Objectives/Goals My experiment was to test how pea and radish plants react to different soil amendments, specifically coffee grounds, wood ash, and fresh green avocado leaves. Methods/Materials To do my experiment, I first prepared my planting area. Next, I divided my planting area into 4 quadrants, collected the soil amendments (coffee grounds, wood ash, and shredded green avocado leaves), and placed them in the quadrants, leaving one with no added amendment as a control. I mixed the soil amendments in, then planted my radish and pea seeds in the prepared furrows. After planting, I watered my seeds. Finally, I made daily observations in my log book of how the plants grew, and watered when necessary. At the conclusion of the experiment, I took measurements of the plants. Results My hypothesis that coffee grounds would perform the best was only partially proved true. Fresh leaves and coffee grounds both performed well. The leaves performed well, I think, because my planting area had been amended with manure in previous years. Wood ash didn't perform well, I think, because it dramatically increased the soil salinity. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that coffee grounds and leaves are good soil amendments in generally healthy soil and that ash can be toxic to plants. It was clear from my experiment that the soil was already healthy and full of essential nutrients because the plants in the un-amended soil did very well. Coffee grounds and leaves, however, did produce more abundant and larger plants than the un-amended soil, demonstrating that even healthy soil can use additional nitrogen and other nutrients. My hypothesis about the leaves, which was based on the information I learned in my research, was disproved. Perhaps because the fresh green leaf mulch was added to previously amended soil, the leaves benefitted rather than harmed the plants. Overall, the data demonstrated that green avocado leaves are a better soil amendmend for radishes and coffee grounds are a better soil amendment for peas. In addition, either one performed better than nothing at all.


There are many explanations for the violation of rules, and in this paper we report on examples from a healthcare setting. The research explores how nurses conceptualise safety rules when using medical equipment to treat patients. Do nurses intentionally violate the formalised rules set by the hospital and regulatory authorities? Unlike other work on rule violation, the focus here is on understanding how rule violation can be used as a measure of necessary performance variability. We found that the nurses studied had a limited awareness of what rules they were adhering to or intentionally violating. Instead, nurses performed the work in a way that was consistent with their own understanding of safe practice. Informal and dynamic safety behaviours were central to how resilience was created and sustained. Better management is needed to avoid situations where well-intentioned violations are not shared amongst colleagues. This is because a lack of team awareness can result in conflicting safety goals and potentially unsafe practice. When informal safety behaviours are shared, risks are open to group inspection.


We use synchrotron x-ray diffraction and electrical transport under pressure to probe both the magnetism and the structure of single-crystal NiS_2 across its Mott-Hubbard transition. In the insulator, the low-temperature antiferromagnetic order results from superexchange among correlated electrons and couples to a (1/2, 1/2, 1/2) superlattice distortion. Applying pressure suppresses the insulating state, but enhances the magnetism as the superexchange increases with decreasing lattice constant. By comparing our results under pressure to previous studies of doped crystals, we show that this dependence of the magnetism on the lattice constant is consistent for both band broadening and band filling. In the high-pressure metallic phase the lattice symmetry is reduced from cubic to monoclinic, pointing to the primary influence of charge correlations at the transition. There exists a wide regime of phase separation that may be a general characteristic of correlated quantum matter.


Since fifteen years, western European countries have engaged institutional dynamics aiming at reforming the urban institutions in order to adapt themselves to the evolution of urbanisation and to the territorial competition and the globalisation process. In this context, new institutions gathering political officials and representatives of civil society have been created. This article analyses this process and evaluate its impact on urban politics.


THE purpose of this paper is to tell you about the work we are doing on _the aetiology of the disease as manifest in the furniture industry of High Wycombe. I must say right away that the first part of this paper is largely based on the work of Dr. Donald Acheson, the Director of the Oxford Record Linkage Survey. I must also mention the generous support given to me by Ronald Macbeth and Frank Ellis at their Combined Cancer Clinics at Oxford. As many of you will know, High Wycombe is the largest furniture manufacturing town in this country. There are about 120 furniture factories of varying size, in which are made 12 per cent of the furniture and 80 per cent of the chairs in the United Kingdom. When I started work there some 12 years ago, I would have said that malignant disease of the sinuses was pretty rare and the commonest type was the squamous carcinoma. As I gradually acquired new cases it seemed to be rather _cornmoner than I had thought and adenocarcinoma occurred more frequently than the squamous type. But it was not until I encountered a chairmaker from Banbury with an adenocarcinoma of the sinuses at the Combined Cancer Clinic at the Radcliffe that I suddenly saw the_connection between this disease and the furniture industry. Ronald Macbeth mentioned this observation in his William Wilde Lecture at Dublin in 1964, but it was not followed up until we got Dr. Acheson interested a couple of years later. Our preliminary communication was published in The Lancet in 1967. Our more detailed report appeared in the British Medical Journal on 8 June 1968. Using information supplied by the Oxford Regional Cancer Register and the Oxford Record Linkage Study we traced eighty-three cases, first diagnosed in the 10-year period 1956-65, which occurred in Oxfordshire and those parts of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire which come under the Oxford Regional Board. The total population of this area at the 1961 census was just over one million.


The thesis entitled: Effects of the play program "PADA" in the coexistence of the students of the first grade of primary school, had as general objective to determine the application of the program "PADA" in the school life cohabitation of the first grade students. The research was a quantitative approach, applied type and explanatory level, with a quasi-experimental design, while the method adopted was the hypothetical deductive. The population was made up of 46 students, a sample of nonprobabilistic type was used and the sample was of intentional type, that is to say it was considered according to the objectives of the researcher. An observation chart was applied, so that the reliability of the instrument was measured with the Kuder Richardson 20 (KR20) coefficient, obtained for school coexistence (0.890), while the validity of the instrument was verified by the expert judgment technique of The UCV. Contrast of the general hypothesis, according to the statistical analysis of comparison carried out through the U Mann Withney Statistical Test, it was found that in the post test phase, the play program "PADA", positively influences the school coexistence in students Of the first grade of primary education; Therefore, scores between the control and experimental groups differ significantly (U = -5.554 <-1.96, p =, 000).


Background: Nursing practitioners encounter numerous stressors at the workplace. They include emotional issues, workload, time pressures, human pain and multiple roles. Oncology nurses working in tertiary health care face even more challenges dealing with terminally ill patients death which may result by burnout and stress which can be the cause of physical and mental health problems among the nurses and effect the quality of patient care. Aim: The objective of the review is to use qualitative studies to systematically identify, select, explore, appraise and analyse the best available evidence on effective personal and organisational coping strategies used by oncology nurses working in tertiary care hospitals. Methods: The design of this study is a qualitative systematic review. Various databases were searched to identify and select relevant scholarly works to include in the review. Following a thorough search process, the researcher identified and selected ten studies that were pertinent to the topic. The studies were appraised, described and analysed thematically. Results: The themes identified were personal rituals, socialising, setting physical boundaries, gratitude and empathy, spirituality and religiosity, self-reinforcement, healthy work-life balance, grief-follow up and career support. The themes were broadly classified into personal and organisational coping strategies. Conclusion: It is necessary for nurses to adopt effective coping strategies such as personal rituals, socialising, physical boundaries, spirituality and religiosity and empathy and gratitude to handle stressful situations. Organisations should provide more strategies for their staff to deal with tough situations at work and decrees the oncology nurse's turnover and improve the patient quality of care. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 23-01-2019 Date of acceptance: 07-02-2019 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Previous studies have shown that dynamic illustrations, as compared to their static counterparts, lead to higher achievement levels, especially for hand‐based procedures. Other researchers have investigated how the presence of seductive details (i.e., appealing but irrelevant adjunct displays) influences students' interest positively but their learning negatively.The purpose of the two present studies was to investigate the effects of animated versus static presentations, combined with the presence of seductive details, on student performance on a paper‐folding task (i.e., origami) in a naturalistic school environment.Fifty‐five children (5–6 years old) participated in the first study and were randomly assigned to one of four groups. The second study was conducted with older children (72 s or third graders) and a more complex origami task.In the first study, results demonstrated negative effects of seductive details on children's performance and time on task, but no effects of presentation format. In the second study, no negative effects of seductive details on student achievement were found, but animated illustrations significantly improved children's performance and reduced time on task. However, seductive details tended to impair learning more greatly given the presence of static, as compared to animated, presentations. Task difficulties and pupils' ability to inhibit irrelevant information may explain these results.


OBJECTIVE
To research the effect of glaucocalyxin A (GLA) on the level of Th1/Th2 type cytokines in mice.

METHOD
By using flow cytometer with CBA software to detect Th1/Th2 type cytokines.

RESULT
GLA had insighificant inhibitory effects on Th1 and Th2 cytokines (IL-2, IFN-gamma,TNF-alpha, IL-4 and IL-5) induced by ConA, in which more potential on cytokines from Th1 than those of from Th2 were displayed. However, GLA could produce inhibition on IL-2, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha and acceleration on IL-4 and IL-5.

CONCLUSION
Immunosuppressive effect of GLA is related to the influence the level of Th1/Th2 type cytokines.


