The vacuum phenomenon in the lumbar spine is a common finding on radiographs and CT imaging. Its presence has been known for more than a century and has been increasing in spine literature during the past 20 years. Although once thought of as an incidental finding, further research
 may yield important findings about the vacuum phenomenon, which may allow radiologists to understand its meaning more clearly when it is encountered.Learning Objective: The goal of this article is to present the reader with a better understanding of the vacuum phenomenon as it pertains
 to the lumbar spine and with its history in radiology and surgery literature, its presence in recent literature, and how it may impact spine radiology and surgery moving forward.


A stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) system was used in a low-speed wind tunnel to measure the external flowfield of a circulation control (CC) wing having an aspect ratio of 1.1. The CC wing tested had a 20% elliptic airfoil section with a trailing edge Coanda surface to increase circulation control effectiveness through a segmented, eightplenum system that could create spanwise massflow efflux profiles. Three-component wake velocity data were acquired in six station planes a quarter-chord downstream of the trailing edge. Four spanwise variations in efflux modeled uniform, linear, zero-tip, and elliptic profiles at an overall momentum coefficient of 0.09 and a Reynolds number of 970,000. The SPIV velocity data revealed the nature of the interaction of the jet with the external flowfield through the time-averaged velocity magnitude, the temporal variability, and the vorticity distribution. The results showed that the elliptical efflux profile was the most beneficial profile not only because of a reduced and more localized unsteadiness distribution, but because of the largest lift-to-drag ratio of greater than 4. The zero-tip efflux profile, thought to show promise in lift augmentation for reduced drag and noise, turned out to be the worst of the four efflux profiles tested because of low lift, high drag, and moderately high wake unsteadiness.


Abstract The steel Cr15Ni6Mo (UHB 119) exhibits a very satisfactory corrosion resistance. However, its superior passivating ability depends on the heat treatment method used. The use of two-step tempering leads primarily to an improved resistance to reactivation and optimum properties are achieved when the basic matrix contains about 40% stable austenite in fine form. This structural state requires the use of tempering temperatures from 625 to 650 C in Step 1, and 575 C in Step 2 of tempering.


The invention discloses an alternating-current pixel driving circuit and method for an active organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. The driving circuit comprises a driving transistor, a switch transistor, a storage capacitor and an OLED, wherein the drain of the first transistor is connected with a data wire; the grid of the first transistor is connected with a first scanning control wire; the source of the first transistor is connected with the end A of the storage capacitor; the drain of a second transistor is connected with the source of a third transistor; the grid of the second transistor is connected with the end A of the storage capacitor and the source of the first transistor; the source of the second transistor is connected with the drain of a four transistor and the end B of the storage capacitor, and is connected with the ground through the OLED; the drain of the third transistor is connected with a power wire; the grid of the third transistor is connected with a light-emitting control wire; the grid of the fourth transistor is connected with a second scanning control wire; and the source of the fourth transistor is connected with a reference potential. According to the driving circuit and method, the OLED works in an alternating-current driving mode, so that the characteristics of the OLED are recovered from degeneration state, the service life of the OLED is prolonged effectively, the threshold voltage drift of a thin film transistor and the degeneration of OLED cut-in voltage can be compensated effectively, and the uniformity of a display picture is enhanced.


1. A method for scheduling traffic congestion in the railway track comprising a network system and a plurality of trains, the schedule provided for movement over a network of tracks, comprising the steps of! (A) determining the presence of congestion along the rail network and identify the first train, included in this mash! (B) determine the area for reversing, environmental mash! (C) choose a safe place outside the area of the back-up of the second train, which was previously planned to enter the area of the back-up,! (D) plan the movement of the second train to a safe place! (E) identify alternative resources available to alleviate congestion, and! (F) the movement plan of the first train using the identified alternative resources. ! 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the area for reversing determined as a circle surrounding the congested area having a radius determined as a function of one parameter from the group consisting of the train density in the congestion train density in the remote area such as mash, the mash size or topography of tracks. ! 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified alternative resources include a portion of track, usually inaccessible to motion controller. ! 4. A method of scheduling congestion in the rail system, having a network of track and a plurality of trains, the schedule provided for movement of this rail network, comprising the steps of! (A) determining the presence of congestion along the rail network! (B) choose the train, which is approaching congestion, and! (C) Select movement reschedules


Two dogs with supraspinatus calcifying tendinopathy were lame in their forelimbs and were treated by the surgical excision of the calcified lesion. The lameness in both dogs improved after surgery without additional medical treatment, as evidenced by force-plate analysis of their gait.


Marital burnout has not been extensively studied despite its huge consequences on family wellbeing and quality of family life. This study, using randomised-controlled trial, tested the impact of rational-emotive couple intervention on marital burnout in a sample of parents seeking a divorce. A total of 67 parents who participated during the rational-emotive couple intervention (RECI) were assessed using the marital burnout scale, Beck depression inventory, and parent rational and irrational beliefs scale. Crosstabulation, multivariate test analysis, and bivariate analysis were used to analyse the data collected. Results show a significant reduction of marital burnout in RECI group participants, and significant improvement was maintained at the follow-up stage. The result of the group and gender interaction effect shows no significant interaction effect of group and gender on participants' marital burnout at Time two and Time 3, respectively. The results indicate that a decrease in parents' irrational beliefs accounts for marital burnout among couples seeking a divorce. Marital burnout is positively associated with depression among couples seeking a divorce. This study concludes that the RECI is an effective intervention that reduces marital burnout which is a direct consequence of irrational beliefs which later metamorphose into depressive symptoms.


Abstract Quasi steady "external group combustion" of droplet cloud with non-uniform droplet size distributions has been developed to assess the group burning behavior of fuel sprays in industrial and jet engine combustors. The exact solutions for the perturbation equation for power law droplet size distributions are obtained. Numerical analysis pertaining to the initial phase of group combustion with mean droplet size approximation is also presented. The study reveals that current spray burners are operating at high group combustion number regime, wherein the burning mechanism coincides with external group burning mode as previously predicted by Suzuki and Chiu. A spray with a higher group combustion number is also featured by a "sheath vaporization" which is localized in a thin layer located in the outermost region of the cloud. Sprays at lower group combustion number regime cease to burn with external combustion modes when the group combustion number is less than the critical value which is determined b...


In 1863, the publication of Vie de Jésus makes Renan part of the movement of "desymbolisation" and secularization of sacred texts. Eliminating the notion of miracles from his writing on religion, Renan anticipates the pattern of Weber and Gauchet's "disenchantment of the world". It is thus by the methods of scientific analysis (eviction of miracles and psychological explications instead) that Renan is able to piece together the Messiah's life, putting forward the idea of an organic Parousia, and making science a new religious ideal.


Organization inertia is a importent source of resistence to organization development and innovation. This paper presents and studies the questions about organization inertia. It includes five parts: (1) the definition and type of organization inertia, (2) the expression of symptom of organization inertia, (3)the productive causes of organization inertia, (4)the mechanism existence of organization inertia, (5)the overcoming tactics of organization inertia.


Microscopic characteristics of an aqueous excess proton in a wide range of thermodynamic states, from low density amorphous ices (down to 100 K) to high temperature liquids under the critical point (up to 600 K), placed inside hydrophobic graphene slabs at the nanometric scale (with interplate distances between 3.1 and 0.7 nm wide) have been analyzed by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Water‐proton and carbon‐proton forces were modeled with a multistate empirical valence bond method. Densities between 0.07 and 0.02 Å−3 have been considered. As a general trend, we observed a competition between effects of confinement and temperature on structure and dynamical properties of the lone proton. Confinement has strong influence on the local structure of the proton, whereas the main effect of temperature on proton properties is observed on its dynamics, with significant variation of proton transfer rates, proton diffusion coefficients, and characteristic frequencies of vibrational motions. Proton transfer is an activated process with energy barriers between 1 and 10 kJ/mol for both proton transfer and diffusion, depending of the temperature range considered and also on the interplate distance. Arrhenius‐like behavior of the transfer rates and of proton diffusion are clearly observed for states above 100 K. Spectral densities of proton species indicated that in all states Zundel‐like and Eigen‐like complexes survive at some extent. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This paper will present techniques for accurately measuring the power flux density (PFD) of interfering signals at telemetry receiving stations. The solar power flux density is measured daily by radio astronomers and will be used as a calibration signal. The electromagnetic spectrum is being used more intensely as time marches on so being familiar with interference measurement techniques is becoming more important because more interfering signals are present.


As writing skills have a significant impact on a Law student's ability to successfully complete assessment tasks, it is important to identify early, and refer to appropriate programs, students likely to benefit from language and writing skills support. This article describes in‐class exercises developed in the Law School at the University of Melbourne to identify students with writing 'difficulties'. Analysis of students' first semester results confirmed that the exercises were effective in identifying a group of students who may underachieve. Importantly, in both 2005 and 2006 almost half the first‐year Law students referred to support through the exercises were domestic students. Thus, we caution that English language testing of international students is not sufficient to identify all students likely to need or benefit from support programs. We recommend measures such as the exercises described in this paper as a quick and effective means of screening the entire commencing cohort.


