Gsps for CO-OFDM is presented. A short training sequence is applied which does not affect the OFDM frame efficiency.


This paper explores the hypothesis that higher levels of corruption are detrimental to environmental sustainability. It does this by employing the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) and its component variables and indicators as promoted by the World Economic Forum and the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) created by Transparency International (TI). Both the CPI and ESI were shown to be statistically significantly related to income (proxied as GDP/capita) such that environmental sustainability declined with decreasing income while corruption worsened. The ESI for 2002 was also divided into indicators representing pressure, state, impact and response (i.e., the PSIR framework), and each of these were regressed onto a 'residual CPI' (CPI of 2002 with the influence of income removed). The results suggest that for the most part the pressure, state and impact indicators of the ESI are not correlated with 'residual' CPI. The only statistically significant relationships with 'residual CPI' were for those of the response indicators of the ESI, although even here the R2 values were low (< 20%). Corruption was found to reduce any positive contribution from the response indicators towards environmental sustainability. However, great care needs to be taken when drawing conclusions from the sort of highly aggregated (spatially as well as mathematically) indices as the ESI and CPI.


This article presents the results of a study of the effectiveness of anti-rabies and anti-chlamydia antibodies conjugated with fluorescein, freeze-dried. Immunobiological products lyophilization is one of the most reliable ways to preserve their physicochemical and biological properties, since this is a soft drying method, in which the dried product is frozen, then it is placed in a vacuum chamber, where the solvent is sublimated. Lyophilization allows you to get drugs without losing their shape, structural integrity and more importantly, without losing their biological activity. The study aimed to standardize methods for the purification of FITC conjugates, as well as reagents used in the production and drying of FITC conjugates. We used conjugates of anti-rabies and anti-chlamydia antibodies labeled with fluoresceinisothiocyanate (FITZ) obtained by hyperimmunization of sheep and rams using an immunostimulant. We tested the ability of various concentrations of dextran T-70 to retain the specific activity of fluorescent conjugates of anti-rabies and anti-chlamydia antibodies when added dextran T-70 to them before the lyophilization. To determine the optimal amount of T-70 dextran filler, prepared 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5% solutions in 10mm phosphate-salt solution. We found that the effectiveness of dextran T-70 as a filler substance in the lyophilization of FITC conjugates depends on its concentration. The optimal stabilizing vehicle for lyophilization of both fluorescent conjugates is 2-3% concentration of dextran T-70 in 10 mM phosphate-buffered saline. Analysis of the results of the quality of FITZ-conjugates allows us to conclude about the high quality of biological products prepared during freeze-drying of the material in the developed temperature regime using dextran T-70 as a filler substance. As a result of the studies, the technology for the preparation of lyophilized FITC conjugates of anti-rabies and anti-chlamydia antibodies for diagnostic test systems was optimized. The specific activity and stability of the physicochemical characteristics of the preparations after lyophilization and during subsequent storage for two years were observed.


A.SYSTEME THERMAL PRINTING FOR PRINTING AN IMAGE INFORMATION ON PRINT PAPER. B.A CHARACTERIZED BY DETECTION MEANS ARE LINKED TO SELECTIVELY ALL ELEMENTS RESISTANT ... 2A 2A TO PROVIDE DATA RELATED TO THE VALUE OF R EACH RESISTANCE ELEMENTS RESISTANT 2A, RAM MEMORY 7 BEING CONNECTED WITH THE dETECTED FOR RECORDING DATA dERIVED DETECTOR AND COMPENSATION MEANS , ORDERS THE MEMORY TO OFFSET PRINT DATA BASED ON RECORDED DATA IN THIS MEMORY. C.L'INVENTION CONCERNS A THERMAL PRINTING SYSTEM FOR PRINTING AN IMAGE OF INFORMATION ON PRINT PAPER.


The paper deals with the importance of trade unions in former times and at the present time. The author compares the living conditions of working people, the forms and conditions of labor markets and the state of enterprises in the second half of the 19th century as essential causes of the trade unions rise with the present situation and deals with the question, whether the differences are so essential that society could and should renounce the functions of trade unions without causing losses of welfare. He argues that the improvement of the economic and social circumstances during the 20th century would not justify restrictions of trade union activities. Without trade unions monopsonistic and oligopsonistic forms of labor markets would revive, the wage level would fall. The capitalistic state of factories and enterprises has not changed essentially. Therefore the countervailing power of trade unions seems useful in relation to distributions policy as well as to protecting the workers rights. Trade unions are organizations, which have improved the position of workers in the labor markets and within the factories. They also essentially influenced the coming up and development of the welfare state. Who else than the trade unions should pay attention to the task of avoiding that the burdens of social reforms in the first line and above all are imposed to the working people and their families?