Introduction Food safety is an important public health concern globally. Risk communication is one of crucial element to manage food safety. While current food safety studies have focused on contamination of hazards or risk factors, limited research exists on consumer concerns, knowledge and perception about the actual risk food poses to their health. This study aimed to assess and compare the knowledge and perceptions regarding food safety, and the information needed and trusted by pork consumers in Northern Vietnam. Methods A total of 225 consumers recruited from three different market types: modern urban, traditional urban and traditional rural, were interviewed using a questionnaire between November to December 2019. Results The majority of participants (81.8%) were female and consumers interviewed at modern urban retail were younger than those interviewed at traditional retail settings (p < 0.01). Sixty-five percent of participants across the three retail types agreed that microbes were the most common hazards which can make them sick, but the adverse health effect due to chemical hazards was ranked higher than that of biological hazards. Most participants often received food safety information that was about animal diseases (such as African swine fever most recently), chemical contamination and the unknown origin of food rather than about food poisoning and measures to prevent it. Food safety messages from television and professional experts were the most trusted sources and consumer preference was for information about the origin of food (traceability) and how to choose safe food. Participants were willing to receive food safety information daily to weekly. A lack of perception and awareness about animal welfare related to pig farming or slaughtering was reported by most respondents (84.3%). Discussion These findings provide insight on Vietnamese consumer knowledge gaps, information demand and communication channels for food safety, so that risk communicators and managers can implement better food safety awareness campaigns and communication to consumers.


A significant result from research on the influence of hydrostatic pressure on the dielectric properties of compositionally disordered ABO3 perovskites has been the discovery of a pressure-induced ferroelectric(FE)-to-relaxor (R) crossover making the R state, the ground state, of these materials at reduced volume. This crossover appears to be a general phenomenon that we have studied in a variety of different systems. Here we discuss results on PMN, PSN, PZN-9.5PT and PLZT 6/65/35 to illustrate various aspects of the phenomenon on different materials. We also discuss the interplay between the effects of pressure and dc biasing field on the dielectric response and phase behavior. While pressure favors the R state, biasing fields favor the FE state. The combined results provide new insights into the physics and can be explained in terms of changes in the correlation length for dipolar interaction among the polar nano-regions (PNRs) that exist in these disordered materials.


Sound reflections are abundantly present in everyday environments; yet, our spatial hearing abilities are usually not impaired by them. One contributor to this robustness is the adaptation to the reflections after being repeatedly exposed to the room's reverberation. The echo threshold, the delay at which a reflection starts being separately audible as an echo, increases with repeated exposure to the reflection pattern. Benefits from prior exposure to a room's acoustics have also been shown for speech understanding. Here we study if learning the characteristics of the room's reverberation pattern can improve sound localization. Stimuli were presented in the free-field of the Simulated Open Field Environment (v3), a room acoustics simulation and auralization tool based on the extended mirror-image source method with auralization over 96 loudspeakers. Participants localized target noise bursts presented in the front of the listener in a virtual room either with no prior information about the room, after a short exposure phase consisting of two noise bursts presented in that room, or after a long exposure phase consisting of 14 noise bursts. The exposure stimuli were presented from random locations for each burst at the sides in order to transmit information about the room, but to prevent interference with the target stimulus locations. Localization ability as measured by RMS error and standard deviation was improved after prior exposure to the room acoustics. Results indicate that learning room acoustics can aid our ability to locate sound sources in rooms. Since exposure and target stimuli did not share the same positions and reflection patterns, results also demonstrate a generalization within the room in that the improvement from room learning can carry over from one to another position.


We introduce the notion of verifiable information into a model of sequential debate among experts who are motivated by career concerns. We show that self-censorship may hamper the efficiency of information aggregation, as experts withhold evidence contradicting the conventional wisdom. In this case, silence is telling and undermines the prevailing view over time if this view is incorrect. As a result, withholding arguments about the correct state of the world is only a temporary phenomenon, and the probability of the correct state of the world being revealed always converges to one as the group of experts becomes large. For small groups, a simple mechanism the principal can use to improve decisionmaking is to appoint a devil's advocate.


A cobalt Fischer-Tropsch catalyst was studied in a continuous-flow, well-stirred slurry reactor at 220 to 240{degrees}C, 0.5 to 1.5 MPa, H{sub 2}/CO feed ratios between 1.5 and 3.5, H{sub 2} conversions between 6 and 68%, and CO conversions between 11 and 73%. Increasing space velocity (decreasing conversion) or decreasing reactor H{sub 2}/CO ratio decreased the yield of (undesired) C{sub 1} products and increased the yield of (desired) C{sub 10}+ products. Reactor temperature and pressure had little effect on the carbon number distribution. These findings are interpreted in terms of the extent of the readsorption of 1-alkenes into growing chains on the catalyst surface. The relative selectivity to 1-alkenes by the primary synthesis and secondary reaction of l-alkenes to n-alkanes and 2-alkenes depends on reactor H{sub 2}/CO ratio and CO concentration. 25 refs., 15 figs.


A feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of three compound attractants on the growth performance, immunity, and intestinal morphology of Yellow River (YR) carp. Five treatment groups were included in the feeding experiment. Group I consisted of a fishmeal-based diet (positive control), and group II was a plant protein diet (negative control). The compound attractants 1 (

 0.06
 %
 dimethyl
 −
 beta
 −
 propiothetin

 DMPT

 +
 0.22
 %
 tangerine

 peel

 powder
 +
 0.75
 %
 yeast

 powder

 ), 2 (

 0.05
 %
 garlic

 powder
 +
 0.06
 %
 DMPT
 +
 0.75
 %
 yeast

 powder

 ), and 3 (

 0.07
 %
 sodium

 glutamate
 +
 0.22
 %
 tangerine

 peel

 powder
 +
 0.34
 %
 betaine

 ) were added to the plant protein diet, belonging to groups III, IV, and V, respectively. The three different compound attractants significantly improved the weight gain rate, special growth rate, and protein efficiency ratio of Yellow River (YR) carp (

 P
 <
 0.05

 ) compared with the negative control, among which group III performed best. Similarly, group III had significantly higher serum lysozyme (LZM) and acid phosphatase (ACP) activities than the negative control, and groups III, IV, and V depicted significantly higher LZM activities in the liver and gill (

 P
 <
 0.05

 ). Groups III, IV, and V revealed significantly higher superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) activities in the serum and liver than the negative control (

 P
 <
 0.05

 ), while the malondialdehyde (MDA) content was the opposite (

 P
 <
 0.05

 ). Moreover, the height and width of the plica in the foregut and midgut and the thickness of the midgut muscle layer in group III were significantly higher than those in the negative control (

 P
 <
 0.05

 ). Therefore, adding compound attractants in a plant protein diet can significantly enhance the total antioxidant and immune capacity, along with improved growth performance of YR carp. Similarly, compound attractants significantly elevated the height and width of the intestinal fold within the anterior and middle sections of the intestine, depicting that compound attractants promote intestinal digestion and absorption, thereby reducing intestinal injury. The results from the three experimental groups found that the compound attractants combined with 0.06% DMPT, 0.22% tangerine peel powder, and 0.75% yeast powder were more suitable for the basic plant protein diet of YR carp.


Universities contribute to local and social economy in three ways: talent training,scientific research and social services. Therefore,universities in Jilin Province have a great potential in construction of Changchun- Jilin- Tumen Pilot Zone. Based on the construction process of Changchun- Jilin- Tumen Pilot Zone,this paper analyzes the current existing problems and proposes concrete suggestions in order to contribute to the regional economic development.


N A PREVIOUS ESSAY ON SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS and their relation to performance, I have suggested that it may not be especially fruitful to approach these sonnets in particular, and early modern Petrarchan poetry in general, by assuming that their linguistic aims are primarily epistemological.1 I argue in that essay that commentators' mistaken assumptions about what the language of the sonnets is doing lead them to overlook the ways in which a sonnet's conditions of address are embodied in particular social and political contexts of performance. To pursue the fact of embodiment as the condition of a sonnet's address, I claim,


The definition of "normal" values for common laboratory tests often governs the diagnosis, treatment, and overall management of tested individuals. Some test results may depend on demographic traits of the tested population including age, race, and sex. Ideally, laboratory test results should be interpreted in reference to a population of"similar" "healthy"individuals. In many settings, however, it is unclear exactly who these individual sare.How much population stratification and what criteria for healthy individuals are optimal? In particular, with the evolution of medicine into fully personalized or "precision" medicine and the availability of large-scale data sets, there may be interest in trying to match each person to an increasingly granular normal reference population. Is this precision feasible to obtain in reliable ways and will it improve practice? are analyses of baseline variation across demographically diverse population strata (including race/ancestry, gender/sex, age, and socioeconomic strata of the population) for even widespread clinical laboratory tests. after of routine use, be that reference standards should be reconsidered for some populations.For example, he 1c (HbA ) underestimate past glycemia in African American patients with the sickle cell trait. of and more granular stratification correlates with clinical studies that assess the outcomes of individuals with laboratory measurements classified as normal with one system vs abnormal with another. include both natural history and treatment benefits and harms. small laboratory incomplete capture of long-term this difficult to


In this article it have been considered new opportunities in human rights sphere that has been created by ICT. Has been analyzed world practice in this sphere, investigated problems created by ICT in human rights sphere, also were brought offers and responses.


Why do levels of trade protection differ so much across countries? Weargue that differences in electoral rules and executive powers mayplay a significant role. We develop a theoretical model and show thatcountries that have a majoritarian electoral system may be moreinclined to have a high level of trade protection. The reason is thatthese countries have fiercer competition for swing districts if comparedto countries that have a proportional electoral system. In the empiricalpart of the paper we show that countries that have a majoritarianelectoral system indeed have higher levels of protection. This result isrobust to various measures of trade protection and to an instrumentalvariables approach that takes account of the endogeneity of politicalinstitutions. We find only weak support for the claim thatpresidentialism reduces trade protection.


