The author shows that in the contemporary crisis of Christianity fits crisis of questioning his "claim to the truth." Skepticism about the truth that bringing Christianity is supported by the achievements of modern science, which intends to overcome thinking about the existence of man and his relationship to God. To contribute two more factors: critical exegesis and critique of classical metaphysics. In the context of these risks, the Author attempts to read the explanatory signs of the times, pointing to the issue of religious truth through the prism of the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ. The position to be adopted in relation to truth, Author believes for crucial, because it gives rise to this, to talk about the true religion. In this way he desires to make a challenge for Christian thought associated with the current growth and spread of religious movements.


Based on the landscape planning of Rui'an Railway Station Square,the paper put forward new ideas of enhancing the landscape features,layout of the station′s facilities,traffic organization.Through the introduction of the program,we hoped it would be helpful for other transport hub in landscape planning.


The mechanical properties of blood clots are of central importance to hemostasis, thrombosis and embolism. Fibrin fiber networks are the major structural constituent of clots, and numerous studies dating back several decades have characterized their macroscopic viscoelastic properties [1, 2]. The fiber-level and molecular details giving rise to these properties have not been established, however. The correlation between mechanical properties and amino acid sequence is critical for a predictive understanding of the role of genetic defects in clot pathologies. To address this issue, we have developed a nanomanipulation technique for evaluating individual fibrin fibers. It consists of a combination fluorescence/atomic force microscope system that permits viewing of fiber deformation simultaneous with quantitative strain data. Recently we and our colleagues reported on the high extensibility of individual human fibrin fibers [3], with extensibility (or strain at breaking) of some fibers exceeding 300%, and elastic recovery with strains of up to 180%. This places human fibrin among the most extensible protein polymers, exceeding elastin and resilin in extensibility [4]. Here we test the hypothesis that the majority of the strain is taken up by the tandem repeat segment of the flexible αC region of fibrin. Our study focused on this portion of the protein by mechanically evaluating fibrins with varying lengths of the tandem repeat segment. Using our integrated nanomanipulation system, we stretched individual fibrin fibers made of human, mouse and chicken fibrinogen which have long, intermediate and zero length tandem repeat segments respectively. We found that extensibility correlated with the lengths of the tandem repeat segments.

The fibrin monomer is 45 nm long and consists of three pairs of polypeptides (α, β, γ) joined through over two dozen disulfide bridges (for review see [5]) . The monomer has two globular regions (D) on the ends of the molecule joined to a smaller central globular region (E) through a triple coiled-coil (Fig. 1A). The crystal structure for the majority of the fibrinogen molecule has been solved [6]. However, roughly 2/3 of the α chain on the C-terminal end known as the "αC region" (α221-610 in human), has defied definitive structural characterization. These αC regions have been shown to interact and to facilitate fiber formation, and have been implicated in the mechanical performance of clots [7, 8]. What has received less attention is the question of how this portion of the fibrin molecule operates as a mechanical element. The αC region has two distinct parts: the connector region (α221-391 in human) and the terminal region (α392-610 in human). Within the connector region are a series of tandem amino acid repeats. Both the number of repeats and the number of residues within the repeat differ greatly between species [9, 10]. We took advantage of this inherent variability to compare the extensibility of fibers with no tandem repeat segment (chicken), intermediate length (mouse) and long (human) repeat segment (Figure 1B). In human fibrinogen, the tandem repeat segment is 128 amino acids long (10 repeats of mostly 13), in mouse 60 (5 repeats of mostly 13) [10], and in chicken fibrinogen, is completely absent. Consequently, the contour length of the loosely tethered αC region is roughly 22 nm longer in mouse and 50 nm longer in human than in chicken fibrinogen. With two α chains per monomer, this would be a total difference in contour length of 44 nm and 100 nm per monomer.

Figure 1

(A) Cartoon of fibrin molecule depicting released αC region. The thicker checked portion indicates the approximate location of the tandem repeat segment. (B) Schematics of the α chain for human, mouse and chicken. Solid black indicates ...

To test the extensibility of individual fibrin fibers, we polymerized low concentrations of fibrinogen onto micropatterened corrugated surfaces of transparent ridges and channels such that fibrin fibers were suspended across the channels [3, 4]. We then used the combined AFM-fluorescence microscope to stretch the fibers to the point of failure while simultaneously monitoring deformation through video microscopy. Video of the extension was recorded for each pull, and analyzed to determine extensibility. The extensibility is simply the change in length of the fiber segment at the breaking point, divided by the original length (here presented as a percentage). An example stretching sequence is shown in panels C-F of Fig. 1. Our extensibility results are shown in panels G and H of Fig. 1. Extensibility for chicken fibers is 47 +/- 23 % (N=42); mouse: 187 +/- 44 % (N=89); human: 217 +/- 47 (N=75). The differences were significant for each pairing (mouse/human, p=0.0004; chicken/human, p < 0.0001; mouse/chicken, p< 0.0001). Thus the relatively low extensibility of chicken fibrin, and the intermediate values for mouse as compared to human fibers, correlate with the length of their corresponding connector regions.

Along with the mechanical evidence, the primary structure of the repeat segment also suggests mechanical function. The segment is intriguingly reminiscent of repeat sequences in elastomeric proteins such as elastin, resilin, and spider-silk [11]. Though the sequence of the repeats varies in length and content among these proteins, they share some interesting similarities such an unusually high content of glycine and proline (21% and 11% respectively in human fibrin). These amino acids have been implicated as blockers of secondary structure and in high frequency promote amorphous or "natively unfolded" structure [12-14]. Natively unfolded protein domains have been shown to function as non-linear springs [15] as well as providing tethers for multiple interactions facilitated by lack of strict conformational constraints [16].

Fibrin is a very large protein (340 kDa) and has other domains that are candidates for conformational changes under strain. These include the two globular D regions at each end of the protein (the C terminal of the β and γ chains), and the coiled coil region. A recent force spectroscopy study on engineered oligomers of fibrinogen demonstrated that the unfolding of the coiled- coil region could account for a fraction of fibrin's extensibility (up to strains of 100%) [17], while at the same time found no evidence for contribution from the globular D regions. Because that study used engineered, end-to-end linked oligomers, the contribution of the αC region was not addressed. Aside from the variant tandem repeat segment, there are other substantive differences in the primary structures of the three fibrins studied here, and these may influence the species-specific properties. Nevertheless, the similarity of the primary structure of the tandem repeat segment of the αC with other elastomeric proteins suggests it exhibits similar mechanical properties and may have a significant role in the extensibility of fibrin fibers, and ultimately the mechanics of fibrin clots.


Low literacy is an important issue affecting the health of millions of Canadians. At its root, it is a paediatric problem. New evidence suggests that physicians can have a positive role in promoting literacy among their young patients. Physicians need to be aware of the scope of this problem, provide anticipatory guidance to families, and promote reading to babies and children in their practices. Recommendations and strategies are discussed.


Anomaly detectors are used to distinguish the difference between normal and abnormal data, which are usually implemented by evaluating and ranking anomaly scores of each instance. Static unsupervised anomaly detectors can be difficult to adjust anomaly score calculation for streaming data. In real scenarios, anomaly detection often needs to be regulated by human feedback, which benefits to adjust anomaly detectors. In this paper, we propose a human-machine interactive anomaly detection method, named ISPForest, which can be adaptively updated under the guidance of human feedback. In particular, the feedback will be used to adjust the anomaly score calculation and structure of the tree-based detector, ideally attaining more accurate anomaly scores in the future. Our main contribution is to improve the tree model that can be dynamically updated from perspectives of anomaly score calculation and the model's structure. Our approach is instantiated for the powerful class of tree-based anomaly detectors, and we conduct experiments on a range of benchmark datasets. The results demonstrate that human expert feedback is helpful to improve the accuracy of anomaly detectors.


This study examined the behavioral effects of attitude change induced by a communication. Teenagers were exposed to two communications concerning diabetes. These differed in the intensity (high and moderate) with which they presented diabetes as a serious disease which teenagers could contract along with the benefits of diagnostic diabetes tests. Attitudes concerning diabetes were assessed and subjects were offered a diabetes diagnostic test. Results showed that the subject's perception of vulnerability toward the disease affected his participation in the test. The communication altered general attitudes about diabetes but failed to change any of the underlying components constituting this attitude.


This paper was prepared with the aim of knowing the function of the personification style in the lyrics of the song Finding Love and Menemaniku, which was created by the Band Noah. The method used in this research includes two methods, namely methods in linguistics and stylistics. The results obtained in this study are that the personified language style is a language style that can give strength to something as if it can carry out activities / actions such as activities / actions carried out by living things (animals, humans,). The personified language style has a function to describe the atmosphere as if it were real and alive, and can also bring out the atmosphere, impressions / images of certain senses; at the same time it can create beauty (aesthetics) that is in the song lyrics.


In this paper, authors share preliminary findings from TABEDE (Towards Buildings Ready for Demand Response), an innovative, 3-year Horizon 2020 R&D program that aims to scale Demand Response (DR) across all building types. The key element to TABEDE is a Building Management System-Extender (BMS-E) that can either connect remotely to a site's existing BMS to deliver DR capabilities or be installed on site. It will control and optimize building loads directly in response to grid signals. TABEDE includes components that forecast and optimize energy consumption, incorporate DR requests, and control loads across a range of communication protocols. A distinguishing feature of TABEDE is that the solution is being tested in real-world settings at three pilot sites (two residential and one tertiary building), and one simulated district environment. This paper shares preliminary results from the project that show, under certain conditions, energy cost savings of between 6% and 8% are possible at the two residential test sites with TABEDE installed, while widespread implementation of TABEDE at the neighborhood level could increase self-consumption of solar photovoltaic (PV) and mitigate the risk of renewables curtailment.