AbstractA final random sample of 160 Provo, Utah, elementary school children ages 5 to 10, was included in a balanced cell format to investigate the effects of school as reflective of socioeconomic level, age, sex, and intelligence on performance on the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT), a measure of Witkin's field-dependence-independence hypothesis appropriate for use with young children. Results implied that (1) there may be differences on criterion performance according to relative social class; (2) age is the single best predictor of criterion performance, as significant differences proceeding from relative field-dependence to greater field-independence with increasing age were found; (3) there is a similar developmental pattern to increase in verbal intellectual power and increase in relative field-independence when all ages are considered together; (4) there were no significant similarities between field-dependence-independence and verbal intelligence within three of four specific ages investi...


Unbalanced conditions in the dataset often become a real-world problem, especially in machine learning. Class imbalance in the dataset is a condition where the number of minority classes is much smaller than the majority class, or the number is insufficient. Machine learning models tend to recognize patterns in the majority class more than in the minority class. This problem is one of the most critical challenges in machine learning research, so several methods have been developed to overcome it. However, most of these methods only focus on binary datasets, so few methods still focus on multiclass datasets. Handling unbalanced multiclass is more complex than handling unbalanced binary because it involves more classes than binary class datasets. With these problems, we need an algorithm with features that can support adjustments to the difficulties that arise in multiclass unbalanced datasets. One of the algorithms that have features for adjustment is the ensemble algorithm, namely Xtreme Gradient Boosting. Based on the research, our proposed method with Xtreme Gradient Boosting showed better results than the other classification and ensemble algorithms on eight datasets with five evaluation metrics indicators such as balanced accuracy, the geometric-mean, multiclass area under the curve, true positive rate, and true negative rate. In future research, we suggest combining methods at the data level and Xtreme Gradient Boosting. With the performance increase in Xtreme Gradient Boosting, it can be a solution and reference in the case of handling multiclass imbalanced problems. Besides, we also recommended testing with datasets in the form of categorical and continuous data.


The authors review the framework and methodology of co_LAB #Project1 - an intensive, interdisciplinary workshop that brought together staff and students from across College of Arts to collaborate on an open, creative design brief


This article examines how to increase access to undergraduate research within the interdisciplinary field of writing studies. Drawing on experiences with this effort, the authors argue that students need a more diverse range of opportunities to participate in undergraduate research. The article presents and analyzes three case studies of undergraduate research in writing studies that expand traditional models.


Of 189 Ohio urban neighborhood-based organizations (NBOs) responding to a survey, three have full access to the Internet. At the same time, they have many information needs that can be met best through the Internet. The small size and small budgets of many NBOs (only about half of Ohio's NBOs have budgets greater tan $100,000) make it difficult for them to acquire adequate computer technology, learn how to use it for Internet access, and make the most of that access. Additionally, most NBOs- even those in working and middle class neighborhoods-need training and technical assistance especially for advanced applications such as telecommunications and Geographic Information Systems software. Internet access needs to be more uniformly available and affordable to NBOs. Finally, we need to continually think of the Internet as a resource not a substitute, for local communities. (Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: email@example.com)


The purpose of this study is to explore the applicability of the Person-in-the-Rain (PITR) drawing test as a psychological evaluation tool to assess army soldiers' perceived stress, stress responses, and mental health status. The subjects of the study were 281 soldiers from four army units, and the research tools included the PITR drawing test, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Stress Response Scale, and the Symptom-Check List. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent sample t -test, and the results were as follows. First, the expression of raindrops, the wetness of rain, and the presence of lightning in the stress item among the PITR single items showed significant differences. In addition, the presence of protection, the presence of an umbrella, protection size, integrity of protection, appropriateness of person size, and whole body expression in the resource item presented significant differences. Therefore, the PITR resource items presented stronger discrimination power than the stress items. Second, there was a significant difference in the perceived stress when comparing the upper and lower groups based on the PITR Coping Capacity score. Based on these results, we discussed whether the PITR could be considered a useful tool to evaluate army soldiers' perceived stress, stress responses, and mental health status.


A new msthod of measurements of all complex permeability tensor components of microwave ferrites, using one cylindrical ferrite sample is presented. Two dielectric ring resonators having the same heights and internal diameters but different external diameters operating on HE± 111 and H011 modes respectively are applied for measurements. Permeability tensor components are computed from the measured resonant frequencies and Q-factors of these resonators with and within ferrite sample. Computations are based on the exact eigenvalue equations for this modes.


Dear Editor, The difference in Sabina's internal situation between the described earlier and later phases of her analysis with Maurizio Balsamo (2011) denotes without doubt a significant progress in a very demanding process for both partners of the analytic couple. I would like to examine this progress from a specific point of view. It seems apparent that by way of the analysis the internal object of the twofold absent deadening mother has been able to be transformed from an overwhelming presence into a significant but not domineering element (characterized by the representation as bystander in the dream). I would like to use this opportunity as a preliminary communication to introduce a concept which, according to my knowledge, has not been described before. The progress described above can be conceptualized as the transformation of an internal object into an 'internal subject'. This term, 'internal subject', is meant to characterize the result of a metamorphosis, a very significant development of an internal object. Insofar as internal objects and the relationships between the self and those objects can only be differentiated conceptually but not empirically, the transformation of an internal object cannot be differentiated from a transformation of the relationship to the internal object. This change, however – if and insofar it happens – goes along with several changes which cannot be described here for reasons of space. Essential would be what could be called a 'subjectivization' of this structure (usually conceptualized as 'internal object'), turning it more into a unit being equipped with qualities and capacities similar to a human subject, thereby becoming an 'internal subject'. One important quality of this internal structure is the degree to which it provides a unit usable for the self ('use of the object') which can respond and therefore can be addressed and communicated with. This transformation is well visible in the development of the internal (internalized) mother–object described in the earlier stage of Sabina's analysis. We witness the emergence of an 'internal part-subject' (the mother who is interested, but in books and not in the analysand), which is enacted by the analyst suddenly remembering [Einfall] this aspect of the mother and making use of this in his interpretation. As described by Maurizio Balsamo, this transformation is of course not necessarily stable; it can be regressively given up in order, for example, to be reached again later – and then (in the case of Sabina: from its duality with the absent ⁄ deadening mother) to be more reliably established at an even later stage. How can an internal object become (albeit perhaps always only partially) an 'internal subject'? It seems reasonable to propose that this would happen Int J Psychoanal (2012) 93:1285–1290 doi: 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2012.00638.x


Utility score is a preference-based measure of general health state – where 0 is equal to death, and 1 is equal to perfect health. To understand a patient's smallest perceptible change in utility score, the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) can be calculated. However, there are multiple methods to calculate MCID with no consensus about which method is most appropriate. The aim of this study is to calculate MCID values for the Veterans-RAND 12 (VR12) utility score using varying methods. Our hypothesis is that different methods will yield different MCID values.A tertiary institutional registry (SMART) was used as the study cohort. Patients who underwent unilateral TKA for osteoarthritis from January 2012 to January 2020 were included. Utility score was calculated from VR12 responses using the standardised Brazier's method. Distribution and anchor methods were used for the MCID calculation. For distribution methods, 0.5 standard deviations of the baseline and change scores were used. For anchor methods, the physical and emotional anchor questions in the VR12 survey were used to benchmark utility score outcomes. Anchor methods included mean difference in change score, mean difference in 12 month score, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis with the Youden index.Complete case analysis of 1735 out of 1809 eligible patients was performed. Significant variation in the MCID estimates for VR12 utility score were reported dependent on the calculation method used. The MCID estimate from 0.5 standard deviations of the change score was 0.083. The MCID estimate from the ROC analysis method using physical or emotional anchor question improvement was 0.115 (CI95 0.08-0.14; AUC 0.656).Different MCID calculation methods yielded different MCID values. Our results suggest that MCID is not an umbrella concept but rather many distinct concepts. A general consensus is required to standardise how MCID is defined, calculated, and applied in clinical practice.


in several neurophysiological responses. More specifically, it has been suggested that CB1R signaling modulates DAergic pathways by influencing directly or indirectly the activity of DAergic neu-rons through either post-or pre-synaptic mechanisms (Laviolette and Grace, 2006). However, both the mechanisms through which DAergic and EC signaling cross-talk and the role played by the dopamine D1 receptor positive neurons still remain unclear. The dopamine D1 receptors (D1Rs), which belong to the " D1-like " group, are expressed in brain regions involved in aversive learning and memory such as nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, and amyg-dala. Interestingly, the colocalization of CB1Rs with D1Rs indicates that these receptors may interact by potentially modifying their respective functions with important behavioral and pharmacological consequences (Hermann et al., 2002). Although the use of complete CB1 knockout mice together with pharmacological approaches suggest that ECS controls fear and anxiety primarily under highly aversive situations (Moreira and Wotjak, 2010), the cellular substrates of these effects with regard to specific neuronal subpopulation involved (i.e., dopamine receptor D1-expressing neurons) is still largely unexplored, except


Because the allowable current loading of buried electrical transmission cables is frequently limited by the maximum permissible temperature of the cable or of the surrounding ground, there is a need fur cable backfill materials that can maintain a low thermal resistivity even while subjected to high temperatures for prolonged periods. Temperatures greater than may lead to breakdown of cable insulation and thermal runaway if the surrounding backfill material is unable to dissipate the heat as rapidly as it is generated. This paper describes the results of studies aimed at the development of backfill material to reduce the thermal resistivity. A large number of different additive materials were tested to determine their applicability as a substitute material. Tests were carried out for Dongrim river sand, a relatively uniform sand of very high thermal resistivity, water content, when dry, and Jinsan granite screenings, and D-2 (sand and granite screenings mixture), E-1 (rubble and granite screenings mixture), a well-graded materials with low thermal resistivity, about when at 10 percent water content, when dry. Based on this research, 3 types of backfill materials were suggested for improved materials with low thermal resistivity and the applicability was assessed through field tests.