Background and Objective: Increasing survivability of probiotics in low pH juices and in gastrointestinal conditions is important for probiotic food industry. Nanofibers can reinforce the structure of entrapment matrices protecting probiotics in harsh conditions. This study investigated pectin-based bionanocomposites improved with nanochitin, nanolignocellulose and bacterial nanocellulose to introduce a prebiotic gastrointestinal-resistant matrix for enhancing the survival of Bacillus coagulans as a probiotic. Material and Methods: The bionanocomposites with various compositions were designed using mixture design method. These were fabricated based on cross-linking of calcium ions with pectin for entrapment of Bacillus coagulans . The survivability of probiotic was evaluated at 4°C or 25°C over a 5-week storage in peach juice and under simulated gastrointestinal conditions. Results and Conclusion: The prebiotic score of the pectin-nanochitin-nanolignocellulose (50:25:25% w w-1) was determined as 1.36. The survivability of Bacillus coagulans entrapped within the pectin-nanochitin-nanolignocellulose matrix was ~65% under gastrointestinal treatment. The surface structure of the matrix was relatively smooth coherent, compact and wrinkled due to the three-dimensional arrangement of the nanofibers of chitin and lignocellulose incorporated within pectin. The highest survivability of the entrapped bacteria was ~68% compared to the survivability of the free cell (~53%) at the end of 5-week storage period. After 21 day storage in the juice, the survivability of the entrapped bacteria treated under sequential digestion was ~58% as compared to that of the free cell (~43%). The present findings proposed a promising prebiotic matrix to protect probiotics in low pH fruit juice and the gastrointestinal tract. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.


In this paper, we present the comparison result of M factor between free running and Q-switched mode of Nd:YAG laser. The system consists of sensitive infrared IR detector, lenses, distance scanner and a single array detector. Developed photographic paper was used to detect the invisible of IR beam which instantly and permanently records the beam spot. The beam spot was scanned and send to computer for analysis via Matrox Inspector version 5 software. A homemade scanner was utilized to ease the mobility of the detector. It moves in two directions; parallel and perpendicular to the optical axis. The beam width of near field and far field along the Rayleigh region were measured. The results showed that the M factor for free running of Nd:YAG laser are 7.68 and 7.38 and for Q-switch mode are 25.62 and 19.48 corresponding to both lenses with focal distance of 15 and 20 cm respectively. The free running operation is found to have better beam quality in comparison to Q-switch mode. The reason for the poor quality of Q-switch mode is due to the large beam width of near field induced by giant pulse, losses of energy and shorter duration.


This paper presents a novel color quantization method based on Normalized Cut clustering algorithm, in order to generate a quantized image with the minimum loss of information and the maximum compression ratio, which benefits the storage and transmission of the color image. This new method uses a deformed Median Cut algorithm as a coarse partition of color pixels in the RGB color space, and then take the average color of each partition as the representative color of a node to construct a condensed graph. By employing the Normalized Cut clustering algorithm, we could get the palette with defined color number, and then reconstruct the quantized image. Experiments on common used test images demonstrate that our method is very competitive with state-of-the-art color quantization methods in terms of image quality, compression ratio and computation time.


Microbially induced desaturation and precipitation (MIDP) via denitrification has the potential to reduce earthquake-induced liquefaction potential by two mechanisms: calcium carbonate precipitation to mechanically strengthen soil and biogenic gas production to desaturate and dampen pore pressure changes in soil. Lab-scale tests have demonstrated effective desaturation and improved mechanical strength by MIDP. However, in laboratory tests, gas pockets and lenses form causing upheaval as a result of low overburden pressures. The characteristics of biogenic gas formation, distribution, and retention need to be evaluated to gain comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of this treatment at depth before and after an earthquake event. MIDP treatment during centrifuge loading conditions is being performed to simulate field stress conditions, prior to complete process scale-up for field application. A simplified numerical model was developed to evaluate the scaling effects on biogenic gas generation between the centrifuge model and prototype scale. The results indicate that diffusion of soluble N2 is negligible at both the model and prototype scales for the simulated reaction rate. However, the simplified model did not consider other pore-scale influences and mixing from liquid-gas transfer and transport. Future modeling work will need to add these features. migration, and retention of biogenic gas and to provide insight about the behavior and treatment effectiveness before and after an earthquake event at depths beyond the lab scale. We used a simplified numerical model to evaluate the scaling effects between the centrifuge model and prototype at field scale and to predict and interpret the centrifuge model results. Detailed herein is the numerical modelling approach developed to predict biogenic gas behavior and characteristics in the model and prototype environment. Figure 1. Biogenic gas pockets in 1 g experiment, 10 days after MIDP via denitrification treatment. 2 SIMPLIFIED MODEL TO PREDICT THE VOLUME OF BIOGENIC GAS UNDER CENTRIFUGAL LOADING 2.1 Achieving initial target degree of gas saturation In the simplified numerical model, N2 was the only gas considered. While CO2 also is a by-product of denitrification and biomass decay, it was assumed that any desaturation resulting from CO2 would be negligible due to the high solubility of CO2 at prototype depth. It also was assumed that the soil profile was a closed system and NO3 (provided as substrate) undergoes complete reduction to N2. The effects of vapor barriers at the inter-particle soil contacts were neglected. Based on methods provided by Pham (2017), Eq. 1 estimates the required concentration of consumed NO3 ([NO3 ]con, mol m ) by microbes to achieve desired gas volume (Vg) in the total pore volume (VP) which is defined as the degree of gas saturation (Sg, dimensionless) at 1 g. [NO3 ]con = NO3 −PN2,m YN2 ( Sg


A means of estimating the cost of hydrogen sulfide (H/sub 2/S) emission control was investigated. This study was designed to derive H/sub 2/S emission abatement cost functions and illustrate the cost of H/sub 2/S emission abatement at a hydrothermal site. Four tasks were undertaken: document the release of H/sub 2/S associated with geothermal development; review H/sub 2/S environmental standards; develop functional relationships that may be used to estimate the most cose-effective available H/sub 2/S abatement process; and use the cost functions to generate abatement cost estimates for a specific site. The conclusions and recommendations derived from the research are presented. The definition of the term impacts as used in this research is discussed and current estimates of the highest expected H/sub 2/S concentrations of in geothermal reservoirs are provided. Regulations governing H/sub 2/S emissions are reviewed and a review of H/sub 2/S control technology and a summary of the control cost functions are included. A case study is presented to illustrate H/sub 2/S abatement costs at the Baca KGRA in New Mexico.


Budd chiari syndrome is an uncommon disorder dened as
hepatic vein outow tract obstruction, which is independent of
the level and mechanism of obstruction( except pericardial
disease and cardiac cirrhosis and sinusoidal obstruction
syndrome)


We have fabricated gate-controlled carbon-nanotube single-electron devices by utilizing the line-shaped Al top-gates. A quantum dot is formed in the single-walled carbon nanotube between two Al top-gates fabricated using the electron-beam lithography technique. The deposited top-gates flatten the single-walled carbon nanotube locally and the deformed regions play the role of tunneling barrier, whose potential is controlled by the top-gates. We have also investigated the temperature dependence of the conductance G for the devices with the Al top-gates. The power-law dependence, G∝Tα, is observed at high temperatures. However, the exponent α increases as the barrier potential is enhanced.


—Strawberry Crater is one of several hundred scoria cones in the San Francisco volcanic field of northern arizona. the process of scoria-cone formation and deconstruction are not completely understood despite the fact that they are the most common landform on earth. Strawberry Crater is an unusual cone in that variable magma characteristics caused scoria during late stages of the eruption to become agglutinated upon deposition. this agglutinated scoria broke into large blocks that were displaced as late-stage eruption of lava breached the walls of the cone. Facies analysis shows that many of the blocks represent formerly continuous depositional horizons, which reflect a variance in magma-gas content and magma-rise rate that may have affected the temperature and accumulation rate of pyroclasts, and therefore the degree of agglutination. Faults between blocks are dominantly vertical to subvertical regardless of block size. this suggests that breaching of the cone occurred abruptly as magma pressure exceeded the strength of the cone walls and released the remaining magma trapped in the cone, or that breaching was caused by an increase in magma flux as late-stage lava emanated from the bottom of the cone.


When interacting with mobile apps, users need to take decisions and make certain choices out of a set of alternative ones offered by the app. We introduce optimization problems through which we engineer the choices presented to users so that they are nudged towards decisions that lead to better outcomes for them and for the app platform. User decision-making rules are modeled by using principles from behavioral science and machine learning. Such instances arise in (i) mobile crowdsensing campaigns, where tasks are assigned to users through the app, and the goal is to optimize the quality of fulfilled tasks; (ii) smart-energy apps, where energy-saving recommendations are issued through the app, and the goal is to optimize energy savings; (iii) mobile advertising, where ads or offers are projected to the user, and the aim is to optimize revenue through user response to ads. Each user is modeled as a vector of feature values for a set of features. In an important class of decision-making models in behavioral science, the lexicographic fast-and-frugal-tree (FFT) heuristics, user decision emerges through a ranking of features that in turn gives rise to a decision tree. Having the incentive as a controllable feature that guides the user decision process, we study and characterize the complexity of the problem of allocating choices and incentives to users out of a limited budget. Numerical results indicate important performance gains when the incentive allocation policy adapts to user lexicographic choices.


Abstract In this paper we prove the global solvability of the Cauchy problem, with small and suitably smooth initial data, for nonlinear hyperbolic systems with integro- differential coefficients of Kirchhoff type. This extends to a wide class of nonlinear hyperbolic equations some results in [4, 5, 7] and [10]. Our method is similar to the technique employed by Greenberg & Hu in [10] in the case of the classical Kirchhoff equation.