In today's Big Data era, data scientists require modern workflows to quickly analyze large-scale datasets using complex codes to maintain the rate of scientific progress. These scientists often rely on available campus resources or off-the-shelf computational systems for their applications. Unified infrastructure or over-provisioned servers can quickly become bottlenecks for specific tasks, wasting time and resources. Composable infrastructure helps solve these problems by providing users with new ways to increase resource utilization. Composable infrastructure disaggregates a computer's components - CPU, GPU (accelerators), storage and networking - into fluid pools of resources, but typically relies upon infrastructure engineers to architect individual machines. Infrastructure is either managed with specialized command-line utilities, user interfaces or specification files. These management models are cumbersome and difficult to incorporate into data-science workflows. We developed a high-level software API, Composastructure, which, when integrated into modern workflows, can be used by infrastructure engineers as well as data scientists to reorganize composable resources on demand. Composastructure enables infrastructures to be programmable, secure, persistent and reproducible. Our API composes machines, frees resources, supports multi-rack operations, and includes a Python module for Jupyter Notebooks.


This paper examines whether the number of official visits to and from the U.S. allows the country to adopt a more democratic system of governance. To achieve its objective, the paper develops a model that derives the conditions under which a host invites a guest to persuade or pressure for democratic improvement, and the conditions under which the guest accepts an invitation to visit and decides to improve the quality of democratic governance after the visit. To test our hypothesis, we introduce novel variables that indicate the number of leader's trips to the U.S., and the number of visits of U.S. Presidents and Secretaries of State to the country, from 1960 to 2015. The estimation results show that the official visits have a statistically significant positive effect on democracy. These results are robust. The paper also uses 3SLS to deal with potential endogeneity. The estimation confirms our previous findings that the official visits have a statistically significant positive effect on democracy. Finally, we explore the channels of transmission and find that American administrations use bilateral trade flows and U.S. aid as an incentive for countries to democratize. This supports our model predictions.


The energy transformation is bringing more and more power electronics into the power system. As result, we are moving from a classical electromechanical system to a fully electronic driven system. This change is significantly affecting the dynamics of the power system but also opening completely new opportunities. The presentation will introduce recent studies in the field of dynamic integration of inverters in power grids showing that power electronics can be seen more as opportunities than as a problem. While a full concept of automation for future power system is still part of research, interesting options are emerging showing how the future power electronics-based power system could be actually more reliable than the classical power system.


Online chatting is gaining popularity and plays an increasingly significant role in software development. When discussing functionalities, developers might reveal their desired features to other developers. Automated mining techniques towards retrieving feature requests from massive chat messages can benefit the requirements gathering process. But it is quite challenging to perform such techniques because detecting feature requests from dialogues requires a thorough understanding of the contextual information, and it is also extremely expensive on annotating feature-request dialogues for learning. To bridge that gap, we recast the traditional text classification task of mapping single dialog to its class into the task of determining whether two dialogues are similar or not by incorporating few-shot learning. We propose a novel approach, named FRMiner, which can detect feature-request dialogues from chat messages via deep Siamese network. We design a BiLSTM-based dialog model that can learn the contextual information of a dialog in both forward and reverse directions. Evaluation on the realworld projects shows that our approach achieves average precision, recall and F1-score of 88.52%, 88.50% and 88.51%, which confirms that our approach could effectively detect hidden feature requests from chat messages, thus can facilitate gathering comprehensive requirements from the crowd in an automated way.


Intrinsic Fundamental Frequency (IF0) is a phenomenon that reveals a correlation between vowel height and fundamental frequency whereby high vowels produce higher F0 than low vowels. Some reports in the literature consider IF0 to be universal (Whalen & Levitt, 1995), though Connell's (2002) study reports a neutralization of IF0 in Mambila. This paper studies this phenomenon as it concerns Ìgbò, a west Benue-Congo tone language spoken predominantly in the southeastern part of Nigeria. Ìgbò has eight phonemic vowels, /a e i ɪ o ɔ u ʊ /, which follow a twotone system, high and low. In an attempt to establish the existence or otherwise of IF0 in Ìgbò, this paper examines the correlation between phonemic vowel height and fundamental frequency. Results confirm the existence of IF0 in the language bearing on a positive correlation between pitch and vowel height. It is further shown that IF0 is generally reduced for low tone.


The temperature dependence of birefringence Δ n ( T ) of a triangular lattice antiferromagnet RbMnBr 3 has been measured together with comparative measurements of Δ n 's of related compounds CsMgCl 3 , CsMgBr 3 , RbMgBr 3 , CsMnI 3 , CsMnBr 3 . A structural phase transition of RbMnBr 3 at T S2 =220 K with symmetry-breaking in the hexagonal c -plane has been found. The low-temperature structure below T S2 is suggested as orthorhombic, which can be the origin of an incommensurate spin structure of RbMnBr 3 . Critical exponents of magnetic specific heat are determined as α ′ =0.22±0.06, α=0.42±0.16, which are in fair agreement with the values of the Z 2 × S 1 universality class.


Obesity is a chronic nutritional disease, and its essence is a disorder of body's energy metabolism balance. With the development of people's living standard and change of lifestyle, obesity has become a serious danger to the mankind health. Obesity can trigger a series of chronic metabolic diseases, such as Ⅱ type diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc. However, the chemical products reducing weight have a great variety in the market, side effects and are easy to rebound, in addition to the indispensable needs of weight-loss drugs in market which both provide a platform to develop rapidly for natural medicine and Chinese herbal medicine about reducing weight. But, the active ingredients to reduce weight of most natural medicine and Chinese herbal medicine and the pharmacological mechanism are not clear is the bottleneck to the world. Therefore, this paper reviews the mechanism, classification and molecular level research of active ingredients of natural medicine and Chinese herbal medicine which were researched for weight losing in recent years and also puts forward several opinions to promote its rapid development.


The stability of multiply charged C60 molecules and the different modes of fission and fragmentation have been studied by applying the technique of coincident fragment spectrometry. Neutral C60 fullerenes are multiply ionized up to high charge states in low energy collisions with atomic ions (H+, Arz+(z=4−14), Xez+(z=10−30)). Ionized fullerenes or fragments are analyzed in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. C60q+ molecules in charge states up to q=9 have been found to be stable on a microsecond time scale. In the case of fission, a very asymmetric decay is observed connected with the emission of Cn+ ions with 1⩽n⩽9, but also events with two heavy, nearly equal-sized fragments occur. In the case of multifragmentation, the average fragment size varies with the charge and the temperature of the initially formed fullerene ion.


The installation of large-eddy breakup devices (LEBUs) or 'flow manipulators' in a turbulent boundary layer over a rigid plane surface is known to lead to reductions in skin-friction coefficient, turbulence intensity and fluctuating Reynolds stress. We investigate the effect of such devices on the surface pressure spectrum and the far-field sound radiation. A model problem, in which a two-dimensional elliptical vortex is convected past a LEBU, is solved analytically in the low-Mach-number limit. The main noise source mechanisms are identified in this idealized problem and we go on to obtain scaling laws for the sound produced by a turbulent boundary-layer flow over a LEBU. The introduction of a LEBU reduces the strength of the Lighthill quadrupole source terms, but it produces an additional dipole source. However, the pressure fluctuations in this dipole field decay rapidly with distance from a LEBU, and we find that an array of LEBU's could have a beneficial effect on the flow noise for radian frequencies which are large in comparison with c/30Δ, where c is the sound speed and Δ denotes the boundary-layer thickness. At lower frequencies the LEBUs are predicted to increase the flow noise.


Complaints are submissions in providing suggestions, complaints, reports on events, circumstances and conditions that are not in accordance with standards and regulations. the goals and interests of system users here, the community is an important priority for updating better services for the future, system user satisfaction is needed by the relevant agency or company to provide maximum service. With the creation of this system, it is intended that system users have no difficulty in making complaints or reporting on events that have occurred. By designing a complaint service system with the prototyping method so that system users can immediately make complaints, reports and do not have to come directly to the agency or company. This website will follow up on problems that have occurred and will be given status information whether it has been resolved or not.


This article examines the capability of Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN) and Relevance Vector Machine (RVM) for prediction of Ground Water Table (dw) at Vellore (India). RVM, GRNN and GPR have been adopted as regression techniques. RVM is a probabilistic model. GRNN approximates any arbitrary function between input and output variables. GPR is a nonparametric model. The developed GPR, RVM and GRNN give the spatial variability of dw at Vellore. Map of dw has been also produced by the GPR, RVM and GRNN models. The results show that the developed RVM gives the best model for prediction of dw at Vellore.


Introduction On any given day, the evening lineup found on America's major television networks has a better than average chance of including a show involving forensic science, whether as a fictionalized story or as part of "reality television." Bemused professional death investigators have frequently noted many inaccuracies in such programming: not all murders are complex, the result of a deranged but brilliant serial killer, or solved in 42 minutes; DNA does not play a role in every case; and autopsies are not conducted under a single bare lightbulb on decedents demurely covered with a white sheet. While many facets of death investigation have been depicted on-screen, little time is devoted to a critical element of the post-mortem examination: the histological examination of human tissue. Death Under Glass, a new exhibition of photomicrographs, offers the general public an opportunity to appreciate the arresting morphologic patterns of human tissue and to put the role of forensic histology into context. Created and curated by Marianne Hamel, MD PhD, a forensic pathologist, and Nikki Johnson, MFA, a forensic photographer, Death Under Glass is on display at the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia through December 16, 2014. This article introduces forensic histology and describes the current exhibition.