Some agents are more accurate than others in estimating the best policy. The more accurately an agent estimates a policy's effects, the more he will resist biases, such as bribes from a special interest. Thus, a special interest needs to pay a larger bribe to an accurate agent than to an inaccurate agent. The accurate agent who is biased will then more likely cause harm than does an inaccurate agent who favors the special interest. Therefore, the principal may gain more from controlling biases of an accurate agent than of an inaccurate one. Thus, high ability of public officials may be associated with little corruption.


Electronic portfolios are essential for communicators. Faculty members at Clarkson University have developed a model electronic portfolio for Technical Communications majors to emulate, in order for the students to best present to prospective employers the work they have accomplished in their academic careers. Other higher education institutions make use of electronic portfolios-largely for individual course requirements or for assessment purposes, and none for communication students. The TC department at Clarkson surveyed communication professionals and conducted research to develop the model electronic portfolio. Our resulting model is an HTML file that includes all the work the student has done to date, burned onto a CD-ROM, following organization guidelines that stem from survey responses. Screen captures of the model electronic portfolio appear at the end. The model is not final; it will continue to evolve with professional and technological trends.


The available information on numerous marine stocks indicates that they are in decline, and many recreational anglers claim that their catches are decreasing in size and number as a result (Smith and Pollard 1996, Richardson et al. 2006). Fishing activity of any type, commercial or recreational, may be harmful to fish (e.g., limiting their size, age range, density, and reproduction), the trophic webs and relationships and, indirectly, all the aquatic ecosystems (Post et al. 2002). In Portugal, recreational (amateur) fishing can be divided into two types: leisure fishing and sport fishing. Leisure fishing is best described as a purely recreational hobby, while sport fishing is competition-oriented (Anonymous 2000). Competitions based on rod and reel methods are a relatively recent phenomenon in Portugal, formally recognised in 1947 by the foundation of the Portuguese Federation of Sport Fishing (FPPD). To date only recreational (leisure) fishing surveys have been conducted in Portugal (Rangel and Erzini 2007, Veiga et al. 2010). The main objective of this study was to describe sport fishing catches in the south of Portugal and to evaluate trends in abundance, weight, mean size, and diversity of catches taken during sport fishing competitions. Specifically we tested the following hypotheses: • There has been no decrease in mean catch per angler over the past 15 years; • There has been no decrease in mean weight fish caught over the past 15 years. The secondary objective was to outline potential conACTA ICHTHYOLOGICA ET PISCATORIA (2011) 41 (3): 165–169 DOI: 10.3750/AIP2011.41.3.03


The oxidation of carbon monoxide by air in a turbulent flow was investigated under experimental conditions where the rates of turbulent mixing and of chemical reaction are comparable. For this purpose, carbon monoxide was admixed into the completely burnt gas of a natural gas flame operated with excess of air. Measurements of mean values of axial velocity, temperature and volume fractions of carbon monoxide and oxygen were compared with computational simulations involving the k – ϵ turbulence model and several turbulent reaction models for the oxidation of carbon monoxide. The comparison of measurements and numerical calculations demonstrated that the k – ϵ turbulence model is suitable for prediction of the turbulent flow field in the flow system investigated. Furthermore, it could be shown that one-variable turbulent reaction models, such as the flamesheet or the eddy-break-up model, cannot explain the measured carbon monoxide volume fraction profiles. Two-variable turbulent reaction models with a probability density function closure of the source term of the transport equation for the mass fraction of the chemical species result in a better agreement between the measured and simulated volume fraction profiles, particularly in predicting the clear influence of the initial temperature on carbon monoxide volume fractions. Weighting of the kinetic rate expression for the oxidation of carbon monoxide with different presumed probability density functions yields slightly different predictions of the carbon monoxide volume fractions, reflecting the assumed different character of turbulent fluctuations.