As part of a wider exploration effort to determine the biological importance of the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia, and to identify priority species and habitats for conservation, we undertook fieldwork on two hitherto unexplored mountains in the Mount Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary during February and March 2000. During the survey a total of 166 bird species were recorded either by trapping or direct observation, including two threatened species (Chestnut-headed Partridge Arborophila cambodiana and Green Peafowl Pavo cristatus) and 15 species new for Cambodia. In total, 52 skins, one wing, 28 complete and 35 incomplete alcohol specimens and 35 tissue samples were collected. This collection contains two specimens of the Chestnut-headed Partridge intermediate between the two known subspecies A. c. cambodiana and A. c. diversa and therefore distinctive enough to be described as a new subspecies. In comparison with the Da Lat Plateau EBA in Vietnam, the same bird-feeding guilds were present, although represented by fewer genera. The geographic factors most likely to have led to the evolution of a depauperate avifauna in the Cardamom Mountains are their isolation from other ranges in Indochina, their relatively low height, and the small overall area of habitat above 1,500 m. Nevertheless, the occurrence of two restricted-range species (Chestnut-headed Partridge and Cambodian Laughingthrush Garrulax ferrarius) in the Cardamom Mountains means the Thailand-Cambodia Mountains Secondary Area (s085) does now meet the minimum criteria for an EBA and the area should be considered to be of elevated conservation concern. However, within an Indochinese context the Cardamom Mountains cannot be considered to be a major centre of bird endemism.


The density fluctuations on ISX-B with 2 MW of neutral beam heating were measured by microwave scattering at a frequency of 140 GHz. The measurements were made at angles of 70/sup 0/ and 110/sup 0/, which correspond to fluctuation wavelengths of 1.9 mm and 1.4 mm, respectively. The spectra were measured out to a frequency of 50 MHz by a heterodyne receiver and a spectrum analyzer swept for a time period of 20 ms. Strong scattering was seen over a frequency range of +- 1 MHz, with signals that were 15 to 20 dB above the noise level interpreted as scattering from spatially and temporally coherent density fluctuations in the interior of the plasma. The spectra were very symmetric in frequency with broad wings. There was no evidence for weakly damped plasma waves. There was no observable Doppler shift, which is interpreted as evidence against a poloidal rotation velocity of more than 200 m/s. The maximum width of the spectrum, with 2 MW of neutral beam injection, was 260 kHz at the half-power level. The line shape is interpreted as evidence for a very short coherence time, about 1 ..mu..sec, for the widest fluctuation spectra. From a comparison with themore » data of other scattering experiments, a short coherence length of about 1 to 2 cm is also inferred.« less


For a plasma body of density n and characteristic macroscopic dimension Lc there exists a critical ion density nc = 1/σcmLc where σcm ≃ 3 × 10−19 m2 for hydrogen. When n ⪅ nc the plasma is permeable to neutral gas, whereas it becomes impermeable to the same gas when n ≫ nc. Permeable and impermeable plasmas have different equilibrium and stability properties. So far, tokamak experiments have been performed in the range of permeable plasmas, whereas full-scale steadystate fusion reactors are likely to operate in the impermeable range. The effects of plasma-neutral-gas interaction, finite resistivity, and viscosity on the gravitational instability modes of a magnetized plasma have been investigated: There are both direct and indirect neutral-gas effects on the ballooning and flute modes. The direct effects are due to frictional forces from collisions, and the indirect ones to the influence of the plasma-neutral-gas balance on the unperturbed pressure and density distributions. In an impermeable plasma, the driving mechanism of the ballooning and flute instabilities can be localized to a narrow, dense and cool, partially ionized boundary region, in which plasma-neutral-gas collisions and viscosity strongly reduce the instability growth rates. Further reductions of these rates are expected to arise in more advanced and non-linear approaches. In tokamaks, resistive ballooning modes should be practically unaffected by neutral-gas collisions. However, when n approaches nc from below, a collisionless ballooning mode is expected to arise from an increase of the gradients in the boundary region. This behaviour is consistent with observations, including adiabatic-compression experiments. There are both direct and indirect neutral-gas effects on the ballooning and flute modes. The direct effects are due to frictional forces from collisions, and the indirect ones to the influence of the plasma-neutral-gas balance on the unperturbed pressure and density distributions. In an impermeable plasma, the driving mechanism of the ballooning and flute instabilities can be localized to a narrow, dense and cool, partially ionized boundary region, in which plasma-neutral-gas collisions and viscosity strongly reduce the instability growth rates. Further reductions of these rates are expected to arise in more advanced and non-linear approaches. In tokamaks, resistive ballooning modes should be practically unaffected by neutral-gas collisions. However, when n approaches nc from below, a collisionless ballooning mode is expected to arise from an increase of the gradients in the boundary region. This behaviour is consistent with observations, including adiabatic-compression experiments.


Background/objectives: Oxidative stress is closely associated with aging. Sesamin, a natural ingredient contained in sesame ( Sesamum indicum ) seed and oil, has potent anti-oxidative activities in mice and humans, and could increases the bioavailability of α -tocopherol (VE). Kidney is an organ susceptible to aging, and often results in the age-related dysfunction. However, the effect of sesamin on aging kidney is unclear. The aim of this study is to clarify the effects of sesamin or sesamin+VE on age-related kidney dysfunction. Methods: Twenty-months-old male C57BL/6N were divided into three groups. They were fed CRF-1 diet (old control; OC), CRF-1 containing 0.2% sesamin (SE) or 0.2% sesamin plus 0.2% VE (SE+VE) for five months. Six-months-old mice were fed CRF-1 (young control; YC). Blood and kidney samples were collected and blood urea nitrogen (BUN), histopathological changes and lipofuscin deposition were evaluated. Differential expression of genes related to oxidative stress and inflammation was examined. Results: BUN level was significantly higher in OC (29.4 ± 3.65 mg/dL) compared to YC (19.1 ± 1.08 mg/dL, p<0.01). SE+VE decreased BUN level compared to OC (p<0.05). Lipofuscin deposition, an age-related change of kidney, was significantly reduced in SE or SE+VE. The gene expressions of NAD(P)H oxidase, chemokine and adhesion molecules were significantly elevated in OC and suppressed in SE or SE+VE compared to OC. Conclusion: These results suggest that sesamin or sesamin combined with α -tocopherol are protective to age-related kidney dysfunction through its anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects.


This study investigates the impact of image quality and skill level on presence-related reactions to video games. Past research has demonstrated positive associations between image quality and presence and video game technology and presence. No study to date, however, has examined the presence effects of video games played in enhanced or high definition. This paper reports the results of two experimental studies. In the first study, a pilot investigation, 22 college students played a video game either in enhanced definition (higher image quality) or standard definition/NTSC (lower image quality). In the second study, 50 college students played a video game in either high definition (highest image quality) or standard definition/NTSC (lower image quality). Following exposure in both studies, participants completed several measures of presence and a measure of video game skill. Skill was included as a second independent variable in the study, and both image quality and skill were expected to relate positively to presence dimensions. The results of the study provide some support for both image quality and skill affecting presence, though not all results were in the direction expected.


Objective Anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) agents are associated with increased infection risk among elderly IBD patients, but little is known about non anti-TNF biologics in this cohort. We examined the safety and effectiveness of ustekinumab in elderly Crohn's patients. Methods This retrospective multi-centre cohort study included Crohn's patients ≥60-years old who commenced ustekinumab. We recorded Harvey-Bradshaw index (HBI), concomitant steroid therapy, treatment persistence and new infections or malignancies. Primary outcome was serious infections requiring hospitalisation. Results Seventy patients were included, with median age of 68 years. 43 (61.4%) had prior anti-TNF exposure, and 15 (21.4%) vedolizumab. Median treatment duration was 12 months, totalling 84 patient-years. Nine serious infections were reported, incidence 106.7/1000 patient-years. Systemic steroids were associated with increased risk of serious infections [odds ratio (OR) 7.83, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.44–44.32, P = 0.02]. There were 27 "non-serious" infections; 321.4/1000 patient-years. Charlson co-morbidity index (OR 1.49, 95% CI: 1.05–2.12, P = 0.03) and steroid exposure (OR 44.10, 95% CI: 1.75–1112.10, P = 0.02) increased non-serious infection risk (P < 0.05). Mean HBI improved from 8.13 to 4.64 at 6 months and 4.10 at last follow up (P < 0.0001). 12-month treatment persistence was 55.7% (N = 39); 34 (48.6%) were steroid-free. Conclusion Ustekinumab was safe and effective in a cohort of elderly Crohn's disease patients. Infections were mostly mild, not resulting in therapy discontinuation. Serious infection risk was comparable to previously reported rates with anti-TNF agents. Steroid exposure was associated with an increased serious infection risk.


Fractional order calculus becoming more widely use inter alia in nowadays automatics. There is increase of papers describing analysis and implementation of control systems based on fractional order derivative i. e. automatic The principle of operation of fractional order controller is similar to the PID controller. The difference appears in fractional order of integration ʎ and differentiation μ. The addition of two new parameters cause that previously known method of PID regulator tuning no longer fulfill its role. Therefore, this article presents an analysis of the optimization controllers PID with use of metaheuristic simulated annealing method.


This research was to find out and analyze the effect of budgeting participation, utilization of financial system applications and internal control systems on managerial performance of PT. FUMIRA in 2021. This research is an associative quantitative research. The method used in this research was a survey either partially or simultaneously through a questionnaire. The sample of this research was the entire management leadership of PT. FUMIRA, totaling 59 people. The sampling technique used was saturated sampling, where all members of the population are used as research samples. The analytical tool used in this research was multiple linear regression analysis. Based on the results of data processing, it can be concluded that: Partially, budgeting participation, utilization of financial system applications and internal control systems have a significant positive effect on managerial performance. Simultaneously budgeting participation, utilization of financial system applications and internal control systems simultaneously have a significant effect on managerial performance by 60.2%.