A high temperature creep measuring apparatus capable of operating over a wide range of
temperatures, humidities and stress levels was developed. To assess its reliability, the
apparatus was used to measure the creep behaviour of nylon6.6 tyre materials, under
different temperature and humidity operating modes. At all operating conditions, cords
exhibited instantaneous extensions on loading followed by steady creep over time with an eventual failure. The results obtained using the apparatus tallied well with results by other researchers, and this indicates that the apparatus can be used as a reliable measuring instrument.


ABSTRACT: Happiness is one of the important aspects that need to be exploited and developed by individuals in various professions. One of the professions to develop happiness is the teacher. Teachers are professions that are vulnerable to stress that can rot on unhappiness. Attention centered care can be a necessary alternative for teachers, who have an indispensable awareness on the internal individual. Effective teaching training to increase happiness in Senior High School teachers. The research method used quasi non-equivalent experiments pre-test and post-test control group design. Subjects in the study were 25 Senior High School teachers. The instrument in this study is OHQ (Oxford Happiness Questionnare). The results showed an increase in training before and after training. Training based on mindfulness can be developed as an alternative treatment for happiness for teachers. Mindfulness is a state that can be achieved by using the potential of internal resources, so the practice of mindful teaching is actually very possible by teachers through structured exercises. Through mindful teaching training, teachers have positive feelings through positive emotions, feel good about the present, and have an optimistic attitude toward the future and to achieve happiness. Happiness is a concept that refers to the positive emotions felt by the individual as well as positive activities favored by the individual. Lastly, the researchers can further test the effectiveness of mindful teaching training with the number of samples more; and can, then, test the effectiveness of mindful training with comparing mindful teaching images at different school levels, such as in kindergarten, elementary, or high school teachers. KEY WORDS : Mindful; Mindful Teaching; T eacher H appiness. About the Author: Syarifah Setiana Ardiati, S.Psi. is a Student of Educational Psychology at the SPs UPI (School of Postgraduate, Indonesia University of Education), Jalan Dr. Setiabudhi No.229 Bandung 40154, West Java, Indonesia. For academic interests, the author is able to be contacted via e-mail at: firstname.lastname@example.com Suggested Citation: Ardiati, Syarifah Setiana. (2019). "Effectiveness Mindful Teaching to Improve Teacher Happiness" in EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies , Volume 11(2), February, pp.109-126. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press owned by ASPENSI with ISSN 1979-7877 (print) and ISSN 2621-587X (online). A rticle Timeline : Accepted (December 14, 2018); Revised (January 15, 2019); and Published (February 28, 2019).


The intense research activity on Twin-Field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) is motivated by the fact that two users can establish a secret key by relying on single-photon interference in an untrusted node. Thanks to this feature, variants of the protocol have been proven to beat the point-to-point private capacity of a lossy quantum channel. Here we generalize the main idea of the TF-QKD protocol introduced by Curty et al to the multipartite scenario, by devising a conference key agreement (CKA) where the users simultaneously distill a secret conference key through single-photon interference. The new CKA is better suited to high-loss scenarios than previous multipartite QKD schemes and it employs for the first time a W-class state as its entanglement resource. We prove the protocol's security in the finite-key regime and under general attacks. We also compare its performance with the iterative use of bipartite QKD protocols and show that our truly multipartite scheme can be advantageous, depending on the loss and on the state preparation.


Low-priced menus may differ greatly in the degree to which they fulfill nutrition requirements, but foods have to be chosen with much discrimination to insure complete nutrition when the margin of cost is very narrow. It was thought that the participation of twelve men from the New York Police Training School in a three weeks' actual trial of menus scientifically arranged would show whether these could be made sufficiently palatable to sustain appetite, in view of an inevitable narrow range in choice of food materials, and that reports from such a demonstration would be useful to the housewife struggling with the problem of the rising cost of living. To reproduce as fully as possible actual home conditions, all the food materials were purchased as required in the local retail stores at local retail prices.


The results showed that the spatial distribution pattern of Colaphellus bowringii Baly population was aggregated under certain densities, and the aggregate intensity varied with the density. The basic elements of distribution was individual colony. The reasons caused the aggregation of larva and adult were habits and environrnental conditions respectively. The sampling method, "Z" pattern was used in the investigation of adult population density. For the larva, the Five Point Pattern was better. The formulae of theoritical sampling number of population density were deduced from the value α and β, which is in the linear regression formula, m=α+βm.


As miscalculations go, David Cameron's decision to hold the Brexit referendum in 2016 must be one of the most regretted. The second-guessing and hand-wringing started almost as soon as the ballot results came in and may never stop. Not ones to resist piling on, we contribute to the post-mortem here by assembling and analyzing the historical record. You may wonder, as we do, what citizens typically do when asked to back elite decisions about matters of higher law? Yea-say, one would think (contra Brexit). But who really knows? For that matter, when and where has the constitutional1 referendum been used, how often, and to what effect? Referenda – and, for us, it is "referenda" not "referendums"2 – have seemingly become a ubiquitous means of ratifying constitutional change. Countries as diverse as Iceland and Uruguay have used referenda in recent years. Indeed, we find that constitutional referenda truly are on the rise, becoming increasingly common especially after 1990. The majority of new constitutions are now approved through referenda. As of 2018, 69 of the 194 national constitutions currently in force (35.6 percent) were ratified through a referendum. And one would expect that figure to rise in the next decade. Importantly, we find that referenda on new (replacement) constitutions almost never fail, while referenda on amendments fail almost 40 percent of the time. We explore this difference and offer some possible explanations for it. We also describe many of the contextual elements of constitutional referenda, such as the regions where constitutional referenda have been more common, the relationship between ratifying referenda and democracy, the trends in usage over time, and the characteristics of the cases in which voters declined to ratify a new constitution. We begin with a broad review of the literature on referenda, and constitutional referenda in particular, and then introduce an original set of data that we have collected to answer such questions.


Esterification of carboxylic acid with equimolar amount alcohol can be efficiently catalyzed by biphasic 4-(benzylamino) formoyldiphenylammonium triflate (BDPAT,3) in good yield. The catalyst can be easily recovered without loss of activity.


The title compounds (4a,b) were synthesized starting with dimethyl α,α'-dibromo-o-benzenediacetate and t-butyl carbazate. Alternate approaches to 4 involving reduction of the appropriate 2-nitrosoisoindoline were found unsuitable because of predominant side reactions.


True Blood is an American series based on the vampires and is produced by Alan Ball. This exciting yet thrilling show is based on novels which are written by Charlaine Harris. The show is telecast on the channel HBO in United States. It was first primered on September 7, 2008. The show received many awards with include Golden Globe and an Emmy. Total five season have been aired and it has been announced that the sixth one will be aired in July June 2013.Gary Calamar supervises the music of the series. One can easily Watch True Blood Online whenever they wish to.


The relay wholesale business has played an important role in our country circulation of commodities.However,as the past circulation system and the market network hub,the relay wholesale business is hit rabidly with the economic system adjustment and the policy environment change.Only by all-round innovation of operation ways,system,management and technology and by enhancing the radiating power of the relay wholesale market,can we have even more vigorous development.


By using the semi-classical density matrix theory, the pulse-laser pumped D2O gas THz laser was calculated numerically by iteration method and analyzed. According to the result, the THz radiation output spectral characteristic curves were obtained, and the relation between the intensity of pumping laser and the output Tera-Hz laser was studied.


It is well recognised that there is currently a crisis in recruiting medical students and doctors to a career in general practice. Around 12% of training posts were vacant for the 2015 application year.1 When research has enquired as to why these groups decide against general practice many reasons have been given including ' wanting to work in acute care ', ' wanting to specialise ', but one that caught our eye was ' wanting to work in a team '.2 Many GPs would argue that at practice meetings and business meetings you are part of a team. However, if we think about what the students see on placement it is quite often a GP sitting in their room facing whatever comes …


Histotripsy produces mechanical tissue fractionation through controlled cavitation. The histotripsy induced tissue erosion is more efficient with shorter (i.e., 3–6 cycles) rather than longer (i.e. 24 cycles) pulses. In this study, we investigated the reasons behind this observation by studying dynamics of the cavitating bubble clouds and individual bubbles during and after a therapy pulse. Bubble clouds were generated at a gel‐water interface using 5 to 30‐cycle 1 MHz pulses at P−/P+>19/125‐MPa pressure and 1‐kHz pulse repetition frequency. The evolution of the overall bubble cloud and individual bubbles were studied using high speed photography. Results show that: 1) within the first 10–15 cycles, the overall cloud grew to its maximum size; the individual bubbles underwent violent expansion and collapse, and grew in size with each cycle of ultrasound; 2) between the 15th cycle and the end of the pulse, the overall cloud size did not change even if further cycles of ultrasound were delivered; the individ...


Phenomena related to porous media dynamics, such as wave propagation and liquefaction, are encountered in many engineering applications, especially, in geomechanics and earthquake engineering. Drawing our attention to fluid‐saturated granular materials with heterogeneous microstructures, the modelling is carried out within a continuum‐mechanical framework by exploiting the well‐established macroscopic Theory of Porous Media (TPM) together with thermodynamically consistent constitutive equations. In this regard, the solid skeleton of the soil is described as an elasto‐plastic material. The underlying equations are discretised and implemented into the coupled porous‐media finite‐element solver PANDAS and linked to the commercial finite‐element package Abaqus through a general interface. This coupling allows the definition of complex intial‐boundary‐value problems through Abaqus, thereby using the state‐of‐the‐art material models of PANDAS. In order to get a detailed understanding of the behaviour of the underlying soil model under dynamic loading conditions, a cyclic torsion test is numerically investigated. (© 2012 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


OvoControl G is a relatively new product that reduces the hatchability of Canada goose (Branta canadensis) eggs. However, little data is available on the cost of application. We present a model for estimating the cost of application of OvoControl G for managing nuisance Canada goose populations. We found that at low goose densities, fixed labor costs are responsible for a significant portion of the cost. As goose densities increase, these fixed costs become equivalent to, and eventually less than, the costs associated with the purchase of the product. We present several scenarios that managers may employ to further reduce the cost of application.