A batch of M items is inspected for defectives. Suppose there are d defective items in the batch. Let d 0 be a given standard used to evaluate the quality of the population where 0 < d 0 < M. The problem of testing H 0: d < d 0 versus H 1: d ≥ d 0 is considered. It is assumed that past observations are available when the current testing problem is considered. Accordingly, the empirical Bayes approach is employed. By using information obtained from the past data, an empirical Bayes two-stage testing procedure is developed. The associated asymptotic optimality is investigated. It is proved that the rate of convergence of the empirical Bayes two-stage testing procedure is of order O (exp(− c* n)), for some constant c* > 0, where n is the number of past observations at hand.


(1) Malonyl-CoA is thought to play a signalling role in fuelselection in cardiac muscle, but the rate at which the concentration of this potential signal can be changed has not previously been investigated. (2) Rapid changes in cellular malonyl-CoA could be observed when rat cardiac myocytes were incubated in glucose-free medium followed by re-addition of 5 mM glucose, or when cells were transferred from a medium containing glucose to a glucose-free medium. On addition of glucose, malonyl-CoA increased by 62% to a new steady-state level, at a rate of at least 0.4 nmol}g dry wt. per min. The halftime of this change was less than 3 min. After removal of glucose the malonyl-CoA content was estimated to decline by 0.43–0.55 nmol}g dry wt. per min. (3) Malonyl-CoA decarboxylase (MDC) is a possible route for disposal of malonyl-CoA. No evidence was obtained for a cytosolic activity of MDC in rat heart where most of the activity was found in the mitochondrial


This paper presents two fuzzy clustering algorithms for categorical multivariate data based on q-divergence. First, this study shows that a conventional method for vectorial data can be explained as regularizing another conventional method using q-divergence. Second, based on the known results that Kullback-Leibler (KL)-divergence is generalized into the q-divergence, and two conventional fuzzy clustering methods for categorical multivariate data adopt KL-divergence, two fuzzy clustering algorithms for categorical multivariate data that are based on q-divergence are derived from two optimization problems built by extending the KL-divergence in these conventional methods to the q-divergence. Through numerical experiments using real datasets, the proposed methods outperform the conventional methods in term of clustering accuracy.


The Dodoma area (Tanzania) lies within the Tanzanian craton, in a region where the eastern branch of the East African Rift System seems to die out (or propagate?) into the craton. The area is characterized by low- to moderate-magnitude seismic activity, sometimes concentrated into so-called "earthquake swarms", but also by rare large earthquakes (up to Mw = 6.2). On 4 November 2002, an earthquake of Mw ~ 5.5 struck the region during a session of the Tanzanian Parliament in Dodoma, causing cracks in the Parliament building. This seismic event raised the awareness of a large proportion of the Tanzanian society on geo-hazards. This research is a response to that awareness.


"There is nothing a general practitioner can teach an
undergraduate student that a specialist cannot teach better". I
have a colleague who firmly believes this. He claims that he has
many supporters in academic medical circles. He is perfectly
rational in arguing the case, but we do not seem to be able to
agree on the starting point for such a discussion. Is this perhaps
the reason why some of our universities have no, or merely
embrionic departments of general practice?


A simple, quick, effective, and atraumatic closed suturing technique for producing and maintaining intraoperative pupillary dilation is described. Readily available sutures, needles, and syringes are used in a way that eliminates the need for paracenteses, sclerotomies, and special equipment.


Abstract Previous studies have linked Catholic schooling to higher academic achievement. We add to the literature on Catholic schooling by examining its effect on long-term wages in Australia, independent of effects on academic achievement. Using panel data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) survey and fixed effects estimation, we find that during the prime-age of a career, wages for Catholic school graduates progress with labor market experience at a greater rate, on average, than wages for public school graduates. Importantly, we find no evidence to suggest that these benefits are peculiar to Catholic schooling, with similar benefits estimated for graduates of independent private schools. These findings suggest that private schooling may be important in not only fostering higher academic achievement but also in better preparing students for a working life.


An avalanche photodiode array uses single-photon counting to perform time-of-flight range-finding on a scene uniformly hit by 100ps 250mW uncollimated laser pulses. The 32/spl times/32 pixel sensor, fabricated in a 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS process uses a microscanner package to enhance the effective resolution in the application to 64/spl times/64 pixels. The application achieves a measurement depth resolution of 1.3mm to a depth of 3.75m.


Highly fluorescent composite powder based on graphite-like carbon nitride (g-C3N4) was obtained by thermal decomposition of melamine in the presence of nanoparticles of aluminum oxide, titanium oxide and silicon oxide. The fluorescence properties of composite nanoparticles were studied with lazer having a wavelength of 532 nm. The relative quantum yield of the obtained material was 62%.


Afast and simple method for the determination of tinidazole by fluorimetry is described,involvˉingthe reduction of its nitro group to amino group by iron-glacial acetic acid and the subsequent measureˉment of its emission intensity at420nm in an aqueous solution with excitation wavelength at360nm.The calibration curve has a linear range1.0×10 -6 ~4.0×10 -4 mol/L and a detection limit of5.6×10 -8 mol/L.The relative standard deviation is1.2%.The results are in agreement with those determined by the pharmacopoeia method.The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of tinidazole in tablets and injections with satisfactory results.


This paper considers the importance of recognised accounting standards in statutory interpretation, even in the highly-specialised gaming industry. The paper discusses the treatment of gaming machines for accounting purposes in New Zealand, with a particular focus on the decision in Pub Charity v Department of Internal Affairs.


The effect of noise on speech intelligibility is typically measured using fixed-level speech (or noise) and varying the speech-to-noise ratio (SNR). An assumption of this procedure is that intelligibility mostly depends on the SNR and barely depends on speech level. The effective SNR, however, (i.e., the SNR in the internal stimulus representation), possibly depends on peripheral compression. Indeed, compression could facilitate and hinder intelligibility for negative and positive SNRs, respectively. Insofar as compression varies with level, speech intelligibility might also vary with speech level. Here, we tested these hypotheses by measuring percent correct digit triplet identification as a function of speech level for fixed SNRs. Measurements were carried out for normal-hearing subjects and for hearing-impaired subjects with linear cochlear responses, as assessed using the temporal masking curve method. Results for both groups suggest that the detrimental effect of the noise on intelligibility is large...


For a method for manufacturing a reverse-conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor (RC-IGBT) (10) with a seventh layer (7,7') formed as a gate electrode and a first electrical contact (8) on a first main side (101) and a second electrical contact (9) on a second main side (102), which is opposite the first main side (101), a wafer (11) of a first conductivity type with a first side (111) and a second side (112) opposite the first side (111) is provided. For the manufacturing of the RC-IGBT (10) on the second main side (112) the following steps are performed:
A ninth layer (32) of the first conductivity type or of a second conductivity type is created on the second side (112). A mask (12) with an opening (121) is created on the ninth layer (32) and those parts of the ninth layer (32), on which the opening (121) of the mask (12) is arranged, are removed, the remaining parts of the ninth layer (32) forming a third layer (3). Afterwards for the manufacturing of a second layer (2) of a different conductivity type than the third layer (3), ions are implanted into the wafer (11) on the second side (112) into those parts of the wafer (11), on which the at least one opening (121) is arranged.


Most executive compensation contracts (specifically bonuses) are based on accounting-related measures such as earnings per share (EPS), growth in revenue, return on stockholders' equity. However, the recent trend of account manipulation and earnings management documented in the literature may lead to inequitable bonus payments to the managers or executives. Alternative performance measures that may be used to motivate managers are stock prices or market returns and non-financial measures. In this paper, I examine firms in the S&P 500 index and examine the type of performance measures they use in their short-term compensation. I expect that firms that use non-financial performance measures will have a lower prevalence of earnings management, since these measures are harder to manipulate. The findings are opposite to expectations. The firms that use both financial and non-financial performance measures actually have higher discretionary accruals, specifically accounts receivable accruals, than the firms that only use financial performance measures. The interpretation of these results is that these firms suffer from low earning s quality which makes the accounting numbers less meaningful.


Ethnobotany is a study of plants which are used for various ailments and as edibles of the wild. The river cauvery has its own basin with a notable plant and animal biodiversity. In our study it was found that almost 20 plants are frequently used for human diseases. It was also noted that leaves, fruits, seeds, roots, barks and latex are used for the cure of various ailments. Though our study it was concluded that a huge range of medicinal plants were found in cauvery river delta and it can be used for various human ailments.