To examine the suggestion that adrenarche is independent from gonadarche we determined the 24h urinary excretion of 5 androgen metabolites by 14 patients with karyotypes 45,XO (group A) and by 8 patients with chromosomal mosaics or structural X abnormalities (group B) compared to 21 healthy girls (group C). Chronological ages: (median, range); A: 13.6, 2.9-18.1, B: 12.3, 9.2-20.7, C: 10.4, 5.6-15.1 years, respectively. Pubic hair: (median, range); A: 1, 1-3, B: 1-2, 1-4, C: 2, 1-5 stages, respectively. The method used consisted of Sep-pak extraction, enzymatic hydrolysis, derivative formation and capillary column gas chromatography. Statistics were done by multiple linear regression and Wilcoxon test.Results: (mg/24h, median, max). In contrast to An and Et the excretion of DHEA and its metabolites was significantly higher in A and B compared to C.Conclusion: The adrenarche in GD is comparable to healthy girls. In GD the elevated excretion of DHEA and its metabolites may be due to adrenal stimulation by an as yet unknown adrenal androgen stimulating hormone. Supported by DFG (Ho-471).


Sir, Foreign bodies in the aero digestive tract are frequently encountered in ENT practice and plain X-ray tends to play a significant role in the initial workup. Large radio-opaque foreign bodies can be easily visualised on plain X-ray films but mildly radio-opaque foreign bodies such as fish bones can be easily missed in the X-ray films. Plastic foreign bodies are difficult to visualise during endoscopy and X-ray, hence the difficulty in diagnosis. Viewing apparently normal X-rays (Fig. 1) through picture archiving and communication system (PACS) can enhance visualisation and subsequent identification of certain mildly radio-opaque foreign bodies. PACS is a computer system that allows the digital capture, viewing, storage and transmission of medical images. Most of the hospitals in UK are now equipped with PACS. Adjusting the window width (brightness and contrast) and reversing the background and foreground of any image makes the foreign body more prominent. In addition, magnification and zoom and pan tools allow for the enlarging and detailed examination of images,


The purpose of this paper was to determine the effect of differentiation strategy on performance of SACCOs in Murang'a County of Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population consisted of all the 8 deposit taking SACCOs registered and actively operating in Murang'a county of Kenya. The targeted respondents were 64 in total and comprised of all CEOs, accountants, credit managers, marketing managers and all the 4 executive board Members of each SACCO society. The study utilized a census approach that identified and subjected all the Deposit Taking SACCOs registered and operating in the county to the study. The study utilized both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data was collected using questionnaires.   Both bivariate and multivariate analysis was conducted using SPSS. The study found that differentiation strategy was applied to a large extent (M=4.05, SD=0.85) among participating SACCOS.  Regression analysis showed that there was a strong positive correlation (r=0.672) between the differentiation strategy and performance of SACCOs. Differentiation strategy (p=0.00) was also statistically significant. The findings showed that a unit change in the application of the differentiation strategy resulted in a 1.680 change increase in performance of SACCOs. As such, a conclusion was reached that differentiation strategy was a useful predictor of performance. The study recommended up scaled pursuit of continuous development of SACCO products to enhance their marketability and acceptance. Key Words: D ifferentiation, performance, competitive advantage, savings and credit cooperative societies (SACCOs)


The objective of the present study was to formulate and optimize colon targeted tinidazole microspheres. To achieve these objective nine formulations of microspheres were prepared by emulsion solvent evaporation method using Eudragit and Ethyl cellulose polymer. A 3 2 factorial design was employed in formulating the microspheres with concentration of surfactant (X 1 ) and stirring speed (X 2 ) as independent variables. Percent drug release was considered as dependent variable. The effect of drug-polymer concentration, surfactant concentration, cross-linking agent and stirring speed were evaluated with respect to entrapment efficiency, particle size, surface characteristics, micromeritic properties, DSC study and in vitro drug release studies. The particle size and entrapment efficiency were found to be varied by changing various formulation parameters like surfactant concentration and stirring speed etc. IR study confirmed the drug-polymer compatibility and scanning electron microscopy indicates that the microspheres have the rough and porous surface due to arising as a trace of solvent evaporation during the process.


Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to elucidate the influence of exit position on a dense granular flow in a two-dimensional channel. The results show that the dense flow rate remains constant when the exit is far from the channel wall and increases exponentially when the exit moves close to the lateral position. Beverloo's law proves to be successful in describing the relation between the dense flow rate and the exit size for both the center and the lateral exits. Further simulated results confirm the existence of arch-like structure of contact force above the exit. The effective exit size is enlarged when the exit moves from the center to the lateral position. As compared with the granular flow of the center exit, both the vertical velocities of the grains and the flow rate increase for the lateral exit.


High dimensional clustering algorithm based on equal or random width density grid cannot guarantee
high quality clustering results in complicated data sets. In this paper, a High dimensional Clustering algorithm
based on Local Significant Unit (HC_LSU) is proposed to deal with this problem, based on the kernel estimation
and spatial statistical theory. Firstly, a structure, namely Local Significant Unit (LSU) is introduced by local kernel
density estimation and spatial statistical test; secondly, a greedy algorithm named Greedy Algorithm for LSU
(GA_LSU) is proposed to quickly find out the local significant units in the data set; and eventually, the
single-linkage algorithm is run on the local significant units with the same attribute subset to generate the
clustering results. Experimental results on 4 synthetic and 6 real world data sets showed that the proposed
high-dimensional clustering algorithm, HC_LSU, could effectively find out high quality clustering results from the highly complicated data sets. Dianzi Yu Xinxi Xuebao


One dose of the liquid remaining amount in the syringe than setting limiting mechanism to prevent the injection device. The injection device is set by the member with respect to the dose and type of drives within the device a fixed stop member rotated away from the injection of a set dose. The dose setting member in contact with the driver, so no rotary drive member and can be set in a rotational direction doses. Injected dose setting member cycle and by the dose, the dose setting member with a drive in the rearward rotation. Rotation causes drive rod moves forward in the barrel, some of the liquid in the barrel exit. Driver provided in the total amount of liquid which is related to the length of the barrel rail that the rail member is connected with the dose setting member engages the follower to track the rotation of the dose setting member. Each time a dose is set and injected, the track follower moves further into the track. When the track follower reaches the end of the track, then the dose setting member can not be rotated, a dose in the syringe can not be set larger than the remaining liquid.


In this study, a coupled analysis method for flat panel speakers driven by giant magnetostrictive material (GMM) based actuator was developed. The sound field produced by a flat panel speaker that is driven by a GMM actuator depends on the vibration of the flat panel, this vibration is a result of magnetostriction property of the GMM. In this case, to predict the sound pressure level (SPL) in the audio-frequency range, it is necessary to take into account not only the magnetostriction property of the GMM but also the effect of eddy current and the vibration characteristics of the actuator and the flat panel. In this paper, a coupled electromagnetic-structural-acoustic analysis method is presented; this method was developed by using the finite element method (FEM). This analysis method is used to predict the performance of a flat panel speaker in the audio-frequency range. The validity of the analysis method is verified by comparing with the measurement results of a prototype speaker.


In the present century, intellectual capital is recognized as the most important and strategic asset for organizations. Intellectual capital is mainly based on knowledge and useful information. Intellectual capital is playing a critical role to create value from the combination of tangible and intangible assets to enhance the performance of organizations. This chapterlooks at the concept and application of intellectual capital and its associated challenges of organizations in a competitive environment.


Increasing the number of population which then has an impact on increasing the growth of land use change that will reduce the area of vegetation inevitable for urban areas, one of them is the City of Yogyakarta. Measurement of the availability of green space in this study utilizes remote sensing technology with NDVI analysis. The purpose of this study was to determine the estimated density of green space constituents and spatial distribution patterns of potential green space locations in the city of Yogyakarta using Landsat 7 ETM + satellite imagery data for 2002 and Landsat 8 OLI in 2019 with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) method. Based on the Minister of Public Works Regulation on Guidelines for Provision and Utilization of Green Open Space in Urban Areas (05 / PRT / M / 2008), it explains that the proportion of green open space in urban areas is at least 30%. But from 2002 to 2019, Yogyakarta City which has an area of 32.84 km² was only able to meet the proportion of green space by 13.50% for 2002 and 10.53% for 2019. Then for 17 years Yogyakarta City has not met the minimum standard of green open space proportions.


Rate (n-1)/n punctured convolutional codes are very effective in conjunction with embedded differential pulse code modulation (EDPCM) in variable-bit-rate speech transmission. The authors investigate the performance of this variable-bit-rate EDPCM system in terms of probability of bit error and audio signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) versus channel SNR in an additive white Gaussian noise and Rayleigh fading channel using soft-decision decoding for specific sets of code generators of punctured convolutional codes. The results show that different sets of code generators affect the performance in terms of both the probability of bit error and the audio SNR. Improvements were obtained in the cases of Gaussian nonfading and Rayleigh fading channels using soft-decision decoding. >


In much contemporary theology, pastoral/practical theology, and much of the more popular 'Christian' literature there is a concern for exploring and discovering various aspects of right relationship. These relationships might be political, marital, familial, sexual, economic, those within the church, or between the church and the greater society. What seems to be lacking in many of these discussions is an adequate theological foundation upon which to carry out the exploration. There are assumptions made about the nature of human relationships which seem to have no connection to theological underpinnings or are only loosely, or thematically related.