[Objective]The paper aimed to study the changes law of the Starch Phosphorylase Activity in the Other Section of Kernel except Embryo(OSK) of Micro-endosperm Maize during Kernel Development.[Method]With the Gaoyou115 maize as contrast,the Changes law of the starch phosphorylase activity in the other section of kernel except embryo(OSK) of MEM(micro - endosperm maize) were measured.[Result] The starch phosphorylase activity of the OSK of MEM was reached to the maximum during 21 -28 days after pollination.And the maximum starch phosphorylase activity of the OSK of MEM was very significant higher than those of Gaoyou115 maize.Moreover,the maximum starch phosphorylase activity of the OSK of different MEM was very significant different.The significant negative correlation between the average or maximum starch phosphorylase activity and the starch weight of single kernel during harvesting in maize OSK was found by simple correlation analysis.[Conclusion] The degradation of starch in MEM OSK became quickly because of the very higher starch phosphorylase activity,so the starch content of MEM OSK during harvesting was very significant lower than those of Gaoyou115.


The effects of UVA, mixed UVA + B, and solar‐simulated irradiation were examined in human keratinocytes and melanocytes cultured in vitro. Irradiation with UVA, UVA + 3, or the solar simulator caused a dose‐dependent decrease in keratinocyte cell numbers and thymidine incorporation at 24 hours, with recovery after 48 and 72 hours. Divided dose regimens reduced the inhibitory effect of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on cell numbers measured 24 hours after the last irradiation. Exposure to both UVA and UVA + B increased formation of cornified envelopes. Similar irradiance doses of UVA 80 minutes (1.12 J/cm2) and UVA + B 40 minutes (1.04 J/cm2) caused 2.4‐ and 3.3‐fold increases in cornified envelope formation, respectively. With solar‐simulated irradiation, the cornified envelope formation was increased by 3.5‐fold after exposure of 8 minutes (2.6 J/cm2). Irradiation of melanocytes with UVA, UVA + B, or solar‐simulated irradiation resulted in a dose‐dependent decrease in melanocyte numbers after 24 hours compared with sham‐irradiated controls. As a result of UV irradiation, tyrosinase activity of melanocytes measured at 24 hours was stimulated. UVA + B irradiation (1.04 J/cm2) increased tyrosinase activity approximately twofold, while UVA alone (1.1 J/cm2) increased tyrosinase four to sixfold and solar‐simulated irradiation (1.3 J/cm2) increased tyrosinase approximately twofold compared to the control cells. Melanin content increased in cells after both UVA and mixed UVA + B irradiation. These results indicate that both UVA and mixed UVA + B irradiation had qualitatively similar effects on the proliferative and functional activity of skin‐derived cells but that the type of irradiation and the dosage regimen affect the dose‐response relationship. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Oncostatin M (OSM) is a multifunctional cytokine of the interleukin‐6 family and has been implicated in embryonic development, differentiation, inflammation, and regeneration of liver and bone. In the present study, we demonstrated that treatment of human adipose mesenchymal stem cells (hADSCs) with OSM‐attenuated adipogenic differentiation, as indicated by decreased accumulation of intracellular lipid droplets and down‐regulated expression of adipocytic markers, such as lipoprotein lipase and PPARγ. However, OSM treatment stimulated osteogenic differentiation, as demonstrated by the increase in matrix mineralization and expression levels of osteogenic differentiation markers, including alkaline phosphatase, Runx2, and osteocalcin. OSM treatment induced activation of JAK2, JAK3, and ERK in hADSCs, and pre‐treatment of hADSCs with the JAK2 inhibitor, AG490, significantly restored the OSM‐induced inhibition of adipogenic differentiation. Whereas, the JAK3 inhibitor, WHI‐P131, and the MEK inhibitor, U0126, had no effects on the anti‐adipogenic activity of OSM. On the other hand, the pro‐osteogenic activity of OSM was prevented by treatment of the cells with WHI‐P131 or U0126, but not with AG490. These results indicate that distinct signaling pathways, including JAK2, JAK3, and MEK‐ERK, play specific roles in the OSM‐induced anti‐adipogenic and pro‐osteogenic differentiation of hADSCs. J. Cell. Biochem. 101:1238–1251, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Traditional machine learning methods assume that training and testing data must be from the same machine running condition (MRC) and drawn from the same distribution. However, in several real-time industrial applications, this assumption does not hold. The traditional methods work satisfactorily in steady-state conditions but fail in time-varying conditions. In order to utilize time-varying data in variable MRCs, this article proposes a novel low-level knowledge transfer framework using a deep neural network (DNN) model for condition monitoring of machines in variable running conditions. The low-level features have been extracted in time, frequency, and time–frequency domains. These features are extracted from the source data to train the DNN. The trained DNN-based parameters are then transferred to another DNN, which is modified according to the low-level features extracted from the target data. The proposed approach is validated through three case studies on: 1) the air compressor acoustic data set; 2) the Case Western Reserve University bearing data set; and 3) the intelligent maintenance system bearing data set. The prediction accuracy obtained for the above case studies is as high as 100%, 93.07%, and 100%, respectively, with fivefold cross-validation. These real-time results show considerable improvement in the prediction performance using the proposed approach. Note to Practitioners—Condition-based monitoring schemes are widely applicable to rotating machines in various industries since they operate in tough working situations, and consequently, unpredicted failures occur. These unpredicted failures may cause perilous accidents in the industries. CBM systems prevent such failures, which results in the reduction of equipment damage and, hence, increases machinery lifetime. Modern industries are so complex and generating huge data, and these data can be collected using sensors, but placing a large number of sensors is difficult and expensive for different but similar kinds of faults in industries. This also increases the cost due to additional sensors and circuits. In this article, the authors have proposed a novel low-level knowledge transfer framework using the deep neural network (DNN)-based method for condition monitoring of machines in variable running conditions. Low-level features have been extracted to reduce the computations of DNN drastically with improved performance. This article also considered additional faults in the target domain, which is more practical in real-time applications. The proposed scheme has been validated with three case studies on acoustic and vibration signatures.


Several major ways of the coal mine flooding accident are analyzed through "drawing fault tree" method in this paper, and the corresponding preventive measures are put forward, in particular the prevention of the old goaf water flooded areas has important significance to reduce the flood of mine.


Simple Summary The genus Ranunculus (buttercup) includes over 600 species, some of which are endangered, e.g., Illyrian Buttercup. Knowledge of the reproductive biology of such species may be crucial for conservation action. For this purpose, six species with different reproduction modes (nonclonal reproducing sexually by seeds only, clonal propagating by seeds and additionally vegetatively and apomictic) were observed. Selected features related to the efficiency of sexual reproduction were described: pollen viability, number of fruit set, seed viability and germination. It has been shown that in clonal species, which include the Illyrian Buttercup, the efficiency of sexual reproduction is lower compared to nonclonal species. The results will support conservation action taken for this species. Abstract Generative processes have been evaluated in six European buttercup species in order to verify the hypothesis that the reproduction efficiency of clonal species is lower than that of nonclonal ones. The study covered common species (Ficaria verna, Ranunculus auricomus, R. bulbosus, R. cassubicus, R. lanuginosus) and the endangered R. illyricus. The following properties have been assessed: pollen viability (staining method), pollen grain germination and the pollen-tube elongation in pistil tissues (fluorescence microscopy), seed formation efficiency, seed viability (tetrazolium test) and germination ability by introducing factors interrupting dormancy (low temperature and gibberellin application). Additionally, the pistil morphology was documented for R. bulbosus, R. illyricus and R. cassubicus using SEM techniques. It was demonstrated that the reproductive efficiency, expressed as the production of viable seeds able to germinate, was significantly higher in the species reproducing sexually (especially in R. lanuginosus) compared to the clonal ones. However, the complexity observed leads to separation of an additional group (cluster) of apomictic species: R. auricomus and R. cassubicus, distinguished by the lowest pollen viability and a low ability of the seeds to germinate. In the vegetatively reproducing R. illyricus, the seed formation efficiency was just 13.2% despite the having highest number of pistils in its flowers. The developed seeds of this species observed in our experiment were viable, but in general effective methods to stimulate their germination have not been proposed yet. Here, the first comparative study concerning the biology of sexual reproduction of R. illyricus is presented in the context of its decreasing distribution in natural habitats.


This paper investigates the problem of combining ordinal preferences, expressed as priority vectors, to form a consensus. An axiomatic structure relating to the concept of distance between rankings is developed, uniqueness of the distance measure is proven and its form derived. Adopting the median ranking as a form of consensus, it is shown that this ranking can be determined, in the case of complete rankings, by solving a certain assignment problem. The results are compared and contrasted to earlier work due to Arrow, Kendall, Kemeny and Snell, and Bogart.


Available for download is the author's version of the review. The final, publisher's version of the article is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2018.1449704.