This paper describes the merging of designed experiments and regularized regression to find the significant factors to use for a real-time predictive model. The real-time predictive model is used in a Weyerhaeuser modified fiber mill to estimate the value of several key quality characteristics. The modified fiber product is accepted or rejected based on the model prediction or the predicted values deviation from lab tests. To develop the model, a designed experiment was needed at the mill. The experiment was planned by a team of engineers, managers, operators, lab techs, and a statistician. The data analysis used the actual values of the process variables manipulated in the designed experiment. There were instances of the set point not being achieved or maintained for the duration of the run. The lab tests of the key quality characteristics were used as the responses. The experiment was designed with JMP® 64-bit Edition 11.2.0 and estimated the two-way interactions of the process variables. It was thought that one of the process variables was curvilinear and this effect was also made estimable. The LASSO method, as implemented in the SAS® GLMSELECT procedure, was used to analyze the data after cleaning and validating the results. Cross validation was used as the variable selection operator. The resulting prediction model passed all the predetermined success criteria. The prediction model is currently being used real time in the mill for product quality acceptance.


Exploiting an expanded genetic code in yeast, we can site‐specifically encode unnatural amino acids into the native chromatin landscape of the living cell. Utilizing the UV‐activated photo‐crosslinking amino acid, p‐benzoylphenylalanine (pBPA), we can covalently trap protein‐protein interactions when contacts between proteins are made within binding distances of ~ 0.4 nm. We have mapped the RSC remodeler complex protein, Sth1, to the nucleosome and shown that its binding is regulated by posttranslational modifications, including acetylation and SUMOylation. RSC has been linked to promoter sites and we want to further our binding map with an understanding of its occupancy across the genome. To map the loci of binding sites we use a double IP chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) technique that utilizes the power of in vivo protein‐protein crosslinking from histones. Histones are well associated with DNA and efficient targets for ChIP analysis; therefore, we propose that if the histone protein is first crosslinked to a nucleosomal protein target, that the histone can be initially precipitated in tandem with its crosslinked protein and associated DNA fragments. The target protein can then be further precipitated to purify DNA, via its interaction with the histone. Our first goal was to establish histone occupancy of pBPA‐containing histones. Using ChIP, we were able to isolate DNA from both wild type and mutant histones where we can achieve a quantitate analysis of the difference with qPCR. Building on this we will move to a double IP system to determine Sth1 occupancy. This work aims to establish a novel approach in ChIP targeting of proteins that are difficult to analyze due to more transient interactions at the nucleosomal core.


Technological advancement in the Internet and other areas of communication have made the idea of collaborative projects with other people who might be physically located on separate sites more feasible. There are many benefits that can result from the wider scope of interactions that is afforded by these developments, such as taking advantage of available expert resources that might exist in various parts of the world --- for example in emerging IT centres in India and China. Also, a well-integrated team made up of a cross-cultural group can be more equipped to meet demands associated with a heterogeneous market. However there are some problems in getting these disparate teams to work together effectively. In this paper, we discuss some of the issues that were encountered during our collaboration with the Technical University of Munich in running a joint software engineering project that involved the development of a multi-player online game environment running on multiple platforms on a peer-to-peer wireless networking environment. We also discuss lessons learned and provide some recommendations for improving the processes associated with a global software engineering project.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively assess the pit growth rate on AISI 304L and AISI 316 austenitic stainless steels in natural seawater and 3.5 wt.% NaCl solutions through electrochemical measurements during the potentiostatic growth of pits.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative characterisation was carried out based on chronoamperometric measurements. The volume of dissolved metal per pit was calculated from the charge registered and Faraday's law, considering both, hemispherical and semi‐elliptical pit shapes and the density of the steels. Empirical growth laws for maximum pit depth as a function of polarisation time were obtained and compared with pits volumetric profile obtained from optical microscopy analysis and mechanical removal of material on both steels.Findings – Electrochemical‐based calculations of localised metal dissolution per pit present acceptable fit with the real volume of dissolved metal on hemispherical pits.Originality/value – The paper presents the qua...


An enriched environment for reptiles under captive management isn't just a tank with some extra objects in it. To really enrich the lives of our reptiles, we need to be creative and introduce some novelty into their lives. This article introduces different ways that reptiles' lives and environments can be enriched. From using food and feeding to provide cognitive enrichment, to making simple changes to the environment to give them new ways to move and new materials to experience, and even providing opportunities for social enrichment, Lori Torrini offers practical, creative, low-cost examples of how to provide for their needs.


This study aimed at investigating the nature of the relationship between the locus of control (internal and external) and some personality traits among juvenile delinquents in Ibb City. The study employed the descriptive method. To achieve the aims of the study, Rotter's locus of control scale and Freiburger Persoblichkerts Inventory were used. The sample of the study consisted of (40) male juvenile delinquents. The results of the study indicated that the locus of external control among juvenile delinquents was common with a mean of (9.25). However, the degree of spreading the personality traits of nervousness, depression, aptitude to excitation, calmness, and restraint was high, while the degree of spreading aggression, socialization, and domination was average. In addition, there was a positive relationship with a statistical significance between the locus of control and the aggression trait only. In contrast, there were no relationships with a statistical significance between the locus of control and the other personality traits. Moreover, there were statistical differences among the juvenile delinquents with the locus of control (external – internal) in case of the aggression trait in favor of those with the external control, while there were no statistical significant differences in the other personality traits.
Keywords: Locus of control (Internal – External), Personality traits, Juvenile delinquents.


ED 212 6184 AUTHOR TITLE' INSTITUTION SPONS AGENCY PUB DATE.: GRANT '. 1 EDRS PRICE DESCRIPTORS ,IDENTIFIERS DOCUMENT RESUME SP 019 647 Melograno, Vincent; Loovis,E. Michael' Motor Development Programs for School-Aged" Handicapped Students: Assessing the Needs of Professional Educators. Cleveland State Univ., Ohio. -Cleveland Foundation, Ohio. Feb 82 79-468-11R 62p. MF01/PC03 Plus Posthge. .*Adapted Physical Education; Disabilities; Elementary Secondary Education; Individualized Education Programs; *Inservice. Teacher Education; *Mainstreaming; Needs Assessment; *Teadher Attitudes; Teacher Effectiveness; *Teaching Experience; Teaching Skills Ohio; *Physical Education Teachers; *Public Law 94 -142 1 A study° was.conducted to determine the educational needs of elementary and secondary schbol physical education *achers in Ohio in mainstreaming handicapped.children in their classes. A, validated questionnaire was sent to teachers in 35 schooldistricts, and 241 teachers responded. The survey sought information -on the experiences of teachers with handicapped students, Also investigated were-teachers' abilities, attitudes toward handicapped learners, interest in professional se44-development; expressed needs,.and what they .consideted to be the limits of handicapped learner's. Resporlser revealed that 41 percent ofthe teachers'had no experience Mith handicapped students. Thirty-seven percent of the teachers bad little or no background in adapted physical education, and seven percent had experience in developing individualized. education programs (IEP's). Numerous misperceptions-of Public Law 94-142 were revealed, resulting in misunderstandings about the responsibilities of-physical, education teachers. In general, the respondents had a positive attitude toward teaching handicapped-students, but the thafority felt that the nature of°the student's handicap, the,functional abilityof the student, and the activity chosen Would bejimiting factors-in participation in physical education. When asked about opportugities to e*pand their knowledge of'physical education for handicapped students; .the Majority of teachers preferred conferences, workshops, and ott* inservice offerings: It Is concluded that there is a' need'to clarify and identify,the contribution of physical education northe IEP's of handicapped students.. Tables are appended giving response.data..on'the 36 item queetionnaiTe. A copy of the, survey instrument is also..., 4 : appehded. (JD) ; 4 **********************t****.**************************i*************** * ,Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can bee . * * . from the original document.. , , **************i********************************************************


Objective To investigate the changs of the permeability of BBB and the expression of the tight junction-associated proteins occludin and claudin-5 in the microvessel endothelia of cerebral ischemia rat.Methods Rats were scheduled to undergo middle cerebral artery ischemia by intraluminal suture.The change of the permeability of BBB was detected using evans blue(EB)dyeing.The distribution of occludin and claudin-5 was observed by the application of immunohistochemistry,and the changes of mRNA and protein expression of occludin and claudin-5 were determined by RT-PCR and Western blot.Results 2 hrs after the cerebral ischemia,the permeability of BBB was significantly increased(P0.01),the tight junction-associated proteins occludin and claudin-5 were expressed positively in microvessel endothelial cells,and the levels of mRNA and protein expression of occludin and claudin-5 were significantly decreased compared with normal control(P0.01).Conclusion The increase of BBB permeability in cerebral ischemia may be related to the decrease of tight junction-associated proteins occludin and claudin-5.


Participation requires that the less powerful groups succeed in making their voices heard. Such groups often have few resources other than their numbers, so that concerted action within a democratic framework is essential. The various welfare states that emerged during the past century rested in different ways on traditions of national male breadwinner working class solidarity, often in class-coalition with middle class groups and supported by an active trade union movement. Welfare policies in the post-war heyday of corporate capitalism reinforced this solidarity. More recently the post-war settlement has been eroded by globalisation, the shift from manufacturing to a service economy, the decline of the nation state, insistent pressures from women's groups and others for greater equality and the emergence of new social risks. The new welfare state settlement is market liberal rather than neo-Keynesian. These shifts disempower the groups that were able to influence the traditional welfare state but empowers new groups affected by new social risks and by globalisation. The key question for a politics of participation is whether these groups can form solidarities that enable them to exert real influence.