This is the 1st release of the fourth version of an Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) digital elevation model (DEM) generated from certified airborne height finder (AHF) and airboat collected ground surface elevations for the Greater Everglades Region. Collectively, these data are referred to as "High Accuracy Elevation Data" (HAED). This version differs from the previous elevation model (EDEN_EM_OCT07) in several ways. First, the kriging algorithm applied to newly modeled subareas was changed from ordinary to universal kriging - resulting in slightly lower errors during cross-validation and accuracy assessment. Second, to increase accuracy in Water Conservation Area 1 (WCA1), the most challenging EDEN subarea from an elevation modeling standpoint, the Conservation area is subdivided into 3 zones (North, Central, South). Boundaries between the North, Central and South zones are based upon landscape units defined in the CERP Monitoring and Assessment Plan, Part 1, Figure 3-20 on p. 3-38 (p. 36 in the pdf file)) at http://www.evergladesplan.org/pm/recover/recover_docs/map/MAP_3.1_GE.pdf. The South landscape unit (representing approximately the southern third of WCA1) was further divided into two zones (east and west, termed "Southeast" and "Southwest") based on marked changes in slope and aspect data generated from a DEM of the South landscape unit as a whole. Division of WCA1 into 4 zones reduces errors estimated by comparing DEM modeled water depths with those measured by EDEN Principal Investigators in the field. Subdivision of the South landscape unit into east and west zones resulted in lower error estimates for the Southeast zone without significantly affecting (i.e., improving or degrading) the quality of the Southwest zone - an area where DEM modeling is most challenging. To reduce artificial breaks in elevation along WCA1 subarea boundaries, models were overlapped by 1 cell at these boundaries and, for the North, Central and South zone boundaries, overlapping model values were averaged. For the boundaries between the Southwest and Southeast zones, cell values were "blended" based on weighted distance from the boundary edge. Finally, points along the North / Central and Central / South zone edges were subjectively selected and changed by adding or subtracting 0.03 meters (3 cm) to particular cells based on nearby cell values. This slightly reduces apparent artifacts without drastically affecting the integrity of the model. The EDEN offers a consistent and documented dataset that can be used to guide large-scale field operations, to integrate hydrologic and ecological responses, and to support biological and ecological assessments that measure ecosystem responses to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. To produce historic and near-real time maps of water depths, the EDEN requires a system-wide DEM of the ground surface. This file is intended specifically for use in the EDEN applications software. Therefore, it is a modification of the eden DEM released in January of 2010 (i.e., eden_em_ja10). The released January 2010 data was modified in two ways. First, elevation values have been converted from meters (m) to centimeters (cm). Second, data have been removed from the southern Big Cypress National Preserve and northwestern Everglades National Park area so that this DEM boundary matches the EDEN boundary still in use in EDEN applications software. Aside from this difference in horizontal units and area of coverage, the following data documentation applies.


The heat shock response inEscherichia coli depends on a transient increase in the intracellular level of ς32 that results from both increased synthesis and transient stabilization of normally unstable ς32. Although the membrane-bound ATP-dependent protease FtsH (HflB) plays an important role in degradation of ς32, our previous results suggested that several cytosolic ATP-dependent proteases including HslVU (ClpQY) are also involved in ς32 degradation (Kanemori, M., Nishihara, K., Yanagi, H., and Yura, T. (1997) J. Bacteriol. 179, 7219–7225). We now report on the ATP-dependent proteolysis of ς32 by purified HslVU protease and its unusual dependence on high temperature: ς32 was rapidly degraded at 44 °C, but with much slower rates (∼15-fold) at 35 °C. FtsH-dependent degradation of ς32 also gave similar results. In agreement with these results in vitro, the turnover of ς32 in normally growing cells at high temperature (42 °C) was much faster than at low temperature (30 °C). Taken together with other evidence, these results suggest that the ς32 level during normal growth is primarily determined by the stability (susceptibility to proteases) and synthesis rate of ς32 set by ambient temperature, whereas fine adjustment such as transient stabilization of ς32 observed upon heat shock is brought about through monitoring changes in the cellular state of protein folding.


Conventional spectroscopy are not easily applied to clusters systems, because these parlicules are generally produced in size distributions in molecular beams. The two-photon ionization spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be an efficient method to select a particular size. Results are available in the literature on Na3 [1] and Cu3 [2]. Recently the depletion spectroscopy [2,3] has been used to investigate predissociated states : an ultraviolet laser directly ionizes the cluster and monitors the remaining population in the molecular beam. Whenever a predissociated level is simultaneously excited by the exciting laser, a depletion of the ion cluster intensity is observed. By this method a completely predissociated highly excited state of Na3 (the D state) has been recently observed [3]. The depletion experiment has been used to probe all the other known states of Na3 (A, B, B' and C states). No evidence of predissociation has been found for the A, B, B' states while the C state appears strongly predissociated except the two first bands. Figure 1 shows the comparison between the two-photon ionization and the depletion spectra in the C state. The whole spectrum observed by depletion allows us to determine the symmetry of the C state (2E") and to assigne all the bands by solving the Jahn-Teller hamiltonian.


Chakraborti and Desu (1988) presented a distribution-free procedure for testing that k (≥1) distributions are equal to a control distribution. They compared their procedure, a generalization of the test proposed by Mathisen (1943), to the procedure proposed by Slivka (1970). They asserted that their procedure has shorter expected duration than Slivka's procedure in life-testing experiments where observations become available in an ordered manner. Here it is proven that, in fact, Slivka's procedure has shorter duration in such circumstances. Normal approximations are presented which indicate that their procedure requires a smaller sample size to guarantee a specified power for Lehmann alternatives and proportional hazard alternatives when all observations are to be observed.


Over the last few years the field of pluripotent stem cell research has witnessed a robust paradigm shift from regenerative medicine towards drug screening. ESC has emerged as an attractive model in the pharmaceutical industry for in vitro screening of compounds due to their enormous potential in facilitating drug discovery programs. These cells are advantageous over primary or immortalized cell lines for being able to maintain their unlimited proliferation capacity, pluripotency, cytogenetic stability and potential to generate derivatives belonging to all three germ lineages. These unique features make them a readily available source of human cells. Further, since ESC follow the same developmental pathways and recapitulate gene expression patterns of a developing embryo; this in vitro model could theoretically be employed to understand the appropriate target and exact mechanism of developmental toxicity (Krtolica et al., 2009).


The invention relates to an explosion and supercritical carbon dioxide fluid combined degumming method for apocynum venetum, aiming at the problems of severe environment pollution and large fiber damage in a present degumming process of apocynum venetum, and the problems of uneasy control of quality and non-ideal degumming effect in a single degumming method. The method comprises the steps of firstly pre-treating apocynum venetum with explosion under a relatively low temperature and pressure so as to prevent the fiber damage and remove most of colloid structure change; then extracting residual colloid in apocynum venetum by using the supercritical carbon dioxide fluid; and at the same time, degrading partial of lignin in the fibers by using a laccase solution. The method has the characteristics of high degumming efficiency, soft fiber handfeel, good product quality of degummed ramie, and energy conservation and environment protection. Besides, no chemicals are used in the method.


Positron lifetime spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence were employed to study luminescence centers in ZnO. The samples were high-purity polycrystalline ceramics sintered at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1,400 C for 2 to 40 h. Scanning electron microscopy shows that as annealing temperatures and/or times increase, the average grain size increases and can reach 30 {mu}m for samples sintered at 1,200 C. At the same time, the positron bulk lifetime approaches theoretically estimated single-crystal values, while the integrated luminescence intensity increases significantly. A further increase of the sintering temperature beyond 1,200 C results in a decrease in the luminescence intensity, in good agreement with the only weak luminescence observed in single-crystalline material. The positron lifetime spectra clearly show the existence of one dominant vacancy-type defect, most likely a complex involving V{sub Zn}, or the divacancy, V{sub Zn}V{sub O}, independent of sample thermal history. The concentration of this center steadily decreases with increasing sintering temperature. It is concluded that the yellow luminescence centers are related to charged zinc vacancies trapped in the grain boundary regions. The authors propose that the observed broadness of the spectra likely originates from the modification of the electronic configuration of the luminescence centers due to their complex environment.more » A direct connection between the positron and the luminescence results could not be established; instead, they appear to reflect two relatively independent aspects of the samples. It could be shown, however, that positron annihilation measurements can be used effectively to monitor the evolution of the microstructure of the samples, in good agreement with scanning electron micrographs.« less


Purpose
This paper aims to explore the impact of liquidity risk, credit risk, funding risk and corruption on bank stability of the banking system in Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach
The empirical analysis is confined to 24 retail banks, which include 5 Islamic and 19 conventional banks during the period of 2007-2015.

Findings
The findings of this study suggest that bank size, liquidity risk, funding risk and corruption exert a positive impact on bank stability. Additionally, the authors find a negative relationship between credit risk and bank stability.

Originality/value
As per the knowledge of the authors, the present research is the first attempt that discusses the issues of bank stability related to risk and corruption faced by the banking system.


The problem of communicating a single message to a destination in presence of multiple relay nodes, referred to as cooperative unicast network, is considered. First, we introduce mixed noisy network coding (MNNC) scheme which generalizes noisy network coding where relays are allowed to decode-and-forward (DF) messages while all of them (without exception) transmit noisy descriptions of their observations. These descriptions are exploited at the destination and DF relays aim to decode the transmitted messages while creating full cooperation among the nodes. Moreover, the destination and DF relays can independently select the set of descriptions to be decoded or treated as interference. This concept is further extended to multihopping scenarios, referred to as layered MNNC, where DF relays are organized into disjoint groups representing one hop in the network. For cooperative unicast additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) networks, we show that-provided DF relays are properly chosen-MNNC improves over all previously established constant gaps to the cut-set bound. Second, we consider the composite cooperative unicast network where the channel parameters are randomly drawn before communication starts and remain fixed during the transmission. Each draw is assumed to be unknown at the source and fully known at the destination but only partly known at the relays. We introduce through MNNC scheme the concept of selective coding strategy (SCS) that enables relays to decide dynamically whether, in addition to communicate noisy descriptions, is possible to decode and forward messages. It is demonstrated through slow-fading AWGN relay networks that SCS clearly outperforms conventional coding schemes.