Following the computational prediction that (RS)-naproxen would be more stable than the therapeutically used and more studied homochiral (S)-naproxen, we performed an interdisciplinary study contrasting the two compounds. The crystal structure of the racemic compound was solved from powder X-ray diffraction data (Pbca) and showed no packing similarity with the homochiral structure (P21). The binary melting point phase diagram was constructed to confirm the nature of the racemic species, and differential scanning calorimetric and solubility measurements were used to estimate the enthalpy difference between the crystals (ΔHR+S→RScry) to be −1.5 ± 0.3 kJ·mol–1 at T ∼ 156 °C and −2.4 ± 1.0 kJ·mol–1 in the range 10–40 °C. A comparison of the different approximations involved in estimating ΔHR+S→RScry implied that the difference in the lattice energies overestimated the stability of the (RS) crystal. The naproxen lattice energy landscape confirmed that all the practically important crystal structures have been ...


In this article, we aim to compare Vico and Rousseaus ideas about the connections between language and history. Many similarities are found, like the primacy of metaphor through the origins of language, and the correlation between historical and linguistic stages. Notwithstanding, Vico, contrary to Rousseau, tries to combine his historicism, with the hypothesis of a universal mental dictionary.


A strong and sustainable regional economic development is an effective collaboration between the use of existing resources, the community and the government. One of the optimal resource utilization efforts is to develop tourism with the concept of Ecotourism. The industrial revolution 4.0 opens wide opportunities for anyone to advance. Information that is very abundant provides great benefits for the development of science and the economy. People in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0 have a very large dependence on using information technology. Based on the background that has been explained, the problem can be formulated through the question "How to develop economic-based ecotourism business opportunities in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0? The purpose of this study is to describe the development of ecotourism based on the economy of Patuanan Leuwimunding Village, Majalengka, to be a business opportunity in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0. Whereas the research method in the preparation of this research is qualitative research by exploring and understanding the meaning that is considered to come from social or humanitarian problems, focusing on individual meanings, and translating the complexity of a problem. This type of research was chosen because qualitative research is able to provide descriptive data in the form of written or spoken words from the behavior of the people being observed. Forms of economic-based ecotourism development activities are 1. Building local tourism competitiveness based on natural resource conservation, village / local tourism potential, namely plengkung tourism objects that can be used as fishing activities and other community activities at the location of the object. 2. Introduction and utilization of opportunities in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0 through social media as a marketing and promotion medium. Patuanan Village, which has tourist destination locations, introduces and promotes it through social media, including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. The results of ecotourism development activities based on the economy of business opportunities in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0 are 1. Beautifying the tourism object in Plengkung into an object of economic-based ecotourism. 2. Exposing through social media including YouTube.


Accurate music tag classification of music clips has been attracting great attention recently, because it allows one to provide various music excerpts, including unpopular ones, to users based on the clips' acoustic similarities. Given a user's preferred music, acoustic features are extracted and then fed into the classifier, which outputs the related tag to recommend new music. Furthermore, the accuracy of the tag classifiers can be improved by selecting the best feature subset based on the domain to which the tag belongs. However, recent studies have struggled to evaluate the superiority of various classifiers because they utilize different feature extractors. In this study, to conduct a direct comparison of existing methods of classification, we create 20 music datasets with the same acoustic feature structure. In addition, we propose an effective evolutionary feature selection algorithm to evaluate the effectiveness of feature selection for tag classification. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed method improves the accuracy of tag classification, and the analysis with multiple datasets provides valuable insights, such as the important features for general music tag classification in target domains.


During the centuries of Venetian rule in Dalmatia, the Church was tightly connected with the major structures of the so called »divided society«, especially with the numerous pre-modern lay, class and communal (municipal) institutions. Short periods of, so called, the first Austrian administration (1797-1806) and the French rule (1806-1814) revealed unreadiness of the »societies« and the Church in Dalmatia to be more radically modernized. Position of the Church towards lay societies and the state significantly changed only with the implementation of the bull Locum Beati Petri that had been issued by pope Leo XII in 1828. Namely, after the years of Habsburg political pressure to the Holy See the result was an ecclesiastical reorganization, which was followed by termination of many bishoprics on the Eastern Adriatic coast. This process was accompanied with extensive efforts of central Austrian government regarding the centralization of administrative and juridical institutions, taxations, education system, as well as concerning secularization of the ecclesiastical and religious resources in order to modernize state institutions and their efficiency. In spite its autocratic character, together with its limited possibilities and social limitations, Habsburg rule in Dalmatia managed to reform administration and up to the mid-nineteenth century create efficient administrative and juridical structure that had some elements of a modern state. During this process central government mostly used Church and clergy because they were the most educated part of the local population. In the appendix of the article author delivers text of the final report regarding the implementation of the bull Locum Beati Petri, written by the Joseph Walland, archbishop of Gorica, and Anton Alois Wolf, bishop of Ljubljana, which was addressed to the Dalmatian governor baron Francis Tomasic.


The electron microscope has profoundly altered the science of pathology. The instrument and the necessary associated technology have brought to view those cell structures that before had been seen dimly, erroneously, or not at all. Hydropic degeneration appears under the electron microscope variously as the swelling of the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, lysosomes, or the cell sap. Senile plaques, alcoholic hyalin, and amyloid deposits can be resolved into their filamentous components. Microtubules, microfilaments, and cell junctions are visualized in pathologic reactions. While electron microscopy is not routine in surgical pathology, its use is widespread, particularly for renal and hepatic biopsies, and expanding. Ghadially has made a valiant effort to create an atlas of ultrastructural pathology. His major objective is a compendium to which the pathologist, confronted with an unfamiliar alteration in his electron micrographs, can turn to initiate his inquiry. Unfortunately, the scope of ultrastructural pathology already demands an encyclopedia. Ghadially's


The role of a magnetic field present during formation of a ferromagnetic nanocontact—established by mechanically pulling a thin dysprosium wire—is investigated. We demonstrate that the shape of the nanocontact depends on the strength and direction of the magnetic field applied during plastic deformation of the contact. The different contact shapes obtained after cycles of tensile or compressive stress are attributed to the rearrangement of magnetic domains during formation of the nanocontact by magnetoelastic coupling.


A statement of goals pertaining to second year instruction must of necessity be predicated upon what is accomplished or what is striven for during the first year. While I am a firm advocate of that first year approach which makes effective use of direct, functional, oral techniques, I likewise am convinced that the best interests of the overwhelming majority of our students are served with reading ability as the paramount goal. By reading ability I mean, of course, as do all of us, the ability to read, not decipher or decode.


The results of the application of two kinds of models for the simulation of the nocturnal cooling process of air close to the ground are presented, aiming at forecasting frost episodes in alpine valleys. A first group of models adopts non-linear equations to describe nocturnal cooling. Reuter's algorithm stems from the solution of the thermal conduction equation; its calibration parameters have been determined by means of multiple linear regression on time series of data from measurements of various meteorological variables relevant for the phenomenon under examination. Other formulations (Brunt, Swinbank, Chudnosky) make use of empirical coefficients, which were calibrated for any single site of interest. A second approach adopts a neural network system, which requires as an input some typical temperature values, day duration and wind forecast. Results of the application of the above methods to real cases in Trentino, northern Italy, are compared. Along with some examples of time series of both measured and forecast data, the standard forecast verification indicators usually adopted in the literature are evaluated and discussed. An analysis of model performances in the different sites allows a choice of the best performing models, and eventually an improvement in the skill of frost forecast.


Consider three cases: First Case (pages 2-4): Does E8 represent Realistic Standard Model plus Gravity ? Consensus = NO Individual = YES Second Case (pages 5-29): Our Universe: Is it Stable ? Consensus = NO (only metastable) Individual = YES Third Case ( pages 30-36 ): Dark Energy and Dark Matter Consensus = Unknown Individual = Segal Conformal Structure This paper is a brief description of interactions between Consensus and Individual in each of those cases, where: Consensus = the Physics Establishment including: Organizers of 2010 Banff Workshop on Structure and Representations of Exceptional Groups (page 3-4); Moriond 2017 (page 4); the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study (page 4); and the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics (page 4); Fermilab, CDF, and D0 Collaborations (pages 9-17); the Cornell arXiv (pages 16; 30-31); CERN CDS (pages 17; 31); LHC, ATLAS, and CMS Collaborations (pages 18-29) and Individual = I, a Georgia lawyer with a 1963 AB in math from Princeton and some physics study at Georgia Tech with David Finkelstein as adviser, but, having at age 50 failed the Fall 1991 Georgia Tech Comprehensive Exam ( a 3-day closed book exam ), I have no physics degree. Version 2 (v2) adds correct viXra number and some details about Fermilab data. Version 3 (v3) adds the First Case, more details, and gives Thanks to ATLAS for ATLAS-CONF-2017-058 stating existence of a possible 240 GeV Higgs Mass State at 3.6 sigma local significance.


As with other companion animal species, obesity is an increasing concern in pet rabbits, with studies reporting obesity prevalences of between 7 and 24 per cent. This study aimed to assess the effects of four diet regimes on weight gain and body condition score in rabbits. Thirty-two Dutch rabbits were included in the study. At around four months of age, they were randomly assigned to four groups of eight and fed one of four diets: unlimited hay only; extruded pellets (50 g per day) and unlimited hay; muesli (60 g per day) and unlimited hay; and muesli only (125 g per day). The rabbits were kept on the assigned diets and monitored for nine months. At the beginning of the study, there were no significant differences in bodyweight between the groups. All groups gained weight during the study period, but by the end of the trial there were significant differences between the groups in terms of weight. Rabbits on the muesli-only diet were on average 146 per cent heavier than rabbits given only hay (2.59 kg versus 1.80 kg). The rabbits fed extruded pellets and hay were 125 per cent heavier than those given hay only (2.21 kg versus 1.80 kg) and those fed muesli and hay were 123 per cent heavier (2.18 kg versus 1.80 kg). There were also significant differences between the groups in terms of body condition score at the end of the trial, with rabbits fed only muesli having a significantly higher average body condition score than all of the other groups. Rabbits in the hay only group had by far the lowest body condition score on average but this score was considered to be ideal (around 3). There was no difference in body condition score between the group fed extruded pellets and hay and the group fed muesli and hay. The authors conclude that rabbits are able to maintain a body condition score in the 'ideal' range when fed only hay. However, they note that other nutritional factors such as vitamin intake were not assessed, and so a diet of hay supplemented with small amounts of concentrate diet might be beneficial in growing rabbits. They note that the rabbits fed only hay did not reach the breed standard weight, but that these weights are a reflection of sizes in show rabbits, which might not have ideal body condition scores. They suggest that the feeding of muesli on its own should be avoided to prevent obesity.