Hypertension is responsible for a large and increasing proportion of the global disease burden and is becoming increasingly prevalent in low-income countries. Various genetic and environmental factors have been found to influence blood pressure, with especially body weight showing a strong relationship with hypertension. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the association of various indices of body adiposity, namely body mass index (BMI, kg/m), waist to height ratio (WHtR), body adiposity index (BAI) (expressed as % body fat) and waist circumference (WC), with blood pressure in a lowincome, black, urban community in Mangaung, South Africa. Methods: Baseline data from the urban phase of the Assuring Health for All in the Free State (AHA-FS) study were used. Field workers visited households selected in a stratified proportional cluster sample, to encourage participation in the research. At the research centre, body weight, height, waist and hip circumference and blood pressure were measured. The presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was determined using calibrated equipment and following standardized techniques. Weight and height were used to calculate BMI, WC and height were used to calculate WHtR, and height and hip circumference were used to calculate BAI. Results: 339 Adults (76 males and 263 females) were included in the study, with a mean age of 44.3 + 10.6 (SD) years, ranging between 25 and 63. More than a third (39.8%) of the study population was HIV positive. In total 63.4% (57.9% of the males and 65.0% of the females) had blood pressure values >140/90mmHg or were currently using antihypertensive medication, implicating hypertension. Based on BMI, 44.8% of the study population had normal weights or were underweight, 23% were overweight, and 32.1% were obese. The majority (58.6%) had a WHtR equal to or above the cut-off point of 0.5, indicating increased cardiovascular risk. The mean BAI was 34.1%, with 76.3% of participants having an overweight/obese body fat percentage. WC above 88cm was measured in 44.3% (n=116) of females, and WC above 102cm was measured in 3.9% (n=3) of males. Significant positive correlations were found between mean arterial blood pressure and BMI (r=0.261; p<0.001), WHtR (r=0.357; p<0.001) and BAI (r=0.245; p<0.001). Controlling for age, the prevalence of hypertension was significantly and positively (p< 0.001)


Introduction The bacterium that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, has been with us throughout recorded history. The organism is unique because it is the only aerobic spore forming bacterium that appears to be an obligate parasite. It has been suggested that the organism has a natural cycle of replication within the soil1 but there is no evidence that this occurs consistently, if at all, because the nutrient supply is limited and the environment is hostile. However when an animal dies of anthrax and the carcass is consumed by carnivores the release of large quantities of nutrient-rich body fluids containing huge concentrations of anthrax organisms might encourage the organism to replicate in the soil,1 especially in warm conditions. Eventually, when the nutrient supply declines, the bacteria will produce the resistant spores that are the major reason for the persistence of the disease in the wild. Animals that have died of anthrax can cause considerable contamination of the local area, becoming a source of infection particularly for browsing herbivores2. Vultures and other scavengers, which are relatively resistant to anthrax infection can, in their droppings, disperse the agent over vast distances. Although anthrax is enzootic in many regions of the world, it is in Africa that the problem is particularly acute. The huge herds of herbivores graze every square metre of grassland and it is inevitable that some of them will consume an infectious dose of the anthrax spores lying dormant close to the surface of the soil. Although anthrax is not a contagious disease the natural cycle of infection, death, disruption of the carcass by scavengers and the dispersal of the spores can produce an enormous increase in the number of animals infected. The consequent decline in the local animal population can be to the point of annihilation in some instances. The role of the scavengers in this cycle of infection is critical because without their activity the carcass of the fallen animal will remain undisturbed, without the anthrax bacteria becoming exposed to oxygen and forming spores. The non-sporulating bacteria will then decay within a short time, thus ending the infectious cycle.


This handbook will present the idea of interactivity as it applies to a cohesive design including high interface, content, and instructional design.


The relationship between the screen mesh and the theoretical and practical ink film thickness was analyzed based on the main influencing factors of the ink film thickness by screen printing.A calculation model for the ink thickness was established based on the screen under static and compressive deformation.The relation curve between the screen mesh and the ink film thickness was fitted and the suitable printing craft parameter was chosen to print two kinds of RFID tag antennas.The fluctuation of the antenna resistance was analyzed to demonstrate the reliability of the passive RFID tag antenna manufactured by screen printing technology.


The spatial and temporal variability of renewable generation has important economic implications for electric sector investments and system operations. This study describes a method for selecting representative hours to preserve key distributional requirements for regional load, wind, and solar time series with a two-orders-of-magnitude reduction in dimensionality. We describe the implementation of this procedure in the US-REGEN model and compare impacts on energy system decisions with more common approaches. The results demonstrate how power sector modeling and capacity planning decisions are sensitive to the representation of intra-annual variation and how our proposed approach outperforms simple heuristic selection procedures with lower resolution. The representative hour approach preserves key properties of the joint underlying hourly distributions, whereas seasonal average approaches over-value wind and solar at higher penetration levels and under-value investment in dispatchable capacity by inaccurately capturing the corresponding residual load duration curves.


In this paper, some problems related to wedges are solved by using the generalized dimension-analysis method. The differences between the generalized dimension-analysis method and the traditional dimension analysis are shown The procedures of the generalized dimension analysis discussed and examples are presented. Some important conclusions have been drawn


AUCA magazine (Architecture, Urbanism, Construction, Art) was founded as an independent publication in 1965. It understood architecture as a creative force for the development of Chilean society. It was published continuously until 1986 and reached 51 issues. During its development, in concurrence with the policies of three different governments, we can distinguish three stages: one on the reform program (1965-1970), another one on creation and social participation (1970-1973) and a third one (1973-1986) on technocratic specialization, diversification and persistence. AUCA saw modern architecture as a key tool to reduce social gaps. It came out at a time when population growth caused a large housing shortage and inadequate infrastructure, generated functional overlaps and increased socio-urban segregation. The magazine highlighted the work of the state, so that urban housing shortage was a favourite subject that promoted social participation in architecture. It disseminated the latest works, recognizing that social and geographical constraints affected the architectural result. AUCA believed that architecture was finally able to comply with its social objective and humanistic content. The magazine was firstly in favour and then against the political circumstances of its time, showing its enthusiasm for being part of a process that aimed at radically transforming the institutional foundations, which required creative input and ethical commitment from the architects Key words: architecture magazines, modern architecture, housing policies.


The most important measure for working population' health protection is prevention of occupational dermatoses, namely elimination of direct contact with occupational irritants. Therefore, the development of dermatological personal protection is up to date. To optimize the composition of protective ointments based on low molecular weight polyethylene studies have been conducted on introduction in its composition of new generation adsorbent Polysorb: the optimal concentration was chosen, technology and biopharmaceutical properties were studied. The study of stability and film-forming ability of the developed compositions of ointments showed that the introduction of emulsifier No.1 does not lead to stabilization of the system if compared with the emulsifier T-2. It was established that the optimum concentration of film formation is a concentration of 1% to 2%. Compositions with Polysorb possess a higher adsorption capacity and osmotic activity.


The influence of the emitter-base geometry on the current gain has been investigated by means of measurements and simulations. Particular attention has been placed on the emitter width and on the distance between the emitter edge and the base contact. When the emitter width is decreased from 40 to 8 m, the current gain is reduced by 20%, whereas when the distance between the base contact and the emitter edge is decreased from 5 to 2 m, the current gain is reduced by 10%. Simulations have been used to investigate the reasons for the current gain reduction. The reduction of the emitter width induces two mechanisms of current gain reduction: earlier forward biasing of the base-collector junction and higher recombination in the emitter region. Both mechanisms result from the higher current density flowing under the emitter region. Placing the base contact very close to the emitter edge increases the base current by increasing the gradient of the electron concentration toward the base contact. The effect of increasing the base doping in the extrinsic region has been simulated, and the results demonstrate that the current gain can be improved if a high doping concentration in the range of 5 × 1018 cm-3 is used.


This research aims to develop Electronic Modul based on Android in Heat and Temperature with Learning Cycle 5E approach for high school students. This development is based on learning objectives that are in accordance with the 2013 curriculum principles, namely students can study anytime and anywhere. The material in this e-module is presented in the form of videos, images, tables, formulas and verbal descriptions arranged based on the learning syntax of the 5E Learning Cycle model (Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, Evaluation). This type of research is research & development (R & D), which refers to Instructional Development Model according to Atwi Suparman. The research data is taken in four steps: 1) A literature study and requirement analysis to determine the physics learning needs, 2) A legibility test on high school students, 3) Validation by subject, media, and learning experts, 4) Trial test on high school students. The results of the validation of the due diligence of e-modules by material experts obtained 94% and media experts obtained 76,67%. Based on the feasibility test the emodule is worthy of being used as a student's independent learning media.