Xidaotang is one of the three great religious sects of the Chinese Islamism. It's creation has natural、social and cultural foundation.


Ahstract- This paper presents a discrete-time sliding mode controller for synchronization of linear discrete-time multi-agent system with a reference leader using leader following cooperative design method. The discrete-time multi-agent system is configured with a fixed, undirected graph topology as a global system having one leader and other agents as followers. The sliding surface for global system is proposed and a discrete-time sliding mode controller using Gao's reaching law principle is derived. The proposed consensus protocol ensure that the followers synchronize with leader in finite time. Sufficient condition for synchronization, that is the graph eigenvalues restricted into a unit circular region in the complex plane is derived. The robustness property of proposed controller is also checked by applying a slowly varying disturbance. Finally, a numerical example is presented to endow the efficacy of the proposed methods.


ABSTRACT This paper discusses the importance of aspects of human psychology in designing socially acceptable agroforestry systems, and uses logistic regression modelling to delineate the most important variables and suggest low cost extension strategies for stimulating the adoption of agroforestry. There were highly significant associations between tree-growers and non-growers (representing different degrees of adoption of agroforestry among farmers) and perceptions about change in the village commonland, restrictions on felling trees from own land, future supply of tree products from the forests, and attitude of the respondent towards agroforestry. There were also significant associations between agroforestry adoption and perceptions of the respondents about the change in the forest area around the village and about restrictions on transport of the wood in future. There was no statistically significant association between agroforestry adoption on one hand, and awareness of the source of tree seedlings and perception about the change in the price of the wood on the other. Logistic regression model shows that attitude of the farmers towards agroforestry and their perceptions towards restrictions on felling on-farm trees were the most important psychological factors affecting agroforestry adoption. The results demonstrate a need to consider important socio-psychological factors in designing socially acceptable agroforestry systems in different parts of the world.


Let X1, X2, · · · ,Xn be a sample of size n from a random discrete distribution P on the real line R. If we consider i and j are equivalent in case of Xi = Xj , this equivalence relation give a random partition of Nn = {1, 2, · · · , n}. In the case where P is given by a mixture of Dirichlet processes, we discuss the convergence in distribution of the number Kn of distinct components of the random partition of Nn.


In this paper, we consider designing a fall-back mechanism in an interference-aware receiver. Typically, there are two types of detectors dealing with interference, known as enhanced interference rejection combining (eIRC) and symbol-level interference cancellation (SLIC). Although a SLIC detector performs better, it yields a higher complexity than an eIRC detector. Further, it requires knowledge of interference modulation-format (MF). Due to potential detection errors, SLIC can run with a wrong interference MF and render unsatisfying results. Therefore, designing a mechanism that runs SLIC when the interference MF is reliable and otherwise switches to eIRC is of particular interest, which we call a "fall-back mechanism". Finding an optimal mechanism is difficult and we use deep-neural-network (DNN) for design, which is more effective than a traditional Bayes-risk mini-mization based approach.


In a second development order, spin-forming equipment was again evaluated using the test shape, a hemispherical shell. In this second development order, pure vanadium and alloy titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) were spin-formed, as well as additional copper and 21-6-9 stainless. In the first development order the following materials had been spin-formed: copper (alloy C11000 ETP), 6061 aluminum, 304L stainless steel, 21-6-9 stainless steel, and tantalum-2.5% tungsten. Significant challenges included properly adjusting the rotations-per-minute (RPM), cracking at un-beveled edges and laser marks, redressing of notches, surface cracking, non-uniform temperature evolution in the titanium, and cracking of the tailstock. Lessons learned were that 300 RPM worked better than 600 RPM for most materials (at the feed rate of 800 mm/min); beveling the edges to lower the stress reduces edge cracking; notches, laser marks, or edge defects in the preform doom the process to cracking and failure; coolant is required for vanadium spin-forming; increasing the number of passes to nine or more eliminates surface cracking for vanadium; titanium develops a hot zone in front of the rollers; and the tailstock should be redesigned to eliminate the cylindrical stress concentrator in the center.


Modified larch tannin was prepared by grafting copolymerization and sulfoalkylation, and successfully used as retanning agent, possessing good water solubility and enhanced penetration rate. The retanned pigskin clothes leather attained good appearance, suitable softness, and its physical indices reached the required specifications.


A study has been made of the interaction of yeast inorganic pyrophosphatase with two activating cations, Mg2+ and Zn2+, and one inhibitory cation, Ca2+ at pH 6.5 and ionic strength of unity. These cations were found to partially protect the enzyme against inactivation by iodine. Dissociation constants of enzyme metal complexes estimated from protection studies were 11, 500 and 4000 μM for Zn2+, Mg2+ and Ca2+, respectively. An additional, lower affinity site, was found for Zn2+ (KD= 3.4 mM). Competition studies showed that magnesium and calcium ions compete for the same site as the tighter bound zinc ion and do not compete for the lower affinity site. Binding of Zn2+ to both sites is pH-dependent; the interaction with the high-affinity site is controlled by a group with pK= 6.6. The binding constant for Mg2+ is nearly the same as the lower activation constant for this cation in enzymatic hydrolysis of pyrophosphate. Two activating and one inhibitory site were found for Zn2+ in ATP hydrolysis. The inhibitory site was identified as the lower affinity site deduced from protection studies. Both activation constants for Zn2+ are higher than the dissociation constant for the tightly bound zinc deduced from protection studies.


The purpose of this paper is to construct a family of Weingarten surfaces of revolution satisfying the Weingarten relation «i = /(/C2) in 3-dimensional hyperbolic space H , where /ci, «2 are principal curvatures and / is a some function.


Self-sustained shock-oscillations were investigated in this work, with a view to implementing countermeasures to stop the motion of the shock and, therefore, to reduce the associated noise. The tra ...


Serum NO and serum TNF-α,IL-6 were measured by colorimetric and ELISA method in 48 patients with alcoholic liver disease(ALD) including 18 alcoholic fatty liver(AF) patients,2 1alcoholic hepatitis(AH)patients and 9 alcoholic cirrhosis(AC) pantients.The results showed that the serum TNF-α,IL-6 in AF and AH patients were significantly higher than that in normal controls( P0.01) The serum NO,TNF-α,IL-6 in AC patients were significantly higher than that in normal controls(P0.01).we can concluded that increased serum NO,TNF-α and IL-6 have important roles in the development of ALD from AF to AH and AC


Corporate Strategy IBM recently conducted a Global CEO Study based on in-person interviews with more than 750 CEOs, business executives and public sector leaders from 20 different industries and 11 geographic regions, representing mature markets and developing markets such as China, India, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The study took a comprehensive, global look at a topic that is increasingly important to leaders worldwide: innovation. Participants were remarkably frank, sharing their insights on innovation. We learned for example, that two-thirds of them expect to drive fundamental changes within their organizations in the next two years. Surprisingly undaunted by this challenge, they see innovation as a means to seize opportunities. The key findings of the survey can be summed up in three areas: * Business model innovation matters. Competitive pressures have pushed business model innovation much higher than expected on CEO's priority lists. But its importance does not negate the need to focus on products, services and markets, as well as operational innovation. * External collaboration is indispensable. CEOs stressed the overwhelming importance of collaborative innovation-particularly beyond company walls. * Innovation requires orchestration from the top. CEOs acknowledged that they have primary responsibility for fostering innovation. But to effectively orchestrate it, CEOs need to create a more team-based environment, reward individual innovators and better integrate business and technology. When asked which sources their companies relied on most for new ideas, CEOs had some surprising responses, which have significant ramifications for the RD they also comprised a substantial portion of the overall quantity of ideas. This trend was particularly evident among financial outperformers. Companies with higher revenue growth reported using external sources significantly more than slower growers. One CEO declared bluntly: "If you think you have all the answers internally, you are wrong." When we examined extensive collaborators' responses by industry, the split between internal and external ideas appeared fairly even-43 percent of innovative ideas came from outside in the consumer packaged goods industry; 44 percent in government and 42 percent in industrial products. And externally generated ideas actually outnumbered internal ideas in two industries (62 percent in chemical and petroleum, and 54 percent in telecommunications). The "Collaboration Gap" Our findings on sources of ideas coincide closely with CEOs' overall opinions about collaboration and partnering. Regardless of the type of innovation undertaken, over 75 percent of CEOs indicated that collaboration and partnering are very important to innovation. One CEO described its importance on a scale of one to five as "enormous. I'd give this a six if I could." But CEOs have a problem-and it is not a small one. Although collaborative aspirations were high, actual implementation was dramatically lower. Only half of the CEOs believed their organizations were collaborating beyond a moderate level. The huge gap between the need for collaboration and the ability to do so is clearly a significant roadblock to innovation that CEOs need to address. …


We analyse auctions from eBay to determine whether seller reputation, auction timing, and auction aesthetics influence closing prices. Using a large sample of Apple iPhone auctions, we find that closing prices are influenced by the level of seller reputation, and sellers with no reputation at stake suffer a substantial loss in closing prices. Moreover, during the sample period investigated there were small arbitrage opportunities in deciding when the auction would end, and in certain aesthetics of the auction, such as using bold fonts and including pictures of the product for sale. These arbitrage opportunities were somewhat reduced when e-bay increased the prices it charged for these aesthetic upgrades six months after the sample period investigated.


The present invention relates to a method for automatically holding the vehicle in a stationary state, wherein the vehicle comprises a braking system, the brake system having a brake valve to the pressure (p) to a predetermined limit predetermined pressure threshold value (ps). The identification information and the pressure gradient threshold value (ps) associated with this. If the vehicle is stationary and the actuating the service brake, the set pressure threshold value (ps) at the valve.