The blaOXA-48 gene encodes a carbapenem-hydrolyzing class D -lactamase that was first identified in Klebsiella pneumoniae from Turkey in 2003 and then extensively in that country (1, 11). There are few reports of blaOXA-48 in Escherichia coli, from Turkey, Israel, and Senegal (5, 6, 9). Furthermore, recent studies identified the spread of OXA-48-producers in North Africa (4, 12). E. coli NAA was recovered in November 2010 from rectal screening performed at the admission of a patient hospitalized at the Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Paris, France. The patient was transferred from Egypt, where he had been hospitalized for pancreatic carcinoma and treated with ceftriaxone for salmonellosis. E. coli AME was recovered in December 2010 by rectal swab screening performed at the admission of a patient hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the Hôpital de Bicêtre in a suburb of Paris. That patient was living in France, but he had stayed in Egypt as a tourist during a 2-month period 4 months earlier (no hospitalization). The third E. coli isolate, GOG, was recovered in November 2010 by rectal swab screening performed at the admission of a patient hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the Hôpital Raymond-Poincaré (in a suburb of Paris). That patient was from Turkey, where he did not report any previous hospitalization. None of these patients had any hospitalizations in common in France. Susceptibility testing was performed by disk diffusion assay (Sanofi-Diagnostic Pasteur, Marnes-la-Coquette, France) (3). MICs were determined by Etest (AB bioMérieux; Solna, Sweden) on Mueller-Hinton agar plates at 37°C (3). All three E. coli isolates displayed an extended-spectrum -lactamase (ESBL) phenotype and exhibited the same pattern of antibiotic resistance, being resistant to all penicillins, resistant to cefotaxime, intermediately susceptible to aztreonam, and susceptible to ceftazidime (MIC of 0.5 g/ml) according to the updated CLSI guidelines (3). In addition, they showed reduced susceptibility to carbapenems. The MICs of imipenem, meropenem, and ertapenem were, respectively, 0.25, 0.25, and 0.5 g/ml for E. coli AME; 0.5, 0.25, and 1 g/ml for E. coli NAA; and 0.5, 0.25, and 2 g/ml for E. coli GOG. They were resistant to cotrimoxazole, sulfonamides, tobramycin, and gentamicin and susceptible to amikacin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, tigecycline, and fluoroquinolones. The three isolates carried a blaCTX-M gene together with a blaTEM gene. Sequencing identified the -lactamases TEM-1 and CTX-M-24. CTX-M-24 is a point mutant derivative of CTX-M-14 that does not hydrolyze ceftazidime (7, 13). Mating-out assays performed as described previously (11) allowed us to obtain E. coli transconjugants coproducing the CTXM-24 and OXA-48 -lactamases, respectively. Plasmid analysis showed that these E. coli transconjugants harbored two plasmids (50 and 62 kb) encoding the ESBL and the class D -lactamase, respectively. In the three E. coli isolates, the blaOXA-48 plasmid was 62 kb in size and found positive for the repP gene (1), as reported for OXA-48-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates recovered from different countries (previously estimated to be 70 kb in size but found to be 62 kb) (1). Phylogenetic grouping performed by PCR (2) showed that these E. coli isolates belonged to group D, corresponding to extraintestinal and pathogenic strains. Multilocus sequence typing performed as described previously (10) showed that all three E. coli isolates belonged to ST38. ST38 E. coli isolates had previously been identified in China (CTX-M-14 producer) (10) and Japan (CTX-M-9 and CTX-M-14 producers) (14). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis performed as described previously (1) showed that the three isolates were clonally related, indicating that the same clonal strain was circulating at least in Turkey and Egypt and was then imported into France. So far, dissemination of the OXA-48 resistance determinant was observed mainly in K. pneumoniae and to a lesser extent in Enterobacter cloacae (12). Consequently, OXA-48 producers have been observed only in hospital settings to date. We report here the spread of blaOXA-48 to the species E. coli isolated from a patient without a history of prior hospitalization. This indicates a dissemination of OXA-48-producing E. coli in the community, which gave rise to recurrent importation to France after the recent identification of an OXA-48-producing K. pneumoniae strain (8). We report here two cases with a clear link to Egypt, emphasizing that OXA-48 might be endemic to the African continent, in view of other reports from Senegal, Morocco, and Tunisia.


SETTING
Cape Town, South Africa.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the performance of a simple, manual, phage-based test for determining rifampicin (RMP) resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis directly from smear-positive sputum specimens.

DESIGN
A comparative study of the performance of the FASTPlaque (phage amplification) technology to determine RMP resistance directly from smear-positive sputum compared with isolation and the conventional indirect Middlebrook 7H11 agar proportion method.

RESULTS
The FASTPlaque direct RMP test achieved sensitivity, specificity and overall accuracy of 100% (11/11), 100% (134/134) and 100% (145/145), respectively, compared with the conventional indirect susceptibility test method (resolved data). The FASTPlaque direct RMP test reported results within 2 days from receipt of the specimen, while the conventional method took between 27 and 103 days (mean +/- SD 33.2 +/- 7.2 days).

CONCLUSION
FASTPlaque technology applied directly to smear-positive sputum offers performance comparable to conventional methods, with results available in 2 days instead of weeks to months. The test may form a useful part of DOTS-Plus programmes to combat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, improving patient prognosis and reducing ongoing transmission of disease. It does not require specialised equipment, making it appropriate for high-burden countries.