Porphyrinoids provide an intriguing environment for advanced investigation of macrocyclic p aromaticity. Through extensive explorations including complementary efforts of experimental and theoretical chemists, it has been determined that p-electron conjugation in porphyrinoid analogues depends on the topology of the molecular framework, conformation of the macrocycle, tautomerism, and innercore metal coordination. In a recent study the ferrocenothiaporphyrinoids 1 and 2-H2 (Scheme 1) showed the very first evidence for direct transmission of metallamacrocyclic p-electron conjugation


We propose a multi-domain resource broker to dynamically provision multi-domain virtual optical networks across heterogeneous control domains (i.e., GMPLS and OpenFlow) and transport (i.e., optical packet switching and elastic optical networks) technologies. We have designed, implemented, and experimentally evaluated the multi-domain resource broker in an international testbed across Spain, the UK, and Japan.


Has the institutionalization of software quality and reliability within industry and government improved software products and systems? And, if so, can this improvement be meaningfully quantified and the recipients of its benefits identified? There is no simple answer to these questions since there may be no quantitative proof that things have improved. However, on the positive side it can be said that software quality has been improved because of: improvements in software technology, increased concern of government and industry resulting in the establishment of quality organizations, increased incidence of formal software quality audits and reviews, improved software documentation, and the use of independent V and V contractors. On the negative side, there are some major obstacles in assessing the improvement or implementation of software quality, among them is the lack of techniques and metrics for measuring software quality. This session will address the above questions, in addition to the problems and accomplishments in software quality assurance from both the government and industry viewpoints, with an emphasis on potential standards and testing criteria applicable on a government-wide basis or within industry as a whole. The principal elements of a quality plan for embedded software will also be highlighted by the panelists. Specific attention will be paid to the need for a well-ordered development methodology and to the review cycle attending it; to the array of hardware and software resources that may be required to assure software quality; and to the manner in which configuration control can be maintained. These matters will be discussed within the context of a synthesis of the disciplines of Software Engineering and Quality Assurance. Finally, experiences with Higher Level Language (HLL) compiler validation will be used as concrete examples to give the panel focus.


Firstly the function of principal component analysis (PCA)and back propagation(BP) neural network are analyzed in this paper, the fusion method of PCA and BP neural network is proposed for face representation and recognition. Experiments are done on ORL face databases and compare the average recognition rate and training time. Experimental results show that the method achieves the higher recognition accuracy than PCA and BP neural network alone, and Shorten the learning time of the network.


Stochastic Approximation (SA) is arguably the most investigated amongst algorithms for solving local continuous simulation optimization problems. Despite its enduring popularity, the prevailing opinion is that the finite-time performance of SA-type algorithms is still not robust to SA's sequence of algorithm parameters. In the last two decades, two major advances have been proposed toward alleviating this issue: (i) Polyak-Ruppert averaging where SA is executed in multiple time scales to allow for the algorithm iterates to use large (initial) step sizes for better finite time performance, without sacrificing the asymptotic convergence rate; and (ii) efficient derivative estimation to allow for better searching within the solution space. Interestingly, however, all existing literature on SA seems to treat each of these advances separately. In this article, we present two results which characterize SA's convergence rates when both (i) and (ii) are be applied simultaneously. Our results should be seen as simply providing a theoretical basis for applying ideas that seem reasonable in practice.


Dialectical theology arose early in the 20th century, in response to the liberalism then dominant in German theology. The so-called theology of Krisis was ignited by an actual crisis, namely, the outbreak of World War I. Many young theologians and church leaders were appalled when Germany's leading theologians signed an open letter endorsing German war aims, and concluded that there was something fundamentally wrong with a theology that was incapable of standing against the popular cultural tide. Dialectical theologians traced the fundamental problem back to liberal theology's (alleged) anthropocentric starting point: as Karl Barth, one of the leading dialectical theologians, put it, liberals thought they could talk about God by talking about human beings in a loud voice, which meant that they were ultimately left empty-handed when the time came to say "No" to a culture's self-perception.

Keywords:

dialectical or crisis theology;
dialectical theology in 20th century, in response to liberalism;
so-called theology of krisis, ignited by an actual crisis;
Karl Barth, leading dialectical theologians;
"infinite qualitative difference" between God and the world;
controversy among dialectical theologians, the "point of contact";
humanity's "point of contact" with God;
seeds of theological resistance, to rise of nazism


SIRS, We wish to thank Dr McKenna and Mansfield for their comments on our recent publication on the comparison of alendronate and alfacalcidol in glucocorticoid-associated osteoporosis in patients with ulcerative colitis. Prior to the study, we were aware that the effects of bisphosphonates persist even after they are discontinued. Therefore, ample caution was taken to ensure that women wishing to give birth to a child even during the period of this clinical study would be excluded, and that any woman who expressed the desire to deliver a child before completing this study be withdrawn from the study at such time. Effects on the foetus of bisphosphonates administered prior to gestation, although unclear, cannot be ruled-out theoretically. It is therefore our view that imprudent use of these drugs should not be allowed. Nevertheless, it is a known fact that the fracture threshold drops below the normal limit in individuals receiving steroids. In patients with ulcerative colitis, the risk of fracture during steroid therapy is considered elevated even at a young age because of diminished bone mineralization due to the disorder per se. It is also important to institute corrective measures slightly earlier to prevent further bone-salt diminution as it usually takes a long time to improve once this bone-salt decrease develops. Therefore, we consider it important to use bisphosphonates for a narrower set of indications and for a limited duration in women of child-bearing age and in younger female patients.


The potential exploitation of areas becoming ice-free in response to ongoing climate change has rarely been addressed, although it could be of interest from the water management perspective. Here we present an estimate for the potential of mitigating projected changes in seasonal water availability from melting glaciers by managing runoff through reservoirs. For the European Alps we estimate that by the end of the century, such a strategy could offset up to 65% of the expected summer-runoff changes from presently glacierized surfaces. A first-order approach suggests that the retention volume potentially available in the areas becoming deglacierized is in excess of the volume required for achieving the maximal possible mitigation by more than one order of magnitude. Obviously, however, such a strategy cannot compensate for the reduction in annual runoff caused by glacier ice depletion. Our estimates indicate that by 2070–2099, 0.73 ± 0.67 km3 a−1 of this non-renewable component of the water cycle could be missing in Alpine water supplies.


The paper aims to present a novel composite hybrid structure based on carbon fibre-glass fibre combination manufactured with the purpose of being used as printed circuit board material in high temperature environments. The composite structure was developed to aid the thermal management in the PCB design and several experimental measurements were carried out to retrieve the effective CTE. The latter was recovered by using a DIL 402 PC device from Netzsch GmbH (Germany) by setting different thermal regimes such are: monotonic increase up to 150 0 C, cycling up/down to/from 150 0 C. Statistical data processing will aid the thermal properties measurements.


We characterize the contribution from accreted material to the galactic discs of the Auriga Project, a set of high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic cosmological simulations of late-type galaxies performed with the moving-mesh code AREPO. Our goal is to explore whether a significant accreted (or ex situ) stellar component in the Milky Way disc could be hidden within the near-circular orbit population, which is strongly dominated by stars born in situ. One-third of our models shows a significant ex situ disc but this fraction would be larger if constraints on orbital circularity were relaxed. Most of the ex situ material (≳50 per cent) comes from single massive satellites (>6 × 1010 M⊙). These satellites are accreted with a wide range of infall times and inclination angles (up to 85°). Ex situ discs are thicker, older and more metal poor than their in situ counterparts. They show a flat median age profile, which differs from the negative gradient observed in the in situ component. As a result, the likelihood of identifying an ex situ disc in samples of old stars on near-circular orbits increases towards the outskirts of the disc. We show three examples that, in addition to ex situ discs, have a strongly rotating dark matter component. Interestingly, two of these ex situ stellar discs show an orbital circularity distribution that is consistent with that of the in situ disc. Thus, they would not be detected in typical kinematic studies.


In this project, an application of gesture mimic human-robot interaction is presented which has been developed using a Kinect sensor. The gesture recognition method combines depth information and traditional joints tracking algorithm using kinect to employ skeleton angular motion in dynamic gesture mimicking. A Master/Slave structured robot control application for master Bluetooth in PC and paired with slave module for the Arduino receiver is developed. The wireless setup provides a favorable function for gesture commands that uses Kinect sensor for controlling of shadow robot. Training session has been utilized for storing the serial string array sets in a Local database of the application which can later be transmitted to the slave at the time it is commanded. A Non-feedback static walking sequence is also been developed for bipedal forward walking of the humanoid robot. Experiment results validate the feasibility and usefulness of the application system.


Rationale: Evidence supporting the association of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or airflow obstruction with use of solid fuels is conflicting and inconsistent. Objectives: To assess the association of airflow obstruction with self‐reported use of solid fuels for cooking or heating. Methods: We analyzed 18,554 adults from the BOLD (Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease) study, who had provided acceptable post‐bronchodilator spirometry measurements, and information on use of solid fuels. The association of airflow obstruction with use of solid fuels for cooking or heating was assessed by sex, within each site, using regression analysis. Estimates were stratified by national income and meta‐analyzed. We performed similar analyses for spirometric restriction, chronic cough, and chronic phlegm. Measurements and Main Results: We found no association between airflow obstruction and use of solid fuels for cooking or heating (odds ratio [OR] for men, 1.20 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.94‐1.53]; OR for women, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.67‐1.15]). This was true for low‐/middle‐ and high‐income sites. Among never‐smokers, there was also no evidence of an association of airflow obstruction with use of solid fuels (OR for men, 1.00 [95% CI, 0.57‐1.76]; OR for women, 1.00 [95% CI, 0.76‐1.32]). Overall, we found no association of spirometric restriction, chronic cough, or chronic phlegm with the use of solid fuels. However, we found that chronic phlegm was more likely to be reported among female never‐smokers and those who had been exposed for 20 years or longer. Conclusions: Airflow obstruction assessed from post‐bronchodilator spirometry was not associated with use of solid fuels for cooking or heating.