The Sex-ratio chromosome (SR) is a widespread, multiply inverted rearrangement of the X chromosome present in several species of Drosophila. Male carriers transmit mostly X-bearing sperm. In the absence of strong counteracting selection, SR is expected to increase rapidly to fixation, causing extinction. The present study incorporates a selection-components analysis of SR in laboratory populations, using the closely linked Esterase-5 locus as a marker. Estimated fitnesses show directional viability selection against SR in both males and females, heterosis for fertility and no significant effects on virility, the male adult component of fitness. Estimated fitnesses satisfy conditions for protected polymorphism and accurately predict gene-frequency trajectories in experimental populations. A model of SR gene-frequency evolution is developed, which incorporates sex-linkage, meiotic drive, viability, fertility and virility selecton. We show that conditions for protected polymorphisms are not unduly restrictive and that differential fitness among males is not sufficient for protected polymorphism, irrespective of the degree of meiotic drive. T is widely believed that the most common mode of chromosomal sex determination involves equal representation of X and Y chromosomes among gametes of the heterogametic sex, leading to equal proportions of males and females among progeny. Here we study a widespread case of non-Mendelian transmission of sex chromosomes in Drosophila, and report experimental and theoretical results that may explain the operation of natural selection on such variants. Several species of Drosophila exhibit a naturally occurring condition known as "Sex-ratio" (SR) . Males hemizygous for an X chromosome bearing the SR gene (or genes) produce mostly (90-100%) female progeny. The condition is sexlimited in expression and is transmitted as a single X-linked factor. SR-bearing chromosomes are cytologically distinguishable due to their association with inversions relative to Standard (ST) X chromosomes (STURTEVANT and DOBZHANSKY 1936; DOBZHANSKY and SOCOLOV 1939; JUNGEN 1968; MILLER 1971). In D. pseudoobscura, the SR-bearing chromosome is characterized by three nonPresent address: Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University, P.O. Box 5487, Raleigh, North Carolina Research supported in part by NSF Grant DEB77-05742, NIH Grants 10452-15 (Stanford) and 11546 (North 27650. Carolina State University). Genetics 94: 445466 February, 1980. D ow naded rom http/academ ic.p.com /genetics/a94/2/445/5993758 by gest on 27 M arch 2022 446 J. W. CURTSINGER AND M. W. FELDMAN overlapping inversions in complete coupling linkage disequilibrium ( DOBZHANSKY 1939; WALLACE 1948). The distorted sex ratio among progeny of SR males i s due to prezygotic effects, now known to include degeneration of Y bearing spermatids during spermiogenesis (POLIC.4NSKY and ELLISON 1970; HAUSCHTECK-JUNGEN and MAURER 1976). Following SANDLER and NOVITSKI (1957), we use the term "meiotic drive" to denote distortion of the ratio of sex chromosomes among gametes of SR males, irrespective of the operation of other modes of selection, such as differential mating success of SR and ST males. The SR condition has been reported in both palearctic and nearctic members of the obscura group, including D. affinis, obscura, subobscura, algonquin, pseudoobscura, persimilis, athabasca, azteca and perhaps bifasciata (MORGAN, BRIDGES and STURTEVANT 1925; GERSHENSON 1928; STURTEVANT and DOBZHANSKY 1936; NOVITSKI 1947; BUZZATI-TRAVERSO and SCOSSIROLI 1955; JUNGEN 1967). An apparently homologous condition occurs in D. paramelanica, a member of the closely related melanica group (STALKER 1961). In D. pseudoobscura, all populations sampled in the American Southwest contain some SR. bearing chromosomes, usually at frequencies of 5 to 15% (DOBZHANSKY and EPLING 1944). Frequencies of SR reach a maximum of 30% in southern Arizona and northern Mexico, but decline in the northern part of the species range ( STURTEVANT and DOBZHANSKY 1936). Aside from seasonal fluctuations in some localities (DOBZHANSKY 1943), the clinal pattern of variation and local gene frequencies have been observed to remain relatively constant over several decades (DOBZHANSKY 1958). Thus, the SR condition is a long-standing feature of the genome, rather than a recent mutational event. The persistence of the SR polymorphism must result from a balance between the forces of meiotic drive and counteracting selection, since, in the absence of some strong form of nongametic selection against SR, the driven chromosome is expected to increase rapidly to fixation (GERSHENSON 1928; EDWARDS 1961; HAMILTON 1967; WALLACE 1968). Extinction of the species would follow; the few male progeny of SR males are usually sterile (DARLINGTON and DOBZHANSKY 1942) , and parthenogenesis is absent in these species. Several modes of selection could account for the failure of SR to increase in natural populations. Suppressors of SR meiotic drive have been reported in D. afinis and paramelanica (NOVITSKI 1947; STALKER 1961; VOELKER 1972) , but there is no evidence of comparable modifying systems in D. pseudoobscura (POLICANSKY and DEMPSEY 1978; CURTSINGER 1978). Viability and fertility selection against SR-bearing individuals could lead to stable polymorphism if the relative fitnesses were to satisfy specifiable conditions (EDWARDS 1961 ; THOMSON and FELDMAN 1975). WALLACE (1948) measured relative viability, fertility, longevity, fecundity and sexual activity in laboratory populations of D. pseudmbscura and found strong viability and fertility selection against SR homozygous females. The observed selection was judged to be sufficient for polymorphism, but there remained several difficulties with this interpretation. Because of the lack of replicated fitness estimation experiments, it is not possible to assess the statistical significance of differences between genotypes; adult comD ow naded rom http/academ ic.p.com /genetics/a94/2/445/5993758 by gest on 27 M arch 2022 SELECrION AND SEX-RATIO 447 ponents of fitness are usually associated with large variance. In a reconsideration of WALLACE'S data, EDWARDS (1961) found that estimated fitnesses inserted into a specific model produced model trajectories that differed from those observed in population cages. WALLACE (1968) later argued that conditions for stable polymorphism, which enable meiotic drive to be balanced by viability and fertility selection, are too restrictive to provide a robust explanation for the persistence of the polymorphism. He offered a "group" selection alternative: SR frequently increases and leads to extinction of local populations, which are recolonized by individuals from populations having low frequencies of SR. With sufficiently high rates of local extinction, such a means of selection between groups may prevent fixation of SR in the overall population, perhaps in a manner analogous to the interdeme selection scheme proposed by LEWONTIN (1962) for the t-allele system in Mus. Recently-, POLICANSKY (1974, 1979) proposed that reduced sperm production by SR males causes decreased fertility or mating success relative to ST males and that, as a result, there may be not net force tending to increase the frequency of SR in populations. Subsequent experiments by BECKENBACH (1978) have not verified the unconditional fertility reduction of SR males. Clearly, there is no agreement on the manner in which selection operates to balance SR meiotic drive. We propose a parameterization of the operation of natural selection as shown in Table 1, where "X," denotes the SR-bearing chromosome. Following PROUT (1971), "virility" is defined as the male adult component of fitness. Using that mode of quantification of the problem, estimates of larval and adult components of fitness in laboratory populations of D. pseudoobscura, as well as measurements of sexual selectioz in the field, are presented. The experimental studies utilize a selection-components analysis design and an electrophoretic marker for the SR chromosome. The equilibrium analysis of a general model of SR evolution is also presented. It will be shown that the groupselection hypothesis is unnecessary, in the sense that conditions for stable polymorphism with some other modes of selection are not particularly restrictive. We also demonstrate that differential fitness among males is not sufficient for stable polymorphism at a sex-linked locus, irrespective of the degree of meiotic


Employing Tobin Siebers's notion of "trauma art" from his "The Return to Ritual: Violence and Art in the Media Age", this paper aims at a parallel examination of the co-presence of beauty and violence in selective works from renowned Pakistani artists like Imran Qureishi and Rashid Rana, and a contemporary Pakistani novel, Bilal Tanweer's The Scatter Here Is Too Great (2013). Art and writing in Pakistan took a new creative turn as an aftermath of a sequence of events that included 9/11 and widespread terrorism. The contemporary creative realm in Pakistan does not only aspire to discover new arenas with respect to aesthetics, but also delves into issues, which shape and are shaped by questions of culture, nationalism, and self. This paper attempts to investigate violence and its aestheticization in contemporary Pakistani art and fiction and to explore the extent to which it has succeeded in capturing our contemporary cultural scenario. Furthermore, it examines how artists and writers simultaneously challenge this turmoil through creating a thematic binary of hope and resilience. This paper challenges the notion of considering Pakistani art and fiction only a cultural product of our politically electrified and instable state and establishes that it is, simultaneously, a resultant of our richly creative and persevering spirits. Consequently, this study aspires to intrigue researchers interested in similar domains and calls attention to contemporary Pakistani art and literature, encouraging interdisciplinary research.


F U L L P A P E R Effect of soaking process on physical properties of mature pepper berries (Piper nigrum L.) Megat, A.A.P.N.,Shamsudin, R., Che Man, H. and Ya'acob, M.E. Department of Process and Food Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia.


Electoral campaigns are dynamic and an important change in recent elections is the growth of fact-checking; the assessment of the truthfulness of political advertisements by news media organizations and watchdog groups. In this article, we examine the role that fact-checks play in shaping citizens' views of negative commercials and political candidates. We rely on an Internet survey experiment where we vary people's exposure to negative advertisements and a follow-up fact-check article (i.e., no fact-check, accurate fact-check, inaccurate fact-check). The results of our experiment show that fact-checks influence people's assessments of the accuracy, usefulness, and tone of negative political ads. Furthermore, sophisticated citizens and citizens with low tolerance for negative campaigning are most responsive to fact-checks. The fact-checks also sway citizens' likelihood of accepting the claims made in the advertisements. Finally, negative fact-checks (e.g., fact-checks challenging the truthfulness of the claims of the negative commercial) are more powerful than positive fact-checks.