The concept of sustainability in the last age has become amplified. Its beginning can be traced far back in the fields of economics and natural resources, relating to the content of natural stocks, the Malthusian concept of resource exhaustion due to population increase. The theory that the spatial form of factors in an urban region influences ecosystem dynamics is based along the estimate that the spatial forms of the urban setting alter the biophysical structure and habitat and act upon the flows of resources. Just recently the relationship between urban patterns and energy efficiency, energy saving or renewable energy local exploitation is getting more and more significant. The much important challenge in this matter always is connected to how we can evaluate different views of the main subjects and can be aware of proper results to have best conclusion. Anyway, for this evaluation new methods need to have adopted by newest technologies that extract accurate data and data. All of new approaches such as, City as a system, Urban metabolism VS Pattern Oriented, integrated PSR-POM approach for urban energy systems and etc. lead to present newest models and tools like Pixel by pixel analysis, Pixel by pixel analysis, Ranking system, Multivariate statistical analysis, LIDAR system and other tools, nevertheless in this paper the methods will be presented to know how can measure with this standard in urban morphology field in the approach to energy sustainability.


Machine learning, with its huge untapped potential, is being researched all over the world to develop truly intelligent systems. Its applications are not enclosed in just one domain but in almost everything, from prediction models, recommender systems, and anomaly detection to automation and teaching a computer how to fly a helicopter. In this research, Multivariate Linear regression of supervised machine learning is studied to predict the efficiency of Industry 5.0, however, the efficiency of the model would be dependent on many factors and components such as security protocols and models, Industrial IoT - performance, connectivity, reachability, availability and many more. These factors and components would be categorized as the features of the algorithm which would be assigned weight 'w' and bias 'b'. To improve the efficiency of the model, these components could be changed and updated in order to enhance the overall model. Previous research papers discussed the integration of "hot" technologies like 5G, Blockchain, AI, and IIoT in the industry 5.0 model, but this research is presented as their future work as it proposes to determine the efficiency of the model based on the features provided so that ultimate and optimal model could be determined. Later it proposes security and IIoT models that could improve the overall Industry 5.0. Quorum blockchain is proposed by the research in order to implement the ultimate security in the Industry 5.0.


The role of reading comprehension and its correlation and prediction to other skills in terms of enhancing the proficiency level of students in English language has been widely recognized by researchers. However, research conducted on reading comprehension in roughly the last fifteen to twenty years shows no concrete evidence of identifying the knowledge of the transition words with the understanding of reading comprehension. This study was particularly designed to fill that gap and to measure students' ability to differentiate among various categories of expressions in English language, such as descriptive, narrative, sequence, comparison and contrast, and cause and effect, and to identity the functions of their derivative transitions in the reading comprehension task. The current study adapted a quantitative method and collected data from 100 male and female EFL students at the tertiary level in a Bangladeshi university to conduct this study. To be specific, this research used transition words as the predictor variable/independent variable and reading comprehension as the dependent variable. The findings of the research suggested that there were positive and significant correlations between students' knowledge of the transition words and their level of understanding the reading comprehension. In addition, the transitional word was found to be a strong predictor of reading comprehension. This study strongly suggests that students with a better understanding of transition words can perform equally better in their reading comprehension tasks. For tertiary level students, the knowledge of transitional words would be useful, and it would also have significance for lexical scholars and curriculum designers.


Industrial applications have a significant impact on heat and corrosion resistance of materials at high operating temperatures. Some coatings are applied to protect materials from corrosive environment. Since automotive engines contain vanadium and sulphate in dirty fuels, these salts increase the rate of corrosive wear at high temperatures. In this study, the resistance of the coated materials to these undesirable salts at high temperatures in the laboratory environment and the possible macro and microstructural changes that may occur in the field were investigated. Samples prepared from spherical graphite cast iron material were coated with Amdry 9624 (NiCrAlY) and Amdry 9951(CoNiCrAl) metallic powders by High Volume Oxy-Fuel (HVOF) method from Thermal Spraying methods. The adhesion properties of the coating layer were analyzed by Rockwell-C Adhesion method. In addition, Vanadium Pentaoxide (V2O5) and Sodium Sulphate (Na2SO4) salt mixture was applied to the coating surfaces and then Hot Corrosion test was carried out in a well type oven at 500 ° C, 600 ° C and 700 ° C for 6 hours. Macro and microstructural changes on the surface of the samples subjected to the Temperature Corrosion test were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) methods. It was determined that the adhesion strength of both coatings obtained from two different metallic powders as a result of the Rockwell-C adhesion test was in the acceptable (HF1) category according to VDI 3198 principles. Two different metallic powders, Amdry 9624 and Amdry 9951, were coated by HVOF method and samples tested at 500°C for hot corrosion were found to have no corrosion products with corrosive salts and interaction with the atmosphere. At temperatures of 600°C and 700°C, Amdry 9624 coatings were found to be Ni3V2O8, NaCrV2O7 and AlV2O4, Amdry 9951 coatings CO1.5Ni1.5 (VO4) 2 and AlV2O4 vanadate compounds as corrosion products. It has been determined that the corrosion products in the form of vanadate compounds on the surfaces of the samples subjected to the hot corrosion test have thin, long and colonsal structures in the SEM images. It has been found that both coatings protect the substrate material from corrosive external influences and no diffusion mechanism from the coating layer to the substrate material occurs. It has been observed that there is no obvious reduction in coating thicknesses after the hot corrosion test.


The researchers hope that educational theory research should be localized. However,our educational theory research has been influencing by western educational theories,our primary educational theory can't be created. Robert K. Merton's thought of middle-range theory can provide us a possible choice that constructing the middle-range theory between western primary theory and our local practice which can help us to realize localizing educational theory research. In order to localize educational theory research,the researchers should face western theories with a rational and critical attitude, penetrate deeply into local practice,has worldwide viewpoint and cherish our traditional culture.


Women with epilepsy are at particular risk of developing side effects due to antiepileptic drugs (AED). Neuroendocrine disorders in women can be caused by both epilepsy itself and the therapy. This literature review aims to evaluate safety and tolerability of different AED in girls and women of reproductive age, incidence of neuroendocrine disorders associated with AED, and pregnancy outcomes in women with epilepsy. We also provide some own research results. We conducted a retrospective analysis of data for 345female patients aged between 15 and 40 years that were followed up at the Svt. Luka's Institute of Child Neurology and Epilepsy between 2000 and 2018. We also performed a separate analysis of neuroendocrine disorders and pregnancy outcomes in these women. We found that 65 patients (18.8 %) developed pronounced neuroendocrine reproductive and cosmetic disorders (menstrual disorders, including dysmenorrhea, opsomenorrhea, amenorrhea, anovulatory cycles, and infertility; cosmetic neuroendocrine disorders, including obesity, hirsutism, and hair loss; adverse pregnancy outcomes), which significantly reduced the quality of life. Neuroendocrine disorders were observed in 55patients, whereas adverse pregnancy outcomes were registered in 10 (14.2 %) out of 70pregnancies. Our findings suggest that the majority of women with epilepsy successfully gave birth to healthy children. The outcome of pregnancy depends on many factors, including the use of different AED. Valproic acid has the highest teratogenic potential. In our study, neuroendocrine reproductive disorders were primarily reported by women receiving valproic acid. Carbamazepines were the second most common AED associated  with teratogenic effects and reproductive disorders. The most favorable results were observed in women receiving new AED, including oxcar- bazepine, topiramate, and levetiracetam.


The clinical course and histologic features of 118 granulose cell tumore adn 82 theca cell tumors were reviewed. Al-though the 2 cell types are related, important differences exist in their behavior. Theca cell tumors (TCTs) are virtually benign, while granulosa cell tumors (GCTs) exhibit less malignant activity than most ovarian carcinomas. Characteristically detected at an early stage, GCTs may recur locally year after the initial diagnosis. survivial figures depend on tumor stage. Recurrence of GCTs is associated with a high mortality rate. The cornerstone of treatment is total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, regardless of age. Adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy may be helpful when lesions are higher than stage Iai. Therapy for recurrence usually requirs operative execision combined with radiation, chemotherapy, or both.


The lattice-gas model was extended for problems of molecular flows in gaseous and liquid aggregate conditions. Kinetic theory has allowed to construct the Navier-Stokes type equations, which were used for describing dynamics of molecular flows on atomic-molecular level for fluids in narrow pores and for contact line motions on open surfaces. New approach gives possibilities for investigation of various molecular flow processes in wide time interval from the picosecond scale up to the millisecond scale and the lattice-gas model can be used as unified technique for dynamics processes in all three aggregate states.