The impact of node capture attacks on the confidentiality and integrity of network traffic, where it is attempted to map the compromise of network traffic to the flow of current through an electric circuit and propose a metric for quantifying the vulnerability of the traffic using the circuit mapping. It computes the vulnerability metric as a function of the routing and the cryptographic protocols used to secure the network traffic and formulate the minimum cost node capture attack problem as a nonlinear integer programming problem. Due to the NPhardness of the minimization problem, a greedy heuristic is implemented that approximates the minimum cost attack by providing examples of node capture attacks using the vulnerability metric and show that the adversary can expand significantly less resources to compromise target traffic by exploiting information leakage from the routing and cryptographic protocols. Finally, the framework is targeted to design where it can formalize node capture attacks using the vulnerability metric as a nonlinear integer programming minimization problem and with the proposed GNAVE algorithm, a Greedy Node capture Approximation using Vulnerability Evaluation with a discussion on the availability of security parameters to the adversary and show that unknown parameters can be estimated using probabilistic analysis.


Every year, sexual abuse against children is increasing. Globally, it is estimated that 3-31% of children had experienced sexual abuse. This harms children, including the impact of physical injury, neurobiological impact, and psychiatric, such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, PTSD, drug abuse, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and attempted suicide. To help children who are victims of sexual abuse, a special approach is required to ease the communication to children. Since children communicate using symbols, thus storytelling, which is part of the Play Therapy technique, is the right method to communicate awareness to children. With an approach using the storytelling method, hopefully, children will be able to understand the very situations, recognize and express their emotions properly, and minimize the negative impact after the abuse.


The consumers' increasing desire to be connected at all times and the advancement of integrated functionality within the vehicle, increases the risk that drivers could be faced with information overload while driving. Given the importance of human interaction with technology within the vehicle, automobile manufacturers are introducing workload manager systems within the vehicles to help prevent driver overload. However the ability of the system to decide in a timely manner requires anticipation of changes in workload, depending on the capacity of the driver and matching it with the demand expected from the driving task such as the dynamic traffic environment.

In relation to the need to understand the influence of traffic demand on driver workload, the work here comprises the systematic manipulation of traffic complexity and exploration of workload measures to highlight which are sensitive to primary task demand manipulated. A within-subjects design was used in the studies explored in this thesis to allow comparison between different manipulated traffic conditions. In the first simulator test, the ability of various objective and subjective workload measures to tap into drivers' momentary workload was examined. Following the identification of a subjective measure that was sensitive to the influence of lane changes performed by neighbouring vehicle on drivers' momentary workload, the characteristics of the lane change were explored in the subsequent studies involving single and dual-task conditions. Overall, these studies suggested suppression of non-urgent communications by a workload manager during safety-critical conditions involving critical cut-ins would be advantageous to both younger and older drivers.

This thesis offers a novel and valuable contribution to the design of a workload estimator so as to ensure that the driving demand is always within drivers' capacity to avoid driver overload. Results of these studies have also highlighted the utility of vehicle-based sensor data in improving workload manager functionality.


Damage introduced from sputtering deposition, electron-beam evaporation, and thermal evaporation were investigated with an InGaAs/GaAs strained quantum well structure. This strained quantum well structure was found to be a more sensitive probe of damage, revealing metallization-induced damage where none was found using comparable lattice-matched quantum wells. The damage was found to vary with deposition method, deposition rates, or even different metal sources used. Noticeable degradation of the photoluminescence of the strained quantum well was observed after a thin layer (∼100 A) of metal was deposited.


This article aims to examine the implementation of internal controls in management accounting information systems. Management accounting information system is used as a tool to generate relevant information in decision making. In order to make Management accounting information system progressed as  expectations, the internal control is needed as a functioning controller of Management accounting information system in the organization. COSO Internal Control framework focuses on the effectiveness of information systems controls that will improve the quality of management accounting information system. This research uses descriptive analytic method, data collected by using questionnaire distributed to operations manager in 56 State Owned Enterprises. The findings shows that generally the internal control in the Management accounting information system in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) has been in a good categorized, but there is still found some internal control weaknesses in SOEs, which is SOEs is less effective in assets controlling and data security controlling. Less good attention or less optimal of each SOEs in controlling its assets is known from the answers to the operational managers who said that is less good respondents' attention in conducting assets inventory that is registered in the system physically.


© ZAKHAROV, Y., SANKOV, P., TRIFONOV, I., TKACH, N., and TOSHYNA, L., 2019 Introduction. After the World War II in the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, as a result of war devastations and population growth, a housing crisis arose, because of which, in the 1950's, there was a boom in the construction of small cheap apartments. Problem Statement. Because of massive development, the issues of consumer quality of apartments, their comfort, durability, and energy efficiency were in the focus of public attention and, as early as in the early 1980s, these houses had not met the norms and technical requirements and required reconstruction works. In many European countries, this problem has been successfully solved, while in Ukraine it has been relevant so far. Purpose. To introduce unified design schemes for the reconstruction of the first series of mass houses on the territory of Ukraine by establishing the possibility of re-planning and rearrangement of apartments to improve the quality of residential facilities for future inhabitants. Materials and Methods. Analysis of events and publications on the status and possibilities of reconstruction of the first series mass houses. Results. The content and features of reconstruction of the first series mass residential houses (FSMRH) of the mentioned period are considered in view of their structure and configuration, taking into account the experience of the countries of Western and Eastern Europe. The document that is part of verification of the reconstruction strategy has been developed. It is divided into the two additional tests: 1) a test complement to the three thematic studies in Belgium, France, and Switzerland; 2) test of the prospects of interaction with stakeholders (investors, housing owners, and public administration). Conclusions. Structural systems and configurations for the reconstruction of the first mass series houses in Ukraine have been considered. The unified scheme of re-planning and rearrangement of the first mass series houses with different structural systems and configurations has been presented. The reconstruction of the first mass series houses for which resettlement of inhabitants is not required has been analyzed.


The authors discuss system and implementation aspects of a 144 kbit/s one-chip U-transceiver based on echo-cancellation techniques using the MMS43 line code and a Barker synchronization word for bit and frame timing, and including a 1-kb/s transparent channel for maintenance purposes. The LSI is realized by a 2-/spl mu/m CMOS, double-metal, double-poly technology shrinkable to a 1.5-/spl mu/m technology and packaged in a 28-pin DIL (dual in-line) package.


This paper presents the constructions that are used in specifying a stock expert in Korean and English stock market news on the...


Ultra-fast silicon PiN diode is proposed by lateral structure with traps using silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate as shown in Fig. 1. The proposed lateral SOI silicon PiN diode achieved ultra-fast reverse recovery without waveform oscillation successfully. The proposed lateral SOI structure with traps will contributes to performance improvement of all of bipolar power devices including IGBT.


The possibility of using strongly focused coherent fields diffraction for cardiovibration measurements is considered on the basis of a numerical modeling of light scattering by vibrating rough surface. The optical scheme for cardiovibration measurements is suggested. The forming of the output signal of the measuring system has been studied. The region of parameters when the system considered operates in the linear regime has been determined. The influence of profile statistics on investigated system output characteristics has been analyzed.


The objective of the study was to work out the change in total human labour energy requirement on farm and non-farm activities during climate change. Primary data was collected from 60 randomly selected paddy growers of Senapati district of Manipur. Thirty-nine years (1975-2013) state level daily gridded rainfall (0.25 ̊×0.25 ̊) and temperature (1 ̊×1 ̊) data were obtained from India Meteorological Department (IMD). The study revealed that after 1994, Manipur experienced eight years of deficit monsoon rainfall. The labour requirements increased for weeding and transplanting operations during drought period. The additional burden during the drought period was comparatively more on female member of the households. The energy requirement to produce one kg of paddy was significantly higher under drought condition. The increased burden for fuel wood collection was on both male and female during droughts. The male shared the burden of fodder collection whereas, female shared the burden of fetching the drinking water. Therefore, research on developing of farm implements should be prioritized; supply of irrigation and safe drinking water should be addressed urgently by the State Government. JEL codes: Q12, Q15, Q18, Q54


The invention provides a method for cleaning a semiconductor wafer with a cleaning solution containing, in an initial composition, a ammoniumalkalische component, wherein the semiconductor wafer is brought into contact with the cleaning solution in a single-wafer treatment, and in the course of purification of hydrogen fluoride as a further component of the cleaning solution is added and the cleaning solution at the end of the cleaning has a composition which differs from the initial composition.


Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clinical and genetic heterogeneous disease with a poor prognosis. Recent advances in genomics and molecular biology have immensely improved the understanding of disease. The advantages of syndrome differentiation and treatment are strong selectivity, good curative effect and lesser side effects. In recent years, according to the molecular mechanism of acute myeloid leukemia, many new therapeutic targets have been found. New targets of differentiation therapy in recent years, such as cell cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK2), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1, IDH2), Homeobox genes (HoxA9), Dihy-droorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) and some others, are reviewed in this article.


This paper is concerned with a single server retrial queue with a finite number of sources with second optional service. This queueing system assumes that each source can generate a primary call to request service when it is free. After the first phase service, the customer will choose the second phase service with probability p. Our analysis extends previous work on this topic and we can use method of discrete transformation to get some more general results on the length of the queue, busy period and waiting time. Numerical examples show the influence of key parameters on the performance of the system.


AIM To investigate the stability of salvianolic acid D(SalD) in three conditions and provide experimental data for the pharmaceutical preparations of water-soluble components of Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma.METHODS By means of HPLC,comparing the peak area of SalD in different pH,water-ethanol solution and temperature,to analyze the content changes of SalD.RESULTS The experiment results showed that the SalD was stable in weak acid and low temperature conditions and easy convert to other components under the conditions of strong acid and high temperature.CONCLUSION In order to ensure the stability of SalD,it should be kept at low temperature(below 50 ℃),weak acid(pH=3-5) conditions and shorten the heating time during the preparation process.


Languages are in constant change and new words spring all the time, and even though not all of them stick, some come to be part of the language's vocabulary as full-right members. What is aimed for is to contrast the mechanisms English and Spanish have for coining words that prior did not belong to the language, to describe and exemplify each of them and to determine the frequency and productivity they have in each language.


ilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a rare disease in infants and children with a generally unfavourable outcome. Predominant etiologies in the pediatric age group are either idiopathic or the sequelae of myocarditis. Other causes include familial disease, drug therapy, or metabolic, rheumatological, neurological, renal or endocrine disease. DCM is diagnosed by the presence of dilation of the left or both ventricles, with accompanying systolic dysfunction. The prevalence of DCM in infants and children is 36 per 100,000 (1). Survival at one year and five years is approximately 65% and 51%, respectively (2). Cardiac dysrhythmias have been suggested as a risk factor for poor outcome in children with DCM (3-6). The reported incidence of cardiac dysrhythmias in pediatric DCM patients ranges from 19% to 46% on standard electrocardiogram (ECG), Holter monitoring or both (2-12). The prognostic significance of dysrhythmias in children with DCM is controver-sial (2-11). the prevalence of DCM along with a prolonged corrected QT (QTc) interval, and determine whether an association exists between prolonged QTc and survival in cohort of The a number of QT intervals in metabolic dilated cardiomyopathy. OBJECTIVES: The present study determined the prevalence of dilated cardiomyopathy together with prolonged corrected QT (QTc) intervals in The study also examined whether an association exists between prolonged QTc intervals and ventricular dysrhythmia in a patient with cardiomyopathy. BACKGROUND: The morbidity and mortality for pediatric patients with dilated cardiomyopathy remains high and is a clinical challenge. The patient population includes a significant number of Hutterite patients with metabolic disease associated with dilated cardiomyopathy. METHODS: Thirty-eight pediatric patients with dilated cardiomyopathy were reviewed for the presence of prolonged QTc and dysrhythmias. Eleven patients had a metabolic etiology for their dilated cardiomyopathy. RESULTS: Thirty-six per cent of the patient cohort had a long QTc interval. After 50 months of follow-up, the probability of survival for a child with a long QTc interval was approximately 50%. The probability of survival for a child with a normal QTc interval was 72%. Seventy per cent of the patients who died had a metabolic etiology for their dilated cardiomyopathy and a long QTc. CONCLUSIONS: Dilated cardiomyopathy may be associated with a prolonged QTc and may increase the patient's risk for sudden death. The presence of a metabolic etiology for dilated cardiomyopathy increases the risk of death. Children were divided into two groups at presentation, one group with a normal QTc interval and a second group with a prolonged QTc interval. Continuous variables were compared between these two groups using Student's t tests, while between-group comparisons for categorical variables used χ 2 tests of association. Analyses were also conducted to determine whether there was an association between a prolonged QTc interval and ventricular dysrhythmias. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to compare survival rates between children with normal QTc and children with prolonged QTc intervals. The last set of between-group comparisons involved comparing two different groups, children still alive at last follow-up and those who had died. A discriminant function analysis was also conducted to determine which variables best discriminated between children who had survived and those who were deceased. Statistical significance at P<0.05 was used and trends at P<0.10 were also reported.


The non-conventional energy has gained importance in past few years, especially wind energy has been brought into mainstream energy generation. This paper presents design and simulation of offshore windfarm which can be connected to HVDC transmission. The renewable energy source i.e. offshore wind farm situated in deep waters has been designed and simulated using MATLAB software. The system has been tested under normal and abnormal fault condition and simulation results have been obtained.


The present invention relates to the field of pharmaceutical chemistry and therapeutics, and particularly relates to an optically active butylphthalide open-ring derivative as shown in the general formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, preparation methods thereof, pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds, and medical application thereof, especially application in medicines for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular and improvement of heart and brain circulatory disturbance, antiplatelet aggregation medicines, antithrombotic medicines, anti-ischemic medicines, anti-dementia medicines, anti-atherosclerotic medicines, and medicines for anti-diabetes and complications thereof. Pharmacological experimental results show that the compounds have good anti-platelet aggregation activity, anti-thrombotic activity, anti-ischemic activity and neuroprotective effects, and are clinically useful for the preparation of medicines for preventing or treating diseases associated with platelet aggregation.


A single‐element rotating‐polarizer ellipsometer (psi‐meter) was used for in situ characterization of the thermodynamic and kinetic behavior of poly‐(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, thin films (1.2 μm) in solvent/nonsolvent binary mixtures of methyl ethyl ketone/isopropanol (MEK/IPA) and methyl isobutyl ketone/methanol (MIBK/MeOH). Thermodynamic effects were inferred from equilibrium behavior by the degree of swelling and polymer‐solvent solubility. A sharp transition between complete solubility and almost total insolubility was observed in a narrow concentration range near 50:50 (by volume) solvent/nonsolvent for both MEK/IPA and MIBK/MeOH. In the insoluble regime, the polymer was found to swell up to three times the initial thickness. At 50:50 MEK/IPA, a temperature decrease from 24.8 to 18.4 °C caused a change from complete dissolution to combined swelling/dissolution behavior and rendered the PMMA film only 68% soluble. Kinetic effects were determined by dissolution and penetration rate measurements. A co...


This paper investigates the effects of cure temperature and composition on the morphology of polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) composed of the liquid crystal, K21 (4-heptyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl), in a thiol-ene based pre-polymer. PDLCs are composites composed of micron-size liquid crystal droplets dispersed in a solid polymer matrix. The PDLCs were fabricated by photo-initiated, polymerization induced phase separation using a differential photo-calorimeter (DPC). The cure temperatures were chosen based on the temperature-composition phase diagrams of the liquid crystal/pre-polymer mixtures. The characterization of the PDLCs included differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) to determine the nematic-to-isotropic transition temperature (TNI) of the liquid crystal and the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer matrix. Scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) was used to examine phase separated morphology.


The author's address covers the following issues: the ongoing development of standards to facilitate a coordinated response by emergency service operators; inter-service communication - establishment of sufficient technical infrastructure; forecasting change and developing strategies to enable efficient communication. (non-author abstract)


Effects of phonon scattering on random-dopant-induced current fluctuations are investigated in silicon nanowire transistors. Active dopant distributions obtained through kinetic Monte Carlo simulation are introduced into 10nm-gate-length n-type nanowire transistors, and the current-voltage characteristics are calculated by the non-equilibrium Green's function method. The current fluctuation is found to be suppressed by ~ 40% by phonon scatterings at the on-state, while it is very weakly affected at the off-state.


Basic axioms of the theory of continuous media are employed to obtain the field equations and jump conditions of a mixture composed of charged electrons, ions, and neutral hydrogen continuum. Taking into account the bound state of neutrals, a set of nonlinear and linear constitutive equations are obtained. The solution is given for the problem of point charge in plasma with bound charges to illustrate the theory.


The aim of this diploma thesis is to evaluate the real estate tax collection in selected municipalities and to suggest options for improvement in this tax collection with a positive impact on the management of municipalities. The theoretical part analyzes the problem of management municipalities while focusing on the income side of the budget and explains the concepts relating to the real estate tax. The practical part gives an analysis of tax revenue in the selected municipalities of the region of Zlin. Furthermore, this part evaluates the real estate tax collection for individual municipalities. Subsequently, options are designed to increase the revenue of the real estate tax which will have a positive impact on the budgets of municipalities in the form of a higher income.


The hyperelliptic curve cryptosystem system is built over hyperelliptic curve based on the discrete logarithm problem.By virtue of fast group operation on the Koblitz hyperelliptic curve,there is a way to realize digital signature and identity authentication in a limited bandwidth and memory network environment.Using the Newton formula,a new method to fast compute of the order of the Jacobian of Koblitz hyperelliptic curve is given in this paper,which can be achieved without factoring or solving polynomials, and rapidly realization.Then a new way is proposed to find safe hyperelliptic curves.At last some examples are shown.