NUTRITIONAL anemia is prevalent all over the world, with an estimated one billion people being iron deficient (1). Recent data from the District Nutrition Project (Indian Council of Medical Research) in 16 districts of 11 states, on prevalence of anemia in non pregnant adolescent girls (11-18 years) showed rates as high as 90.1% with severe anemia (Hb <7 g/dL) in 7.1%(2). In a study by Kapoor and Aneja(3) from public and government schools in Delhi, anemia among adolescent girls was as high as 50.8%. Compared to the vast amount of work done in pregnant mothers and young children, there are relatively few published studies on the prevalence of anemia in adolescents and associated cataract formation in patients with atopic dermatitis. Arch Dermatol 1994; 130: 1387-1392.


In this paper, preparation and characteristic evaluation of microwave absorber materials of BaFe 12-2x Mn x Ti x O 19 (x = 0.0 - 1.5) compositions are discussed. The absorber material was obtained by a co-substitution of Mn and Ti to Fe in a Barium Hexaferrite (BaO.6Fe 2 O 3 ) basic compound through a mechanical alloying process. In this respect, a co-substitution of Mn and Ti ions for Fe was applied to Fe 2 O 3 component at a temperature ~ 1,300 °C. The substituted alloy component was further alloyed mechanically with BaCO 3 to form M-Type hexaferrite after the solid state reaction. Identification of X-Ray diffraction peaks for the mechanically alloyed materials indicates confidently that a single phase BaFe 12-x-y Mn x Ti y O 19 material was formed. Materials characterization is covering the average grain sizes and absorption of microwaves in the frequency range 1-6 GHz. Absorption with a relatively high coefficient at frequencies ~ 2,000 MHz and ~ 3,500 MHz within the available frequency range was obtained. It is shown that the co-substitution of Mn and Ti ion able to widen the absorption frequency especially in the frequencies of about 3,500 MHz Keywords: Radar Absorber Materials (RAM), Type-M barium hexaferrites, Grain size, S-band frequency.


The objective of this work was to study the effects of substitution of DL-Methionine (DL-Met) by Methionine Hidroxi Analogue free acid (MHA-FA)in on equimolar basis, at different levels, as source of Methionine for broilers, from 1 to 44 days. Seven hundred male one day old chicks (ROSS), were used. The experimental design was in BLOCKs, to avoid ambiental effects, chicks were randomly distributed in five treatments with seven replicates of twenty birds each. The constitution of treatments was based on the substitution of DL-Met by MHA-FA in equimolar basis (0;25; 50; 75 and 100%). Diets were isonutritives for all treatments, differing only in respect to the source of Methionine. The parameters evaluated in this study were: body weight, feed consumption, feathering, abdominal fat pad, carcass yeld and liver weight. No significant differences between sources of Methionine were observed for the parameters, no matter the level of substitution, with exception for feathering, were the use of MHA-FA give the poorest result. Based on the results, one can conclude that the substitution of DL-Met for MHA-FA, in equimolar basis, produce the same performance of broilers, from 1 to 44 days.


Based on the solidification of twin-roll continuous casting thin strip,the analytical model of heterogeneous nucleation,the amended growth of tip and columnar dendrity transformation to equiaxis dendrity(CET) of twin-roll continuous casting thin strip solidification are established by means of the principle of metal solidification and based on the cellular automaton,the emulational model of twin-roll continuous casting thin strip solidification is established.Simulated results showed that the grain growth in random preferential growth directions can be described by the model reasonably,and the simulated results were coincident with actual phenomena.Meanwhile has confirmed the mathematical simulation feasibility by using the solidification process of twin-roll continuous casting aluminum thin strip.


Saltwater intrusion problems have been usually tackled through analytical models because of its simplicity, easy implementation and low computational cost. Most of these models are based on the sharp‐interface approximation and the Ghyben–Herzberg relation, which neglects mixing of fresh water and seawater and implicitly assumes that salt water remains static. This paper provides insight into the validity of a sharp‐interface approximation defined from a steady state solution when applied to transient seawater intrusion problems. The validation tests have been performed on a 3D unconfined synthetic aquifer, which include spatial and temporal distribution of recharge and pumping wells. Using a change of variable, the governing equation of the steady state sharp‐interface problem can be written with the same structure of the steady confined groundwater flow equation as a function of a single potential variable (ϕ). We propose to approach also the transient problem solving a single potential equation (using also the ϕ variable) with the same structure of the confined groundwater flow equation. It will allow solving the problem by using the classical MODFLOW code. We have used the parameter estimation model PEST to calibrate the parameters of the transient sharp‐interface equation. We show how after the calibration process, the sharp‐interface approach may provide accurate enough results when applied to transient problems and improve the steady state results, thus avoiding the need of implementing a density‐dependent model and reducing the computational cost. This has been proved by comparing results with those obtained using the finite difference numerical code SEAWAT for solving the coupled partial differential equations of flow and density‐dependent transport. The comparison was performed in terms of piezometric heads, seawater penetration, transition zone width and critical pumping rates. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective: To study the value of light reflection rheography (LRR) as a diagnostic tool in subjects with varicose veins and venous insufficiency. Design: A prospective study comparing patients and workers with an occupation necessitating standing. Setting: Departments of Dermatology and Vascular Surgery, University Hospital VU, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and several manufacturing plants throughout the country. Subjects: Group I: 123 patients (168 legs) with a history of primary varicose veins attending the outpatient clinic; Group II: 374 male workers (748 legs) with an occupation necessitating standing. Methods: A questionnaire on venous disorders was administered, followed by clinical investigation, continuous-wave (c/w) Doppler ultrasound and LRR examination. LRR measurements were performed above the medial malleolus. A refilling time of at least 25 s after 10 dorsiflexions at the ankle was considered normal. In the case of shorter refilling times the procedure was repeated with a tourniquet above the probe. Normalization of the refilling time indicates an incompetent superficial venous system and a normal deep system. If there was no change we concluded deep venous insufficiency was present. Furthermore, in group I, duplex investigation of the venous system was performed. Main outcome measures: The diagnostic conclusions of the LRR measurements were compared with the diagnosis based on duplex investigation (group I) and clinical examination combined with c/w Doppler investigation (group II). Results: Group I: duplex investigation showed 156 cases of superficial venous insufficiency; LRR, 33. Sensitivity of LRR: 20%. Group II: Clinical and c/w Doppler examination showed 189 cases of superficial venous reflux; LRR, 29. Sensitivity of LRR: 7%. Conclusion: LRR has no apparent additive value in diagnosing superficial varicose veins in patients with a history of primary varicosities nor in screening a population for the presence of venous insufficiency.


The rectal foreign body is a rare presentation with rising incidence. We present a case of a 26-year-old heterosexual male with an alleged history of sexual assault with insertion of a large foreign body through the anus two days prior with peritonitis. After investigations, the patient underwent an exploratory laparotomy, foreign body removal, primary repair of perforation with a diverting colostomy. Diversion must be considered in cases where the extent of anal sphincter mechanism injury is in question. The patient had a good outcome. Assessment of the shape, size, nature, and location of the object through appropriate imaging is necessary. Exploratory laparotomy is inevitable in cases of perforation.


The author measured a participant's heart and brain electrical fields simultaneously using EEG electrodes and neurofeedback software while her psychophysiological state was being varied. In the first session, the participant was in an awake-alert state in bright light; in the second she was in a drowsy state in dim light; in both conditions recordings were made with eyes open and eyes closed. Significant differences in EEG amplitude were found in both the brain and heart electrical fields comparing the psychophysiological states of eyes open/eyes closed and alert/drowsy. It is possible to study the participation of peripheral nerve centers such as the cardiac plexus in psychophysiological state change and information processing.


Hot deformation behavior of iron‐nickel based superalloy (multimet N‐155) was investigated by hot compression tests, carried out in the deformation temperature of 850 °C–1150 °C with strain rates of 0.001–0.1 s−1. The results showed that during the hot deformation of the alloy, under the same temperature, the flow stress rises with the increase of strain rate. At the same strain rate, the flow stress decreases with the increase of the temperature. The constitutive equations of the alloy that describe the flow stress as a function of strain rate and deformation temperature were established and the calculated apparent activation energy was 584.996 Kj/mol. The results of metallographic analysis showed that the amount of dynamic recrystallization in the peak efficiency domain is higher than the other domains. The results also showed that by increase of deformation temperature and/or decrease of strain rate, the volume fraction of dynamic recrystallization increases. Processing maps under different strains were constructed for evaluation of flow instability regime and optimization of processing parameters. The optimum hot working window for alloy was obtained at the temperature range of 925 °C–1050 °C and strain rate of 0.001–0.003 s−1, with peak efficiency of 28 %.


Majority of the students in India study in vernacular medium for their primary and secondary education. Dur- ing their study they do not get that good exposure of English language. For learning any foreign language, four major skills should be balanced equally. Instead of using all four major skills, the students only make use of two skills: listening and reading and sometimes writing also but only for their home works. They never get chance to speak in front of the class and among their groups. During a small survey, while interviewing a group of students, the researcher found some of their problems with English language. The students were complaining about grammar, sentence structure, pronunciation etc. But the majority of the students had problem with vocabulary. The sample group students claimed that, they know the word in their mother tongue but when they are asked to give its proper word in English, they fail. After the survey, the researcher, observed other stu- dents as well. And the conclusion was that a big number of vernacular medium students find problem with their vocabulary. This gave an idea to the researcher to bring a suitable way out to this problem. Group discussion is considered to be the most effective approach of learning a language and logically arguing things. If group discussion is arranged, the learners should have some basic knowledge of language to present their views in favor or against the proposition. They should also have knowledge of how to put across one's ideas. Group discussion is an important activity in academic and administrative spheres. It is a systematic and purposeful interac- tive oral process. Here the exchange of ideas, thoughts and feelings take place through oral communication. The exchange of ideas takes place in a systematic and structured way. The participants sit facing each other almost in a semi-circle and express their views on the given topic/issue/problem. Group discussion can also be used in classroom situations. Students, most of the times, do not get chance to use their target language orally. In this situation, group discussion is a tool that a teacher can easily use in classroom and make the class interactive. Through group discussion students learn how to present their thoughts, how to make an argument, how to present counter argument, what words or phrases should be used while presenting an idea or an argument. Hence in the present paper the researcher explores the use of small group discussion to enhance vocabulary of ESL students.


This study interprets results of multiparametric measurements obtained on a pipeline experiencing dynamic stray currents caused by DC train traction. Measurements included three 24 h recordings of pipe-to-soil and rail-to-soil potentials, pipe-to-rail voltages and drainage currents in cases without mitigation measures, with polarized drainage and with forced drainage. Time domain analysis included construction of frequency diagrams and linear correlation between pipe-to-soil potentials and pipe-to-rail voltages. Wavelet space analysis pinpoints time intervals with harmful stray current periods within them and resolves between the dominant potential shifts due to the nearby passing trains and distant trains in the transport network.


Preservatives in soft drinks and wines were determined by ion chromatography using a Toyo Soda IC-Anion-PW column. Three UV detectors in series were used at wavelengths of 225, 254 and 272nm for qualitative information, respectively. The effect of pH, ion concentration of sulfamic acid and concentration of organic solvent on retention times of organic acids were investigated to determine optimum conditions for benzoic, sorbic, dehydroacetic, and 4-hydroxybenzoic acids. Benzoic acid and sorbic acid in soft drinks and wines were satisfactorily determined with 6mM sulfamic acid as an eluent.


The Syrian conflict started on January 26th, 2011. At first, the conflict in Syria was an internal conflict between the government of Bashar Al Assad and the Rebel, the descent into war began with the violent and brutal repression of peaceful pro-reform protests, which later turned into an armed uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and has since become a regional conflict involving state and non-state actors. In the development of the conflict, some parties intervened to provide support for the Bashar al-Assad. One of the countries that intervene against Syria is Russia. In the armed conflict which happened in Syria on September 2015 and early October 2016, more than 9,000 people, including 4,000 Syrian civilians, were killed by the Russian airstrikes. The International Humanitarian Law hostilities regulate the protection of victims of conflict and restrictions on the means and methods of warfare. This study aims to identify the obstacles of legal enforcement of international humanitarian law toward un-targeting attack in Syria. In addition, this study tries to reveal the responsibility of these states, both Russia and Syria for the loss and injury caused by an un-targeting attack. The result shows that the obstacles of law enforcement in Syria case caused Syria is not a state party in several international conventions. Therefore, these conventions are not applicable formally in the armed conflict in Syria. Based on International Humanitarian Law, Syria Government is responsible for the un-targeting attack that occurred in Syria, and required to make full reparation for the loss or injury caused by such violations.  They are required to make full reparation for the loss or injury caused by an un-targeting attack. Furthermore, Individuals belonging to an Organizations or State are held personally responsible before the law. Then, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must carry out UN Charter Articles 41 and 42 and UNSC as the main organ responsible for maintaining international peace and security.


Ghost elimination is considered as a vital phase towards the moving object detection problem. Despite all the efforts of the existing methods have been made so far, finding an accurate and fast computational approach to solve ghost elimination is still a challenging problem for moving detection. In this paper, we propose a novel motion detection approach based on the ViBe algorithm. We employ the weighted window to select the dynamic adaptive optimal parameter for the ViBe model firstly. After that, the model integrates the inter-frame difference algorithm to accelerate the process of the ghost elimination. Experiment results show that our approach can detect the moving objects in real-time and get the higher accuracy result in the comparisons with the existing approaches.


In his Principall Navigations of 1589, the celebrated Renaissance editor and proponent of English expansion in the Americas Richard Hakluyt the Younger published a Latin version of The Book of Sir ...


The cell-suppression problem (CSP) is a very large mixed-integer linear problem arising in statistical disclosure control. However, CSP has the typical structure that allows application of the Benders decomposition, which is known to suffer from oscillation and slow convergence, compounded with the fact that the master problem is combinatorial. To overcome this drawback, we present a stabilized Benders decomposition whose master is restricted to a neighborhood of successful candidates by local-branching constraints, which are dynamically adjusted, and even dropped, during the iterations. Our experiments with synthetic and real-world instances with up to 24,000 binary variables, 181 million (M) continuous variables, and 367M constraints show that our approach is competitive with both the current state-of-the-art code for CSP and the Benders implementation in CPLEX 12.7. In some instances, stabilized Benders provided a very good solution in less than 1 minute, whereas the other approaches found no feasible solution in 1 hour. This paper was accepted by Yinyu Ye, optimization.


The spirit of Jinggangshan is a revolution spirit which has richful scientific connotation.On the journey to new century,it still has immeasurable educational value.To realize the educational value of Jinggangshan spirit,one has to take the socialist honour and disgrace education as effective carrier;besides,to regard the construction of the harmonious society as the favorable opportunity is the new route in the new age to realize the educational value of the spirit of Jinggangshan.


In this work it is presented a numerical procedure for solving transient heat transfer problems in which the thermal diffusivity is strongly dependent on the temperature, with the aid of the Kirchhoff transformation associated to an usual finite difference approach. The first step consists of eliminating the nonlinear terms associated to the derivatives with respect to the position, by means of a Kirchhoff transformation, giving rise to a partial differential equation with only one nonlinear term (involving the coefficient of the derivative with respect to the time). The advance in time is carried out assuming the thermal diffusivity evaluated at a known temperature, giving rise to a semi-implicit scheme. Comparisons between this approach and the usual hypothesis are carried out in order to illustrate the effect of the dependence between the temperature and the thermal diffusivity. Some typical results are presented, based on the (6H-SiC) Silicon Carbide properties.


The main objectives of this study are to find the seasonal variations of rainfalls and it's related some others climatic variables in the northern part of Bangladesh. Also a suitable panel regression model of rainfalls on these climatic variables is fitted. In this study, climatic data for different phenomena i.e. total monthly rainfall in millimeters, humidity in percentage, cloud covers in hour per day, average temperature per day in degree Celsius, bright sunshine in hour per day from 1981 to 2017 are collected from Bangladesh Meteorological Department. The selected explanatory variables humidity, temperature, cloud cover and bright sunshine are considered in this analysis. For the availability of data for all of these variables considered in this study, the weather stations of Bogura, Rajshahi and Rangpur are considered which are situated in the northern part of Bangladesh. Among these three cities, the overall average monthly rainfall is the highest in Rangpur with high variability and the lowest is in Rajshahi with low variability. For all these three cities seasonal effect of rainfall is the highest for the month of July, seasonal effect of sunshine is the highest for the month of March, and that of cloud cover is the highest for the month of July. But for humidity variable, the seasonal effects of Bogura and Rajshahi stations are the highest for the month of July but that for Rangpur station is in September. Since all of these time series data have seasonal variations and non-stationary so to run panel data regression model it is needed to be made transformation for getting stationary time series data. For rainfall data it is needed two times transformation to get stationary form. Firstly, using fourth root power transformation and the secondly make a twelve periods lag difference transformation to obtain stationary form. But for all other climatic variables only twelve periods lag difference transformation is sufficient for getting stationary form.  Insignificant Cook-Weisberg test statistic suggests the homoskedasticity and lowest variance inflating factor conferred the absent of multicollinearity among explanatory variables. A panel regression model is employed to check the effect of humidity, temperature, cloud cover and bright sunshine on rainfall which is conferred by Lagrange multipliers test statistic. Since hausman test statistic is insignificant hence the random effect panel regression model is considered. Coefficient of non-determination is 0.66, implies that about 34% variation of rainfall can be explained by these explanatory variables. Cloud cover, humidity and sunshine have significant positive effects on rainfall whereas average temperature has significant negative effect on rainfall. One can try to fit a dynamic panel regression model such as GMM with Arellano Bond correction or two steps analysis of panel data models for further study. Key Words : Rainfall, Variability, Hausman Test Statistic, Cook-Weisberg Test Statistic, Random Effect Panel Model.


Luhmann's ideas are adequate to the task of handling these topics well' (p. 272). One could add that seeing sport as a functional system, like politics, law and economics, as these authors do, inevitably renders a Luhmannian approach narrow and restrictive. The second problem for Hoberman lies in Luhmann's conceptual vocabulary. It is undeniably unsettling that a glossary is deemed necessary and that, even with its assistance, the reader can still be left distinctly nonplussed by some of the arguments that are presented. It is worth adding, however, that these are by no means the first group of scholars to write about sport with an apparently cultish zeal to justify the thinking of an intellectual master or masters that ultimately undermines their capacity to increase our understanding of sport. Furthermore, they are not alone in replicating the more obscure language of their mentors. In so doing though, and this is equally true of the contributors to this volume, all such scholars arguably do sport a disservice – it is a lot more fun than they sometimes imply –whilst simultaneously failing to convince mainstream social scientists that they are engaged in serious work. To the credit of Wagner and Storm, by inviting John Hoberman to join them, they demonstrate that they are not afraid of criticism and are willing to learn from others. If only the same could be said for some of the bigger theoretical battalions in contemporary sports studies. It is difficult to see this book selling well. It is too theoretically dense to recommend to all but a handful of graduate students. Seasoned scholars in the field are unlikely, regrettable that this may be, to be attracted by the possibility of learning new tricks. Having said all that, I was nevertheless impressed by the authors' enthusiasm and their willingness to engage with sociological theory as well as with many, if certainly not all, of sport's major challenges. I wish them well but fear the worst.